Hercules Deconstruction?

This is truly sad to see any coaster get demolished, no matter if rough or not we just lost another woodie.

Your Park only has 1 good coaster! That's too bad!

Yes but the destruction of this coaster will give birth to a new coaster in 2005. And one that is proven to be reliable and a crowd pleaser. This could be a smart move and possibly bring in the people needed to give ROI for yet another coaster in a couple years.

Its a smart move, but it is kinda sad to see Hercules meet the wrecking ball. Strange how something that took months to build can come down so quickly...

I would rejoice with glee PGA's Grizzly suffered the same fate. Maybe if I think about it hard enough, it will happen.

Fate is the path of least resistance.

I think PGA has suffered enough coaster losses for one year.

[quote]CoastaPlaya said:
Maddie: That's rcules to you if the station and lift went first...[/quote]

HeHe...

Wow.

See kids, this shows the golden rule in effect. cules beat the snot out of Dorney's riders and now Dorney is beating the snot out of cules.

--Madison

Rob Ascough said:
I think PGA has suffered enough coaster losses for one year.

T'is true, but they keep removing the wrong ones. I know GL was a maintenance nightmare and I know Stealth was a marketing decision. But I almost wish they had removed Grizzly for Stealth back in 99.

Fate is the path of least resistance.

I'll agree that PGA disposed of their best coasters (well, I hear that Top Gun and Invertigo are pretty decent), but if anything, Grizzly is good because of one thing: capacity. As long as riders don't complain of it beating them up, I'm sure it will stick around for awhile.

Well that's sad news about the lift falling. I had a feeling they would do something like that, the bastards. But it wasn't popular so why not kill it on a high note?

I wish they could of let the public watch this happening. That would of been great. I would reserve from row tickets.

Strijder said:
DorneyDante posted this last night, but it seems to have poofed in the forum changes.

DorneyParkOnline (www.dorneyonline.com) has posted a demolition update.

thanks for reposting my post. dont know why mine didnt show up.

I just got back from DP and the reality that Hercules is gone forever has set in. As of 6 pm today all that's still standing is the first drop and the turn after the first drop. Just about two thirds of the rise up from the first drop remain. The both of the turnarounds are standing (one with track, one without). That's about it thought. As one of its few fans, I am really starting to miss Hercules.

One thing I noticed was that both brake units at the top of the first drop are still up there, I thought they would be saved and recycled into ThunderHawk. It very sad to see my old friend die like this.... I took many photos and once my website is up and running again I’ll post them. *** Edited 11/16/2003 12:01:05 AM UTC by Alex Nagel***

www.alexsplace.com

I don't get why they can't build the new coaster this year instead of waiting another year. It takes them a week to deconstruct it and a year to build a new ride?

Don't think of it as the new coaster coming late, think of it as Herc leaving early.

Here's how I see it. The floorless is budgeted for 2005 cap ex - flat out. The plan is a new coaster for 2005.

Hercules was a maintenence and cost nightmare.

Rather than leaving it up another season to attract the handfuls of riders it did, hire crew and upkeep it, they're just pulling the plug a year early and cutting their losses.

I'd imagine it'd be downright impossible to rush plans for a coaster to put it in a year early. I don't think it's going to take a year+ to build it, I'll bet you don't even see actual coaster construction begin until after the 2004 season.

coasterimage - lordgonchar

You have to think ROI. IF Hercules is in the same boat as the Orient was (and I know it was), it was costing an arm and leg to maintain it each season. With that gone, the money that would normally have gone to keep it up can now go towards something else. In the case with the Orient, they will no longer have to buy "bandaids" to keep it running -- you wouldn't believe the amount of welding they had to do this season on that thing. Also in the case of WOF -- they are clearing the way for a big attraction that will go there real soon -- NO NOT THE DRAGONS, they are going in the Aquatic Arena area.

Also those keep track, OE is down to the loops and helix now. The turn around after the first drop came down today.

not to get off topic or anything but how is OE coming down. Carefully or not?

www.alexsplace.com

Probably uncarefully. If it had to have a ton of welding during the offseason ,and didn't operate for most of the year, it's probably in pretty bad shape.

Chattanooga needs a [B][I]ITG2[/I][/B] Machine!

I've heard it's going to that big amusement park in the sky. No hope of reconstruction with the methods they're using!

Real Cbuzz quote of the day - "The classes i take in collage are so mor adcanced then u could imagen. Dont talk about my emglihs" - Adamforce

Lord Gonchar said:
Don't think of it as the new coaster coming late, think of it as Herc leaving early.
Here's how I see it. The floorless is budgeted for 2005 cap ex - flat out. The plan is a new coaster for 2005.
Hercules was a maintenence and cost nightmare.
Rather than leaving it up another season to attract the handfuls of riders it did, hire crew and upkeep it, they're just pulling the plug a year early and cutting their losses.
I'd imagine it'd be downright impossible to rush plans for a coaster to put it in a year early. I don't think it's going to take a year+ to build it, I'll bet you don't even see actual coaster construction begin until after the 2004 season.

Ditto. I think thats right. At the rate they are going they could have installed the new coaster this year (rushed MM style of course). What they did was pull the plug early like Gonchor said and counted their losses rather than keeping the ride open another season for the few and far between like myself who actually liked the ride. At least now they will have more money to spend on maintenace throughout the park this season. Also, they can take their time with the new 2005 project. *** Edited 11/17/2003 6:13:37 AM UTC by DorneyDante***

Alex Nagel said:
not to get off topic or anything but how is OE coming down. Carefully or not?

Well this link will probably be in the news tomorrow, but I just posted deconstruction photos from this weekend at MIG (www.midwestinfoguide.com) and you can see first hand that this is not a "nice" deconstruction. OE is now scrap metal.