SFGAd GASM Removal

[The Interpreter]

From our friends at Great Adventure History, these heartbreaking (to me, at least) pictures:

http://greatadventurehistory.com/GASM#REM

[PREMiERdrum]

Was this constructed when Arrow still welded segments together? The cuts look a bit too clean to be welded, but a bit too chewed up to be bolted. Either way, it's sad to see a landmark coaster like this go... It still had some years left in it.

[coaster_junky]

that's sad, but this picture shocked me the most:

i never would have guessed the track would bend like that without the support of the rest of the track.

[PREMiERdrum]

The picture is awfully sad, but it answered my question. They're bolted together. This ride could have been saved and sold...

[The Interpreter]

Let me assure you, given Six Flags' current financial condition, if the ride could have been sold, it would have been.

There is more to this than I can say. . .

[CincyMan98]

That sign beneath that picture is exactly why I don't want to go to Six Flags.

[The Interpreter]

Current management is very likely to ditch Mr. Six in the very near future.

And if you let him keep you from having fun, it's your loss.

Truly.

[PREMiERdrum]

Let me assure you, given Six Flags' current financial condition, if the ride could have been sold, it would have been.

There is more to this than I can say. . .

Interesting... overseas parks seem to be interested in older steel like this. And since the prices on scrap have fallen, I would think they would be able to get more out of the ride selling it than scrapping it. But, if your intel says otherwise, I know which side I'll believe...

[CincyMan98]

He scares me...especially in the commercials.......

[The Interpreter]

Indeed, the "gentleman" is a bit...creepy.

[Pillsberry123]

The ride looked impressive up until closing. I've never ridden it myself. I've heard from a lot of people that it was rough, but I don't see it being any rougher than Vortex (not that I don't like Vortex). This makes me wonder if Viper will last much longer, or if it will be removed for one reason or another.

[The Interpreter]

At this point in my life, I honestly cannot tell you which I have ridden more, GASM or Vortex. I can tell you this, this removal is bothering me far more than I ever thought it would. Life's like that, sometimes.

[Pillsberry123]

To be honest, the removal of any coaster bothers me. I don't know, it's just that we ride these things so much, year after year and we get the feeling that they can never been taken down. Finally when one DOES get taken down you've lost a piece of something that you enjoy. I don't hesitate to bring up Geauga Lake as an example. I can't imagine what it would have been like to be one of the locals once they heard the announcement. We visited during the last season that it was open, and we left promising that it would be an annual trip from that point on...

It's as if every film print and every copy of one of your favorite movies suddenly disappeared...

If The Beast gets taken down in my lifetime and they auction off seats on the last train, then you can guarantee I'll be sitting on it when it leaves the station.

[The Interpreter]

This actually bothered me to the extent I could not get myself to go for the last day. Yes, work interfered. Yes, I really couldn't go. But in the past, I would have gone anyway. But no way could I get myself to. I'd rather remember the happy hours of riding it in years past....

[KI Kevin]

I was there this past Friday and I have a video of it being pwnd by a construction vehicle. I'll try to post it to Youtube then to this topic tomorrow.

[TH13TEEN]

The ride looked impressive up until closing. I've never ridden it myself. I've heard from a lot of people that it was rough, but I don't see it being any rougher than Vortex (not that I don't like Vortex). This makes me wonder if Viper will last much longer, or if it will be removed for one reason or another.

It was probably scrapped for Viper...

[PhantomTheater]

To be honest, the removal of any coaster bothers me. I don't know, it's just that we ride these things so much, year after year and we get the feeling that they can never been taken down. Finally when one DOES get taken down you've lost a piece of something that you enjoy. I don't hesitate to bring up Geauga Lake as an example. I can't imagine what it would have been like to be one of the locals once they heard the announcement. We visited during the last season that it was open, and we left promising that it would be an annual trip from that point on...

It's as if every film print and every copy of one of your favorite movies suddenly disappeared...

If The Beast gets taken down in my lifetime and they auction off seats on the last train, then you can guarantee I'll be sitting on it when it leaves the station.

Like losing a dear friend, going to auction preview day was like going to a wake. The mood was somber, it was eerily quiet, and I almost cried when I said goodbye to Double Loop (my first coaster). I hugged the lead car long and hard before leaving, hopping that something might save it. A month later, the images of the scrapping made me cry again. 2 years later I'm still hoping for a positive outcome for the Dipper and Carousel, if either reopen somewhere I will drive to be there opening day no matter how far, and shed tears of happiness.

[Pillsberry123]

I'm still hoping for a positive outcome for the Dipper

The Big Dipper sold at auction for $5,000 to Apex Western Machinery Movers, who will move the roller coaster for an undisclosed client.

I won't say anything more since I don't know what to make of that.

[The Interpreter]

And the terms of said sale (as in when must the buyer remove the coaster and what happens if said date is not met or even whether there was a required removal date) have never, to my knowledge, been publicly disclosed.

[Beast1979]

How sad. Whether you like these older rides or not, it was coasters like GASM which truly defined the last half of the century. They became staples of the amusement park, and now it seems they're just starting to disappear.....

Jackson, who wonders if the time for our beloved Vortex is running short also....

[TylerRider]

I could never imagine a magnitude of Vortex's line closing day of operation.

[The Interpreter]

Pardon me while I go cry.

And yes, I mean it.

(from our friends at http://www.gadvoutpost.com )

[IBEW_Sparky]

Seeing that is upsetting, I truly understand your feelings about it Terpy. The audio, along with the sight of the parachute ride operating behind the lifeless coaster, makes the entire video rather surreal and eerie. I shed many a tear (and still do) watching the videos of GL's deconstruction.

[The Interpreter]

Great Adventure is for me one of the happiest places on earth. It is where I spent a sad/happy/tragic weekend after 9/11/2001. Talk about your mixed emotions. This is very upsetting...and yet it is just stuff...stuff can be replaced...people can't. I feel badly that I feel badly about this, and yet I do. Such is life.

[The Interpreter]

From the park's Facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=186013&id=69421318512

Photos 17 and 18, added just hours ago, are astounding.

Sigh.

[coaster_junky]

wow, it's amazing me the way they are showing this ride no mercy.

juancarlos aponte said it best in his comment on photo 18:

Could you at least treat this coaster with some dignity? Please?

[The Interpreter]

You should have seen how Kings Island took down Scooby's Ghoster Coaster.

Or perhaps not.

[PREMiERdrum]

You should have seen how Kings Island took down Scooby's Ghoster Coaster.

Or perhaps not.

But did the park gladly display SDGC's carnage on their social media sites? We should ask them on 5@... oh, nevermind.

[The Interpreter]

There were essentially no social media sites back then. Facebook existed, but was almost new and open only to college students.

Some say the world was a better place. People actually talked to people in person...and sent e-mails. There was this relatively new thing called AOL Instant Messenger, even...and USENET newsgroups...ar ar see anyone?

[PREMiERdrum]

There were essentially no social media sites back then. Facebook existed, but was almost new and open only to college students.

Some say the world was a better place. People actually talked to people in person...and sent e-mails. There was this relatively new thing called AOL Instant Messenger, even...and USENET newsgroups...ar ar see anyone?

I was being facetious... but I doubt that, if it happened today, Ki would be "proud" of the destruction of such a classic attraction (which by all accounts, SDGC wasn't!).

Ahh, RRC. Those were the days.