Deja Vu to Goliath: Moving a roller coaster

I found it interesting that the park expects to get "at least two years" out of the ride. Why such a short expected lifespan?

If they only expect two years, why relocate it? They relocated it to the farthest park away, who thought of that idea?

To be fair they're expecting at *least* two years. But that means they realize they may only get two.

What is this, I don't even.

Maybe they're planning on making it a touring coaster. 2-3 years per park, then on to the next one.

The ride rotation program is coming back? If so, the a Deja Vu is a really good candidate...compact, fewer supports, something people probably wouldn't ride again and again.

Perhaps you're reading into it, or it wasn't adequately described, and they mean it's a marketable attraction as "new" for two or three years.

Glory days of the space program? My God, it's just throwing a bunch of metal on the back of a few trucks and screwing it back together. It's not one millionth as complex as landing a guy on the moon.

The dude contacted me while I was on vacation for a comment. I told him the ride was largely considered unremarkable by enthusiasts. I guess that wasn't the story he wanted to write.

I rode it on saturday and i will be at Media day tomorrow. Heres a video of it getting stuck on the first tower.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0520OxfjUg

Looks like two videos spliced together: one full ride cycle and the other capture starting after the ride was already stuck. Clever editing there.

Jeff said:

The dude contacted me while I was on vacation for a comment. I told him the ride was largely considered unremarkable by enthusiasts. I guess that wasn't the story he wanted to write.

Well, he did mention that it didn't make the top 100.

The Boston Globe isn't one of the more reputable newspapers any more. I'm not surprised. Most of its articles are from the New York Times from the day before anyway, I didn't even know they still employed reporters...

I think he's a contractor. He contacted me via a personal address. So perhaps they don't employ reporters. :)

Or maybe two years is all they expect to get out of the 80486 computer that runs the catch car. Unless they had somebody come in and upgrade it, the catch car system is on an industrial PC that uses ISA bus for the I/O cards. It's possible that somebody has designed a retro for this mess using a PLC by now, but if not, the original hardware has a limited life span.

I'm hoping it will be working so I can ride it when I'm up there for a weekend in September. It at least looks interesting, and maybe a little more fun than your typical boomerang.

Hey, the control equipment for the one at Silverwood came in a fancy shipping container! Just plug it in and ride! :)

A lot of equipment continue to use the less complex system. More reliable than today's FANCY complex system.

It all comes down to Windows DOS in the end.

I've found the GIB's to be quite fun and especially being dragged up the first tower backwards and then dropped is a very unique experience. However, with the capacity and reliability issues, sadly I found that more often than not it wasn't worth it to get in line.

I also enjoy these contraptions. This is the only one that I had not ridden in its original location. I had done the SFGA & SFOG clones before they were moved. Also rode the one in Spain, which I hear is the most reliable...go figure!