Is Steel Dragon 2000 really the longest roller coaster in the world?

It all really depends on your definition of a roller coaster, but in my books, alpine coasters are roller coasters. By alpine coaster I mean the Wiegand models that run on steel track, not the alpine slides. On RCDB, the Alpine Coaster in Imst, Austria is about 11,500ft long, and that is over 3 thousand feet longer than Steel Dragon. What are your thoughts? Here's a link to the Alpine Coaster in Imst.

http://rcdb.com/13060.htm

The good news is that you can decide for yourself and it can be anything you want.

I think it's the owner of the track-based thrill ride that determines if it is a "roller coaster" or not. There is so much grey area anymore that it really isn't precisely defined.

It's interesting that they have a separate lift to bring the sleds up. I've never seen a Wiegand that had that before. It looks like it might be a t-bar or platter lift during the ski season.

In Germany I've been on two that had the same system. It was pretty interesting. Those were also insanely long. The problem though with long alpine coasters is that you might have a slow person in front of you and you have plenty of room to catch up.

Yeah because this happens if you go too slow...

CP Maverick said:

I think it's the owner of the track-based thrill ride that determines if it is a "roller coaster" or not.

It might be more precise to say that the owner of the track-based thrill ride determines if it owns a coaster or not. And that enthusiasts determine if that thrill ride meets their criteria for a roller coaster for purposes of keeping a track record. I don't if it's not so much "so much grey area" as it is different parties with different agendas.

In this day and age, I think it's highly inappropriate for the owner, manufacturer, and even enthusiasts to determine whether or not a track-based thrill ride is a coaster. Has anyone thought about what the ride identifies itself as? Whether Steel Dragon 2000 has identified itself as the longest coaster in the world or a Tilt-A-Whirl, who are we to have the audacity to say otherwise?

Stop oppressing rides with your antiquated notions of traditional coaster-norms.

Call me Steel Caitlyn 2000.

When will this coaster shaming end!?

Probably never.

High five!

Complete circuit, lift hill, steel rides need to check their privilege. They never have to deal with being confused for not-a-coaster.

^Some say if it doesn't run on wooden track, it's not a coaster.

Steel Dragon is still waiting for it's "complete circuit privilege" check.

I'm waiting for my thoughts on these alpine "coasters" to evolve.

All of this coaster identification is triggering me!