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Six Flags Over Georgia (SFOG) Discussion Thread


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^ I agree that this would be an interesting space for a compact GCI woodie, but perhaps the park is holding out for something bigger. The 50 year anniversary of the park is just 4 years away now...

 

After seeing the outlaw run POV, I'd love to see SFoG do a large project with RMC - either something totally new or something like the RMC treatment to scream machine.

You know, that sounds exciting and all, but I would not like to see them change the Scream Machine like that. It would be smooth, fast and an all round better ride experience, but the thing is is that it's been around for so long. It's different from other woodies that have been around for 10 years or so and now need the Rocky Mountain Treatment to make it a hit again. The Sream Machine is part of the park's early history; it was one of the first attractions to be built outside of the railroad. It's one of those coasters built during the age when new innovations in ride design were coming up all over the place. It was the highlight of the coaster world when it first opened, being the tallest and fastest. (Probably didn't last for long) It's kind of like putting all steel horses on the Rigerview Carousel. Sure the new horses could be more comfortable and would certainly last longer, but the carousel is part of history, unlike modern day carousels that can be changed to go faster, ect. That's all right because those aren't significant in history. Now sure, steel horses are probably not going to outfitted on any carousel, I was just trying to get m point across.

 

I couldn't agree more. The Scream Machine is very much a part of the park's history and has major classic woodie appeal. Plus the ride really has been running well for its age, and it sounds like it also got some new wood for the 2013 season as well. So while a RMC overhaul would make the ride smooth and exciting, I just don't see it happening to such a classic ride. Even though Outlaw Run looks amazing, and presumably IRAT will be amazing as well, I personally don't want to see an overhaul of the Scream Machine.

 

Is it just me or does Skyscreamer look awkward in that spot. I don't know if its the colors or that I am a huge Wheelie fanboy it just looks out of place to me. Does anyone agree?

I agree. It does look awkward there, at least in photos.

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Myself and 3 of my friends wanted to go somewhere on spring break and the only parks opening this weekend were Silver Dollar City and SFOG. Coming from Cincinnati the drive to Georgia was shorter and we have never been to this park prior. So here's my photo trip report from Six Flags Over Georgia opening day March 16th from a newbies perspective. I apologize if this report gets long, I'd rather post photos vs typing a book.

 

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First glimpse of the park from the highway

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We parked at the nearby hotel as I read on here they allow parking ($10 vs the $20) and it's very close to the front gate still.

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Opening Day balloons greeted us as we entered the front gate area at 9:30am

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I liked this map cart, as it let you know the wait times around the park through out the day. (Photo taken prior to park opening)

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We waited at the gate and had plans on going to Dare Devil Dive first, but it wasn't ready to open so we hit Goliath.

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Notice the cardboard box taped to the wall..... We were the first riders on the 2nd train of the year. It took them 10minutes to dispatch the first train and another 7 minutes to dispatch our train from the station. How do I know how long? They have those handy countdown times in the station (similar to those at fast food restaurants). Coming from Kings Island we really hopped this wouldn't be a theme through out the day with slow operation and that it was just opening day learning.

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I really wanted to visit Anton next so we headed down the hill to Gotham City, We passed Crime Wave just as it stopped spinning thus causing all the seats to slam into one another. As a result girls feet got tangled in a empty seat next to her and her seat was practically sideways. Thankfully nothing more came of it.

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Mindbender!! Anton!!

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Station of Mindbender

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Loved the ride, So smooth. We only waited 4 or so trains as the crowds hadn't picked up yet.

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Batman was next, the wait was at to top of the stairs. The blue paint looks great.

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I like the blue paint better then the yellow. It will be interesting to see the reviews about the batman clones going backwards.

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Same thing happened over at Crime Wave again.

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We headed down the hill to Superman passing by the construction of Sky Screamer.

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Kings Island once had a covered midway, kinda neat to see one again.

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Blessing in disguise I took this as of all the reviews I've read.

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Great American Scream Machine! 40 years old this season.

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We got inline for this before superman due to it only running 1 train. Thus making the line take 45min. Good solid ride.

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My 3rd and final Superman Flying Coaster... Check

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I have this shirt, but I bought it at Cedar Point. It does after all have Magnum XL 200 on it.....

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Rode Sky Way to the front of the park. They could really benefit of running more cars at a time. Perhaps I'm just use to Cedar Point.

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Arriving towards the front of the park.

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Mine Ride, the station for this ride is terrible as each "lane" is so long it gets about 8 trains deep. And the QTV was so loud it was shaking the station ha. This is where I noticed that Six Flags is solely about the rides vs the experience.

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I wasn't expecting much out of there drop tower ride due to how short it looks but it ended up being my favorite drop ride. The seats tilt forward when you reach the top and the ride op was chanting "we will, we will DROP YOU, we will, we will DROP YOU" over the speakers at the top of the tower.

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Her reaction was epic, the entire queue applauded her when she got off.

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Yeah she didn't like it, nor me getting everyone to clap.

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Lines from around 2-3pm

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Georgia Cyclones queue reminded me of a basement. The line moved very slow which ended up being because we only moved when people ahead of us got out of line as the ride was closed...... We eventually made it up to the station and waited 10min and it opened. Rode front row and loved it, couldn't tell the difference between topper track and wooden track.

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Park started to get busy.

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Waited 2 hours for Dare Devil Dive. This was the first time we actually encountered employees having fun and enjoying there job. It's opening day come on! After the ride we all agreed that it was a good ride but we would describe it similar to Dollywood's Wild Eagle "Forgettable".

