Drachen Fire demise visible from outside park

Is It possible that its being retracked.  The support poles are still there.

NOOOO!  It is most decidedly being removed and scrapped.  The park has confirmed it.

DF lives on in Video!
Long live the Drachen!

Light the Drachen Fire Within. ;)

There's an Olympic theme for you.

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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com, Sillynonsense.com
"As far as I can tell it doesn't matter who you are. If you can believe, there's something worth fighting for..." - Garbage, "Parade"

For anyone hoping it will be replaced by a new coaster, sorry if you got your hopes up, but a rep from the park said in the amusement business article that no new ride would be built in that spot, but more likely would be an area for school group activities or something.

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|| Jonathan Hawkins ||
http://www.starcoasters.com
http://www.thrillspot.com

Something good and new will be built in on the land, so don't get depressed by the demolition of Drachen Fire.

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"Duff Man Says... Ohhh Yeah!"
Current Favorite Coasters:
1)Raging Bull 2)Millennium Force 3)Medusa (SFMW) 4)Vertical Velocity (SFGAm) 5)Dueling Dragons (Ice)

I'm glad I have DF in my count.  I rode it before the cork was removed and while it was fun it wasn't a coaster that would ever make my "favs" list. 

well the rumor I hear is that it;s going to be new pasture land for the horses, sounds about the mose plausable and ligical plan for that land. it get smy vote as most likley.
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All at once the ghosts come back reeling you in now.

Moving pasture land for the horse to that area, indicates a possible coaster in areas that are currently used for pasture and more visible from the rest of the park.  Although Drachen Fire drew ire from many for its roughness, I would like to see Busch at some point create a sitdown (hopefully B&M) using some of the elements from DF.  The wraparound corkscrew in the first drop seems like an excellent element that should be attempted again somewhere.

It's gone, people. It's gone. There's nothing we can do but let the B&M kids rejoice. Yes maybe there will be a replacement, but the park will do what they feel is best. Remember BGW is known for more than their rides......I am happy to have ridden DF. It will forever hold.....*sniff*....a place very....dear...in my *cough* heart! (losing voice)......goodbye old friend, goodbye. :(
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Don't.....look.....back! The Headless Horseman awaits you in 2002!
Model coasters and rides

no no no

I am going to miss this ride so much

Does anyone know the real reason why Drachen Fire was SBNO for so long?  There has been much discussion about it on various coaster sites but I've yet to see a clear answer.  I don't believe its out-of-the-way placement in the park was the real issue when a few well-placed signs could easily solve that.  If it was simply a problem of headbanging, DF would seemingly be an ideal candidate for a lap-bar-only retrofit.  However I HAVE heard rumbles and whisperings of a lawsuit involving the coaster, which would make more sense.  Can anyone confirm this?

Apparently when it was open, no one ever rode it. It had a reputation, much like Steel Phantom did at Kennywood. No point in trying to keep up a ride that no one wants to ride.

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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com, Sillynonsense.com
"As far as I can tell it doesn't matter who you are. If you can believe, there's something worth fighting for..." - Garbage, "Parade"

I too have heard countless rumors  of a lawsuit about the coaster. I am told it got low ridership andI have talked to friends who aren;t coaster enthusiast and people were I work and they all but a few hated it because it "hurt your head" also bad placement. anyone who has been to busch gardens knows that the area it is very remote. now BGW isn;t the easiest place to navigate it it has a weird layout that I think really adds to the park and makes it seem much bigger. drachen fire was different I first went to busch gardens in 99 and had no idea that drachen fire was SBNO. I was like ten when that coaster premwierd and it was hyped to death and we all coudl remember those ads and wanted to ride it, we even saw it walking in and fomr th interstate. and I swear to this day I saw it run once while we were entering the parking lot. we spent half that day searhing in vain for drachenfire. we had no idea it was closed we just though that it wa sin some part of the park we could never find but we were more than happy to ride alpie, lochness and apollo they were more than enough for us to enjoy so good ridance..

as for some one saying about putting a ride were there is existing pastur ein the park , well the only place they have the horse sout in the open is a plce barely bigger than the foot print for a coaster liek taxi jam at PKD. having the horses in that place woudl be a great adition to the train ride. wonder how many times the tour guide son the trin will get asked what happened to that big blue roller coaster. and of course they'll pretend nothign was ever there. I think that the factthat DF was sbno for so long built one hell of a legend and since she;s heading fo the big park in the sky it will live on or a long time. there will be a few people who can remember riding it and seeing as how it wa sonly open for 6 1/2 years and was never as popular as alpie and apollos those numbers are few just looks at the BGW page here the numbe rof people who havbe ridden apollo far out weighs the number of people who rode DF. she was unpopular, that was why she closed maybe there was a law suit who knows or cares. it had a bad location well marked or not it was still stuffed behind the feasthause were few people would bother looking for a coaster. I never bothered to look there until I learned that is where it was and I looked and saw there was the path obviously blocked off. and it was a bad headbanger. and the GP dosent like headbangers at all, perhpas it would have been better suited at PKD In the waynes world section and named "headbanger" yeah I am sad I never rode it but you can see even in POV video that after the first inversion it was a rough ride.

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All at once the ghosts come back reeling you in now.

I never got to ride it but I'm VERY sad to see it go.

I remember seeing a TV special where the making of DF was shown. They showed how "high tech" the ride was. Kind of ironic that the ride is being torn down.

That's it.  Busch is fired.  From now on the park is called Williamsburg Gardens.  And it shall have the first 400+ foot coaster.

I for one am very sad to see this ride go. Maybe I am one of the few who actually enjoyed the ride, but the head banging part of it made it more enjoyable for me. Call me sadistic!! I rode this coaster when it first premiered, and always enjoyed it. I rode it 52 times before they closed it. If you couldn't find it, I guess that I must just be "smarter than your average bear". Or maybe I could always find it cuz I spend a lot of time in the Festhaus cooling off with a cold one. Regardless, I still will miss this coaster despite the fact that I believe that a lot of my neck problems probobly stem from the 52 rides on the beast!! I just hope they do add another coaster to the park to make up for the loss. Just not in that particular area.

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I saw it on a TV special as well, which made me want to ride it, especially seeing as I'm gonna try going there for Easter this year.  Well, hopefully they'll build some kind of new coaster.  . .
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Matt's Homepage for la jolie fille de France et le gâteau de Marie:
http://www.bw.edu/~mzarzecz

This is a sad end for a coaster that literally took my breath away and left me walking sideways when I came off it the first time. You either loved or hated the beast, and I learned to take off any earrings before getting on. A pity no other park wanted to take it and work out the bugs - DF was a great ride. I'm glad I got to ride it.