Also in exciting news that isn't actually new CGI has retrofitted Ghost Rider at Knott's Berry Farm with its track. It also removed the trimmers that were part way through the ride. It is now a smoother, faster experience that people besides woodie diehards will want to go on. so smooth It's a double out and back style layout with a 108 foot first drop and it's the longest wooden coaster on the west coast.
The out and back being a style of track layout. Very simple concept. The train goes out from the station and loops around back into the station. It's the most simple kind of coaster layout. Here's an example of an out and back: The Comet here is a double out and back: There's a few different kinds of track layouts besides these. You have the wild mouse, the twister, the figure 8, the shuttle and so on.
Twisted Colossus here meanwhile is one of the more unusual and unique track layouts. It looks like a dual track racer, but it's actually a mobius loop that is designed to be able to be raced. Sadly due to timing issues often doesn't race. But gods the concept is fantastic: As per the name the mobius loop actually has only one track, which loops back into itself in such a way that it appears to be a more standard dual track setup. The other two kinds of dual tracks are racers, like the original Colossus or The Racer, and duelers, like Dragon Challenge. Racers have parallel layouts and often times only one station. Duelers are two conceptually different coasters which are laid out in such a way that they regularly cross over and past one another, these often have two stations. This gives you near misses that give the impression that the rides are fighting, whereas racers are designed to make you feel like you're racing the other train.
Also Kong at Discovery Kingdom, which kingstarscream bitched about earlier I believe, is an example of the titular SLC. They are awful and everyone hates them. There are various theories as to why the rides are so painful. Ranging from wheel setups to tracking to headrests to the shoulder restraints to the layout transitions. Whatever the case they are generally regarded as some of the most singularly unlikeable ride experiences you can come across from a larger company. Vekoma is behind the SLC. If you've been on a coaster that looks kind of like that that wasn't painful and you're like wtf aon it didn't kill my back then chances are you rode a B&M inverted coaster and not a Vekoma SLC:
Here's some photos comparing the tracks and cars of the SLC and the inverted coaster. First up is B&M the original innovator of the concept. Here's their track: And their cars: And now here's Vekoma's track which is modified Arrow track: And their cars: The rides pictured are Batman: The Ride and The Mind Eraser. These can be found at multiple parks.
Also please note the flexibility of the train's spine in the B&M ride. This is part of why they were able to outpace Arrow. They had more flexible trains and track, which let them do more shit and more comfortably than Arrow.
So it's still got a ways to go and I don't think we're making that April 1st opening day, though I pray to fuck we somehow do because I'll be going on the 2nd or 3rd, but Hangtime at Knotts has made a lot of progress. The entire coaster's built and we got the testing phase going. It's got its lighting installed and the station is built for the most part. The queue remains to be setup, as well as the rest of the station. Still we're nearing that opening date. First dive coaster on the west coast, motherfuckers. Get hype. Also I guess the other rides are making progress. But I mean I'm here in So Cal and Knott's is one of my homeparks so bias. Xcelerator is back up and running and running two trains again. This isn't that much of a difference dispatch wise but it is a thing. Got a slight bit of a touch up on its paint job, but not much. It still has that faded orange and seafoam green aesthetic going.
omg these rides are so dangerous how can people seriously run these things and not get sued into non-existence like fucking togo for that windjammer surfracers shit
BITCHES LET'S TALK KNOTT'S. Ok so Knott's Berry Farm is a theme park in Buena Park, California. Place started out as actually a family berry farm. Dude's wife made baller chicken and so they decided to sell this to make extra cash. Lo and behold people want fried chicken and biscuits in California, which led to huge lines. A stroke of genius and a fierce perseverating on Californian ghost towns later and we got a fucking theme park with a real deal functioning black smith and full sized steam locomotive. It's basically right down the road from Disneyland and one its unofficial selling points is "We're across the street from Disney basically and less than half the price!". It has been the homepark of many a So Cal resident for that reason and that reason alone. But Knott's has other things going for it like its selection of coasters. LOTS OF COASTERS. Ok not lots but a good amount of some neat varieties, some of which were world's firsts. SO LET'S TALK OLD KNOTT'S COASTERS FIRST. Knott's has four former coasters so let's fucking go. First up is Arrow Dynamics' Corkscrew. The Corkscrew at Knott's was the first model of its kind, the first continuous steel circuit coaster to feature an inversion and the first coaster since the 1890's to include an inversion. Not only that but it did this twice and with a type of inversion we hadn't seen before. The eponymous corkscrew loop. The ride closed in 1989 and has since operated at Silverwood in Idaho. It looked like this during its stay in California: Knott's had another Arrow coaster too. Namely an old steeplechase model. The ride used to have motorcycle shaped cars, but there was a flaw in the system that led to riders falling out of the ride or being injured because of the center of mass. To fix this problem the ride's cars were replaced with soap box racing themed cars instead and it was renamed from Motorcycle Chase to Wacky Soap Box Racers. To this day it remains one of the most beloved rides at the park, but sadly it closed in 1996. The ride looked like this:
The next ride is from another now defunct company, the Japanese based TOGO. TOGO is something of an infamous company among enthusiasts. While Arrow rides are considered uncomfortable, we can generally appreciate what Arrow did for the business and accept that that uncomfortable fucking Arrow looper once meant something. Something big. Something like "This is the company that revolutionized the coaster business and helped make it what it is today." We cannot say the same about TOGO. What we can say, and I will say, is that they produced interesting ride concepts like the pipeline coaster and the inverting wild mouse. The issue is that interesting or no TOGO rides were painful due to awful cars and a poor understanding of how to layout ride elements. If you've ever been on the Manhattan Express/Roller Coaster in Las Vegas you will know the pain of a TOGO. To know why it is painful is to know that they had awkward transitions into awkward elements and improper balancing of forces on the passengers. So Knott's decided to get a ride from them because I mean all the cool kids were getting their pipelines and stand up coasters so why not us. And why not an inverting wild mouse with a surfing theme for our Boardwalk area. The plan seemed genius and indeed the ride is well remembered by some of the park's fans. The issue is that the ride was less reliable than most TOGOs and still kind of painful. On top of people bitching about pain during the ride, the ride was frequently closed for maintenance. Upset about this Knott's proceeded to sue TOGO for their faulty bullshit project and won enough damages to sink the company. Since then the other TOGOs in the US have disappeared, leaving only the custom looper in Vegas. TOGOs do still operate overseas, but their shelf life is limited due to the company no longer existing and the business being what it is. I do not expect them to last that much longer. Anyway here's some photos of this bizarre and historic ride: Knott's has since gotten another wildmouse in roughly the same area in the park. It's also surfing themed and named Coast Rider, a pun on the nearby woody Ghost Rider. It's a Mack Rides design but still a wildmouse so something I personally hate.
