A THREAD. ABOUT COASTERS. OF THE ROLLY SORT. Also other rides I guess and maybe theme parks in general. We must congregate though. And discuss these wonderful bits of engineering and physics. Of which I have only been on like...ten? At most? My anxiety has kept me from getting on more, but I do plan to fix that at some point. For now though I am amassing a pointless amount of coaster lore. Or perhaps you don't know much about or care much about coasters and just would like to hear someone ramble about them. I CAN DO THIS. ASK QUESTIONS. I MAY BE ABLE TO ANSWER THEM. Maybe. Like the question of "What is that thread title even?". It's a reference to the fact that the Vekoma suspended looping coaster model, or SLC, is notorious for providing rough and painful rides. Many report getting headaches on the things because of the seats brutalizing riders to the point that the rides are called hang 'n' bangs by some. It seems to be related to Vekoma's track layouts and their seats from what I've read.
TELL ME ALL THE THINGS I don't know anything about rollercoasters because I am the sort of person who stays about a hundred feet minimum from them.
count me in as someone who wants to hear about coasters but doesn't know anything about them I've only been on the ones in Port Aventura, dragon khan and furius baco are really fun, but stampida gave me a headache xd. I like the kiddie ones cause you actually have time to enjoy them .. Do you have juicy coaster stories? I wanna hear :3 Plus what's your fave type of coaster?
I love roller coasters omg. I've been to Disneyland, the Busch Gardens in Virginia, Kings Dominion, and Carowinds. I like Space Mountain, Alpengeist, the Dale Earnhardt-themed ride at Kings Dominion, and... tbh I have no idea what they call anything at Carowinds any more since they changed the names when Paramount sold it. My favorite things are loops and drops steeper than 90 degrees; straight down drops are actually scarier and more uncomfortable than the inverted drops. I don't like rides where you start out in a position other than sitting down. Anyway talk roller coasters to me!
Busch Gardens Williamsburg has some of my favorite designs coaster wise in it! I'm very fond of Arrow's Loch Ness Monster because wow those interlocking loops are beautiful. Especially with their old track and supports. I'm sure it's a much rougher ride than some of the newer loopers because Arrow was just rough in general compared to B&M but wow Nessie is pretty. They also used to have one of Arrow's successful suspended coasters Big Bad Wolf. If you've never seen it I suggest looking up a video of it. The Arrow suspended coasters weren't inverted coasters like you might thing. No. The passengers still rode in a car like other "normal" coasters. Just the car hung from the track and could freely swing through turns. Sadly due to design issues and maintenance costs Big Bad Wolf had to be shut down. BUT. If you've been on Verbolten then you've gone through some of Big Bad Wolf's track layout. Bits of the ride's design use the old course of Big Bad Wolf, most notably its main drop following the event house. There's some references in the ride's area too like a wolf crossing sign. And on the subject of Verbolten I really, really, really love it. Because it's just this very neatly themed ride. They put a lot of work into its wait and staff. It could have just been a ride, but no it has a lovely little story attached to it. Verbolten is also a spiritual successor to an older beloved ride which is neato. And I'm very fond of the fact that Verbolten has a 16 foot tall freefall drop. Which is just...Novel? I also like the Alpengeist, though I doubt I'd ever get on the thing. Certainly not now anyway. Anyway...Favorite coasters...The only sorts I've been on sadly are smaller family coasters. Even San Diego Journey to Atlantis' 70 foot drop is enough to get me weirded out. I'm very fond of the ride experience of mine train coasters though. My favorite I've actually been on is Space Mountain at Disneyland because it is just...A very fun ride. It's a very slow ride and what drops there are are very short, but it's just a fun thing to ride. I also sadly don't have many stories about riding the things! Certainly none I'd consider juicy. The only interesting one I have really is that Journey to Atlantis is what has shown me that it's not that I don't like rides or even drops, which I had originally suspected. It's mainly that I'm scared of heights and my knowledge about how long lifthills take freaks me out. I get jumpy when I feel I can't escape and I'm almost bolted out of the car before I put my restraint on. Said ride also showed that a big issue is that I never have anyone I feel I can trust with my anxiety issues around. If I do I'm fine. My one almost successful attempt at getting on Ghost Rider at Knott's was with a cousin of mine that I trusted. It was late at night though and everyone decided to say fuck the line let's just go home sadly. But favorites in terms of design? I like wooden coasters. I just think they're prettier. I love looking at the lattice work of their structures and I like the sound the trains make as they roll along. I'm very fond of RMC's work. Both in terms of their actual wooden coasters that use topper track like Outlaw Run and their "hybrids" like Twisted Colossus that use the steel i-boxes. Because wow there is all the lovely look of wooden coasters, but not they're doing things like steel coasters. And without the threat of falling the fuck apart, which is why Son of the Beast eventually had to remove its loop. The cars were too heavy for the track and newer lighter cars wouldn't have made it through the loop so the loop had to go. At some point in my life I mean to actually get on their coasters. So I can actually feel the damned things.
And speaking of loops my favorite coaster physics fact is due to how the forces add up on most looping coasters you wouldn't fall out of the things even if you weren't restrained. Now little airtime hills? Those would fling you out.
Loch Ness Monster is absolutely a rough ride, not gonna lie. It shook me around quite a bit. It does look nice, though! I've only ridden it the once because it's been down for maintenance twice when I went to the park. I've actually ridden both Big Bad Wolf and Verbolten - we went to Williamsburg as part of a school trip in 2005 and I went to visit friends sometime in 2013, I think. I couldn't remember the name, just waiting in line forever for it, because it was the newest coaster at the time. It was super fun, both of them.
