Jackdude101

I have never been there, but here's some interesting trivia about it anyway: At Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch, there were two different railroads. One was a three foot gauge railroad where the locomotive was a legit steam locomotive named Katherine after his Mom (it originally ran at Carowinds before its railroad closed). The other was a smaller two foot gauge railroad made by Chance Rides with a locomotive named C.P. Huntington. I snickered at that last one. Also, the majority of the best park railroads all seem to be three foot narrow gauge, and here's a Wikipedia article on the subject that I have been editing extensively over the past month. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_foot_gauge_railways Let's see if your favorite is on that list.

In my very biased personal opinion, I believe that the best railroads at amusement parks and theme parks have three foot narrow gauge track (track gauge is measured based on the space between the rails and narrow gauge is anything less than standard gauge, which is 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in). Here is a page from Wikipedia on the subject that I have edited extensively over the past month: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_foot_gauge_railways. See if your favorite park railroad is on it.

As of today this has changed to China: 625; United States: 625. One more and China out-ranks the USA. It is now official. China's count is now 626 and the USA's count is 625. China now holds the world record for the most operating, gravity-driven roller coasters in one country. Is this a sign of the end times?

As of today this has changed to China: 625; United States: 625. One more and China out-ranks the USA.

I emailed Fun Spot about how it would be really cool if they built a big roller coaster at their other location by Celebration, Florida. They said that they are not going to build anything major right now (most likely to pay off the debt from building all the current new stuff), BUT they did casually mention that they WILL be adding a new roller coaster to their other location in the future. This was the President himself who responded, which was unexpected and very awesome.

China is on the cusp of having more currently-operating gravity-powered roller coasters than any other country in the world. Right now, the United States holds that title. As of the writing of this post, China has 619 and the United States has 625. http://rcdb.com/r.htm?nm=na&cs=277&st=93&pl=26380&ot=2 http://rcdb.com/r.htm?nm=na&cs=277&st=93&pl=59&ot=2

This one has my vote: Gipfelstürmer at Freizeitpark Ruhpolding in Bavaria. http://rcdb.com/9573.htm

Ai Pioppi is actually a restaurant with a handful of rides next to it, all of which were custom-made by hand by one of the founders. Two of these custom-made rides are roller coasters. One is a tall single-track shuttle coaster and the other is a shorter twin-track shuttle coaster. Interview with the founder: Single-track shuttle coaster POV: Twin-track shuttle coaster POV: I discovered this park after a brand-new entry for it was added to rcdb.com a few days ago.

Man, I tell you what, if I could get my hands on the max positive and negative G-force data for each and every roller coaster (or at least find a way to estimate it reliably), that would increase the accuracy on my sheet by at least 10,000% (it's a very scientific estimate). Sadly, not even rcdb.com has much of this type of data. Some have g force data listed, but way too many do not have it. Is it weird that I fantasize about visiting every roller coaster on Earth with an accelerometer on board so I can get the data myself?

Side note: the stats for Rutschebanen given by the article (length: 625m; speed: 58 kph) contradict the stats listed on rcdb.com (height: 12.9m; length: 720m; speed: 50 kph). Furthermore, the stats given on the Tivoli Gardens website are also different (height: 12.6m; speed: 60 kph). Does anyone happen to know which of these stats are the correct ones?

Melbourne's Luna Park and Luna Park Sydney are each run by operating companies with the same name as each company's respective park, but do those operating companies have the same owner? According to Wikipedia, Melbourne's Luna Park is jointly owned by three companies: Linfox, Virtual Communities, and Liberty Petrol; however, no owner is listed for Luna Park Sydney. Do the same group of companies that own Melbourne's Luna Park also own Luna Park Sydney?

The park's website says that it is now open as of Friday, 1 November. http://abyss-the-ride.com.au/the-quest

Central Florida because as a Florida resident, I am contractually obligated to promote my state whenever possible to increase tourist dollars. Also, dealing with daily thunderstorms in the Summertime and the occasional hurricane beats the Hell out of earthquakes, fires, landslides, and smog.

Two weekends ago when I was with family at Cedar Point encountered something odd. As we were leaving the park, multiple security officers ran past us one after another. We looked back about 100 feet behind us and saw all of those security officers surrounding a very shady-looking male with a young woman (probably his wife or girlfriend) who was holding a bag in his hand. I surmize that it was whatever what was in the bag that was the cause for concern and could have been anything from a bomb, a gun, or perhaps drugs that he decided to sell inside the park gates. Needless to say, we didn't take any chances and double-timed it away from that guy. My wife noted that when she entered the park, no one checked her bag at the entrance, so they probably didn't check that guy's bag either.