Less historic and less unique is the latest coaster to go, the old Vekoma Boomerang model creatively named Boomerang. This thing just left last year along with one of the flatrides. Over its place is being built the state's first dive coaster and its first Gerstlauer infinity coaster. Hangtime's new and current opening date is June 1st. But enough about quality let's talk Vekoma. So Vekoma is a Dutch manufacturer that has something of a poor reputation among enthusiasts. They started out by supplying Arrow with their track, and moved on to making their own rides using the track blueprints that Arrow gave them. This made them one of Arrow's direct competitors, a mistake which would help eventually lead to Arrow's death in the early 2000's. Vekoma though. Vekoma stayed on strong for the same reason they started strong: they produce cheap coasters with small footprints. Particularly in the 80's and early 90's was known for a series of clones sent around the world. Small parks, big parks. It didn't matter your size or budget, chances are you could've afford a Vekoma Boomerang. Everyone had these things and they were pretty popular with the general public, and even enthusiasts enjoy the things to an extent. ...but the issue is is that there's a Boomerang in like every park ever. This began to wear thin on people's patience and seeing a Boomerang will make many enthusiasts sigh because god dammit we have to ride ANOTHER one. The chase for credits is a thankless hobby. Anyway, Knott's Boomerang opened in 1990 and lasted till last year. It underwent a total of three paint jobs. The one I remember most is the ugly ass purple one and the one before it closed was a worse green one. Whatever the paint scheme though one thing was for certain: it was a fucking Boomerang.
A wildmouse is a coaster whose main thing is sudden hairpin turns. They have a few short drops but mostly it's about jerky as fuck hairpin turns. This pov shows the wildmouse at Knott's: And here's an offride video of the same ride: My dislike stems from them lacking what I like about coasters and generally being painful for me.
Wild Mouse coasters tend to be found in the 'kiddie' section of the park, because apparently small children love lateral Gs.
Who wouldn't love that and the feeling that the car is literally going to tip off the tracks. Even babies love it. On that note I managed to ride four of the other non-Jaguar coasters at Knott's the other day. Coast Rider was, as expected, uncomfortable and terrifying in a fashion I found to be deeply unfun. I will never ride it again and simply put it on my list of credits. Pony Express was fun but a bit short. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about launches yet, as that was the first I've experienced so far. It was certainly different? I do like that Knott's a child friendly launching coaster though. That's a sort of variety I think is good for kids who might be too scared by shit like Xcelerator. Ghost Rider I really loved. Has some lovely drops and airtime moments. It's a nice long ride and the headchoppers are great. The ride is also smooth and runs at a breakneck pace since the midcourse breakrun was removed. I went on a backseat nightride of it too and that was phenomenal. It has these lovely orange lights that run along the railings at night, like this spooky fire trail stretching out before you when you can see little else. Also the millennium flier trains are a damn sight better than the fucking PTC classic trains. I understand that those trains are like, classic historical darlings but they're cramped and hard. I do feel the lapbar fit a bit too snug though? And got a bit moreso as the ride went on.
That leaves Montezooma's Revenge and Xcelerator when it comes to the currently operating Knott's coasters. Xcelerator wasn't running sadly so there was no chance for that. Monty I just didn't have the time for. I had other better things to be doing with my brothers like getting piss drunk on wine and going on the log ride. Current amount of coasters ridden is 32. That I can recall. My hatred for wildmice while solidified by Mulholland Madness wasn't started there. But I can't for the life of me remember what other such things I've ridden. Thus I am only counting the ones that I can solidly identify.
So it's press release season. This is Six Flags' official announcement video. It is...hideously cringey. There are some neat coasters that'll be up and running next year though so there is that. Over Texas and Great Adventure fans are depressed though. Can't say I entirely blame them.
