Trouble at Carowinds

This hasn't been a good week for Carowinds.  The Cedar Fair park on the North/South Carolina boarder has had a tumultuous week where two major incidents have hampered park operations.

This last Sunday, the park's 300 ft Windseeker stalled about half way up the tower, stranding 64 riders for about an hour.  The incident follows a few incidents where similar things happened at other Cedar Fair parks, including the infamous stalling of Knott's Berry Farm's Windseeker for 3 hours, which prompted Cedar Fair to shut down all Windseekers across the chain.  The chain then installed evacuation platforms at each of these parks.  Carowinds itself had its last stalling last September.

While Windseeker has since reopened, the park did experience a water main break on Monday, according to this post by Coaster Crew on Facebook.  This can cause problems in anything that uses water, which includes water fountains, restrooms, soda machines at vendors, water rides, and the water park.  At this time, there is little other information to go on other than that post.

Paramount Parks: What could have been

Back in the 1990's and into the 2000's, Paramount had an interesting thing going on when they decided to get into the amusement park business.  Unlike Disney or Universal Studios, Paramount didn't build parks from scratch.  Instead, they chose 5 parks, most of which were owned by Kings Entertainment Company at the time, and built off of traditional amusement parks while adding their own brands and theming.  Some of it worked, a lot of it didn't, and overall, it wasn't going well in the long run, a blog for another time.  All 5 parks, Kings Island, Kings Dominion, Canada's Wonderland, Carowinds, and California's Great America, are now under the Cedar Fair banner.

However, they have announced plans for a park, built from scratch, in Spain.  With any movie making company, along with other things that Viacom owns like CBS, Nickelodeon, Dreamworks, and VH1, what could they do if they went all out for a park on par with Universal and Disney?  I'd like to speculate on that for this blog.

Paramount Pictures spans nearly 100 years of fantastic film making.  Tons of blockbusters and classic movies have come from their studios.  There is also Dreamworks and Nickelodeon which can appease the younger generations, and VH1 and a music theme in general opens up a lot in making shows and even music themed attractions.

Let's start with thrill rides first.  Most of Paramount's big action movie hits were in the 80's and 90's.  For coasters, a Top Gun inverted or flying coaster immediately springs to mind.  They worked well for 4 of the Paramount Parks. Carowinds' version was probably the best of the 4, using the inverted coaster at its best with many different maneuvers and really capturing the feeling of being strapped to a F-14 Tomcat.

Days of Thunder would be a great set up for a racing coaster, likely with a launch.  Mauer Sohne built launched racing coaster for Ferrari World Abu Dhabi, which I could definitely see switching out the Ferrari chassis for some NASCAR style cars.   Three Paramount Parks did something with the Italian Job, which could work in the same vein.

Obviously, you couldn't have a proper Paramount Park without one of its biggest franchises, Star Trek.  You can do a TON of space themed rides.  For something as grand as the Star Trek universe, I would think some kind of ride simulator coupled with some great visual aids like projection screens, some 3-D effects, possibly some animatronics would be great, something along the lines of Island of Adventures' Amazing Spiderman would suffice.  I could see a launch coaster, something similar to the Flight of Fear twins at Kings Island and Dominion with some intense maneuvers, multiple launches and theming to match.  Another big franshise is Mission: Impossible.  That would definitely be awesome coupled with a ride simulator type ride.  For some reason, I've also thought of a 4D coaster working with a Mission: Impossible theme, especially when I think of the ceiling scene in M:I 1 and the drop through the vent shaft in M:I 2.  The Beverly Hills Cop movies would be ideal for more of a show based attraction.

I think despite Paramount cutting corners on the ride's systems, Tomb Raider: The Ride at Kings Island was their best themed ride.  Aside from bad brakes, it did a lot of things right, a ride program to show off how big it was, a nice soundtrack to keep things exciting, and some great visual work.  If Paramount went all out for something like that, it'd be something spectacular.  Along the same lines, Indiana Jones could offer some cool things.  A Vekoma mine coaster immediately springs to mind, much like Adventure Express at Kings Island drew inspiration from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom's mine cart scene.  I could see more of an interactive ride in that regard as well with some.  The technology used on some of the newer Disney tracked rides like Radiator Springs Racers at Disney's California Adventure would be perfect.   I could see some really creative stuff from an Addam's Family attraction, too.

