simon8899

Slagharen in a fun little park near the german-dutch border were you'll find seldom-found rides that were formerly on the carnival circuit in germany and the netherlands. A highlight for coaster-enthusiasts is a Schwarzkopf Looping-Star. But there're also a 1972 Schwarzkopf Monster II, a 1974 Schwarzkopf Enterprise and a 1982 Weber Traumboot - rides you'll hardly find anywere else. The basic theming is that of a wild-west town - but it's hardly consistent as the former carnival rides were not re-themed to fit into the wild-west. On the other hand you can see nearly all rides in their original 70s or 80s carnival outfits. I visited the netherlands on a slow week between all vacations so I had much time to ride and only little or no lines at all. The view down Main Street form the entrance. Here you'll find tons of souvenir-shops and snack-shacks. For quite a bargain you can get a Coke, a fried Bratwurst and tons of fries... I see Schwarzkopf loops! This Looping Star was built here in 1979 - one of the few rides originally built for this park. A few years ago it got a "Steamtrain" train from the UK of course with lapbars only - and this way turned into "Thunderloop". Even for beeing 32 years old it's amzingly smooth and packs a lot of punch. After the loop you'll have the highest Gs at about 5,2. In the back you'll even get some airtime in the following classic Figure-8 track. Still having the original manufacturer's sign! And it's yearly testet by the german TÜV as well as by the netherland equivalent getting the grade "Good Operations". Nerd-shot of the wheel-assembly. It's still using the first generation assembly thats called "so dangerous" in Canada. Close-up of the Weber Zwunka - the Weber version of the Flying Carpet that travelled the carnivals in the early 80s. Zwunka in action. A nice ride but not as much airtime as a Zierer Carpet... On board a Huss Condor. A Schwarzkopf "double-feature": A 1972 Monster II and a first generation Monorail. The latter is the only surviving installation - here running a classic and original Schwarzkopf train. Inside the station are two newer trains that were built by Slagharen. This First-Gen even isn't a real Monorail - it's running on air tires on the rail. A logflume in the front with the massive Schwarzkopf Apollo chain-flyer in the back. The latter was built as "Apollo 14" and featured 4 gondolas that went up and down on the main brown beams. As it was too complex for carnival operations it was re-made into a chain-flyer and finally ended up in Slagharen. 1974 Schwarzkopf Enterprise in full swing. Yes, this confirms it....(-: Old-Style gondolas with entry-system. When the ride starts the roofs are magnetically locked - but all have to be closed manually before. Weber Traumboot ("Dreamboat") doing its wonderful thing. This one even has the original german name on it. As this was a prototype to the Huss Ranger it coudln't stop upside-down and the gondola is still based on a pirate. To my knowleldge the only surviving installation. Traumboot up close... Apollo up close - showing whats all allowed on this ride. Swinging, rocking and riding holding each other. ...and no ride-attendent making a fuss about it....(-: A Slagharen-made Merry-Go-Round - with these horses you'll normally find in front of stores. And the upper "roof" turns the opposite way as the horses... Schwarzkopf ferris-wheel... And back to the Looping Star. Huss Pirate with european-style theming... Final view down the aisle. And yes they also have Vekoma MK-900 family-coaster - did that once. Finally the 2011 park map (3 MB): http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/831/slagharenmap.jpg/

@JamesMC I agree that some soundtracks they've are a) bad and b) far too loud. I like a good themeing though - and a good soundtrack is no synthesizer loudness but a nicely fit rock'n'roll or orchestral track. At De Vliegende Hollander they've a costum-composed soundtrack of 18 pieces played by the Prague Symphony Orchestra and played over a Bose surround system - this way a soundtrack really is great. But I agree on one point: No themeing is more important than a good coaster....

When I write a review on the park index - and yes I've entered my forum login - and click "Post" the site loads and I don't see my review. I've tried with Firefox and IE. Do I need a special permission to post reviews?

They build this "Rollercoaster made in China" all over there and I always wondered about the obvious Arrow trackdesign with Schwarzkopf-designed loops.... As they tugged the ride free it rolled down quite smoothly so my uneducated guess would smothing broke of the wheel-assembly and it got stuck inside it - and with a hard tug the shrapnel got free.... Well at least the restraints seem to be working properly. After seeing the part with the firefighter-truck sinking in I don't think some western parks are also not prepared for that as some looping coasters are built within the green and sometimes even over water....

@rollin_n_coastin Fluch Von Novgorod also has a marvellous queue and station - but after my last weeks visit at De Efteling it comes close second after De Vliegende Hollander. On the latter they've of course much more space for theming as a double water-coaster station is of course far more spacious than that of an Eurofighter. Also some concept drawings from the new woodie at Europa-Park show what hopefully will become a great queue and station....you can see them over at rcdb.com.

Top Theming/Atmosphere: 1: De Efteling 2: Disneyland 3: Tivoli Gardens Top Rides: 1: SFMM 2: German Carnival 3: Heide-Park

When I was in San Francisco last May I skipped those parks as I was in the city on a weekend and I hate long lines.

Linnanmaki Sarkeniemmi Gröna Lund Liseberggarden Tivoli Gardens Bakken (main holiday - scandic tour) Vienna Prater (secondary small holiday) Hansapark Heide-Park Hamburger DOM Spring/Summer/Winter - carnival (standards) Belantis De Efteling Sommerland Syd (maybe)

"De Vliegende Hollander" (The Flying Dutchman) at De Efteling - the theming is massive, as is it for the whole ride - and you'll have the classical tune in your ears for days.... just looks marvelous! - Source: Vidcap from youtube video

Honestly as hotel prices are 200% to 300% higher than regular munich prices I think I'll never go during this time to munich. I've been to munich at other times and can do the rides here in hamburg on the DOM.

