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What`s next for Son of Beast?


fighting31irish

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I have always thought that while absolutely marvelous to look at, Son of Beast's sturcture appeared questionable. If you look at Son of Beast's architecture as opposed to other wooden coasters in the park, it definintely looks more unorganized, or as I like to describe it, a rat's nest of wood. The lateral supports look as if they were rushed with construction. To sum it all up, the entire thing just looks misaligned.

If the awkward sturctural style of Son of Beast is due to the rides incredible scale, and not a factor of being rushed, then perhaps wood really shouldn't be built to those heights.

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I can't help but feel more fascinated by Son of Beast every time I go to the park. I never had a chance to ride it, but I'm drawn to the mystery structure from just about anywhere in the park. The most interesting glimpses are those from Adventure Express and Flight Deck.

I feel like I should get some good pictures before it's demolished with an announcement after the fact. Not that anything like that has ever happened... (*cough*TheCrypt*cough*)

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I have always thought that while absolutely marvelous to look at, Son of Beast's sturcture appeared questionable. If you look at Son of Beast's architecture as opposed to other wooden coasters in the park, it definintely looks more unorganized, or as I like to describe it, a rat's nest of wood. The lateral supports look as if they were rushed with construction. To sum it all up, the entire thing just looks misaligned.

If the awkward sturctural style of Son of Beast is due to the rides incredible scale, and not a factor of being rushed, then perhaps wood really shouldn't be built to those heights.

I always thought the same thing, especially in the awkward diagonals. But if you look at all of the coasters that RCCA built around the world, they all have that "misaligned" and "unorganized" look, especially in the lateral and diagonal support structure.

http://www.rcdb.com/r.htm?ot=2&co=6918

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while Im not sure if this is true or not but I had read/heard that the "mismatch" look of the track is because of something to do with the physics of the train and the weight. It was something about the way the force is spread out to be supported by all of the track and supports and not just wood directly below the cars...

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while Im not sure if this is true or not but I had read/heard that the "mismatch" look of the track is because of something to do with the physics of the train and the weight. It was something about the way the force is spread out to be supported by all of the track and supports and not just wood directly below the cars...

Yeah, that's pretty much the basics of structural mechanics. Son of Beast looks like that because it has to look something like that. With wood piled that high, I'm sure they don't want all the weight of the train and the upper supports going to the supports directly beneath the track. It's actually a pretty remarkable engineering accomplishment. I actually think they look quite a bit like Dinn Corp.'s and CCI's supports, except they just have those extra beams both parallel and perpendicular to the track.

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^ kind of wonder if the track had the extra supports from the beginning if it would never of had the "crack"....

I have been looking for a news video about SOB but I just cannot find it. It had a man talking about the crack and had an animation of the train going over the broken track... anyone else have this video saved somewhere? and if they do, I would appreciate them posting it...

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^ Not really. It looks like a wooden coaster built in an area prone to earthquakes, thus requiring that the supports be overdesigned lest the ride require being rebuilt after such an event. Which, as a matter of fact, it is. Take a look at the solid wall of supports of Nagashima Spaland's White Cyclone for another example of that. (Then again, it's not like I've got any of the design data for either ride--for all I know, the truss is horrible somewhere inside both of them. I'm just making the point that having seemingly overdone supports doesn't mean they were done poorly.)

shark6495: If you mean the supports we just talked about, several of the visible ones seem to have been there from the beginning, as is somewhat visible in this photo:

in991g0ue04i00007ir6li.jpg

If you mean the supports they added after the incident... It's kind of hard to guess. I got the impression from the accident report that the train's shuffling caused forces to go in directions that hadn't have been accounted for in the initial design. But, in that case, you do make a good point: if there were additional types of supports that could dampen those sorts of movements in the supports when necessary, should they have been installed as part of the initial construction? Or did the trains cause a unique movement that couldn't have been planned for until the problem presented itself, so the only way to adjust the structure was by testing? (I don't know the answer to those questions--just thinking out loud.)

Also, if anyone happens to find that video, I'd love to see it. From an engineering standpoint, the 2006 incident is very interesting to me (in a respectful way, of course. Experiencing the incident would have been very scary.)

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Hmm...had no idea White Canyon was built to survive Earthquakes...ok, here's another RCCA Woodie, Bandit @ Movie Park Germany (note: this coaster is only 91 feet tall):

b7ig7hs0067kopegq90ell.jpg

Wow, the supports are still a mess even here, and on this much smaller scale...

And here is another MONSTER wooden coaster, but from a different company- the gigantic Colossos @ Heide Park in Germany, which, at 199 feet, is second only to Son of Beast in height, but built by Intamin with Plug N' Play technology...

5l2008vj35q39506es0usg.jpg

Is it just me, or does Colossos not look "messy" at all? I don't think having pre-fabricated sections would change the way the coaster would need to distribute weight...here's a different angle, too:

34hp0b35q395074q0usg00.jpg

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i think that sob is done for because its had a turbuluent history and now theres evidence about that its being torn down i hope that a better company like intamin or GCI or GG could build a monster to replace it

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I have a feeling that when Son of Beast DOES begin de-construction, the public will know about it. I also have a feeling that the public will be told about a brand new attraction in the exact same breath. Do I mean another large wooden coaster? No. Do I mean another thrill ride? Not necessarily. "We will begin dismantling SOB in the 20-- offesason, but we have a new attraction for the 20-- season!"

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Another Skyline? Doesn't the park already have one!?

:D

No gold star for you. The park has TWO Skylines. (Some of us would prefer The Flavor of Cincinnati).

That sends a chili down my spine!

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I have a feeling that when Son of Beast DOES begin de-construction, the public will know about it. I also have a feeling that the public will be told about a brand new attraction in the exact same breath. Do I mean another large wooden coaster? No. Do I mean another thrill ride? Not necessarily. "We will begin dismantling SOB in the 20-- offesason, but we have a new attraction for the 20-- season!"

I agree with that. The question is what year will this happen?

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