I have a few ideas on movie themed water rides.  Crocodile Dundee and Hunt for Red October come to mind for both.  You could have a longer flume ride, like the Jurassic Park ride at Islands of Adventure.  Have a nice long run with some action scenes and places where water comes up out of cannons, and of course, have a nice good build up for a nice big drop and splash at the end.

Some show ideas come from some of Paramount's music based music along with VH1 themes.  A VH1 show would be easy to pull off.  Some of the movies that come to mind are Wayne's World, Footloose, Grease, Ferris Beuller, and School of Rock.

Paramount does have some genuinely good movies, things like Forrest Gump, Titanic, Godfather, and a bunch of classics.  I could see something of a showcase of thing in relation to these movies, possibly walk through attractions and possibly some restaurants.  Some of the music themes of Paramount movies would do well being played throughout the park.

I realize I'm missing a lot, but I think a lot of these ideas are pretty plausible and who knows, we could very well see some of these things when the actual Paramount park in Spain opens.  If you have any ideas, feel free to post them in the comments.

While I'm at it, I'd like to mention how this blog will be scheduled.  I will have new blogs out every Friday, only deviating to cover news going on, like incidents, park announcements, and other such things.

Gatekeeper Documentary by Devin Olson Media

For those wanting to check out more on Gatekeeper, allow me to introduce you to a great video depicting the development and construction of Cedar Point's new wing coaster.  Devin Olson Media, who is associated with the coaster site I frequent, Coaster-Net.com and former president of the site, has made a series of videos on some recent rides.  I suggest checking those videos out as well, including rides like Cheetah Hunt at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, Outlaw Run at Silver Dollar City, Verbolten at Busch Gardens Williamsburg, and Intimidator 305 at Kings Dominion.

Gatekeeper Documentary

Shoot The Rapids boat goes backwards, flips with 7 riders

During a year Cedar Point has been celebrating their newest coaster Gatekeeper, a rather unfortunate event occurred on July 19th at the opposite side of the park.  Shoot the Rapids, the park's newest flume ride, had a bizarre incident involving a boat on the first lift.  While the boat seemingly started to go up higher and higher, it suddenly slid backwards down the lift.  As it hit the water, it tipped to its side submerging 7 riders on the boat at the time.  Within a minute, bystanders and nearby park workers got out to flip the boat back upright.  One person was taken to a nearby hospital and released shortly thereafter.  The other 6 only received minor injuries and were treated by Cedar Point's medical staff.

The ride remains closed as investigators try and piece together what happened.  The ride is a flume ride built by Intamin, makers of 4 of the park's biggest coasters, the 310 ft Millennium Force, the 420 ft Top Thrill Dragster, the inverted impulse coaster Wicked Twister, and the steel launched coaster Maverick.  The ride opened in 2010 at a cost of $10.5 million, featuring two drops of 85 ft and 49 ft.  The ride's boats seat 10 with overhead lap bars, whereas the lap bar is brought down over rider's heads.  

Lady Thrown from Texas Giant

A typical day at Six Flags Over Texas was darkened quite a bit on Friday, July 19th.  At around 6:45 pm, Rosy Esparza sat into one of the three trains on the Texas Giant coaster with her son.  Witnesses remarked she felt uncomfortable riding, stating the lap bar restraint wasn't low enough.  It was then the ride attendant was stated as saying something to the like of "As long as you heard it click, you'll be fine".  Witnesses also attest to the ride attendant acting 'nonchalant'.  Gerstlauer, the manufacture of the trains, commented that the restraints on Texas Giant's cars do not make a click when they lock, they use lights on the side instead which indicate if a restraint is locked.

However, it turned out to not be enough as the woman tumbled from the ride.  The ride has been shut down since.  Six Flags also ordered a similar coaster, Six Flags Fiesta Texas' Iron Rattler, which features the same track system and trains as Texas Giant, to be shut down while officials conduct the investigation.  A few rides also made by Gerstlauer were shut down by various parks, including Pandemonium at Six Flags Over Texas and Hershey Park's SooperDooper Looper.  While Pandemonium has opened since, it isn't clear when the other three will re-open.

