National Lampoon's Vacation

Have you guys seen the movie rollercoaster from the 70's. I am 22 and its a rather old movie but its so good!!

------------------
Top5
Alphengiest
Beast
Nitro
Mean Streak
Ice Dragon

You mean the cheesy but fun cult coaster classic? Never heard of it. ;)

-Danny

A friend of mine (Paul Lord) worked on Colossus its first few years as an op and recalls that there were brakes in the turnarounds. I'm not certain how reliable the claim is because he also claims they were capable (and did at times) of running five trains per side. Did they even own that many trains?

MSNBC has a special few years ago I think back in 1999 on roller coasters. It was a great specail. They showed coaster footage from news reports all the way from the 1970's untill the time of the showing. On one of them they showed Colossus opening day, and the reporter was riding with I think maybe a spokes person for the park, and the ride looked just amazing. It was full of airtime, and never let up on speed.

I find 5 trains per side hard to believe. But hey, I could be wrong.

------------------
Is that a Q-bot in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?

boblogone, Colossus owns at least 6 trains. 3 on the red side and 3 for the black. I doubt that 5 trains can be run on a single side. Perhaps he meant 5 trains total?

------------------
SCREAM with me... in 2003!

Soggy, not the current Morgan trains (the third type on this ride?) and he insisted it was 5 per side for at least 10 total trains. This was with block-brakes in the turn-arounds.

The Whizzer was capable of 5, why not Colossus?

------------------
"I go out at 3 o' clock for a quart of milk and come home to my son treating his body like an amusement park!" - Estelle Costanza

As far as the Disney connection, another obvious connection is the Marty Moose - Micky Mouse connection.

"we buy his tshirts, we see his movies..."

and the song similar to the Micky Mouse Club song....

M-A-R-T-Y......M-O-O-S-E...

M-I-C-K-Y.....M-O-U-S-E....

doubt it's a coincedent that they have the same amount of letters.

....even IF Colossuck has enough blocks to RUN five per side, it would *never* do so...

oh, and Mickey has an 'E'...;)

Actually its spelled Mickey.

------------------
B Rad

I remember reading about how the ride was patterned after the Mexico City Racer. Both coasters were designed by the same company(NAD, later became IAD) and Mexico City's is known for its ejector air. Now just picture Collossus with Century Flyer's, and you'll really feel bad

Wood - anything else is an imitation

*singing

O Micky your so fine, your so fine you blow my mind hey micky

------------------
"You know its a good ride when you come into the final brake run wiping tears from your eyes."
*** This post was edited by DorneyDante 8/1/2003 4:30:50 PM ***

rollergator said:
....even IF Colossuck has enough blocks to RUN five per side, it would *never* do so...

Just like the Whizzer... ;)

Now back in the Willard's days....different story. ;)

------------------
"I go out at 3 o' clock for a quart of milk and come home to my son treating his body like an amusement park!" - Estelle Costanza

boblogone, if that is true, then that proves my point, that Colossus ran with skid brakes. (whish was all I really wanted to know in the first place) If all 3 turnarounds had skids that could function as blocks, then 5 trains per side would be possible, but not very likely. The blocks would be Station, Lift, First Turn, Second turn, Third turn, Final brakes, Transfer, and holding before the station. That would make for at least 8 blocks and a 5 train operation possible. Something tells me that this never actually happened, though.

Help us, RideMan!

Whizzer doesn't have 24 passenger trains. Many coasters with small trains run 5 or more at a time. Any Wild Mouse, Schwartzkoff Wildcat, Disney's Space Mountain. Having a long train coaster, with only one lifthill and 5 trains is pretty much unheard of.

------------------
SCREAM with me... in 2003!

Actually, the Whizzer at Great America Santa Clara had 4 6-passenger cars on each train.

------------------
"I go out at 3 o' clock for a quart of milk and come home to my son treating his body like an amusement park!" - Estelle Costanza

*** This post was edited by janfrederick 8/1/2003 5:11:36 PM ***

My mistake about Whizzer, I always thought those cars were individual. Either way, there are MAJOR differences in the way Whizzer worked compared to Colossus, right?

------------------
SCREAM with me... in 2003!

Well, there were 8 blocks. If we get an answer to your question, we'll know if they had that in common.

By the way, the mechanics decided to run a single coach once. They were going to let us ride and so we waited after work. We waited, and waited...and then they brought in the crane. ;)

------------------
"I go out at 3 o' clock for a quart of milk and come home to my son treating his body like an amusement park!" - Estelle Costanza

I really doubt tht all the turnarounds had brakes in them. Five trains per side for a ride of that length seems like too much. Three per side sounds appropriate.

------------------
Is that a Q-bot in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?

Well, that's why I brought up the Whizzer. The Whizzer was only 3100' compared to Colossus' 4325'. And yet it was designed for 5 train operation. I think Colossus could easily support 5 train operation. However, 5 train operation causes more wear and tear on the track and rolling stock. I'm sure their operations doesn't feel like spending the money for that ride.

------------------
"I go out at 3 o' clock for a quart of milk and come home to my son treating his body like an amusement park!" - Estelle Costanza