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The Beast Is Breaking Its Own World Record... Again!

IndyGuy4KI
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IndyGuy4KI KIC Immortal

IndyGuy4KI

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Kings Island’s world-famous roller coaster, The Beast, will break its own World Record in 2022. The coaster, which opened in 1979 as the World’s Longest Wooden Roller Coaster, has held that distinction ever since. When it opens for the season in May it will beat its own record by two feet, from 7,359 ft. to 7,361 ft. due to offseason retracking and reprofiling work, that also includes a steeper first drop. “When you look at roller coaster records, they’re being beat all the time,” said Kings Island Vice President and General Manager Mike Koontz. “But there’s one record that no park in the world has been able to beat for more than 40 years, until now, and that’s the record for the longest wooden roller coaster.”

It’s no wonder that guests from all over the world travel to Kings Island to ride The Beast. Its record-breaking features include a 7,361-foot-long track (1.4 miles) and ride time of four minutes, 10 seconds; vertical drops of 137 feet (now at a 53-degree angle) and 141 feet (at an 18-degree angle); a 125-foot-long underground tunnel at the bottom of the 137-foot drop; eight banked turns, some to 45 degrees; a massive, 540-degree helix tunnel near the end and speeds up to 64.77 miles per hour.

Last November crews began the massive project of refurbishing 2,000 feet of the coaster’s track. In addition, the first drop has been re-profiled from 45 degrees to 53 degrees so that it can come into the tunnel lower and deliver a buttery-smooth transition through the first tunnel and onto the second drop. The project is expected to be completed in May.

Cool info about The Beast!

  1. By the time workmen had completed the massive Beast construction in March of 1979, they had used 650,000 board feet of southern pine lumber; 37,500 pounds of nails; 82,480 bolts and washers and 2,432 square yards of concrete.
  2. The Beast has given more than 56 million rides since its debut in 1979 – third most in park history behind the Racer and K.I. & Miami Valley Railroad.
  3. Each of The Beast trains have traveled more than 1,000,000 miles.
  4. Record-breaking features include a 7,361-foot long track (1.4 miles) and ride time of four minutes, 10 seconds; vertical drops of 137 feet (now at a 53-degree angle) and 141 feet (at an 18-degree angle); a 125-foot long underground tunnel at the bottom of the 137-foot drop; eight banked turns, some to 45 degrees; a massive, 540-degree helix tunnel near the end and speeds up to 64.77 miles per hour.
  5. Members of the Kings Island maintenance department walk every inch of The Beast track every morning before the park opens. It’s a nearly four-hour trip they start at 5 a.m.
  6. The Beast has three tunnels: The first is 125 feet; the second is 269 feet and the third is 628 feet, for a total of 1,022 feet of darkness.
  7. It cost $3.5 million to build The Beast from 1977 to 1979. It would cost over $20 million to re-create it today.
  8. At 7,361 feet – The Beast is the longest wooden roller coaster in the world
  9. The Beast was constructed in less than a year, after two years of research and design – all by Kings Island personnel. Al Collins and Jeff Gramke were the chief designers of the ride.
  10. The original design was modified multiple times, so many times in fact that the finished product looked nothing like the one envisioned when the project began in 1976.
  11. Coaster enthusiasts consider The Beast a “terrain coaster.” That refers to the way it follows the contours of the land, using the hills and gulleys to add height to the ride.

A Beast of a Project - Double Helix Drop.JPG

Beast - Entry Into Double Helix.JPG

Beast - Entry into Double Helix2.JPG

Beast - First Drop with Fresh Lumber.JPG

Beast - Fresh Lumber after 1st Drop.JPG

Beast - More than 2k of Retracking.JPG

Beast - Park ID Sign.JPG

Beast - Track Work.JPG

Beast - Track Work2.JPG

 

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Coasterteam KIC Junky

Coasterteam

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1 hour ago, BoddaH1994 said:

Will it be ready for Coasterstock? Isn’t CS in mid-May? I’ve heard May 31st is The Beast’s opening. Isn’t that the word on the street?

Oh lord 

that’s even later, I don’t know if that’s true or not. Don’t think the park can give an accurate opening date yet but given when construction should finish, that’s unfortunately possible 

 

 

 

 

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BoddaH1994 KIC Immortal

BoddaH1994

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43 minutes ago, Coasterteam said:

Oh lord 

that’s even later, I don’t know if that’s true or not. Don’t think the park can give an accurate opening date yet but given when construction should finish, that’s unfortunately possible 

 

 

 

I redact my original post. That was not from a credible source.

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Coasterteam KIC Junky

Coasterteam

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33 minutes ago, BoddaH1994 said:

I redact my original post. That was not from a credible source.

I respect that; while KI isn't very specific in dates; they give us a range which is common for projects of this size. 

If construction is finished in May, then it won't open until testing/state certification happens which may take a while.
If construction is finished in April and testing is finished by May, then it may be open sometime earlier in May. 