Texas Giant originally opened in 1990 as an all wooden coaster. Designed by Dinn Corperation, who also designed Mean Streak at Cedar Point, it was 143 high, a top speed of 62 mph and had 4920 ft of track.  For the park's 50th anniversary, the ride was given an overhaul with an all steel I-bar track designed by Rocky Mountain Construction.  The ride was raised to a height of 152 ft, the first drop steepened from 53 degrees to 79 degrees, and has a higher top speed of 65 mph.  Other creations from RMC include Iron Rattler at Six Flags Fiesta Texas and Outlaw Run at Silver Dollar City.

Evolution of the Coaster Car

While looking at a twisted, contorted mess of coaster track is impressive enough, we wouldn't be able to enjoy going through them without the trains and cars that we sit in.   Coaster cars and seating have gone through many changes and trends over the years.  Many seem pretty practical while others will have you wondering what exactly they were thinking.

Let's start from the very beginning.  Many coaster and park aficionados will talk of what really began the journey to the modern roller coaster, being Russian Ice Slides.  Bored Russians would take to city streets, either on hills or with massive ramps, and douse the winter roads with ice.  Blocks of ice were attached with rope for people to hold onto something and were whisked away to the bottom where sand and hay slowed things down.

Once the grooved track took hold in Europe, coaster cars were rather simple, just a seat with some wheels beneath. In America, people had the thrilling prospect of careening down a mountainside rail line on mine carts with only a hand brake to slow down with.

The modern roller coaster came to light with LaMarcus Thompson, who patented many ideas that would be used on coasters you see today, such as multiple sets of wheels to hold the ride on the track, lap bars and lift mechanisms.  Cars were mostly enclosed to provide some sort of safety, enough for early 20th century technology at least.  Most wood coasters today use trains that aren't that far off from their early counterparts, but most having better seating and restraint equipment as well as computer technology.

The 1950's saw the coming of the steel coaster, which didn't start off with many new ideas.  Most steel coaster running stock was similar to wood coasters at first.  However, in the 1970's, looping coasters got the steel coaster started on a path that would make it the more innovative material to use.  As such, the trains and restraints needed to change.  While Schwarzkopf's Revolution at Six Flags Magic Mountain and most of his designs still only used lap bars, Arrow Dynamics' was using more twisted inversions such as corkscrews which put more lateral forces on the body.  With such movement on the head, overhead restraints were created.  Most looping coasters also started to bring more streamlined train designs to the forefront for better aerodynamic efficiency, and thus more speed.  When Arrow broke the 200 ft mark with Magnum XL-200 at Cedar Point, it put both earlier ideas and newer ideas together, both to provide a comfortable ride and let the ride push some limits.  Magnum only uses lap bar restraints and the car design is mostly like Arrow's early mine train coasters, but with larger wheels to keep up with going 70 mph and a streamlined body, the hyper coaster did all the things its conceivers dreamed and more.

Also in the 1980's, we saw two new types of rides, the suspended coaster and the stand up coaster.

Suspended coasters weren't all too new.  One or two were tried in the early 1900's, but they hardly resembled a true roller coasters with dramatic drops and high speeds.  Arrow brought back the idea when they were hired by Kings Island to build the Bat.  The ride's steel track was held from the top on l-shaped supports while the trains hung beneath.  To accentuate the ride's curves as well as an attempt to put less strain on riders, the cars acted like a pendulum, swinging on each curve.  The cars were actually close to Arrow's looping designs, slightly less streamlined (or with a bat carving as Kings Island's ride had), but instead of track below, the track was above.  While the Bat did fail due to under-engineering, the type did take hold later with designs like Busch Gardens Williamsburg's Big Bad Wolf, Cedar Point's Iron Dragon, and Six Flags Magic Mountain's Ninja.

