Arrows, Arrows, Arrows.....

[hey...hey]

I wonder if Arrow would still be around if they didn't show Six Flags the 4-D that was still in development at the time since it was X that basically killed them. At the same time I wonder if Arrow could have still kept up with the increasing innovations that were being developed by other competitors.

 

My favorite Arrow loopers still operating are:

 

1. Vortex - Kings Island

2. Loch Ness Monster - BGW

3. Demon - SFGAm

 

My favorite defunct Arrows are:

 

1. Drachen Fire - BGW

2. Big Bad Wolf - BGW

3. Shock Wave - SFGAm

 

Nicely said. Also agree with your rankings of the BGW rides. Wish I could've had a couple more rides on both Drachen Fire and BBW.

[cwgator]

My top 3 Arrows:

 

1. Loch Ness Monster

2. Tennessee Tornado

3. Big Bad Wolf (defuct)

[DrachenfireOP]

I love Arrows, and grew up on them! BGW was my home park growing up, so I learned to ride coasters on them. BBW was my first coaster, then the next year I took on LNM and Drachenfire in the same day! I was also a ride op for some time, and after working on a variety of different rides/coasters, there was just nothing like standing at the controls for a good Arrow.

 

I have a soft spot in my heart for the custom looper and the suspended coaster, so I'd say my top 3 are:

 

1. Vortex (King's Island)

2. The Bat (aka Flight Deck aka Top Gun, King's Island)

3. Loch Ness Monster (BGW)

 

Defunct Arrows I miss greatly are:

 

1. Drachen Fire

2. Big Bad Wolf

3. Great American Scream Machine (back off haters!)

 

Also, since we're talking about Arrow's and everyone loves LNM/misses BBW/Drachenfire, here's some rare pictures of those coasters!

 

Loch Ness Trains version 1.0 being built for the first time in 1978.

 

Construction photo from early 1978. Some things of note:

1) The lake is dry.

2) The track is all one piece. They welded it on site rather than build section by section the way they do now.

3) The maintenance catwalks aren't installed yet. Keep those catwalks in mind when we get to Drachenfire!

 

Some supervisors and park employees in a publicity shoot from 1978.

 

Another publicity photo from 1978.

 

Man, those harnesses sure have changed over the years! These used to let you have a wide range of motion, but the reach envelope for LNM is actually really tight. For safety they re-designed the harnesses later to force you to keep your hands inside the car once they could no longer count on a GP that would follow the rules 100% of the time. Next time you're on this ride, notice how insanely close the trains pass to some of the supports!

 

LNM on a 1978 Brochure for "The Old Country." Notice how young some of the trees are that are full grown now!

 

Big Bad Wolf before the second drop trims swung you way past 90 degrees! It was very self destructive on the ride and a bit of a neck jerk, so they added the trims to the second drop.

 

Here's the livery the wolf wore for most of the 80s starting in 1985, and of course, this was back when they sprayed water at you going through the turns after the second lift drop!

 

Very hard to see, but if you look closely, this is the only image I have ever found of the 1984 "wolf head" livery that sat on the front of the train for only one season.

 

Drachen Fire under Construction.

 

A nice high-quality photo of Drachen Fire taken by a local newspaper in 1996.

 

Ever notice those catwalks along all the BGW arrows? Here's a rare shot of some maintenance workers inspecting the track of Drachen Fire!

[hey...hey]

A nice high-quality photo of Drachen Fire taken by a local newspaper in 1996.

 

Never noticed how uniform those supports looked back then. Someone on another post commented about how nice the Arrow supports looked.

[3Mutts]

I have to admit that I was very surprised by Loch Ness Monster since I thought it would be the same POS that I think most arrow loopers are. However, I thought it was pretty good and it is in the list of my top arrows (along with Magnum and Gemini).

[Velcro]

Some supervisors and park employees in a publicity shoot from 1978.

 

After seeing this picture, I have the strange desire to go to an amusement park in a suit.

[DoinItForTheFame]

My top arrow has got to be Magnum. Yes, it can be rough, but given the right seat, and NOT having your back up against the seat makes a world of difference. Magnum CAN be a great ride. It is by far my favorite Arrow coaster.

[The Yeti]

S&S is bringing back the 4D concept (kinda sorta). It'd be cool to see them design an arrow suspended type of coaster. I enjoyed Iron Dragon, and I'd love to see more of these coasters.

 

Well yeah, but S&S has kinda sorta been building 4D coasters for a while now! It was Arrow's concept though...

 

My top 3 Arrow coasters whether they are open or defunct are:

 

1. Magnum

2. Orient Express

3. Thunderation

 

Most of the Arrow loopers I have ridden had insane airtime on their drops (at least near the back of the train) despite only being about 50 degrees. I wish more looping coasters these days had great first drops!

