Beast getting re tracked?

[Mystic.Timbers]

Around the second lift of Beast there is some wood and freshly painted track. Maybe they are planning on a small re track or maybe a large one. I hope it's a large re track.

 

 

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[harveyhaddixfan]

Pretty sure there's continuous maintenance that requires new wood all the time. I was there one day last year and you could see a crane lifting wood to the top of the first lift hill.

[TheRickster]

Yeah, wooden coasters are always being retracked and fixed. You never stop building them.

[King Ding Dong]

^ Except The Boss where the best you can hope for is SF hammering in the loose nails or the once a decade RMC sectional retracking.  

[BeeastFarmer]

From what I could tell on The Beast walk back last Saturday, most of that wood was 4x4 (posts?) 6x1 (railing?) and those boards that are on the sides of the lift hill with the small braces on them.  Sorry, I'm not an engineer.  Bents, ledgers and laminated track are about all the terms I know.  Haha

[Mystic.Timbers]

Most of the wood that was limited were walkways along the sides of track


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[Shawn Meyer]

Just using my imagination in this topic, but what if The Beast was built by GCI? Would it be more bada** than it is today? I just thought I would ask that since I was browsing through this topic. 

[McSalsa]

If GCI had somehow existed in 1979 and designed The Beast (and had all their modern tools) it'd very likely be nothing like the real-life Beast, save the fact both would be wooden coasters. GCI is known for their curved drops, and they try to avoid straight track as much as possible, save for brake runs (For example, Mystic Timbers after the first drop is almost always twisting, turning, or going up and down). The Beast as we know it today has a straight drop that isn't even super steep, and the track straightens out multiple times through the course (likely because it was designed for 4-row PTC trains). Those differences in design philosophy alone would likely result in a vastly different ride. Beast is an oddity in its design and is very unique- and is a product from the late 1970's- so I don't think any of the major wooden coaster companies would design something anywhere near it unless it was demanded from them. They would all probably come up with very different coasters.

As to what a GCI on the scale of Beast (height and speed wise at least) might be like, well, at least one exists in China. This is Python in Bamboo Forest (formerly Viper), a GCI which has a drop of 142 feet and goes 62mph... (Basically imagine this but surrounded by trees and you'd get what GCI's "Beast" might have looked like- the video is GCI's official POV)

 

[Mystic.Timbers]

If GCI had somehow existed in 1979 and designed The Beast (and had all their modern tools) it'd very likely be nothing like the real-life Beast, save the fact both would be wooden coasters. GCI is known for their curved drops, and they try to avoid straight track as much as possible, save for brake runs (For example, Mystic Timbers after the first drop is almost always twisting, turning, or going up and down). The Beast as we know it today has a straight drop that isn't even super steep, and the track straightens out multiple times through the course (likely because it was designed for 4-row PTC trains). Those differences in design philosophy alone would likely result in a vastly different ride. Beast is an oddity in its design and is very unique- and is a product from the late 1970's- so I don't think any of the major wooden coaster companies would design something anywhere near it unless it was demanded from them. They would all probably come up with very different coasters.
As to what a GCI on the scale of Beast (height and speed wise at least) might be like, well, at least one exists in China. This is Python in Bamboo Forest (formerly Viper), a GCI which has a drop of 142 feet and goes 62mph... (Basically imagine this but surrounded by trees and you'd get what GCI's "Beast" might have looked like- the video is GCI's official POV)
 

I agree it would be vastly different almost like a whole new coaster in a sense. Perhaps KI could do what Holiday World did for Raven do it in house


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[McSalsa]

10 minutes ago, Mystic.Timbers said:

I agree it would be vastly different almost like a whole new coaster in a sense. Perhaps KI could do what Holiday World did for Raven do it in house


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Sorry: You weren't 100% clear so I must ask...

Do what in house? Kings Island built Beast themselves- they didn't hire an outside company to do it. They also retrack it themselves regularly, though sometimes an outside company like GCI or RMC (they do more than just Iron Horse old wooden coasters- they will also do typical repairs) will be called on to help and do major work.

Holiday World didn't build Raven by themselves (they hired the now-defunct Custom Coasters International), but they do partially re-track it themselves often (nearly all parks that have at least 1 wood coaster have teams of employees just to re-track and repair them- Holiday World calls theirs "The Coaster Cats"), but even they did recently hire GCI to do major work on Legend in 2016 (rebuilding the entire first drop and re-profiling the finale).

[Mystic.Timbers]

Sorry: You weren't 100% clear so I must ask...
Do what in house? Kings Island built Beast themselves- they didn't hire an outside company to do it. They also retrack it themselves regularly, though sometimes an outside company like GCI or RMC (they do more than just Iron Horse old wooden coasters- they will also do typical repairs) will be called on to help and do major work.
Holiday World didn't build Raven by themselves (they hired the now-defunct Custom Coasters International), but they do partially re-track it themselves often (nearly all parks that have at least 1 wood coaster have teams of employees just to re-track and repair them- Holiday World calls theirs "The Coaster Cats"), but even they did recently hire GCI to do major work on Legend in 2016 (rebuilding the entire first drop and re-profiling the finale).

That's what I meant they re track it in house


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[McSalsa]

3 minutes ago, Mystic.Timbers said:

That's what I meant they re track it in house


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Oh OK- understood.

[King Ding Dong]

"Don't go in the tunnel!"

"Don't go in the Next tunnel!"

"Really! Do.Not.Go.In.The.Tunnel!"  

"Fine! Do whatever you want! You were warned!"

[Buckeye Brad]

In my opinion, if GCI were to build The Beast, (a 7,000' long coaster in KI Rivertown) it would be an amazing coaster. Perhaps even better than the actual coaster that KI built.

But it would not be The Beast.

It would not likely have the build up, and the long gradual 18 degree drop off of the second lift, and the slam and deafening roar in the helix.

Speaking of the 18 degree second drop and helix, is there another coaster in the world with a feature like that? It still amazes me how "tame" it looks from offride, but how it hits the ball out the park every single time.