coasterboy76 Posted November 23, 2005 Share Posted November 23, 2005 Back in 1977 when the Movie "Rollercoaster" came out, I was instantly hooked on the "Revolution".... I wanted so bad to ride that coaster, the drops looked cool, the general layout of the track was wild, and I was just crazy over it.. kept saying one day I will get out to Magic Mountain and ride that.. Unfortunatly, I didn't get to ride The Revolution till around 99, and although I still was happy to be riding the coaster, the ride itself was really rough.. and a little of a let down..the biggest reason being they installed shoulder harnesses on cars that didn't originally have them. I watched "Rollercoaster" again today, and I was so mad, because the Revolution was going so much faster back then, and there weren't any shoulder harnesses. it seems like now they feel the need to use the trim brakes, and even add breaks where there were no brakes originally, (coming out of the tunnel and right before the last big turn) Why in the world do they do that to rollercoasters? Now I know I'm not the oldest person on this board, and I hope that there is someone out there that can tell me what a ride on the Revolution was like back then. full arial view of Revolution The "Revolution" 1977 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScOtT k Posted November 23, 2005 Share Posted November 23, 2005 man, 30 years of vegetation has done alot of good for that ride. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pianojohn Posted November 23, 2005 Share Posted November 23, 2005 I got to ride it in 1979 and was blown away. I also rode Colossus when they had the 2nd set of trains. I am not sure who made them, but it was also a good ride. I was just so psyched to ride the coaster from ROLLERCOASTER and I still have pics from that day. Unfortunately, I don't have them with me here! But the ride was fast, smooth, and never let up. I cannot bring myself to ride it now with the OTSR's. It is just sad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
methos Posted November 23, 2005 Share Posted November 23, 2005 personally i like it now. the otsr's arn't as bad as many coasters and there rough spots are only a few. ride in front. the coaster is sow grown in know well before "fence the ride" is completed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebl Posted November 23, 2005 Share Posted November 23, 2005 I rode the Revolution within two months of its opening. And, yes, it was quite the ride. Revolution was my favorite steel coaster for many, many years. Back then, they operated up to five trains. Just as one pulled out, another rolled in right behind it. You never really stood in line, you just walked very slowly, as the line moved that quickly. The trains had no headrests the first season (and maybe the second---I'm not sure when they added them). As the aerial view shows, there was nothing out by the first drop. At night, you felt like you were out in the middle of nowhere, and man was it dark! It was sort of like how Jet Stream was when it opened in 1972 (yes, I was there, too). It's amazing to see how much the entire park has grown since then. Even now with the awful OTSRs, Revolution is a great ride. The layout is excellent, and, in my opinion, the designers were very clever in putting the signature feature of the ride---the loop---in the middle of the ride instead of right at the bottom of the first drop. Having three major drops, then a long, sloping track leading into the loop builds riders' anticipation and adds to the thrill. The loop itself with its lattice support structure is a thing of beauty---and a far cry from today's plain, box beam structures. It does have the "teardrop" shape, but is a bit more "round" than more recent loops, and it does pack the G forces! Unfortunately, this is a factor in why our Revolution ended up with OTSRs while other similar rides (SFoT's Shock Wave and SFoG's Mindbender) didn't. In the years since its opening, several brake sections have been added, thus reducing wear and tear on the track, as well as some of the speed and excitement of the ride. All in all, I guess you could say that I liked the Revolution when it opened. Eric Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kroger8 Posted November 23, 2005 Share Posted November 23, 2005 Very well written Eric!^ I never have really thought that much about Revolution, but it really is an important part of coaster history!! I hope I get to ride it someday, regardless of OTSRs or not! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebl Posted November 23, 2005 Share Posted November 23, 2005 ^ ACE thinks so, too. One of their plaques noting Revolution as a piece of coaster history can be found on the right side of the pathway leading to the bottom of the ramp up into the station. Eric Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sfmmFREAK Posted November 23, 2005 Share Posted November 23, 2005 it is schedualed for rehab, andd skytower is also schedualed for repain and rehabe bcause they want the whole surrounding area to look nice for TATSU. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebl Posted November 23, 2005 Share Posted November 23, 2005 Revolution's track could use a paint job. If they do repaint it, I hope they keep it white. I just can't see it any other color. Eric Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zburns999 Posted November 24, 2005 Share Posted November 24, 2005 ^Maybe they can pull a Sooperdooperlooper and just repaint the track and not the supports, resulting in nice bright blue for the supports under the track, and some old green paint on the supports. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KrakenKing Posted November 24, 2005 Share Posted November 24, 2005 Yeah... no headrests in this picture: Wouldn't that hurt though if the G-forces snapped your neck back? I bet it did happen a few times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coasterboy76 Posted November 24, 2005 Author Share Posted November 24, 2005 Oh man thanks everyone for all the responses! I knew that the Revolution was great in its day! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonKhan Posted November 24, 2005 Share Posted November 24, 2005 Knoing how much i LOVE Lisebergbanan, I'd kill to ride Revolution back then. It looks like the perfect coaster to me, or in other words, a Lisebergbanan with a Loop! Can anyone that has ridden both tell me how similar they are? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BiCoastal Kid Posted November 24, 2005 Share Posted November 24, 2005 With all these improvements SFMM seems to making lately, maybe they'll fix Revolution!!! .... or not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coaster_type_of_person Posted November 24, 2005 Share Posted November 24, 2005 Am i the only one who never seems to find rough spots on coasters? ...the only one i've ridden that was rough, was Ninja! And i've ridden some of the ones you guys say are really rough (i.e. Pysclone@SFMM and Manhattan Express) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MF310ryb Posted November 24, 2005 Share Posted November 24, 2005 I remember watching it in National Lampoons Vacation when they went to Wally World and I always wanted to ride it. I rode The Revolution a few years ago for the first time. I was so disapointed. I wish they still had the lap bars cause I could imagine it was a great ride back in the day. I actually compared it to riding the old Viper at GADV painful. If they ever go back to the lap bars I'll fly back in a heart beat to ride it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jew Posted November 24, 2005 Share Posted November 24, 2005 In the years since its opening, several brake sections have been added, thus reducing wear and tear on the track, as well as some of the speed and excitement of the ride. I believe the brakes have always been there as block brakes (running 5 trains=more blocks needed!), but when SFMM reduced the fleet of trains to 3...they were reprogrammed as trim brakes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gnome Posted November 24, 2005 Share Posted November 24, 2005 I can imagine what it would be like if Revolution was still in its glory days. If it was in original state, I'm pretty sure it'd give a lot of other more modern rides a run for its money, but sadly in its state today, it doesn't. - Kyle "Maybe one day our dreams will come true!" Fordham Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebl Posted November 24, 2005 Share Posted November 24, 2005 ^^ I'm sure you're right, Joey. One brake, however, that I know wasn't there (or wasn't used) was the one right out of the tunnel. The airtime just as you went through the center of the loop and into that dip/turn just before the spiral was major ejector air---especially in the back seat. Eric Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coasterboy76 Posted November 24, 2005 Author Share Posted November 24, 2005 I got soe screenshots from the movie, shows the track from various points over the course of the ride.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShoubraStreet74 Posted November 24, 2005 Share Posted November 24, 2005 ^ Wow. The area in those photos looks so empty and treeless, and the track looks... so.. white and clean! I rode Revolution last summer and really liked it even with the brakes and OTSRs. It must have been really good in the few years after it opened. Wouldn't it be really cool if MM restores it to it's former greatness for the opening of Tatsu? Not going to happen though.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smells_like_team_disney Posted November 24, 2005 Share Posted November 24, 2005 I just don't understand why they suddenly had the need to install OTSR. The coaster was fine just the way it was. I remember as recent as 1992 they still had lap bars and it was running great. It wasn't until 1995 that I noticed those evil restraints. How do they justify such an extreme decision? Why would they need to install OTSR on a coaster that hadn't needed them for almost 2 decades? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
waterviper Posted November 24, 2005 Share Posted November 24, 2005 Ive also noticed that they added bucket seats with crotch protector aswell when they added the otsr's!! The seats used to be flatter and more comfy!! With those new seats and otsr you feel like you are all scrunched up in the seat and trapped where as before you felt more open and free like all coasters should be like!! But I guess over the years more safty precautions took over!! But as for the performance of Revolution I remember the days when it used to fly around the tracks aswell. It was a rather gloryous fantastic coaster then!! Just like EBL said as soon as one train went up the lift another one was right behind it pulling into the station!! Memorriesssss!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebl Posted November 24, 2005 Share Posted November 24, 2005 pianojohn said: "I also rode Colossus when they had the 2nd set of trains. I am not sure who made them, but it was also a good ride." Yeah, this was back on the first page and I just noticed it. Colossus opened in 1978 with International Amusement Device (IAD) trains. Those were replaced in 1979 or 1980 with four-car, three-bench PTC trains. The PTCs were replaced in 1987 with the current Morgan trains. Eric Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rooey Posted November 24, 2005 Share Posted November 24, 2005 "It was fine.....just fine...i think it will get a lot of attention!" I rode it in 1997, and i really enjoyed it. Partly because it was from the tackytastic movie "Rollercoaster", but also because i love Schwazcoft rollercoasters. I did think it was trimmed a lot and was quite slow in places, but it is a classic, no doubt about that. The only downside was, my fiendish scheme to get rid of my annoying cousin on the trip failed, and he didnt jump the fence and get run over by a train..oh well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now