The stand up coaster seemed like a simple design at first.  Just design the same ways and let riders stand up. In fact, most early stand up coasters were just regular sit down coasters with new trains.  Two examples of this are Six Flags St Louis' River King Mine Train and Worlds of Fun's Extremeroller.  River King Mine Train was marked as the first stand up coaster ever.  What was a regular mine train coaster recieved a pair of stand up trains, which seemed alright with its rather tame layout.  Extremeroller was the first stand up coaster with inversions, being an Arrow looping coaster converted.  Both ultimately failed as it was found out that special designing was needed to keep riders comfortable.  The track would need different requirements than any old sit down coaster.  Togo came to the forefront to fix that in introducing the first fully designed stand up coaster, Momonga Standing and Loop Coaster at Yomiuriland, a park in Japan.  Togo's stand up first made its debut at Kings Island as King Cobra.  The cars were basically floors on wheels with tall seating mechanisms with side mounting shoulder restraints as well as a lap restraint.  Bicycle seats were used, which often didn't excite the guys riding, especially with a vertical loop and helix in the layout.

The 90's really saw coaster trains and seats take off in new ways.  Bolliger and Mabillard were likely the forerunner at this.  Their sit down and stand up coasters weren't all that new aside from being 4 across instead of 2, but it was their new seating style that took the world by storm.  Arrow Dynamics had tried to put inversions into their suspended coaster to no avail.  The swinging made it too dangerous with the potential of either whipping around too fast or stalling and falling to the side, both rather bleak outcomes.  B&M made it simple; stop the swinging.  Their new inverted coaster used a ski lift style seating while the cars were rigidly attached to the track.  Being able to use inversions as well as letting riders' feet dangle made it a pretty thrilling prospect, and the design caught on like wildfire.   B&M's design techniques in smooth transitions, straight from Schwarzkopf's repertoire, helped out as well.

The hyper coaster, or coasters above 200 ft, were gaining ground, but not much was done to train design for a while.  The later 1990's and early 2000's saw B&M help out in another area.  They took their 4 across design from their looping model and gave it a few new bells and whistles.  They first took off the overhead restraints for roomy lap bars as well as raise the seats and tilt them back slightly.  While there was still a floor, the view was more open, often described as 'stadium style seating' as well as more freedom for riders' feet.  Couple that with heights surpassing 200 ft and speeds climbing to 80 mph and you got quite a ride on your hands.  Intamin used the same ideas, though with lower seats and no sides, on their take on hyper coasters and later using them on giga coasters (coasters above 300 ft), one of the strengths of their first giga coaster, Millennium Force.

B&M took their hyper and inverted seating even further.  First was to keep the raised seating, but cut off the floor.  While overhead restraints were back in play, the sight of riders' feet nearly being grinded into hamburger at 60+ mph was too tempting to overlook, and thus, the floorless coaster was born.

When the suspended coaster was born, it was on the precedent on using coasters to recreate the sensation of flight.  The inverted coaster took away the floor, but Vekoma and B&M wanted the real deal.  Both had similar concepts, put the riders' bodies parallel with the track and hang them at some point, giving the feel the riders were flying like superheroes.  Vekoma's required a bit more in the way of restraints, using a harness which is tightened by ride operators and a T-bar to lock in the lower body.  Quite restrictive, but it ultimately worked.  B&M had the T-bar, but used a simple upper body restraint.  While it was using a steel arm instead of a softer harness like Vekoma's version, it allowed more upper body freedom.  The plus side for B&M's is it starts where the ride is below the track whereas the Vekoma version requires more mechanics as the ride starts with track below the ground and the trains have to tilt up and down to load and unload.

The newest craze to take on the amusement park industry is sitting to the side of the track, not unlike the wings of an airplane.  However, the idea started in its most whacked out form.  While one would think to keep the seats stationary while attempting this at first, Arrow decided on a MUCH more twisted and psychotic way.  X at Six Flags Magic Mountain seemed like it would be a simple 'wing coaster' as they are aptly called, but Arrow put in a new twist. Literally.  The Arrow 4th Dimension ride with their 4 rail technology let the seats, while to the side of the cars, rotate forwards and backwards in 360 degrees worth of motion, not to mention they start backward.  It wasn't until 2007 when Intamin made a true wing coaster with Furious Baco at PortAventura in Spain.  The ride had fixed winged seating which highlighted the ride's lateral movements, which included a figure 8 layout and a mid-course barrel roll.  B&M also got on the winged wagon in 2011 with Raptor at Gardaland in Italy, which was the spark that was needed to catapult them into fame, now with 7 known wing coasters built or planned as of this writing.

So where will coaster car and seating technology takes us next?  Only the designers have any idea to that question.

