Mine Train Rides

I enjoy riding the Arrow Mine Trains. But, there are definitely some that are better than others. I have riden all the opperating Arrow Mine Trains in the US except for the one at Magic Springs. Diablo at PortAventura is my favorite and it's in Spain. Dahlonega Mine Train at SFoG is one of my favorites in the states.

Just watched a POV of Diablo. Looks like a really great first and third parts but man that middle section looks short and boring. I do like how it interacts with the park's flume.

Mamoosh said:
Looks like a really great first and third parts but man that middle section looks short and boring.

Kinda like Lindsay Lohan.. :)

I know... I know.. booooo

Hiyoooooo! Wow, that was pretty awful/awesome.

^^Who invited you here, Ken? :)

My CoasterBuzz membership :)

The most enjoyable Mine Train for me was Eagles Life In The Fast Lane at HRP. I think it's called Iron Horse at Freestyle. Two lift hills, great song, and some heavy forces. Also like CW's Thunder Run and a few others. I'll always have a soft spot for GAdv's Runaway Train, as I've probably been on that more than any other coaster save El Toro.

Mine Trains typically have way too much jerk for my liking. Each one feels very much like a RCT2 coaster where you go directly from straight to turn without easing into it at all.

The middle section of Diablo seems to be there simply to make sure the train gets over the access road and then over to lift three. I think if Arrow had thought it out better, they could have used just two lifts. The first and third sections are good.

I'll also give a shout out to the Vekoma Mine trains. Walibi Belgium's Calamity Mine was a lot of fun, and I believe the three at the Happy Valley parks in China are nearly identical. All of them are heavily themed.

To the best of my knowledge, Diablo had none of the poor jerky transitions. That's one of the reasons I like it.

Mike, I totally agree with you about Iron Horse.

Is everyone forgetting about Disney's Big Thunder Mountain Railroad?

Disneyland Paris has the best Big Thunder.

Back to Adventure Express, it has to be my favorite of the mine train genre simply for the night rides. AE at night during the Haunt season especially, when it's good and dark, and cooler and full of mist... you can't see a thing! We discovered it because the bigger rides had longer lines, we were near that area of the park and we really didn't want to head all the way back to Beast. I was blown away!

In general though, I will always try out a mine train - even if pressed for time at a park. And it's helpful that they usually have a lesser line than the bigger rides.

Vic

I too, when visiting a new park, will make a special effort to hit the mine train, if they have one. Those, along with trains, sky rides, dark rides and water rides that feature boats shaped like large pieces of dead wood that take you up into elevated rushing courses through the treetops and then splash you gently back down at the end provide much of the charm and enjoyment at parks for me. :)

I love mine rides. The one at Carowinds is surprisingly forceful, especially at the end.

Not only is Adventure Express one of my favorite mine rides, it is also one of my favorite coasters.

(Now please excuse me while I go search for a Diablo video...)

Dragon Mountain is much like a mine train (as is Sooper Dooper Looper). I love both of those. Can't wait to ride The Ultimate this Fall. That looks like the best mine train ever!

We had an exciting lap on Gold Rusher at Carowinds on opening day this year. They never bothered to check our car and we went out with the lap bars locked in the up position.

The rides manager got an ear full after the ride. They were like oh well. The operations manager didn't have the same attitude when we talked with him about it latter that day.

I got a lapbars-up ride on Magic Spring's mine train.

If it was just me, I would not have been so upset, but I had my daughter sitting next to me. I held on to her the entire ride just like a papa bear should.

My favorite mine trains are Big Thunder Mountain at Tokyo Disneyland, Disneyland Paris and Colorado Adventure at Phantasialand.

Big Thunder Mountain at Tokyo Disneyland got a great layout with some amazing tunnels and it ends with a large straight drop into the water. Its also the only one of the 4 to have a themed tunnel to start the ride. Its also not an Arrow (DL and WDW) or Vekoma (DLP) ride. Judging by the track shape, it was built by a japanese company.

The one at Disneyland Paris is the longest mine train in the world: 4921 feet long! The ride is over 4 minutes long and right now features 5!! chain lifts. I like it, but I prefer the whole theme and straight drop of the TDL version. Also, its too noisy now! The ride had some major issues with trains getting stuck if the ride e-stopped at the wrong time, so they added anti rollbacks to the turns before B and C lift. They also added a strange chain lift before the block brake that is after the helix. The issue was this: that block brake is to give you a chance to stop a train if a cast member sees a guest standing up, because the Headknocker tunnel would earn its name if you stood up... Since the block brake is on an uphill part of the track, maintenance had to winch the train with steel cables to the next lift hill. So, they corrected that with a chain lift that normally doesn't run and instead just trims the train loudly. If there's an e stop, maintenance turns the lift on and the train is sent on its way.

Colorado Adventure, like the Disneyland Paris BTM is a Vekoma ride. Due to noise concerns due to the neighbors, all 3 lifts use pusher tires instead of chains. The ride does things that a mine train is not supposed to do! Its intense, fast and the track got 70-80 degrees banking at the bottom of drops.