[rcdude]

Yeah, Arrows are somewhat old and outdated by today's standards, but I do think historically they may be the most significant steel coaster manufacturer. They were one of the most innovative and are almost solely responsible for the existence and evolution of major steel coasters. I do think they were limited by the technology of their time, however, and if the company was still around they could be the best coaster designers in the business.

 

As for their rides, I do like X2 and Arrow's hypercoasters tend to be pretty good. I've had mixed results with their suspended coasters and looping coasters...some are really good, but some are barely worth riding for the credit. I also like some of the quirky rides Arrow has come up with, such as Gemini. Overall, they're in my middle group of manufacturers, right between Schwarzkopf and Vekoma. As for my favorite Arrows...

 

1. X2 (Six Flags Magic Mountain)

2. Magnum XL-200 (Cedar Point)

3. Vortex (Canada's Wonderland)

4. Tennessee Tornado (Dollywood)

5. Gemini (Cedar Point)

[YoshiCraft2011]

To be honest, the only Arrow coaster I remember riding was Matterhorn Bobsleds at Disneyland back in 2010, and I don't remember a thing about the ride experience! I just remembered it being "good'. Matterhorn was the first tubular steel coaster, Corkscrew at Knott's was the first modern inverting coaster, and X2 at Magic Mountain was the first 4D/Wing coaster. Arrow Dynamics really did a lot of stuff.

[Genx24]

Haven't ridden many Arrows, but there will always be a special place in my heart for Great American Scream Machine. OK ride experience, but so beautiful to look at. GAdv really messed up in knocking down GASM for a damned stand-up.

[coasterbill]

I have to admit that I was very surprised by Loch Ness Monster since I thought it would be the same POS that I think most arrow loopers are. However, I thought it was pretty good and it is in the list of my top arrows (along with Magnum and Gemini).

 

I feel like the reason Loch Ness Monster is good is because it avoids every element that makes other Arrow coasters rough. The worst things about Arrow's are any inversion that's not a loop, curved drops and high speed turns... this ride has none of those. Every turn is taken at a low speed (either because the train doesn't have any momentum yet or because it's high up in the air) the drops are all straight and there are no corkscrews so there's no awful transition leading into them.

 

Loch Ness Monster is smooth because it was never given the opportunity to be rough. Arrow avoided all of the problem elements they had on their other coasters.

[grsupercity]

I like some off the tight inversions they have. No matter how tall the loop was, it was still small haha

[hey...hey]

I have to admit that I was very surprised by Loch Ness Monster since I thought it would be the same POS that I think most arrow loopers are. However, I thought it was pretty good and it is in the list of my top arrows (along with Magnum and Gemini).

 

I feel like the reason Loch Ness Monster is good is because it avoids every element that makes other Arrow coasters rough. The worst things about Arrow's are any inversion that's not a loop, curved drops and high speed turns... this ride has none of those. Every turn is taken at a low speed (either because the train doesn't have any momentum yet or because it's high up in the air) the drops are all straight and there are no corkscrews so there's no awful transition leading into them.

 

Loch Ness Monster is smooth because it was never given the opportunity to be rough. Arrow avoided all of the problem elements they had on their other coasters.

 

Bingo, I think we might have a winner.

[boldikus]

My only Arrows are Runaway Mine Train, Lightning Loops and Great American Scream Machine. RMT is still a good ride, nothing spectacular, but I enjoy it. I rode LL and GASM a bunch in the late 80s/early 90s and I remember them being enjoyable.

[hey...hey]

^When I rode GASM the year Medusa opened, it was a little rough needless to say.

[BJ KoasterKooK]

I've always luved the old Arrows, regardless of the uncomfortable OTSR's or inherent "roughness" of some of them.

 

I believe I've ridden 15 of them, counting the Mine Trains, and my top five are:

 

1) X2

2) Loch Ness Monster

3) Big Bad Wolf

4) Tennessee Tornado

5) Drachen Fire

 

It's too bad two of those are now defunct, and indeed, most are a dying breed of important history to the coaster enthusiast community.

[gerstlaueringvar]

Thanks for posting the pictures of those BGW Arrows, I love the look of Drachen Fire. Is DF's layout designed by B&M or Arrow designed this based on B&M's style?

 

My personal top 8 Arrows:

Magnum XL-200

SFMM Viper

Gemini

X2

Thunderation

Road Runner Express

SFGAm Demon

Dragon

[SFOG1991]

Arrow figured out the perfect formula with Tennessee Tornado, which of course came at the end of Arrow.

 

I think Arrow builds some fantastic coasters. My personal favorite may be Vortex at Kings Island. I just love their megaloopers. Magnum is also a great ride.