Milestone Rides

 With the thousands of roller coasters built throughout time, there are the few that have left more than just a smile on the face of guests.  Some have changed how the world views roller coasters, whether it comes down to records or just the way they've impacted society.

Matterhorn Bobsleds, Disneyland- This may seem like an odd choice for this list at first.  Its has a pretty lax layout and a lot of things you see on any average roller coaster.  However, its the technology that makes it work that makes it special.  Matterhorn is the first modern steel coaster in existence and paved the way for the designers, Arrow Dynamics, to go on and make steel a big material to build coasters with.  In the 1950's when Matterhorn was being developed, wood coasters were pretty much the standard among building coasters.  Walt Disney wanted something different, something smoother, so he proposed the ride's track be made out of steel.  A young Arrow Dynamics came through with a tubular track system which the polyurethane wheels ran on, crating a smooth and swift ride.  The ride even uses the steel to its fullest capabilities with a splash at the end, something you couldn't do with wood as it would wear out being under water.  Though a bit ahead of its time as the steel coaster wouldn't catch on for another decade or so, it was a starting point for future designers to pick up on.

Racer, Kings Island- Kings Island was one of the first major parks to open after Disneyland in 1955.  A few parks that were around before the Great Depression had small comebacks, but nothing much to draw people back in.  Kings Island also sought to take some pages from Disneyland in how the park was built, but  they also maintained the classic aspects of amusement parks, with classic rides, more affordable pricing, and a pair of wooden coasters that caught on like wildfire in 1972.  The twin tracked Racer opened to extreme popularity.  The park never envisioned such a draw to the ride.  In fact, Kings Island contacted Philadelphia Toboggan Co. to bring them extra cars for the trains to keep up with the capacity needs.  The Racer, as such, is credited as re-starting the coaster building craze America once had in the early 1900's.  The trend continues today as many parks have sprung up and become popular.

Revolution, Six Flags Magic Mountain- Adding a loop to a roller coaster was going on frequently back in the early days of the 1800's, back when the French were trying it and getting them shut down by the local police.  Flash foward to the 1970's when steel coasters were getting their time in the spotlight.  Anton Schwarzkopf and Arrow Dynamics were both developing their track designs to go upside down.  Arrow Dynamics did come through first with Knott's Berry Farm's Corkscrew, but with that big white vertical loop among a spread out terrain layout, Revolution got more notoriety.  The lattice steel work of the track and supports is still one of the most eye catching sights at any amusement park anywhere.  With confirmation that loops could be done, this was like a match to gasoline as a HUGE coaster building spree began to see how high and how loopy parks could make coasters.

Beast, Kings Island- Kings Island wasn't done taking the world by storm quite yet.  They had another plan in the books that would keep the wood coaster alive through the upsurge of steel coasters.  While steel coasters were finding ways to build bigger, Kings Island knew that wood had already gotten there, with rides already well above 100 ft at the time, which steel hadn't quite got to in 1975.  It was then the park was trying to find out which coaster would fit best before entering the 1980's.  Kings Island tossed around making clones of Coney Island's Wildcat and Shooting Star, but with the obvious success of the Racer, they knew they needed something monstrous.  The Beast surly delivered, using 3 trains at 40 riders per train, which were then sent out on a 7, 359 ft journey through the dense woods at the back of the property.  The layout was nothing like most average wood coasters at the time either, most going for an out and back layout with lots of hills or a twister with lots of curves and corners.  Beast had a long layout which utilized the terrain to accentuate the rolling hills and valleys.  The ride has 2 lift hills as well, and the 540 degree helix serves as a great finale.  The ride would hold on to the overall length record for twelve years, though it still holds the wooden length record to this day.

Bat, Kings Island- While steel did get a foothold now that it could do loops, there were other ways designers wanted to utilize the smooth and strong aspects of steel track.  One of those ideas was to make a coaster that hung from steel track from above, otherwise known as the suspended coaster.  Arrow Dynamics was first to the punch in 1981 when it was hired by Kings Island to come through with the first during the modern era, The Bat.  The trains' chassis were hung from the track and acted like a pendulum, swinging to alleviate forces during turns.  However, Arrow Dynamics didn't think it all the way through.  They thought the swinging would take away from the forces being put on the track as well, which meant the track wasn't banked, which turned out to be false.  The ride was riddled with warped track and broken shock absorbers, which meant lots of downtime and even whole seasons where it didn't operate.  The ride sat dormant more than it operated, and by 1983, the park decided to be rid of it.  Arrow did come back to build improved suspended coasters, including another one for Kings Island in the form of Top Gun (now called Flight Deck), and a big future design would stem from the suspended coaster.