Speed Of Sound at Walibi Holland

Joris En De Drak - Water Duelling wood coaster at DeEfteling, what a wonderful park! Water - 3x Vuur - 4x Pyton - 2x De Vliegende Hollander - 4x Bobbaan - 2x Vogel Rok - 1x Plus tons of heavily themed darkrides, rides and shows - PTR soon...

As B&Ms are mostly fun and ultra-smooth I never thought them as "intense". At mostly only 3-4 Gs they're quite moderate on intensity compared to Schwarzkopf or Gianviola (Goliath-SFMM) coasters.

Thunderloop at Atractiepark Slagharen - a Schwarzkopf Looping Star with a lot of punch. 32 years old an still loopin'

I voted for floorless as I like looping-coasters with many inversions. Inverted are also great but like the floorless type a little more. Not really such a big fan of flying and mega - but thats not only B&M. Flying moslty press on my stomach with the "airy" resuslts in compressions - and mega-coasters for me are just going up and down, and I just like all kind of inversions far more. If I've to go up and down I'd prefer a woodie.

When I was there in mid-may I found the operations the best of all LA parks. They ran 5 trains and the regular wait was 10 mins - the single-rider line 1-2 mins.... I also agree on PP at Knotts - overall this park had the very worst operations in LA, plus various technical breakdowns which makes me think they save on maintenence.

I agree on wild mice! Last time on the carnival there were about 20 poeple before me and I waited at least ten minutes. Dispatch was manual and the coaster had no sections so there was only one car on the track..... I also liked the policy they have at Tivoli Gardens with Rutschebanen when I was there last time: "No empty seats". Poeple who said "I wanna ride with xyz together" could directly leave the ride. I congratulate the procedure! It would speed up things on many cases!

I might do the Orlando parks plus BGT in early-mid February - I hope crowds are "normal" at those times....

Silver Bullet at Knotts - park full of school-groups, only one train and attendants near to a coma = 50 minutes wait. As I don't do parks on weekends or school-holidays this was close to a nervous breakdown for me.....

I'm quite eager to see how Jetline at Gröna-Lund is doing next summer. I rode it years back on vacation with my parents. I've read that it was modified by Maurer-Söhne to adapt for some of their newer coasters a few years ago - as Maurer-Söhne owns most of the Schwarzkopf expertise after aquiring the coaster-deptartment from BHS I'm quite eager to see how it feels today. What I don't understand in modifying Thriller was why it wasn't done by Zierer/BHS were many Schwarzkopf engineers were working at the time....

The Barth family also runs an amusement park in germany were "used" rides mostly end up, so hopefully - from my point of view - if it ends in a park then in their own park.... You once had Thriller and had no respect for it......

Thriller and Olympia Looping - PERIOD! And they're both far better than the double-loop. Thriller puts the most punch into the first two loops were loop one goes directly into loop two - and the loops were stacked behind each other in the meaning that when you stand in front of it you see one loop behind the other - amazing 6+ Gs in the compression there. I've read that some US jerks "modified" it due to "extreme" Gs - well: Idiots! This would still be the best without the "modifications"! Olympia Looping is the best today. After the first loop it picks up speed through a curve with declining radius - highest Gs here - and then comes the first double-loop, shortly followed by a second double-loop. For me - and even after SFMM - its still the best looping-coaster in the world! On the Eurostar: While it looked good - and it even rode fine in the first years - it got quite rough after only a few years. As Schwarzkopf was out of business at the time they tried Intamin and sadly they failed to bring not only a good but also long-lasting coaster. It was simply not up to be a portable coaster. After that showmen in germany refrained from experiments and brought back a Wildcat "Die Wilden 50er" and a Doppel-Looping "Teststrecke" as Schwarzkopf models stay smooth even when often moved - the conic-joint system is still considered the best with no current manufacturer up to deliver such a reliable and long-lasting system. Who even starts to talk about Galaxi's should be banned....

Well, that depends on how successful a ride is at a location. Olympia Looping only does 5-6 carnivals a year. Construction/Deconstruction time is two weeks with the permanent staff or shorter with extra freelancers. Transport is done with 50 large standard-containers - preferably by train, at this size a "special" train only transporting the Olympia hardware. Transport from the railstation to the fairground is hired on location. By truck are transported: 3 Containers containing the sleeping-areas of the crew and the 2 forklifts. The street-convoy consists of: 4 large container trucks - 2 large moveable cranes - 2 small trucks towing the caravans of the owners. Olympia-Fuhrpark Thats a lot of work - but they've enough riders that it works out...and of course distances in germany are manageble: From Hamburg (north) to Munich (south) its about 600 miles - the Olympia train can traverse germany in a single night...

no wonder many poeple are so fat over there.... A german Currywurst with Pommes is diet food compared to that.....and the size of the dish you got....is that a family dish??? But looks like a good fair with some classic american rides.

They should buy an old Schwarzkopf Looping-Star or Double-Loop - those shouldn't be too expensive anymore. They're still reliable, quite smooth and a considerable improvement..... If they could manage to find and operate a Katapult I'll be over in no time....