Brilliant but obscure coasters?

The Tree Topper at Upper Clements Park in Nova Scotia. Small woody with awesome pops of airtime, old PTC trains with buzz bars. So much fun contained in a tiny woody package.

http://rcdb.com/195.htm

The Boardwalk Bullet at Kemah is a Butt-Kicker, in 2011 it useated Dollywood's Thunderhead as my Number One Wood Twister. Another Obscure Coaster is Idlewild's Rollo Coaster. It looks like a "Junior" Coaster, but rides like a full-sized coaster. Its swooping back turn is the best part of the ride.

Yankee Cannonball, at Canobie Lake Park. There are not very many out and backs that deliver more airtime with more force on the bunny hills then this little ride.

Cropsey said:

So much fun contained in a tiny woody package.

Must...resist...obvious...joke...

Regulus said:Idlewild's Rollo Coaster. It looks like a "Junior" Coaster, but rides like a full-sized coaster. Its swooping back turn is the best part of the ride.

"Little Boulderdash"! What a work of art, everything about Rollo Coaster. Runs like brand new, can't wait to get back and spend more time on it. The Wild Mouse at Idlewild is another great unique ride with a strange tilted lift hill (I heard it originally had a revolving tunnel around the lift when it opened in Vienna). The only Wild Mouse built by Vekoma. The park was running it with 1/2 the cars (2 out of 4, I think, or 3 out of 6) when I was there last, so the line was long, but worth it.

Unfortunately, I remember hearing that the Wild Mouse is being or has been removed, Billy. It was a really fun, unique mouse for sure.

Coaster Thrill Ride in Puyallup comes to mind. Also, Timber Terror at Silverwood deserves more renown.

bunky666 said:

RB, you weren't kidding! Two out of three look like they're in someone's back yard or driveway!

I've got one or two of those too.... I wanted something fun for coaster #1500 :)

http://www.bannister.org/coasters/parks/john_ivers.htm

I am beyond green with envy at your coaster count. Though I think you may have an addiction issue. Ehehehehehe...

Oh, no question of that.

So I've gotta ask then: do you have a top five list? What are they? I'm still stuck on Toro as my favorite, but my count is sad.

Honestly, not really. I have a few coasters that I really like in various places, a few of which I've highlighted above. If I had to pick favourites, I'd go for the late Eagle Fortress as steel, and The Voyage as wood.

Comet at Waldameer.

Bobsleds and Jack Rabbit at Seabreeze (Jack Rabbit is great at least the second half in the front)

Comet at Martins Fantasy Island is highly under rated twister type.

Rollo Coaster and Wild Mouse at Idlewild.

Anything Kennywood.

SBNO Cyclone at Williams Grove, Shaky as hell but was totally unique.

Im hearing Legend at Arnolds is pretty good.

Outlaw and Tornado at Adventureland Iowa.

Cornball Express Indiana Beach.

Wolverine Wildcat MI, The Phoenix without crossovers. Its not great but its neat.

Timberwolf. Braked but I still liked it.

Timberhawk Dorney, depends on how its running but Dorney has a good coaster lineup overall. I must be the only one who loves Hydra.

Strickers Grove Tornado. Not awesome but solid.

Blue Streak Conneaut Lake

Wildcat Lake Compounce (Depends on how its running) seldom talked about.

Theres gems all over, If you go by the hype of some coasters, You'll be disappointing a few times.

And probably the Obscure Gem of them all even though its been hacked, braked and changed, RIVERSIDE CYCLONE BACKSEAT, Nothing can prepare you.

Can you tell Im a wood freak?

^^ I don't hate Hydra, and from the right seat on the right day, it is a really fun ride...Dorney's lineup is nothing to sneer at, although I am so used to Dorney that sometimes I am bored by it. Talon is still a great ride as well, and both that and Steel Force remain in my top 15 or so. Thunderhawk is going to be sick if they retrack it, which I think they are doing (it was completely closed for many weeks late last season, so I hope it is getting some much needed rehab). From a non-wheel seat, it is a blast. Not so much from a wheel seat.

I've heard good things about Rollo Coaster from quite a few people, my cousin (who hates coasters) actually loves it, and it is on the way to Kennywood and Waldameer, so maybe this will actually get on my count this year. Idlewild looks like a very pretty park, too, so I really hope so.

I also wanna get out to...is it Lakemont that's in PA? I could add a great deal of classic coasters to my roster in a very short amount of time and get to see some parks that have some real charm.

Although I am still trying to get the hubby to take a trip to Cedar Point (Rock N Roll Hall of Fame is in Ohio, and I'm hoping to get him interested enough in that that we get out there). And Busch Gardens...it is a tough call this year.

Bunky, I've visited the RRHOF in conjunction with Cedar Point trips three times, most recently in 2009. Heckuva lotta fun to do both, and virtually no extra driving required!

Charles Nungester said:Timberwolf. Braked but I still liked it.

Timberwolf was one of the best coasters I ever rode. When it was new, but it didn't last long. By 1995 it was almost a completely different ride - fun - but totally different. Haven't been back since 1998.

I'm really liking these Rocky Mountain construction folks. Their Topper track is getting great reports. Even though it's not technically "traditional wood track" as we usually define it, if it makes a ride better, I say go for it! They have opened up all sorts of new possibilities with their own formula of "hybrid" wood coaster. Maybe they can fix up Timberwolf and a bunch of other woodies that were built overly aggressive. People seem to like their work on the Ga Cyclone.

Seabreeze's Bobsleds is a fantastic ride. I rank it No. 3 on my top ten list of steel non-looping coasters under 100' tall (Only Florida's Space Mountain & California's Matterhorn Bobsleds rank higher IMO). Other "Unsung Heroes" in the Coaster World are Lagoon's Roller Coaster and Cliff's New Mexico Rattler. Both feature some pretty good "airtime" on the hills and the latter has a neat "Pretzel" back turn. Definitely visit these parks when you are in the area.

Mindbender is my favorite for obscure and brilliant. Awesome ride, too bad Calgary is so far away from me and I have no reason to visit the city again, except for riding mindbender yet again.

Regulus said:

Seabreeze's Bobsleds is a fantastic ride. I rank it No. 3 on my top ten list of steel non-looping coasters under 100' tall

I rank it #1 on my top ten list of coasters built in New York in 1952 that were originally wooden but later converted to steel.

I'll be darned! I wonder what Bobsleds was like when it was a bona-fide woodie? Today several woodies (SFOT's Texas Giant, SFFT's Rattler and Big Chief's Olympia's Hades either have or are being converted to steelies. Congratulations Seabreeze, looks like you were the first!

^I'm pretty sure Hades is staying a "wood coaster" as we commonly define it (wood layered track). Funny that Harry Traver used to market some of his designs as "Steel Cyclone Safety Coaster" and stuff like that. He'd have coaster nerds on his back now "No, Harry, the track determines if it's a wood or steel coaster, not the structure."

It doesn't matter at this point with Rocky Mountain. They're throwing those rules out the door. Or maybe creating a 3rd "hybrid" category. (Even though that has already been done with American Eagle, Colossus.... El Toro, etc.) The more I think about it, the less it matters.

I wish RM would fix some of the coasters around here...Hershey's Wildcat could use it.