Texas Tornado at Wonderland Amusement Park

[Ultimate]

If you look at this photo: http://rcdb.com/254.htm?p=40489, you can see that the loop of Texas Tornado at Wonderland Amusemet Park has a large outer support structure, but it appears to be the wrong size. Does anyone know why it is? Was the train failing to conplete the loop, so they had to make it smaller?

[Double0Kevin]

I believe this was already being discussed here. I think it just comes down to the manufacturer making odd rides.

[KCForce]

I followed the link and no one really directly answered the question, touched on it a bit (and I read all additional 7 pages of comments before posting).

 

This was the first O.D. Hopkins coaster ever built in 1985. My "source" back in the late 1980's was my regional rep for ACE and when discussing this coaster once, she stated that indeed, the train was not completing the circuit during it's initial testing. First at the top of the double up after the first loop it failed to clear the top of the lift over and over, stopping in the anti-rollbacks. So they raised the track to raise the exit of the loop. There was also some question about the forces on the exit of the first loop so it killed two birds with one stone per se.

 

So, they do that, test the train and then it failed to clear the second loop, so they "shrunk" the size of it and then the train was able to complete the circuit consistently.

 

This is one of the more unique steel coasters out there. It feels a bit like a wooden coaster and the loops are very forceful, especially the second smaller loop.

 

All of the O.D. Hopkins loopers that I have ridden (Texas Tornado, Desert Storm and Dragon) are all funky to some extent and the loops are very forceful. The second loop on Desert Storm can really do a number on you, it's almost a perfect circle entering and the it does a funky psuedo corkscrew exit (similar to the fourth loop on the Schwarzkopf portable Thriller) it always throws you sideways on the exit.

 

I would say that my regional rep was pretty reliable, and I know that she got to know the management of Wonderland at the time. If anyone knows anything else different, by all means, please chime in.

[GayCoasterGuy]

^That was the same story I remember hearing. I have an old brochure in storage with a picture of the loop before it was "re-profiled." Now waiting for the motivation to go dig it out! The ride was great, but it had some nasty jerk/spine compression on the swoop drop and the slight curve in the tunnel could be a little jerky as well. Foggy memories from the ACE convention of 1990, great times indeed! The maintenance guy was telling us the ride never got so much traffic as when we were there, that it was getting a good work-out. He was putting some greasy/wax stuff on the track.

 

I'm interested in hearing detailed reports of how the PTC train runs on the ride and how it is different from the old O.D. Hopkins train. (On a related note, I had an interview with O.D. Hopkins in college; I was making any attempt to get my foot in the door of anything coaster related at the time... which didn't exactly work out.)

 

I really want to get back to Wonderland. The Cyclone mad mouse coaster was also a real treat, as well as the 'white coaster' with the 3 car train. A great little park, and one of the friendliest parks I ever remember. Do the Tornado queue gates still require the ride operator to crank them open by hand?

Edited January 13, 2013 by GayCoasterGuy

[GayCoasterGuy]

And thanks to the internet, I don't need to go down the basement! This looks like the same picture I remember seeing in the brochure:

 

 

With all do respect to the folks at O.D. Hopkins, it doesn't take a very skilled engineer who knows just a little bit about looping coasters to tell you that such an odd shape isn't a great idea. At least it was something different...

[Double0Kevin]

Fun Fact which I'm sure many of you have seen. The user log in screen for Windows XP and 7 have a default flower picture, but you can change the picture and one option is a roller coaster loop. The loop is the first one on Texas Tornado (post modification). I noticed it today at work as that is my user icon.

[Ultimate]

^That sounds cool, I had a look today but I couldn't see it

 

Also, if you look at that picture on RCDB again, has anyone noticed that the two halves of the large circular structure are mis-aligned? Or is it just me?

[fraroc]

The more I look at OD Hopkins' coasters. You can just tell that they were wannabe Anton Schwarzkopfs. I did look at Desert Storm and one of the loops do seem to be those weird Immelmann things on Anton's Texas Tornado.

[Angry_Gumball]

Fun Fact which I'm sure many of you have seen. The user log in screen for Windows XP and 7 have a default flower picture, but you can change the picture and one option is a roller coaster loop. The loop is the first one on Texas Tornado (post modification). I noticed it today at work as that is my user icon.

 

I figured that icon was that coaster

When I just got Windows 7 in at work, I had a flower icon and decided to see what they had. My home computer has the same.

 

I watched a POV of it last night after stumbling on the unique coaster element and this thread. Such a strange ride! Even the bottom of the first drop looks like it got kinked to the left a bit.

[gforce1994]

Really, I thought it was a TOGO-Death Machine!

[Angry_Gumball]

That's definitely Texas Tornado!

 

Looks like there was a thread here a while back about what coaster that was when I did a search for the above graphic.