Germany's Great Traveling Coasters

At one time, there were four enormous Schwarzkopf coasters that toured the German fairs: Drier Looping, Himalaya Bahn, Thriller and Olympia Looping. Since the 1980s (when those four debuted), the Thriller became the Texas Tornado and SFMW's Zonga, and Drier Looping became Magnum Force at a British park (the name escapes me.) In 1995, a portable inverted coaster by the name of Eurostar has joined the circuit, which was a joint project between a number of companies (Intamin and Giovanola stand out in my mind.)

My questions are: What coaster did Eurostar techically replace? When it debuted in 1995, was Thriller or Drier Looping already "removed" from the fair circuit? Why were Drier Looping and Thriller sold when they were such popular rides (people say that Thriller always was the most popular- legend has it that lines sometimes reached Millennium Force-proportions, even with 5-train operation)? Did they become maintenance headaches, or did three similar looping coasters become redundant? Are there any existing plans for more traveling coasters?

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-Rob
A.C.E. member since 1990
Posting @ Coasterbuzz since 2000
E.C.C. member since 2002

Those Germans realy know how to put on fairs. :)

I always was under the impression Eurostar replaced Thriller, but if Eurstar started in 1995, then it would have had to replace something else because Thriller left in either 96 or 97.

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www.CaliforniaCoasterNews.com
www.SFMWZone.com

I wasn't sure of how long Thriller sat "idle" between its last fair appearance and its debut in Texas.

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-Rob
A.C.E. member since 1990
Posting @ Coasterbuzz since 2000
E.C.C. member since 2002

There are two big families on the German funfairs, those are "Barth" and "Brüch".

Barth had the Looping Star, Bruch the Doppel Looping, Barth the Dreier Looping, Bruch the Vierer Looping (Thriller), Barth the Funfer Looping (Olympia Looping)

See the competition ? ;-)
After Bruch got rid of the Thriller, he came with something new, an inverted coaster now known as the Euro-Star. Barth was then designing a figure-8 looper, but it never was finished...as we neared the end of the nineties, safety regulations were much higher and some of the elements pulled 7G, way too much.

Both are looking for a new big coaster...a 6 looper is rumoured to come, but nothing has been announced yet.

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Roarrrr...
*** This post was edited by Belgian 7/16/2003 2:16:39 PM ***

I've never heard of those coasters referred to as the Vierer and Funfer looping... call me naive, but are those terms German? Does dreier happen to mean three in German?

I knew about the Barth and Bruch being in competition with each other, always one-upping the other with a larger, loopier coaster. What caused Bruch to get rid of the Thriller? From what I could tell, it was always the most highly-regarded of Schwarzkopf's great traveling coasters. If he wanted to replace a coaster, why did he keep the older Himalaya Bahn, which I am pretty sure he owns?

I have heard that EuroStar is very rough... much worse than Olympia Looping, which is significantly older. Is there any chance that, when the time comes, Bruch will keep the Himalaya Bahn and get rid of EuroStar?

Does Wieland Schwarzkopf have the desire, the talent/ability, or both, to get into the business of traveling coasters? Is there likelihood that the Schwarzkopf name will once again grace a coaster to travel the German fairs?

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-Rob
A.C.E. member since 1990
Posting @ Coasterbuzz since 2000
E.C.C. member since 2002

Rob,
to answer your German query....

I know that....
1 = eins
2 = zwei
3 = drei
4 = vier
5 = funf
and
double = doppel

thus I would guess that....
Dreier = triple
Vierer = quad
Funfer = quintuple

Later,
EV
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"Here's the thing about living in the past. If it was so good, then how come it didn't last? If it helps you, I'll put it in a phrase. Those were the times, but these are the days." - The Human League

What about this? It may have a future.

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--Maddie--
What do I Listen-To?
May the Schwarz be with you.