 

Also, I know Ninja at SFOG is a Vekoma, but the Arrow trains from SFGAdv really helped the ride and look great on it. Ninja is an underrated coaster now in my opinion. It is a crazy and unique ride and it really doesn't headbang much anymore. I really hope it sticks around.

[cfc]

I'll agree that Tennessee Tornado is the best of the remaining Arrows. I think Viper at Magic Mountain is OK, Busch Gardens does a good job maintaining the Loch Ness Monster, and Magnum is fun, if a bit "clunky."

 

As for other Arrows, well . . .

[DrachenfireOP]

Is DF's layout designed by B&M or Arrow designed this based on B&M's style?

 

Drachen Fire was Ron Toomer 100% through and through, but received heavy guidance from the former director of planning at BGW. The B&M rumor started online around 2004-2005 when someone noticed that if you looked at DF from a certain angle, it sorta resembled Kumba a bit, and that the supports are more streamlined that Arrow. They took that concept, and ran wild with it to the point that even that horrendously misinformed Wikipedia article on the ride claims it was B&M. I personally have asked Larry Giles, Ron Toomer, and Claude Mabillard about this on three separate occasions, and all claimed it is 100% false. I am also not the only person who has done this. Also, the supports really are nothing at all like B&M supports, and are fairly one of a kind to just this ride.

 

Now some fun trivia about Drachen Fire you might not know!

 

- The first concept Toomer presented to Busch was a HUGE footprint, and would have been very similar to Shockwave/GASM in layout. Busch rejected it and asked for something more compact and streamlined. In the Nova special where they show the design/construction process of the ride, you can allegedly see Ron Toomer penciling out the initial concept design.

 

- The trains were designed in tandem with members of BGW R&D, as were the support structures. Drachen Fire's trains had tracer lights on them at Busch's request (and by the way, LNM also used to have them for a brief time in the 80s!) The two other arrow coasters built with the DF style trains ditched the lights after a bit because they were VERY problematic, but Busch kept them the whole way since it was their brainchild. The lights ran on an independent battery system inside the cars, and if I recall (granted it was 20 years ago), they were low CC motorcycle batteries.

 

- I learned from what I would consider a very reliable source that there was an error with the surveying in the early design process of the ride. Since it happened before any production started, the ride was mirrored as it was considered easier than re-surveying the land. One of the easiest things to point out about this is that the evac stairs/harness release pedals are on the wrong side. On almost every Arrow, it's on the left side, but on DF it was on the right as a result of this change.

 

- Apparently in the the non-mirrored run, the lift would have gone closer to the Wolf village and the wrap around corckscrew would have dove down by the Wolf's mid course brake run. Also, the Wolf village was re-done during DF construction to be full buildings, where as before they were just facades.

 

- The grand opening was a grand flop. The ride's computer had a fault that took days to solve, so all the footage you see on various specials of people lining up to ride was actually of them waiting for nothing. Comedian Dana Carvey came out to help open the ride, and rumor has it he agreed to do it for free as long as he got to be the first public rider, but they never got it working before he had to leave. I always wonder if he ever made it back out to ride. He is apparently a huge coaster enthusiast.

 

- Drachen Fire had traditional Arrow rollbacks for the 92' season, but the lift chain was much faster than most arrows. During testing they weren't satisfied with the speed the train was navigating the first corkscrew and up'd the speed, making the classic Arrow rollbacks even louder. It apparently was waking people up in neighboring houses when they did early morning testing, so starting in 93 they had a one-of-a-kind silent rollback on the trains. It basically stayed in the up position unless the train started to roll back, at which point gravity pulled it down and locked it into place.

 

- When DF originally closed, the plan was to modify the trains. However after deciding the track was the bigger culprit to the problem they decided to sell it.

 

- More than one park offered to buy DF, but no one was willing to pay the asking price ($4.5 million, for a used ride that cost $4million to build...)

 

- DF almost re-opened for the 2002 season. In 2001 they actually did a full track inspection, green tagged a train, and even loaded it up with load testers to cycle for a while. But when they put more advanced g-force testers in it, it was outside the realm of acceptability in the lateral G area.

 

- The fact that the ride bashed people around ultimately was only a part of the closing equation. Something people often forget is that when a ride bashes you around, it also bashes itself around. The maintenance cost on DF was probably massive, which BGW probably wouldn't like even if it had high ridership, which in it's current state, it did not.

 

- I'm told by a friend that was working that day that someone got hurt on the last day of operation which is why there's such an obscure mid-July last day for this ride.

 

It's a real shame. I loved that ride. If I ever win the lottery, I'm donating a replica to BGW that is modernized and has heart-lined track and better entrances to the inversions so it can live on! ...(if only).

