The most rare coaster credits

[greatamerica1990sfan]

Good ol Greased Lightnin/Tital Wave that was at CGA. Sniff! God I miss it so bad. & I might add Stealth too. Sniff sniff.

[MayTheGForceBeWithYou]

^Stealth is at Carowinds now, so it's not like it is gone forever.

[robbalvey]

^^ Let me post my list from a few pages back, and a definition of what at least *I think* makes a "rare" coaster:

 

To me something that is truly rare is something that has become rare not by design, but by a series of unpredictable events that led to it's rarity. Hence the reason why I say something like the Thunder Eagle coaster. That wasn't designed to be scrapped in 2 seasons. It was designed to ride out a lifetime (pun intended.) And nobody expected it to only last two seasons, which is why not a lot of people I know got to ride it, because everyone just expected that it would be there the next time they made it to the area.

 

Had they built the ride, and told everyone "THIS COASTER WILL ONLY BE HERE FOR TWO YEARS, THEN WE ARE GOING TO TEAR IT DOWN!!!" I would argue that makes it no longer "rare", because people knew about it's demise, and a lot more people would have made the effort to ride it.

 

In order for it to be a "rare coaster" IMO it needs to be a major installation open to the public, that was quickly removed within 2-3 seasons, unintentionally, and for the most part, unannounced. Here is the list I've come up with so far. Relocated coasters don't count. And IMO, coasters that are older than 30-40 years don't count either. There aren't many....

 

Coasters that ran for 2 seasons or less

1. Thunder Eagle

2. Hard Rock Park Coasters (although still standing, obviously)

3. Galaxie Express

4. Skytrak

5. Vertigo

 

Coasters that ran for 3 seasons or less

1. The Bat

2. Spellbreaker

3. Windjammer

 

Can you think of many more that fit this description and could be added to the list?

Edited January 24, 2011 by robbalvey

[larrygator]

In the mid 1970's Great Adventure (pre- Six Flags days) had a couple:

Alpen Blitz 1976-78

Big Fury 1975-77

 

I know Robb is only adding major installations, but this a kiddie coaster would s otherwise fall into the category:

Pocono Lightning (operated for a couple of months in 2008, was supposed to re-open at another park in 2010 but never opened)

Edited January 24, 2011 by larrygator

[PAL]

^^Oh, I feel so fortunate... Hooray for me, I rode Windjammer. Many times.

 

[/sarcasm]

 

It's difficult to get excited about a ride that's only rare because it was awful and unreliable. At that, the ridership count must have been up there. We're talking about a major metro park that operates year round (as I believe Robb said early in this thread).

 

Is a rare credit synonymous with failure of one kind or another? I believe so. Which of Robb's rare credits should we care about as premium attractions that would have been successful had they not suffered a run of bad luck?

[Crazy_Behemoth_Lady_Jess]

Mission: Escape.

 

http://www.cfnews13.com/StoryHeadline.aspx?id=20015

[ScottBrown]

I got on Flashback in its last month of operation...I wish I hadn't done it.

 

 

I was also there in its final month and I had a feeling it was going to be just that so I ended up riding it at least 10 times that day.

[Rastuso]

How about Rail Blazer at Six Flags over Mid America. Sure, the track was reused, but those trains were definitely a rare ride, only operating one season, and provided a dramatically different ride, and one I would have counted as a different credit.

 

-R

[robbalvey]

How about Rail Blazer at Six Flags over Mid America. Sure, the track was reused, but those trains were definitely a rare ride, only operating one season, and provided a dramatically different ride, and one I would have counted as a different credit.

 

-R

Yeah, that's actually a good one...

 

Coasters that ran for 2 seasons or less

1. Thunder Eagle

2. Hard Rock Park Coasters (although still standing, obviously)

3. Galaxie Express

4. Skytrak

5. Vertigo

6. Railblazer

 

Coasters that ran for 3 seasons or less

1. The Bat

2. Spellbreaker

3. Windjammer

 

Can you think of many more that fit this description and could be added to the list?

[DJeXeL]

I cheated and referenced RCDB

What about Vertigorama?

[Swimace]

^The ride was never completed, so I wouldn't really count that.

 

^^ Let me post my list from a few pages back, and a definition of what at least *I think* makes a "rare" coaster:

 

To me something that is truly rare is something that has become rare not by design, but by a series of unpredictable events that led to it's rarity.

 

Coasters that ran for 2 seasons or less

2. Hard Rock Park Coasters (although still standing, obviously)

 

I'm going to go ahead an question your definition here. Was Hard Rock Park closing really that unpredictable?

 

I'm joking, of course... But seriously, when that park opened I thought "Holy crap, I better get up there fast! There's no way this is gonna last!"

[DJeXeL]

Good point....

