Extreme coasters that have been redesigned or taken down?

[KDCOASTERFAN]

Wild one's first drop was reprofiled before the start of the 92 season due to the county deemin it too intense.

[beatle11]

Surprised no one has thought of Texas Giant yet. The ride was completely reprofiled and the wood track replaced with steel. The result turned the rough wooden coaster into an amazing steel/hybrid coaster.

 

 

[MayTheGForceBeWithYou]

^That's the opposite of what we're going at. That's a decent ride turned into an intense monster of a coaster; this thread is the other way around.

[A.J.]

Two more great examples are EXT at Worlds of Fun and Rail Blazer at Six Flags St. Louis. Both of these were Arrow coasters (EXT -> Corkscrew; Rail Blazer -> Mine Train) which were fitted with stand-up trains in the eighties.

 

I don't know if it was because they were "too extreme", but the trains were removed after very short runs on the coasters. EXT and Rail Blazer both had them for only one season each.

 

Rail Blazer was originally the River King Mine Train, and that's how it still runs today. EXT was relocated to a park in Taiwan along with its original sit-down trains.

Edited January 29, 2012 by A.J.

[SeaWhippet]

Wasn't there a compact steel coaster so intense, it was moved to at least three different parks, each one deeming it too dangerous to operate? I'm having trouble remembering any other details.

 

Bullet at Flamingoland had a history of being ferried around and not operating for very long at places because of the insane wear and tear on the launch mechanism (it had about 60 sets of drive tires), it ended up being partially rebuilt and totally overhauled simply because of the horrendous amount of noise it made, before it arrived at Flamingoland.

 

Actually, that's not entirely true...

 

The Wienerlooping (Schwarzkopf Shuttle loop Mk2a) worked fine- if you kept up with the motors. The biggest issues with the ride was noise- and quiet Wienerlooping most certainly was not. Weinerlooping has (had!) six pairs of drive tyres on each spike, and six sets in the station, making for 18 sets of rotary drive wheels that were used to push/pull the train out of the station. Most of the time these motors only gave some force to the train, as Schwarzkopf used gravity whenever possible on this, and for that matter all His designs.

 

Still, the ride gave good overall performance across the board, and was a good reliable ride. However, the ride itself wasn't modified- save the addition of Mk2C trains with OTSR restraints- during the course of it's operational history.

 

R.D.

"TPR's Schwarzkopf Priest"

 

 

 

Just to add a bit more to this discussion: Wiener Looping is one of my all-time fav Schwarzkopf/Stengel rides. I was fortunate to have to ridden it during its earlier incarnations: first at Circus World/B&B, and then at Oktoberfest 1989 in Munich. During its run in Florida (as well as at the Prater), it utilized a single lap bar per person and drive tires ONLY in the station and on the first spike. This meant that the launch down the first spike and through the station was extremely powerful so the train would have enough energy to return to the starting point. It was a phenomenally intense experience that I wish could have survived.

 

When the ride showed up in 1989 on the Munich midway, it had been fitted with accordion OTSR (thanks to the infamous 1986 Edmonton Mindbender accident) and a second set of drive tires on the reverse spike. Though the added drive tires took some of the wear and tear off the structure and trains, they also lessened the force of the initial launch. Despite these alterations, it was still a good ride.

 

I've heard that Wieland Schwarzkopf has rehabbed Wiener Looping and offered it for sale. It's my dream that some enterprising park owner recognizes the value of having a such a historic coaster in his collection and returns it to service. It literally is a one-of-a-kind thrill machine. I miss it.

 

-SR

[RailBlazer]

Two more great examples are EXT at Worlds of Fun and Rail Blazer at Six Flags St. Louis. Both of these were Arrow coasters (EXT -> Corkscrew; Rail Blazer -> Mine Train) which were fitted with stand-up trains in the eighties.

 

I don't know if it was because they were "too extreme", but the trains were removed after very short runs on the coasters. EXT had them for five seasons, and Rail Blazer had them for one.

 

Rail Blazer was originally the River King Mine Train, and that's how it still runs today. EXT was relocated to a park in Taiwan along with its original sit-down trains.

 

EXT only had the standup trains for 1983 and part of the 1984 season and was converted back to a sit down ride.

[A.J.]

Ah, you're right. I had assumed that the name was changed back to Extremeroller when the trains were switched back, and that was five years after re-naming it EXT.

 

Post corrected. Thanks.

[Erik Johnson]

Has there been any coaster trains that had to be modified due to intensity?

[mark549]

I hope Skyrush won't be added to this list. I'm glad I rode it this year. First ride was in the very last seat, more intense than I was expecting (and I was expecting it to be intense).

[mightypotato]

Has there been any coaster trains that had to be modified due to intensity?

 

I305? I'm not sure that counts since it was only the restraints.

[Shockwave]

Has there been any coaster trains that had to be modified due to intensity?

 

The only ride I can think of that might fall into that category would be X/X2. If I remember correctly, the ride was what could be described as a maintenance nightmare, partly down to the sheer weight of the original trains. One the of the modifications when it was refurbed were new trains, which weighed much less than the original design so as to reduce wear and tear.

[The Angry Darren Mullins]

In regards to the Interpark Wild Wind, I rode one in South Korea. It was pretty intense. I can see why they are not welcome in American parks.

[A.J.]

Has there been any coaster trains that had to be modified due to intensity?

Maybe not necessarily because of intensity, but Son of Beast had its original trains replaced after the loop was removed.