[cfc]

^It was also the home of a bald eagle's nest for one season after it closed.

[DrachenfireOP]

^ Oh Good addition! I have some pictures of that nest somewhere. I always wondered what happened to that eagle when they tore the coaster down. The nest was still there in 2000.

[cfc]

^As I recall, there was some controversy over whether it was an eagle's nest or some other large bird. Sure looked like an eagle's nest to me.

[rcjp]

Is DF's layout designed by B&M or Arrow designed this based on B&M's style?

 

Drachen Fire was Ron Toomer 100% through and through, but received heavy guidance from the former director of planning at BGW. The B&M rumor started online around 2004-2005 when someone noticed that if you looked at DF from a certain angle, it sorta resembled Kumba a bit, and that the supports are more streamlined that Arrow. They took that concept, and ran wild with it to the point that even that horrendously misinformed Wikipedia article on the ride claims it was B&M. I personally have asked Larry Giles, Ron Toomer, and Claude Mabillard about this on three separate occasions, and all claimed it is 100% false. I am also not the only person who has done this. Also, the supports really are nothing at all like B&M supports, and are fairly one of a kind to just this ride.

 

Now some fun trivia about Drachen Fire you might not know!

 

- The first concept Toomer presented to Busch was a HUGE footprint, and would have been very similar to Shockwave/GASM in layout. Busch rejected it and asked for something more compact and streamlined. In the Nova special where they show the design/construction process of the ride, you can allegedly see Ron Toomer penciling out the initial concept design.

 

- The trains were designed in tandem with members of BGW R&D, as were the support structures. Drachen Fire's trains had tracer lights on them at Busch's request (and by the way, LNM also used to have them for a brief time in the 80s!) The two other arrow coasters built with the DF style trains ditched the lights after a bit because they were VERY problematic, but Busch kept them the whole way since it was their brainchild. The lights ran on an independent battery system inside the cars, and if I recall (granted it was 20 years ago), they were low CC motorcycle batteries.

 

- I learned from what I would consider a very reliable source that there was an error with the surveying in the early design process of the ride. Since it happened before any production started, the ride was mirrored as it was considered easier than re-surveying the land. One of the easiest things to point out about this is that the evac stairs/harness release pedals are on the wrong side. On almost every Arrow, it's on the left side, but on DF it was on the right as a result of this change.

 

- Apparently in the the non-mirrored run, the lift would have gone closer to the Wolf village and the wrap around corckscrew would have dove down by the Wolf's mid course brake run. Also, the Wolf village was re-done during DF construction to be full buildings, where as before they were just facades.

 

- The grand opening was a grand flop. The ride's computer had a fault that took days to solve, so all the footage you see on various specials of people lining up to ride was actually of them waiting for nothing. Comedian Dana Carvey came out to help open the ride, and rumor has it he agreed to do it for free as long as he got to be the first public rider, but they never got it working before he had to leave. I always wonder if he ever made it back out to ride. He is apparently a huge coaster enthusiast.

 

- Drachen Fire had traditional Arrow rollbacks for the 92' season, but the lift chain was much faster than most arrows. During testing they weren't satisfied with the speed the train was navigating the first corkscrew and up'd the speed, making the classic Arrow rollbacks even louder. It apparently was waking people up in neighboring houses when they did early morning testing, so starting in 93 they had a one-of-a-kind silent rollback on the trains. It basically stayed in the up position unless the train started to roll back, at which point gravity pulled it down and locked it into place.

 

- When DF originally closed, the plan was to modify the trains. However after deciding the track was the bigger culprit to the problem they decided to sell it.

 

- More than one park offered to buy DF, but no one was willing to pay the asking price ($4.5 million, for a used ride that cost $4million to build...)

 

- DF almost re-opened for the 2002 season. In 2001 they actually did a full track inspection, green tagged a train, and even loaded it up with load testers to cycle for a while. But when they put more advanced g-force testers in it, it was outside the realm of acceptability in the lateral G area.

 

- The fact that the ride bashed people around ultimately was only a part of the closing equation. Something people often forget is that when a ride bashes you around, it also bashes itself around. The maintenance cost on DF was probably massive, which BGW probably wouldn't like even if it had high ridership, which in it's current state, it did not.

 

- I'm told by a friend that was working that day that someone got hurt on the last day of operation which is why there's such an obscure mid-July last day for this ride.

 

It's a real shame. I loved that ride. If I ever win the lottery, I'm donating a replica to BGW that is modernized and has heart-lined track and better entrances to the inversions so it can live on! ...(if only).

Thanks. That's very interesting. I haven't ridden many arrows and wasn't a fan of the ones I did. This ride, however, is probably the now defunct coaster I would like to ride at least once.