[The Yeti]

I'm going to go out on a limb and say I'm the only one who has ridden "The Big Ohhhh!" - Nebraska's only rollercoaster, at Fun Plex in Omaha, or the coaster that is at what was once "Skate Land/Play Daze", but is now "Skate Daze" in Omaha. I know The Big Ohhhh! was relocated from somewhere else, but I don't know if a credit counts if it was ridden in a previous location - either way, I consider it rare.

[JuanSe_Colombia]

Well I'll guess this one is rare, I rode the relocated Zambezi Zinger from Worlds of fun, call now "Broca" here in Colombia at Parque Nacional del Cafe.

Edited January 26, 2011 by JuanSe_Colombia

[stricklandCC]

^Rare indeed! I loved that coaster when it was at WoF, I would love to re-ride it in its new location, but realize I probably never will. That was my first coaster ever, and is the reason for me being an enthusiast.

[Andrewoplis]

Maby the Olympic Bobsled( S.D.C Galixi) traveling coaster owned by helm and sons. Ive only seen it at 2 fairs and and the only time ive seen it on the web was a pov at the Sanoma County Fair.

[cal1br3tto]

^Are you sure that's a Galaxi? That would explain the ridiculous airtime!

 

Now I know why Butler Amusements makes no mention of the ride even though I rode it at one of their carnivals (California State Fair, 2009). I thought they were the sole provider of that midway, but maybe not.

 

I too have unearthed very little about that intense little ride. Would love to cross paths with it again!

[Noxegon]

I'm going to go out on a limb and say I'm the only one who has ridden "The Big Ohhhh!" - Nebraska's only rollercoaster, at Fun Plex in Omaha

 

What, you think nobody else has ever been to that park and ridden that coaster? Give me a break...

[Andrewoplis]

 

If you count coaster/train combos, don't forget the dreaded PTCs (I think that was who made them) on the Texas Tornado. Only ran for a few hours.

 

 

Rastus

 

Those were made by Wieland Schwartzkopf (If your talking about the one at atroworld) and are still on it today.

 

If your talking about the one at Wonderland, I think those are still on that ride also.

Edited March 7, 2011 by Andrewoplis

[Andrewoplis]

 

If you count coaster/train combos, don't forget the dreaded PTCs (I think that was who made them) on the Texas Tornado. Only ran for a few hours.

 

Those were made by Wieland Schwartzkopf (If your talking about the one at atroworld) and are still on it today.

 

If your talking about the one at Wonderland, I think those are still on that ride also.

 

Rastus

 

I wrote in the quotes! Sorry!!lol

[ebl]

I don't count it as a separate credit, but how about Psyclone backwards at SFMM? It ran that way only one time, during Fright Fest in 1994 and I took one ride on it. Even though it was after the Northridge earthquake earlier that year, Psyclone still wasn't that bad to ride. Riding it backwards was...interesting. I rode in what would normally be the front seat.

 

Eric

[Andrewoplis]

^Are you sure that's a Galaxi? That would explain the ridiculous airtime!

 

Now I know why Butler Amusements makes no mention of the ride even though I rode it at one of their carnivals (California State Fair, 2009). I thought they were the sole provider of that midway, but maybe not.

 

I too have unearthed very little about that intense little ride. Would love to cross paths with it again!

 

 

Im glad that it usually comes to my local very every year, I love the insane air time you get in the front!

[Andrewoplis]

This inst a coaster, but didn't The Edge at Six Flags Great America (Mostly Marriott at the time) only last 3 sessions? This could be a rare Flat ride credit.

[RAWKIN_coaster38]

I was in South Africa in 2007 for a missions trip. Our group leader surprised us and took us to Gold Reef City on our last day. I found out about Gold Reef City's existence by accident before the trip because it was the featured park on RCDB one day. I mentioned my coaster enthusiasm to a few of the leaders but they told me we probably wouldn't be able to go because we were very pressed for time and our week was already planned out.

 

Then they told us we were going to a gold mine and next thing I knew we were pulling up at the park!

 

I was really disappointed that Tower of Terror was closed, but I took a few pics (I don't know where my pics are, all of these are fro RCDB).

 

But I did get to ride this:

 

And this:

 

I think they even let me take an on-ride video of Jozi Express with my little digital camera. It's buried on our computer somewhere probably along with the photos... but it wasn't good quality anyway. I can't take on-ride videos like Robb can.

 

They had a lot of rides that were closed (including another coaster called Super Loop). I'm not sure if they all needed maintenance or if it was because it was their off-season (summer for us, winter for them). I think Tower of Terror was SBNO all that year also.

 

But still, when I prepared to go on the missions trip to South Africa, I never thought I'd get two coaster creds out of it!

[Noxegon]

I think that there's scope for a category of "obscure" credit, as opposed to "rare" credit. Stuff that's way off the regular enthusiast routes, like the parks in South Africa for example.