King Cobra, Kings Island- As you can see with this list, Kings Island had done a lot for the industry in introducing new types.  They came through a few years after the Bat with another way for steel coasters to get wacky, the stand up coaster.  A few rides have tried this and failed, but King Cobra was the first in the United States to be fully designed to work with the new riding position.  The ride was simple, only 90 ft tall, 50 mph and had a single, picturesque vertical loop, but it prooved that designers could, in theory, do anything with steel coasters.

Magnum XL-200, Cedar Point- Of course, Cedar Point had to get on this list at some point.  While the innovations of the suspended and stand up coaster were being patented, the industry were also clamoring to make steel coasters bigger.  Eventually, heights of 150 ft and 175 ft were conquered, but the real goal was the magic altitude of 200 ft.  Cedar Point was more than willing to take on the challenge, with Arrow Dynamics back on the scene.  The firm gave Cedar Point a height record before in the twin tracked Gemini back in 1978, but this new coaster set for 1989 would smash all previous records.  The ride stood at 205 ft and hit what was then, an absurd top speed of 72 mph.  The trick was what to do after the drop.  Arrow Dynamics came up with harking back to how wood coasters were designed, making a simple out and back layout with giant hills, a figure 8 style turn around, and enough air time to give even the most hardened coaster enthusiast goosebumps.  The ride served as a pinnacle to building taller as it wouldn't be for a long time that it would be eclipsed.

Batman: The Ride, Six Flags Great America- Arrow's big problem in making the suspended coaster was making it go upside down since Arrow was the king of looping coasters, and it seemed like a natural progression.  The swinging would prevent that from ever coming to be, but newcomer Bolliger and Mabillard took their own shot at it.  The firm had some pretty big successes for such a young company with a lot of stand up coasters under its belt.  They took Arrow's suspended coaster and simply made single, rigid cars that didn't swing, allowing the ride to do all the inversions a regular steel coaster could do.  The first park to try one of these wicked ski lift cars was Six Flags Great America, and with some Warner Brothers' theming to back it up, Batman: The Ride came to life.  This was another spark steel coasters needed to go on and create a multitude of types inspired by the inverted coaster, such as flying, 4th dimension, floorless, and teh current winged coaster trend.

Superman: The Escape, Six Flags Magic Mountain- So the industry had certain milestones out of the way, surpassing 200 ft and making coasters with ever increasing inversions, but there was also the matter of speed.  About midway through the 1990's, LIM's came on the scene as a way to put the lift hill in the optional parts bin.  With this new magnetic system, you didn't need a massive hill to get trains to ridiculous velocities.  Intamin took that idea to the extreme, and in 1997, Six Flags Magic Mountain partnered with the Swiss firm to go after 100 mph.  The ride would use LSM's, which require more interaction between the magnets and the cars, to blast the 15 ton cars from 0 to 100 mph in 7 seconds.  The ride did undergo massive delays due to the amount of power needed to feed such a beast, but it eventually opened.  To burn off that speed, the ride also crushed the previous height record by nearly doubling it, soaring all the way up to  415 ft.

Millennium Force, Cedar Point- Going for certain milestones can be attained through traditional methods as well.  A lot of launch technology was still young and getting them opened on a consistant basis was problematic.  Cedar Point had the idea to go for 300 ft in mind, but by using a traditional lift system...sort of. The ride does have a 310 ft lift hill, but it doesn't use a chain.  Two reasons for this.  First, a regular lift would take a very long time to reach the top.  Secondly, well, Magnum's chain weight in the range of 7 tons and its only 2/3 as tall.  Millennium Force would solve both by using an elevator cable system, which was easier for the lift mechanisms to use as well as get the trains up to 310 ft in only 22 seconds. The ride is also one of the longest rides out there, stretching to over 6,000 ft.  The ride's layout offers a speed course, and with a 92 mph top speed, it definitely lives up to the park's boasts about the ride.