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Our reward for waiting 2 hours.

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Last Coaster Georgia Scorcher, we waited about a hour for this. If this had been Mantis we would of waited 15 minutes. I get that it was opening day and the crews are still learning but there was no "sense of urgency" at any of the rides which was kind of a let down. Coming from a park where they stress that.

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After Scorcher we booked it to Monster Mansion as we had 8 minutes before closing at 8pm.

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Monster Mansion is a boat ride. We were surprised to see this quality of detail and themeing. And the ending got us. Leaving the park satisfied and had a great day.

 

Thanks for reading

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We got inline for this before superman due to it only running 1 train. Thus making the line take 45min. Good solid ride.

This is really funny. 2 people working; 3 people watching. Very nice trip report as well. Did you get to go to Silver Dollar City on you're way back up?

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^Actually, Crime Wave is running a lot better as of last season. When I saw it running over the weekend, it was really flying. I never rode it, because its wait was always a little longer than I'm willing to wait for wave swingers, but I was really pleased to see it running full speed again.

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The last time we rode it, it was...I kid you not....a 51 second ride from the moment my feet left the ground to the moment they touched back down. I only know this because we watched it run once while waiting in line and commented on how short it seemed, so I timed our ride on the phone stopwatch. We literally cycled around twice I think. We didn't get bent out of shape or anything, but it was rather humorous....and odd, considering the line was almost non-existent that day.

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^^ I noticed that as well. When I was last at the park in September it seemed to be running very well, certainly better than I've seen it run recently. There was actually a pretty sizable line as well such that I didn't feel like waiting. I haven't noticed though if the ride cycle has been shortened.

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Hello. I signed up just to say that I will never ride GASM ever again unless it gets the Georgia Cyclone treatment.

 

Truthfully, I signed up initially to ask how the crowds usually are second weekend, as I was planning on heading back to the park Saturday. However it seems that we'll be getting some rain so, eh.

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Hello. I signed up just to say that I will never ride GASM ever again unless it gets the Georgia Cyclone treatment.

 

Truthfully, I signed up initially to ask how the crowds usually are second weekend, as I was planning on heading back to the park Saturday. However it seems that we'll be getting some rain so, eh.

Easter weekend normally has low crowds.

 

I think gasm still rides well for its age.

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Hello. I signed up just to say that I will never ride GASM ever again unless it gets the Georgia Cyclone treatment.

 

Truthfully, I signed up initially to ask how the crowds usually are second weekend, as I was planning on heading back to the park Saturday. However it seems that we'll be getting some rain so, eh.

I'd rather keep GASM's natural track. The trains don't tear up the track as much as Georgia Cyclone's do, so there is no point in changing it. It really ran well last year when I went to the park.

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GASM's. I mean, unless a park specifically asks for those cars, PTC doesn't make those trains since most wooden coaster manufacturers have their own cars for their own tracks.

 

GASM runs PTC trains with 3 rows per car. PTC still makes those. While it's true that the two most popular (currently) wooden coaster designers in the U.S. do make their own trains (Gravity Group and GCII), PTC still manufactures its own trains for other customers, presumably, including those still on GASM.

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PTC is still making new trains, at least 2-4 train sets each year. Not many coaster manufacturers will pick the 3-bench models anymore due to maneuverability, but they're still available for manufacturers or parks to pick for an option for upgrades. PTC still offers the single-position lap bars, but they're out of favor now due to past incidents with them and many parks would rather have the individual ratcheting lap bars, more for the safety side. They can still make a brand new train for GASM from the ground up if PTC really wanted to.

 

I can see PTC staying for quite some time, mainly because of the refurbishing they do to trains during the off-season. The process they go through to check and inspect every single aspect of the trains is absolutely amazing. Mainly the chassis, they sandblast the paint off of them, inspect every single part for deformities and cracks, then repaint the chassis again to the classic black. Even though there are parks that do this on-site, the PTC workers know those trains inside and out and having worked with over 100 cars over 1 off season, they know how parts are suppose to be and know when to replace them. Parks can then have their workers work on other rides during the off season and frees up that time to do other projects.

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Looks like Ninja's late opening is caused by a lift problem.

 

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^ Last time I was at the park in early September I noticed a distinct and very jarring bump about there on the lift hill on two consecutive rides. It felt as though the train had just run over a small animal or something and the lift actually slowed to a near stop for a second, but then resumed. At the time I dismissed it as nothing, but looking at that photo, I guess there was some kind of issue.

 

Yeah, looks like the chain trough is completely damaged there. There must of been a bend or something already wrong there and must of gotten worse over the off season and probably ended up like that when they were doing the initial testing. First time I've seen that happen on a chain lift. Probably waiting on a new one to get made.

 

Is this common on Arrow/Vekoma Multi inversion rides? I remember this occuring to Vortex two years ago at KI.

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Is this common on Arrow/Vekoma Multi inversion rides? I remember this occuring to Vortex two years ago at KI.

 

No, the chain actually snapped on Vortex at Kings Island in 2011. On Ninja, the trough that the chain sits in looks like it somehow got deformed, as someone said a few posts back, that near the end of last year there was a weird bump when the train went over that part. It must of gave out during testing this year and the chain basically fell out. Should of been no physical damage to the chain, but they could replace it to make sure there wasn't anything wrong with it. I'm sure a new trough and possibly a new chain have been on order from Vekoma, just either waiting for it to arrive or to install it.

 

Chain lifts breaking are quite uncommon. The only other one I can think of is when Ride of Steel at Darien Lake, the chain also snapped on that in 2011.

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