Boulder Dash to get old Wildcat Trains

I was under the impression nothing has happened to the last drop.

OK, not to hijack the posting, but are there any other parks that operate this way, with a complete set of spare trains for the coaster (besides maybe the Florida parks). That seems like a lot of hardware sitting around gathering dust every summer.

The last hill has not been touched... What GCI did this year is redo the banking on some turns and remove the trick track for an awesome airtime hill, so the finale is even better than before!

But... I was told it was mentioned at a recent pre-season tour of Lake Compounce that they may need to remove the final drop in order to extend the brake run to make the braking less intense. The final drop is a ramp and very lame IMO. I hope they reprofile it to make it more intense! :)

And Chuck, my first visit in 2001 gave me a similar experience, but the rides I had last October were more like Voyage intensity with slamming airtime on the return run bunnies. The ride has apparently run like that ever since the turnaround was redone a few years ago. *** Edited 5/21/2008 11:13:44 PM UTC by Acoustic Viscosity***

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Walt S said:
OK, not to hijack the posting, but are there any other parks that operate this way, with a complete set of spare trains for the coaster (besides maybe the Florida parks).

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I've never heard of a seasonal park doing it before, but Knott's and SFMM also do this with some of their coasters.

I don't know if a park has an entire set of spare trains for a coaster, but Kennywood does have an extra train for Racer (three total, when only two can be operated at the same time). I think some parks have an extra train for their B&M rides, like the Busch parks.

CP also has the third Mantis train that they rotate every year, much like what Knotts does with Ghostrider.

Doesn't Thunderbolt still have three trains?

I heard from a buddy local to Knoebels that they have extra sets of trains as well.

I think Gwazi has at least one extra train per side also.

I remember Worlds of Fun having three trains for Orient Express and Timber Wolf, actually on the storage track like Kennywood does.

I know that Knoebels bought the old Wolverine Wildcat trains from Michigan's Adventure.

I wonder if Knoebels intends to use them as entire trains, or if they're just using them for spare parts. I doubt they send their trains back to PTC for maintenance because they want to keep them free of seat belts and, in Phoenix's case, single lap bars.

I don't know why Knoebels has them. I can't see them removing the Phoenix trains in use now, nor can I see many of the parts being interchangable since the Phoenix trains are actually from the late 40's with 80's bodies on them. I doubt there are many common parts, or at least parts that could be used without much modification.

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Rob Ascough said:
I don't know why Knoebels has them. I can't see them removing the Phoenix trains in use now, nor can I see many of the parts being interchangable since the Phoenix trains are actually from the late 40's with 80's bodies on them. I doubt there are many common parts, or at least parts that could be used without much modification.

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I wouldn't be too surprised if there were quite a few common parts. PTC's, aside from body styling a bit, haven't changed much since the 30 - 40's.

Phoenix supposedly got all new trains when it opened at Knoebels, which explains the seat dividers.

With that in mind, I'll bet almost NOTHING has changed between the Phoenix trains and the Wolverine Wildcat trains. Remember, Wildcat even had sled brakes on it until it got the new trains in '98.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.