Bad year for Schwarzkopf Shuttle Loops

Its a rough year for Schwarzkopf shuttle loops! Turbine at Walibi Belgium (enclosed flywheel) is SBNO, due to silly cost cuttings from Compagnies des Alpes (they own Parc Asterix, 5 of the ex Six Flags Europe parks, etc.). The other one we lost is Shuttle Loop at Toshimaen near Tokyo, Japan. I went to that park today and it was just gone. The station, entrance and exit ramps and concrete ramp it ran on are still there... There's just no more ride! It was still listed as running on www.rcdb.com and pictures from last fall showed it as still being there.

It doesn't leave too many Shuttle loops running. Knott's, 2 in South america I believe, SFKK and Nagashima Spaland are the last ones I think.

The other one in the states that still has a possibility of running is the one that Joyland bought from Six Flags Astroworld.

They have yet to construct though. Hopefully they will.

Six Operating:
Cascabel - La Feria de Chapultapec (Mexico City)
Golden Loop - Gold Reef City (South Africa)
Greezed Lightning - SFKK
Katapul - Hopi Hari (Brazil)
Shuttle Loop - Nagashima Spa Land

One SBNO:
Turbine (Walibi Belgium)

One In Storage (Joyland)

Wow! RCDB is fast then...because it now has the ride listed as operated from 5/2/1980 to 2008. Sad to hear about what looked like another great coaster going away.

Mamoosh said:
Six Operating:
Cascabel - La Feria de Chapultapec (Mexico City)
Golden Loop - Gold Reef City (South Africa)
Greezed Lightning - SFKK
Katapul - Hopi Hari (Brazil)
Shuttle Loop - Nagashima Spa Land

One SBNO:
Turbine (Walibi Belgium)

One In Storage (Joyland)

Montezooma's Revenge @ Knott's Berry Farm...?

Oops, yes. That should have been in my list of six.

What exactly is a Shuttle Loop? I know who Schwarzkopf is and all, but the Shuttle Loop eludes me. LOL

Bunky, here is some info on Montezooma's Revenge.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montezooma%27s_Revenge

http://rcdb.com/id292.htm

Too bad. Hopefully the Joyland ride gets rebuilt.

I remember hearing a few years back that these things are really tough to keep in operation because replacement parts are virtually nonexistent. They have to be custom machined, and that ain't cheap.

^That is possibly true, but doesn't Anton's son run a parts company for his father's creations?

If parts replacement were expensive, I don't see Greezed Lightnin at SFKK lasting long as Shapiro has basically started removing rides that are very expensive to maintain. Not to mention some of the other Scharzkopf coasters that still run at SF parks.

If Wieland Schwarzkopf makes parts for these things, I can't see parts being a problem. Besides, it's not like the launch mechanism is all that complicated, especially the weight-drop models that, well, feature a dropping weight. Unless there's something I'm missing here?

Bugger. I was at Toshimaen twice and both times the ride was SBNO.

Wieland was responsible for the accordion restraints on Zonga/Thriller, right? Pretty sure. Never have I heard one good thing about those. Plus from what I gather the Wieland parts are very expensive and have LONG lead times (meaning lots of downtime). Bummer...the company I keep wanting to turn to for more "Anton-ish" creations is Premier (loops and airtime with lapbars), but they seem to be doing more and more with darkride/coaster combos.

I am Anton's rightful heir...(herr)... :)

That's a shame if that's true about Wieland Schwarzkopf, Herr Gator.

Richard Bannister said:
Bugger. I was at Toshimaen twice and both times the ride was SBNO.

I know. It took me ages to arrange that :)