KI Blog: The Beast gets its name 40 years ago today

[gforce1994]

11 minutes ago, chugh43 said:

Do you have a picture of the lamp that was attached to the trains? I cannot find anything.

Here you go. This is the original train as designed. My guess to why they didn’t do this was a). Guests would pick at it, and b). the decorations would created aerodynamic disruptions that would cause a greater friction loss, which would prove problematic on colder days.

[Kenban]

1 hour ago, gforce1994 said:

Here you go. This is the original train as designed. My guess to why they didn’t do this was a). Guests would pick at it, and b). the decorations would created aerodynamic disruptions that would cause a greater friction loss, which would prove problematic on colder days.

Plenty of wood coaster trains have had headlights, guests are not going to be any worse on this light then any other decoration, and any aerodynamic losses due to the light would be so minimal they could be ignored.  My personal opinion is the light was dropped because it no longer fit the aesthetic that the park was trying for.  The car that you see in this picture was before the ride had been named, my understanding is that the pinstriping was dropped so that it would fit with the look and feel they were going for after it had been decided to call it The Beast.

But according to a blog entry on the Kings Island website the light was dropped for marketing reasons.

Quote

Predicting the onslaught of media attention, the park opted to remove the headlamps in place of a sculpted logo on the train fronts.

I believe that post was written by a member of the forums so they might be able to share more information.

[Joshua]

31 minutes ago, Kenban said:

I believe that post was written by a member of the forums so they might be able to share more information.

I believe that's @Shaggy

[silver2005]

Were the trains being painted in-house or did KI send the trains to PTC for some TLC?  I'd love for it to be the later. 

[Shaggy]

2 hours ago, Kenban said:

Plenty of wood coaster trains have had headlights, guests are not going to be any worse on this light then any other decoration, and any aerodynamic losses due to the light would be so minimal they could be ignored.  My personal opinion is the light was dropped because it no longer fit the aesthetic that the park was trying for.  The car that you see in this picture was before the ride had been named, my understanding is that the pinstriping was dropped so that it would fit with the look and feel they were going for after it had been decided to call it The Beast.

But according to a blog entry on the Kings Island website the light was dropped for marketing reasons.

I believe that post was written by a member of the forums so they might be able to share more information.

I am the blogger.

The original train you see in that picture was a "prototype" or "concept" based on the initial theme KI had given PTC (a mining car.)  It was displayed at IAAPA the fall of '78 and was the only one that had a light added to the front.  At the time, the park had not chosen the final theme or name - that came in February.  Because of indecision of theme on KI's part - the trains were built by PTC and shipped to KI having only been primed - not painted.  When they arrived at KI that winter a final color scheme was chosen and the coaster team/sign department painted the trains and sculpted the logo in house.  The logo was added for publicity purposes... so that any photos would indicate the name of the coaster.  The park had learned this early on from the publicity they received when Racer premiered - which has always featured the name of the coaster.  PTC has never painted The Beast's trains, nor were they shipped with headlights.  In addition - remember that there were initially 4 trains, so several modifications were made after they arrived for testing.

[139Signal27]

51 minutes ago, silver2005 said:

Were the trains being painted in-house or did KI send the trains to PTC for some TLC?  I'd love for it to be the later. 

In house, per KI's Twitter

[Kenban]

@Shaggy I was wondering if you could shed some light on something I have been wondering.  I have heard two competing stories about how The Beast trains were shortened from 4 bench to the current 3 bench.  I have heard the park just ordered new rails from PTC and they were able to basiclly just transfer all the hardware over and it all just bolted together.  In essence no cutting or welding needed.

I have also heard that it was done by cutting the existing rails.  I have never heard of any need to weld anything but I was courious if you know.

Either way I know the park did the work themselves, and I know most of the components were reused.  Although I wonder how many of the pieces of the trains today are actually still original.