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Coaster conversions


Mr. Coastermania
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With six flags changing some of the old wooden coasters like Colossus, what coaster from Cedar Fairs would do great with this kind of make over? I pictured the Son of Beast fitting this change but with that gone I picture Psycho Racer or even better than that, Twisted Streak. I can not imagine why any place would want to change their classic wooden coasters when there might be so much history with that ride. I would cry if The Beast got converted.

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With six flags changing some of the old wooden coasters like Colossus, what coaster from Cedar Fairs would do great with this kind of make over? I pictured the Son of Beast fitting this change but with that gone I picture Psycho Racer or even better than that, Twisted Streak. I can not imagine why any place would want to change their classic wooden coasters when there might be so much history with that ride. I would cry if The Beast got converted.

If The Beast got the RMC treatment, I would put my hand through a window. Anyways, with SOB, I guess that would of been kind of cool, but Cedar Fair doesn't have the special contract with RMC like Six Flags.

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I don't think there is a reason for Kings Island to Iron Horse any of its wooden coasters. The Racer is the coaster that essentially brought back the coaster. It's an icon in Coney Mall and is a salute to Coney Island's old iconic Shooting Star, even using the original Shooting Star trains. It's a bumpy ride, however the park does have teams of carpenters, possibly from Great Coasters International (I may be wrong), come out and replace sections of track every so often. The Beast is the longest wooden coaster in the world, and uniquely placed in the parks back terrain instead of along the midway. There isn't a real need for giving either woodie a Rocky Mountain conversion, as they are both ACE landmarks.

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What special contract?

Terp, who learns the darnest things here.

Here ya go:

Rocky Mountain Construction, an Idaho-based company that builds wooden- and steel-framed roller coasters around the world, collaborated on the Texas Giant project. In a Jan. 19 article about the company's facility expansion, the Spokane Journal of Business reported that Rocky Mountain Construction holds two contracts to build wooden coasters with high-performance track systems and cars — including one with Six Flags Fiesta Texas.

from http://www.mysanantonio.com/entertainment/article/Rattler-at-a-glance-3754064.php

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Anytime a company is hired to build an attraction at a park, there is some sort of contract involved. Six Flags just bought RMC's in bulk, that's all, not unlike Cedar Fair and their dealings with B&M and Mondial.

On topic- For these wooden conversions, I think it boils down to how each park and/or chain takes care of wooden coasters. Some are clearly better than others. A lot of it also has to do with how fads among the ride industry go as well as, above all else, the almighty dollar.

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The only woodie in the CF chain I can think of that would be a good RMC conversion candidate is Mean Streak. Its pretty, but that is all it has going for it. It's not really a classic in my mind. It's fairly rough and not really all that thrilling/fun in my opinion. Have at that one boys but stay away from the others. There are others that need work (I am looking at you Hurler twins) but not conversions.

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Six Flags is awesome to work with and they have kept us busy. They gave us our first break with the New Texas Giant and they continue to believe in RMC and our coasters. We will continue to work with them and other Non-Six Flags parks. They do not have an exclusive.

From RMCs facebook

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=792867780750344&id=154373424599786

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Wouldn't Son of Beast have been a dangerous cadidate for an Iron Horse conversion because it was sitting abandoned for years? And don't wooden coasters from RCCA have flimsy structures, I thought I heard that somewhere.

There's probably a list of things that prevented RMC from doing a Son of Beast refurbishment. One of the primary ones is, as you mentioned, the structure, not so much from sitting there, but rather by bad structure design. The heavy trains it used during its looping days didn't help much either.

I did a paper on SOB a while back, and the forensic investigator who covered the 2006 accident even mentioned that the ride shouldn't have been opened...at all with the way Paramount and RCCA handled the project. There's a lot more, but I'd be writing a very long post.

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Just imagine if Mean Streak went from this...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPQ4AusAgqU

...To this:

My enthusiast friend (rcoaster10) made this on NL2 and it's really awesome. With a little RMC love, mean Streak could seriously be one of the best coasters out there.

Holy Cow that's one epic RMC. If Cedar Point ever did this, they would likely have the best RMC to date (long, lots of airtime and drops, and numerous inversions). Which would also likely have a great shot at topping the Mitch Hawker steel coaster poll (since this looks far more epic than NTG which ranked #3 already) and would also end Intamin's winning streak at having the #1 ride in said poll every year. The need for a new wooden coaster would increase though since this would reduce the park to just Blue Streak in that category, so they'd probably also want to build a GCI a few years later or something as well. I'd personally call that ride Cyclone...for nostalgia reasons... :P

Also- I noticed several other CP coasters in the background. Millennium Force, TTD, Magnum, Maverick, etc. I have to ask- were those scenery, or actual working rides themselves? Because if the latter, then NL2 just got even more awesome than it already is...

Edit: Re-watching said video, I saw a Maverick train go by, so at least it appears to be an actual working coaster...

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I don't know if I like the inversions RMC adds to otherwise really great coasters (if not for the roughness). There are plenty of steel coasters if people want inversions. To compromise the existing coaster's layout is not something I'm a big fan of. However, I think I'd be pretty excited to see Mean Streak get that makeover. I rode that multiple times in 2013 and it was just SO rough. I think it would be a good candidate. Everyone seemed to be avoiding it like the plague when we were there. I'm actually fairly close to Iron Rattler right now so I may go over to Six Flags Fiesta Texas and check that out.

I would love to keep The Beast's layout but have a smoother track (not necessarily an RMC makeover). I rode it in 2012 and I thought I was going to get whiplash. In comparison, I've never considered The Racer to be very rough. Has it gotten any smoother since 2012? Retracking or anything? I'm wanting to plan a trip out there this summer so I'm curious.

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