ricklap77

It's a good thing Predator is getting this kind of track. I mean great! It was so insanely rough to the point that it was not enjoyable at all.

It has been confirmed the Ultimate at Lightwater Valley will be dismantled https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-64239051

I think avoiding Six Flags park is not bad these days if you have other park options! Budget cuts are hurting pretty bad. Riddler and Scream have apparently blown lift hill motors and replacement might take a while.

With the last financial report it is questionable if Six Flags will be around for very long, or at least as it is now.

At least one thing was preserved from the wonderful Blue Streak.

Todd Joseph (the owner) has apparently given it to a local museum. I have yet to see pictures of it!

Used ride better than nothing I guess! No inversion!

It's good to know that Ghost Lake was worth it and that it's still going on despite all the huge changes at the park! CLP has always been very unique in its own way. I think last year guests were allowed to walk the tunnel of the Blue Streak from the station in one of the halloween attractions!

That's good news.

Any wooden coaster requires a lot of maintenance. Boards are replaced on a regular basis. Retracking needs to be done quite often. Maintenance is very critical, first for safety and second for the quality of the ride. Large woodies are no exception, especially when they have an aggressive design like El Toro. Intamin did a fabulous job. Those pre fab woodies are wonderful, very well designed and thrilling. The issue here is mostly just proper maintenace not addressed. Maintenance wise you cannot overlook anything on roller coasters. The park knew something was not right and let it go. 2 major malfunctions in a short period of time. Thankfully no one was badly hurt from those incidents but the fate of El Toro is in limbo. With the state of NJ investigating and Six Flags cutting their budget accross the chain it could be enough for the coaster to be torn down or stay dormant for a while. Hopefully it will not have the same fate as Son of Beast, although personally I don't think so in that SOB was badly designed and El Toro not.

For sure calling in Intamin for new pre fab track would be really expensive. RMC is also an expansive option but if they decide to go with them I am pretty sure thay will modify the layout to include inversions and market it as a new coaster.

Hopefully Six Flags will fix El Toro and reopen it. It would be a shame to lose such a great coaster.

Ouch

I think a lot of people don't really care about SF theming!

Something I don't quite understand is why they dropped the flanged wheel cars!? Most of them tracked very well and were very smooth. Many coastersstill have them and are great: PNE Playland Coaster, Playland's Dragon Coaster, both Giant Dippers in California.

Yes! It will be the world's tallest full circuit roller coaster with a 90 degree drop.

SF is done spending huge amounts of money for a while. I think for many years a lot of parks in the chain have been lucky for getting new major rides or roller coasters. The economy these days does not allow for so many new rides I think. And most SF parks already have a lot of attractions, but yesI agree those need upgrades and proper maintenance. The amusement industrie in general may be reaching a plateau IMO. With SF not purchasing a lot of new attractions, CF could eventually follow that trend as well. I am not saying the new CEO is completely doing everything right but he is trying hard to make the company money, and that is what counts for any business.

Heavy yes and long too! Those cars are box cars with no articulated wheels so the turns on the coasters they were used had to be quite gentle and mostly flat otherwise they would not track very well. I read somewhere that the track gauge on the turns had to be a bit wider to allow those cars to track better.

Wooden coasters in general require a lot a maintenance and the bigger ones even more. As time goes on they loosen up and become rough. Parks that own huge wooden coasters must have a very good maintenance program by skilled carpenters otherwise they become so rough and not really enjoyable, and sometimes dangerous. I think all the wooden coaster manufacturers nowadays design and build good coasters and start off nice and smooth. Maintenance is what makes the difference in the long run to keep a coaster smooth and safe! Big woodies are no exeption.

I would have loved to ride this unique ride

Yep! Plus with Six Flags financial situation let's keep our fingers crossed. It won't reopen anytime soon.

That might be a serious problem for those Plug & Play Intamins. I don't know who recently retracked Colossos in Germany but apparently it's all good and smooth now. SF might go to RMC in a not too distant future considering the bad attention the coaster gets from the media.

Pretty bad for El Toro. 2 structural incidents in a short period of time. El Toro is an awesome and forceful wooden coaster, one of the best if not the best in the world IMO. If SF doesn't take good care of it I don't see a long future for it at the park.

I think by having lower attendance but those guests paying more is probably more profitable for SF. They will probably save on maintenance of the rides by having less cycles. They might need a bit less employees so again saving money.

I was there last Thursday and the park was way too crowded. It seems it's getting worse year after year. Long lines everywhere. The park is becoming too small for the crowds or maybe not enough competition around.