Posted
Six Flags America is closing its Apocalypse stand-up roller coaster. It will close forever on Saturday, Sept. 8. The park has not indicated what its replacement will be.
Read more from WTOP/Washington.
It's a shame that B&M stand-ups did not age well! This is a piece of history, as it was the first coaster by B&M. It would be nice to see a car saved and go to NRCM. I loved it when it first opened as Iron Wolf. But by the time it closed at SFGA, it was just horrible! Converting it won't help much. It didn't with Mantis.
Jerry - Magnum Fanatic
Famous Dave's- 206 restaurants - 35 states - 2 countries
CoffinBoy said:
It's a shame that B&M stand-ups did not age well!
Steel coasters won't age very in general. Wooden coasters can be re-tracked pretty easily (literally removed portions of the ride and replacing them over the off-season) but re-tracking steel coasters is very difficult. Steel coasters will just have finite lives, and that's something that parks concede when they build the ride. Unless something is a true rare classic that's still popular, you're probably better off putting the money into removing aging steel coasters and building new ones. That way you not only have a ridable, more reliable ride, but you also have a cutting edge fresh coaster to market to guests.
The B&M coasters from the early 90's are obviously in their mid-20's now, and will be approaching 30 soon. I think that they're just hitting the age that tough decisions have to be made.
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