[The Angry Darren Mullins]

Eagle's Fortress needs to be discussed here. It is currently closed, never to reopen...because of the wear and tear placed on it from being such an extreme ride. Perhaps the most famous coaster in all of Korea was lost at only 16 years old. This isn't how things are supposed to work.

[fraroc]

If memory serves me correctly, I remember at some park there was this extremley early generation Intamin AG steel racing coaster that never opened and to my knowledge still sits abandoned to this day. It looks like an Arrow but it's actually an Intamin.

 

I'm blanking on the name though.

[BigDipper 80]

 

That would be Vertigorama at Parque de la Ciudad in Buenos Aires. It was one of their earliest coasters, along with Jr. Gemini and another kid's coaster also located at Parque de la Ciudad.

[RCF]

Would SkyRush count? They are working on the restraints so it won't hurt when going through the extreme airtime.

[Mrenata]

Rumor has it that Olympia Looping's first prototype was too intense, reaching up to 6Gs. Stengel then adjusted the looping radiuses a little bit so now passengers feel only 5.2Gs

[VandeSte]

I have a feeling that the OP may be referring to Drachen Fire at BGW . The exit out of the first corkscrew after the the MCB were quite intense as the track changes direction too abruptly (imo). This forced the park to replace the element with a straighter/non-inverting track.

 

On a side note:

Drachen Fire has also had its cobra roll reinforced with bracing. I forgot what year this was done (1994 or 1995). Before the bracing was installed you can tell that the track was doing some serious movement.

(sorry, but don't have video of the ride without the bracing to compare).

[Zingoman]

^I believe all the Arrow mega loppers after Vortex have had their inversions reinforced just like the cobra roll. Look at SFMM Viper's loops. They have the same bracing, and it didn't open that way.

 

Surprised nobody has mentioned the premier launch coasters! These had tons of issues due to their intense nature (and not just the launch technology) and I'm hardly referring to the restraints being switched either. The track on the Flight of Fear coasters has been significantly reinforced since its installation doubling and sometimes tripling the amount of track ties throughout portions of the ride. The train chassis, aluminum fins and brake fins have all been altered on most of these coasters as well (including the freeze, and chiller coasters). Maintenance at SFOT says the trains are unrecognizable from what they originally were due to extreme alterations made to reduce wear and tear. Many of these coasters have also employed newer car couplers and wheel bogies as well. These rides are prime examples of re-engineering trains due to intensity that step well beyond the normal test and adjust process of a ride.

[GigaG]

I see that a few people have already posted a little about them but I immediately thought of Wild Wind.

 

I live near Playland Park in Rye, NY. And in 2000 they had this coaster fully constructed. Right when it was about to open, they tore it down. After searching it on RCDB, I found that it was moved to Keansburg Amusement Park and then to Motor World in Virginia Beach. It never opened in ANY of the 3 parks and was most likely scrapped. G forces found in testing were too extreme.

 

Apparently only four were ever built. One was the one I mentioned above, another went to a park in South Korea who also never opened it and then it was moved to Fill Land (also in South Korea) where it still operates today.

 

Another went to Tunisia where it still operates, and another is currently operating in Venezuela. I guess the standards are not as high in these countries as they are in the United States (although one South Korean park built it and never opened it).

 

The real kicker, is that they are still being sold by Interpark.

 

Here is a link to the brochure which is in Italian but has some great pictures of this sick looking death machine.

 

And here is the "Wild Wind Strengths" page.

 

The only operating model that has photos on RCDB is the one in Tunisia (The Middle East).

 

The Sidewinder is hidden in this shot so this doesn't look so bad.

 

Look at this death element. lol

 

Here are some photos from the manufacturers web site.

 

 

 

 

Because of the bad press this had at my home park, I've always been interested in the Wild Wind coasters. I can't think of any other model that found itself at 8 different parks and half of them never even saw one rider.

 

There were some traveling versions as well, but I can't find any information on them.

 

(Post partially copied from a post in a similar thread in early 2011)

 

http://web006.westchestergov.com/articles/0901d.pdf

 

Apparently, the ride was deemed safe after a similar model killed people in NJ (The Rye model had different anti-rollbacks), but the forces were too extreme when it came time to test according to RCDB.

 

At Circle of Fun, Philippines

 

This model, which appears to be the Venezuela one, has 3 cars per train instead of 5

 

Here is an unknown name (according to RCDB) model in Tunisia-

 

Finally, POVs I can find of what I can assume is a traveling model-

 

 

 

BTW- Could the mods fix the bad youtube links?

[fraroc]

Goddamn that Immelmann looks like it hurts. Still would have probably gave it a shot though.

[DBru]

^I believe all the Arrow mega loppers after Vortex have had their inversions reinforced just like the cobra roll. Look at SFMM Viper's loops. They have the same bracing, and it didn't open that way.

 

Surprised nobody has mentioned the premier launch coasters! These had tons of issues due to their intense nature (and not just the launch technology) and I'm hardly referring to the restraints being switched either. The track on the Flight of Fear coasters has been significantly reinforced since its installation doubling and sometimes tripling the amount of track ties throughout portions of the ride. The train chassis, aluminum fins and brake fins have all been altered on most of these coasters as well (including the freeze, and chiller coasters). Maintenance at SFOT says the trains are unrecognizable from what they originally were due to extreme alterations made to reduce wear and tear. Many of these coasters have also employed newer car couplers and wheel bogies as well. These rides are prime examples of re-engineering trains due to intensity that step well beyond the normal test and adjust process of a ride.

 

I was unaware of all of this. Thanks for sharing!