I suspected as much about it being rough. Gods it is one of the prettiest looking coasters though. Just treat it as an art piece and spare your back, I suppose. And ooooh you actually got to ride Big Bad Wolf? I'm rather sad I'll never get the chance to do so! There are their other suspended coasters though? One of which is actually in my state. Namely Ninja at Magic Mountain. Damn Big Bad Wolf was pretty though. At least Verbolten makes use of some of the prettier aspects of its layout. Also Verbolten opened in 2012 according to wikipedia.
Yeah like.... eleven years ago or something, haha. I was just barely tall enough, I was around 12 at the time. I remember enjoying it and also being jerked around like crazy. Idk, it could have been 2012 when I went, I just know it was late summer and hot and we waited forever.
Roller coasters scare me with those big up and then down down down parts, so I udually don't go on them. The Six Flags in the MA/CT area near Springfield, though, I've been on two there. The Batman is cool! No huge drops, but lots of those spiraling parts. 8D
New rides often have huge wait times, yeah. My mother has horror stories about when Toontown opened at Disneyland. There was just this HUGE line to even get in the area and all the rides had huge lines. It was so packed in the area too that it was almost impossible to get around. Which is why when Star Warsland opens I am going nowhere near the fucking thing for a year or so. Also Magic Mountain has a Batman too! A lot of parks do. Very popular design. I need to try and get to our Six Flags at some point. I've never been to it. Yeah it's filled with larger coasters, but they do have smaller family rides too. Which I can start on. The only unfortunate thing is the rep of the park. Which is...Poor. My grandmother won't go anywhere near it because it's reputed to be full of rowdy asshole teens and thieves.
I really like roller coasters, the few that ive been on! Its been a long time since ive gotten to ride though, no cool friends who wanna do that :/ if you ever get a chance to, go to Indiana Beach- its a amusement park and beach sort of thing, and back when i went at least it was really fun. Theyve got 6 roller coasters, and three of them are wood :D i rode at least two of the wood ones(that i remember) and they were a great time. I dont remember the lines being long either, but that may be different now, and might be really dependent on what day you go.
Not the biggest coaster fan but lord I miss Astroworld and the XLR-8. It was Astroworld's first suspended coaster. Pretty tame, but fun. *still bitter as all hell about Astroworld getting shut down, fuck you in every orifice forever Kieran Burke*
It was also the first Arrow suspended coaster to work! I mean The Bat did work but its design led to it being need to be closed and removed very fast. XLR-8 as an experiment was far more stable and it's why Arrow's other suspended coasters like Big Bad Wolf and Iron Dragon were able to run as long as they did. Or have been in the Iron Dragon's case!
D: I didn't realize that Big Bad Wolf got shut down. I need to head back up to VA Busch Gardens some time, I haven't been since I was like... ten? So around 2003-2004 or so. Apollo was one of my first, but BBW was the second coaster I ever tried. I've been to Universal in Orlando and Disney World, though my memories of the latter are hazy. Went to Busch Gardens in Tampa once around 2007, which was a pretty meh coaster experience. Six Flags in CA though-- that's wild. There's a wooden coaster there that's one of my faves because it's so loud. Fuck King Kong, that is a migraine machine. I dig things with loops the most, I think. And coasters in the style of Alpengheist (the first time I rode it, it was so early in the park day that almost no one was in line so we rode it seven times in a row.)
Yeah. It closed in 2009. You ever go back to the park though you'll probably want to try its successor Verbolten though. One of the ride themes for the event house is werewolf themed! Also which wooden coaster at MM? Because depending on when you went and what ride you mean it might be GONE. VERY GONE.
Discovery Kingdom, actually! According to Google, it was the Roar, which is apt because my god the thing was loud. Fucking gorgeous to ride though, I love the way wooden coasters look.
Oh right Discovery Kingdom exists. Also ROAR IS FUCKING DEAD sadly. It was renovated by RMC and remade into The Joker sometime last year. It's a very pretty wood/steel hybrid using their ibox track. So it can do inversions! RMC is doing a lot of these conversions with either their topper track (which makes it a true wooden coaster) or their iboxes (which makes it either steel or a hybrid depending on your views). Intamin is doing fixer ups on wooden coasters too with their prefabricated track.
In the summer I will be going to Georgia. Which means Six Flags Over Georgia time with my moirail, one of them. I will finally get on bigger coasters. I will finally have someone I am comfortable with getting on them with. Yes. Also check out this rad documentary about Arrow Dynamics. Chances are if you've been to an amusement or theme park you've either seen their handiwork first hand or seen the descendants of said handiwork. Arrow's big. As in continuous tubular steel track is their fucking innovation levels of big. As is the 4D coaster.
This meanwhile is a Megastructures episode about the building of Kingda Ka, the world's current tallest and world's second fastest coaster. The absolute fastest is the Formula Rossa which was opened shortly after Kingda Ka's opening day. They are both Intamin launching coasters that make use of hydraulics. The Kingda Ka is considered an accelerator coaster and it is one of our only examples of the strata coaster, that is a coaster that reaches to 400 feet and beyond. The only other strata coasters are also Intamin rides. Superman: Escape from Krypton, which is also over 400 feet, doesn't count as a strata coaster as it doesn't make a full circuit. It's a shuttle launcher.