While I like staying somewhat optimistic, I want to believe the latter but I don't entirely know what KI means by project; whether or not it includes testing too.

edit: After thinking about it, we may be able to use the Coasterstock itinerary as a point of consideration. If we see Beast ERT planned, than they, the park, believes they can get it open in time. If we don’t, then we can assume it won’t be open at all. 

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KIEagle33 KIC Local

KIEagle33

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5 hours ago, IndyGuy4KI said:

Kings Island’s world-famous roller coaster, The Beast, will break its own World Record in 2022. The coaster, which opened in 1979 as the World’s Longest Wooden Roller Coaster, has held that distinction ever since. When it opens for the season in May it will beat its own record by two feet, from 7,359 ft. to 7,361 ft. due to offseason retracking and reprofiling work, that also includes a steeper first drop. “When you look at roller coaster records, they’re being beat all the time,” said Kings Island Vice President and General Manager Mike Koontz. “But there’s one record that no park in the world has been able to beat for more than 40 years, until now, and that’s the record for the longest wooden roller coaster.”

It’s no wonder that guests from all over the world travel to Kings Island to ride The Beast. Its record-breaking features include a 7,361-foot-long track (1.4 miles) and ride time of four minutes, 10 seconds; vertical drops of 137 feet (now at a 53-degree angle) and 141 feet (at an 18-degree angle); a 125-foot-long underground tunnel at the bottom of the 137-foot drop; eight banked turns, some to 45 degrees; a massive, 540-degree helix tunnel near the end and speeds up to 64.77 miles per hour.

Last November crews began the massive project of refurbishing 2,000 feet of the coaster’s track. In addition, the first drop has been re-profiled from 45 degrees to 53 degrees so that it can come into the tunnel lower and deliver a buttery-smooth transition through the first tunnel and onto the second drop. The project is expected to be completed in May.

Cool info about The Beast!

  1. By the time workmen had completed the massive Beast construction in March of 1979, they had used 650,000 board feet of southern pine lumber; 37,500 pounds of nails; 82,480 bolts and washers and 2,432 square yards of concrete.
  2. The Beast has given more than 56 million rides since its debut in 1979 – third most in park history behind The Racer and K.I. & Miami Valley Railroad.
  3. Each of The Beast trains have traveled more than 1,000,000 miles.
  4. Record-breaking features include a 7,361-foot long track (1.4 miles) and ride time of four minutes, 10 seconds; vertical drops of 137 feet (now at a 53-degree angle) and 141 feet (at an 18-degree angle); a 125-foot long underground tunnel at the bottom of the 137-foot drop; eight banked turns, some to 45 degrees; a massive, 540-degree helix tunnel near the end and speeds up to 64.77 miles per hour.
  5. Members of the Kings Island maintenance department walk every inch of The Beast track every morning before the park opens. It’s a nearly four-hour trip they start at 5 a.m.
  6. The Beast has three tunnels: The first is 125 feet; the second is 269 feet and the third is 628 feet, for a total of 1,022 feet of darkness.
  7. It cost $3.5 million to build The Beast from 1977 to 1979. It would cost over $20 million to re-create it today.
  8. At 7,361 feet – The Beast is the longest wooden roller coaster in the world
  9. The Beast was constructed in less than a year, after two years of research and design – all by Kings Island personnel. Al Collins and Jeff Gramke were the chief designers of the ride.
  10. The original design was modified multiple times, so many times in fact that the finished product looked nothing like the one envisioned when the project began in 1976.
  11. Coaster enthusiasts consider The Beast a “terrain coaster.” That refers to the way it follows the contours of the land, using the hills and gulleys to add height to the ride.

A Beast of a Project - Double Helix Drop.JPG

Beast - Entry Into Double Helix.JPG

Beast - Entry into Double Helix2.JPG

Beast - First Drop with Fresh Lumber.JPG

Beast - Fresh Lumber after 1st Drop.JPG

Beast - More than 2k of Retracking.JPG

Beast - Park ID Sign.JPG

Beast - Track Work.JPG

Beast - Track Work2.JPG

 

It doesn't matter if its an extra 2 feet, or an extra 200 feet, a record breaker is a record breaker!

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Coasterteam KIC Junky

Coasterteam

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9 minutes ago, tuxedoman52 said:

Great journalism from CNN here...

https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/beast-wooden-roller-coaster-kings-island-ohio-longer/index.html

Sent from my SM-G998U using Tapatalk
 

Funny number mix-up! Gotta hand it to all the news stations recently publishing the same exact story about Beast! 

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Coasterteam KIC Junky

Coasterteam

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2 hours ago, silver2005 said:

I know we get Beast back in a month or so, but having grown up with Beast and Vortex as the 2 main right of passage coasters, having both gone or closed feels like part of Kings Island's soul is ripped away.

I'm really concerned it won't be open for Coasterstock.

Waiting on the Coasterstock itinerary to drop to see whether or not Beast ERT is on it. Should see that later this month.

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