Kings Island removing Son of Beast

Jephry said:

According to this article, about $30 million has gone into SOB. At least going into 2010.

http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/blog/2010/03/kings_island_hop...r_not.html

Wooden roller coasters have gotten awesome lately. They are able to twist and turn in a way in band new ways that make some of the larger woodies uninteresting. You can just do more thrills for less money and a smaller space and building these epically large rides aren't necessary anymore.

The Boardwalk Bullet at Kemah Boardwalk, Texas bears testimony to this!

So, as the paper asks... what *is* KI going to do with 2.25 million board feet of lumber? (the concrete and metal can be recycled...)

Can it be used for maintenance on other coasters? Can it be used to help construct a new coaster? Is there a market for it? I could use a new deck if they're having a fire sale. Speaking of fire, that's always an option... another cutting torch accident, except this time no one notices until it's too late LOL.. Man, that would be impressive fire to see from the highway :D

KI (Paramount) sued the company that built the ride because they used substandard wood, which attributed to the "derailment" of the coaster a few years ago, I believe. What can the wood be used for?

Mike Gallagher said:

Does this removal leave Toro as the tallest wooden coaster, in the U.S. or worldwide?

According to RCDB, El Toro will now have the highest drop in the world. They should market that.

I think in terms of the loop was the best part comments, my memory was he loop was the part of he ride that did not hurt so it was all relative. I can say my best ride was comparable to a bad ride on Mean Streak. The worst ride, the rose bowl was awful. It will not be missed. While an extremely visible mistake, if Tomb Raider cost 20 million that seems like an even bigger folly.

I just have one thought.

Why did Tomb Raider cost so much anyways? That just doesn't seem to nake sense.

My guess is that the animatronics and special effects drove up the price tag of TR:TR, most of which are now unused now anyways. Big waste of $$$$$money$$$$$.

LostKause said:

KI (Paramount) sued the company that built the ride because they used substandard wood, which attributed to the "derailment" of the coaster a few years ago, I believe. What can the wood be used for?

Substandard decking?

I don't understand your question, Mr. Smith, so I will reword that part... The construction company who built Son of Beast used wood that was of lesser quality than they were contracted to use.

That was in response to the question posed in the article, in which Metallik re-asked, about what the park was going to do with all the wood.

I do not see Kings Island reusing the wood to build another coaster. While that would be cost effective, I don't know if it would be a good idea seeing that a lot of Son of Beast's problems have to do with the poor quality of that wood.

I recall that the a portion of the structure of the ride fell to the ground just weeks before the ride officially opened, and was quickly repaired. I do not remember if that caused SoB to postpone opening or not.

I think Smith was joking at my 'need a deck' comment :) Seriously, they could use a little of it for things like queues/switchbacks, fencing, maybe station construction? I agree the wood is likely no good for coaster construction... I remember the substandard comments back in the day with RCCA, but you never know. Would be a shame to just landfill all of it.

I thought the "substandard" complaints were about the engineering and design, not the quality of the materials?

Oh. Okay. I didn't put the two posts together. :)

LostKause said:

Oh. Okay. I didn't put the two posts together. :)

Apparently, neither did RCCA.

If KI needed to remove Sonny, it would already be gone.

Seriously, it sucks for guests to walk *around* such a gigantic wooden structure...like having the best house in the neighborhood sitting abandoned while foreclosure is in process - drags down the whole neighborhood. Short version: About time!

I say make a spectacle out of it. Take all the useful stuff out of it then cover the ride with explosives/napalm and fireworks and charge admission to watch it all go up. ;-)

Good idea...and if you have Fast Lane, you get a match.

I wonder if they have considered the option of removing everything from the bottom of the first drop to the top of the last drop, and building a new coaster out of what is left. With the most expensive part of the ride already built, they could build an awesome new wood coaster for not too terribly much additional money. Just avoid oversized helii...

The failure that caused the injuries was not necessarily because of substandard materials or construction, but it did have to do with an engineering failure. As I understand it, the bottom of the helix was not adequately supported, so it bounced like crazy when the train went through. In order to correct that bounce, the park's construction team added supports and stiffened the structure, based on their extensive experience with wood coasters. Unfortunately, stiffening the structure made it so that the column in the middle of the helix that failed could no longer handle the loads being placed on it, so it failed. The rest, as they say, is history. I have a copy of the engineering report around here somewhere, courtesy of the Cincinnati Enquirer web site...

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

I think it's a good idea in theory, but I'm beginning to grow skeptical that old-school wooden coasters should even be built anything near as tall as 218 feet.

Think about it. The tallest woodies in North America are:

1. SOB - 218'
2. El Toro - 181'
3. Rattler - 179'
4. Voyage - 163'
5. Mean Streak - 161'
6. Texas Giant - 153'
7. Hades - 136'

Other than El Toro,which is not a traditional woodie and in my book doesn't count, which of those coasters isn't shaking itself apart or has already done so? And yes, I count Voyage in that group -- my ride on it last year was dramatically rougher than the ones I took five years ago. Texas Giant was even given new track technology that no longer even qualifies it as a woodie, a fact that I find very telling about just how harsh it had become and how much money was being poured into maintenance.

Maybe traditional woodies simply shouldn't go much higher than 130 feet or so. Frankly I'm much more interested to ride an 85 foot GCI than some 250 foot monstrosity that's going to leave my spleen at the bottom of the first drop.

[ /heresy ]

The "burn it" jokes are funny, but I don't think it is environmentally a good idea to burn all of that treated wood, especially not during the drought we have been having. I would imagine the wood will be recycled by whatever company is doing the removal.