Based on the stats for this new roller coaster on its rcdb.com page here: http://rcdb.com/7655.htm, which appear to be rough estimates given that they are whole numbers and multiples of ten (30 feet tall even and 20 mph even), it's possible that this might not be a "custom" model at all. Instead, it may actually turn out to be a Zierer Force - Two standard off-the-shelf model, given that it has very similar stats to the estimated stats above (29.50 feet tall, 728.33 feet long, and 24.23 mph) and is the most common junior-sized model that Zierer has made within the last five years at least. The aspect about this roller coaster to which everyone is referring when they say "custom" is most likely the custom themeing of the train, which is exremely likely given that most of the existing models here: http://rcdb.com/r.htm?ot=2&mo=8241 have custom-designed trains. Also, the Zierer Force - Two is one of their more recent models and has tubular track.

They are attempting a park named Adventure World Warsaw for that vicinity. Last I heard the project was having some sort of money trouble, though.

Hollywood Rip, Ride, Rockit at Universal Studios Florida. They decided to go cheap (as far as big steel roller coasters are concerned) for their latest big roller coaster attraction instead of sticking with what worked (the big B&M roller coaters at IOA next door) and they got what they paid for. Also, the theme of just being about rock music in general is boring and uncreative. They should have picked a famous band with which to tie in the ride like Rock 'n' Roller Coaster starring AEROSMITH at Disney World.

Rock 'n' Roller Coaster at Hollywood Studios.

Fun Spot USA in Florida. Not the one that just had the huge expansion. The other one.

I e-mailed Scenic World about Orphan Rocker back in April and here is their full response: Hello Jack, Thank you for your enquiry on the Orphan Rocker. The Orphan Rocker has never been open to the public. Construction began in the late 80’s, it was designed and built on site making it an interesting yet challenging project. It needs to comply with the Australian Standard AS3533 which was being developed on as we developed the ride, consequently modifications to the ride were required once it was nearly complete. Due to other developments occurring site work on the Orphan Rocker stopped in about 1996. At this current point in time the Orphan Rocker is part of the long term Strategic Plan for the business, but no date has been set for its redevelopment. I hope that this information has answered your questions. Kind Regards, Kathleen Munro Office Administrator Scenic World, Blue Mountains Cnr Violet Street & Cliff Drive Katoomba Australia NSW 2780 PO Box 1042 Katoomba NSW 2780 T +61 (0) 2 47 800 244 F +61 (0) 2 47 825 675 www.scenicworld.com.au

Let's see what my Magical Forbidden Roller Coaster Spreadsheet of Mystery™ says: It looks like the global winner based on its average roller coaster score is Yamanashi, Japan where Fuji-Q Highland is located (please don't hurt me). In the USA the winner is Virginia, followed by Ohio and Missouri. If you need something more specific than just "Virginia," the best place for a roller coaster enthusiast to live in the USA is Quinton, Virginia east of Richmond right off of I-64, as it is the closest town to the halfway point between BGW and KD, each of which will only be about a half hour away. Note: the subnational entities in the attachment are marked as "relevant" based on whether they have above average counts of all the roller coasters they have (seven) AND above average counts of their total number of high-scoring roller coasters (three). So, the subnational entites that you see on this list have at least seven total and of those at least three are high-scoring.

Southeast Michigan on the far Western or far Northern outskirts of the Detroit area. The city of Detroit between the downtown area and the city limits is world famous for having very high rates of poverty and unemployment and for being one of the biggest magnets for violent crime in the entire Western World; however, once you go ten miles outside the city limits and beyond (sans Pontiac and Flint) either north or west, you will find sprawling affluent suburbs and small cities with tons of disposable income. Cedar Point is about a 2.5 hour drive from Detroit and Michigan's Adventure is about the same distance in the opposite direction, but if you put a reasonably-sized park facility in Southeast Michigan, many people living there who would normally travel to Cedar Point or Michigan's Adventure would choose to stay near home and go to this park instead. Right now, the only thing close to an amusement park in Southeast Michigan is the sole remaining Jeepers FEC at the Great Lakes Crossing mall west of Auburn Hills, which only has one tiny E&F Miler kiddie coaster. Perhaps this new park could be indoors and part of a shopping mall, also, just like Nickelodeon Universe at Mall of America or Galaxyland at West Edmonton Mall (both are run by the same company). Also, if you were to locate this indoor amusement park at the I-96/US-23 interchange near Brighton specifically, you would be about equally flanked by Detroit, Flint, Lansing, and Ann Arbor. Those latter two are key because both towns have the biggest universities in Michigan and not only could they supply a strong customer base, but also a strong employee base for the park.

Viper at Six Flags Magic Mountain. It has the worst amazing stats/actual ride experience ratio.

Rain.

Well, that would certainly not be hard to do!