The Beast

Announced on: July 10, 1978

Opened: April 14, 1979 (a stretch of tunnel was added in 1980)

Cost: $4 million

Type: Wooden terrain coaster

Track Length: 7,352 feet

Height:      1^st Lift Height: 110’

                   1^st Hill- 135 feet          Angle of Drop- 45 degrees

2^nd Hill- 63 feet           Angle of Drop- 32 degrees

2^nd Lift Hill- 141 feet  Angle of Drop- 18 degrees

Maximum Speed: 64.7 miles per hour

Time of Ride: 4 minutes, 50 seconds

Designed by: Al Collins and Jeff Gramke

Constructed by: Charlie Dinn and the Kings Island Construction Co.  Construction and planning took three years.

Tunnels:    1^st– 125 feet long, 18 feet underground

2^nd– 269 feet long

3^rd– 628 feet long, 540-degree tunnel with 1 1/2 revolutions

Total feet in Tunnels: 1,022 feet

Trains:  3 trains, each weighing 2,700 pounds.  Each train consists of 6 PTC cars, each sitting six people for a total of 36 people per train.  Originally, the Beast had trains made of five, four row PTC cars, but they replaced them with the current three row models to early on to ease the maintenance on the track.  Each train has traveled more than 5 million miles or the equivalent of more than 20 times around the world.

Area Ride Covers: 35 densely wooded acres

Materials: 650,000 board feet of Southern Pine stained in a Redwood finish. 37.500 pound of nails, 82,480 bolts and 5,180 washers were used to build The Beast.  The Beast sits on 2,432 square yards of concrete.

Capacity per hour: 1,200 people per hour

Location: Rivertown

Ridership: 44,925,428 riders since 1979, second most in park history.***  Its record year was 1980 with 2,150,353 rides logged.  The record day was July 17, 1981 with 20,885 riders.  The record hour was 1,680 on June 15th, 1980. (Numbers are through 2009 season).

World Records:         -The Beast has been listed in the Guiness Book of World Records since its opening for being the World`s longest wooden coaster.  —-When it opened it was also the tallest and fastest wooden roller coaster.

                                    –To this day, it is still the longest coaster, both wood and steel, in the United States.

Miscellaneous: The first lift hill sends riders into an underground tunnel created in a natural gorge.  The Beast was designed around the landscape to save as many trees as possible.  The ride was officially, and quite appropriately, “unchained” in a steady downpour Friday, April 13, 1979 for hundreds of media representatives from around the U.S. and Great Britain. The following individuals climbed about the gleaming red coaster cars for the first official ride:
– Charles S. Mechem, Jr., Chairman of the Board, Taft Broadcasting Company
– Dudley S. Taft, President, Taft Broadcasting Company
– Gary S. Wachs, Executive V.P., Amusement Park Group, Taft Broadcasting Company
– Charles Flatt, V.P. Construction & Engineering, Amusement Park Group, Taft Broadcasting
– William C. Price, Vice President & General Manager, Kings Island
– Frank Thompson, Operations Director
– Walt Davis, Director of Park Services
– Charles Dinn, Director of Construction, Maintenance & Engineering
– Bill Reed, Director of Rides
– David Palmer, Director of Marketing
– Dick Fussner, Director of Loss Prevention
– Chris Schaffer, Controller
– Al Collins, Resident Engineer
– Jeff Gramke, Assistant Engineer
– Jimmie Nickell, Assistant Director of Construction, Maintenance & Engineering
– Charles Swing, Maintenance Manager
– Charles Wright, Carpenter Foreman

Photos