Scenic Railway@SFGAm leaving or staying

This is not a rumor, just a thought. I think the Scenic Railway at SFGAm might be leaving in the near future. The reason I say this is because riders can see anything at times, it seems to get harder every year.

It might be a maintence problem too.

Thirdly, when I wrote a letter to the park about saving the Whizzer, I mentioned some areas where a new coaster could be built without removing other coasters, but moving or removing some of the other smaller rides. Their response, they just thanked me for my conserns on the Whizzer.

But just think, with this ride gone, this could open a lot more room in the park. What do you guys think, is leaving or staying?

They might get a new train but the ride WILL stay. Transportation rides, that go front to back of park and vice-versa, are constantly in use all day in amusement parks. If they get rid of it, it'd be for another transportation ride, like a monorail (dare to dream).

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There is no mercy for those who ride X.

It needs to stay. Not only for transportation, but its one of the few family rides in the park. The park has a respectable coaster count. Nothing in the park needs to be removed for another coaster. Removal of Skywhirl (a family favorite ride) for Deja Vu was not a good move.

Um, actually, I think the parks twin (PGA) did, in fact get rid of the Railway without replacing it.

And why would you want a monorail, anyway, it wouldn't go with the park at all.

I don't think they will take the ride out, though. It's pretty small, and, as Demon and Iron Wolf prove, quite easy to build around. The only thing I could see it being taken out for is maintainance. But I know nothing at all about that. For all I know, it's a maintainance dream.

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I hear America screaming...

Probably no more difficult to maintain than a semi-truck.

I was really bummed when they took the train out. Now I think twice when deciding where to go in the Bay Area.

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"Know thyself!"

Well, PGA still has transportation from the front of the park to the back (skyway) that SFGAm removed. So really, each park chose to remove a transportation ride, but each chose a different ride. In my opinion, it would be a poor move to remove the Scenic Railway. It would *hardly* free up any room aside from the loading area in Hometown Square, and keeping the ride has far more positives than they'd get from freeing that land.

-Nate

Why would they want to get rid of it? It's a classic ride! What type of thrill ride could even take the place of it? A rollercoaster could not even fit in the areas of the two stations anyhow.

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Are you ready to fly in '03 SFGAm??? :)

What possible land are you going to free up getting rid of the railroad?

This is the only form of transportation left in the park. No more sky ride and the trolleys arent used for transportation anymore.

It makes no sense to even think of removing the RR.

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Arena football has arrived in the Windy City. Go "Chicago Rush"

Is it just me, Chitown, or is the stupidity level AWFULLY high today???

(going off to the liquor cabinet and pouring myself a few shots to relax...)

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--George H
---Superman the ride...coming to a SF park near you soon...
Currency tracking experiment... http://www.wheresgeorge.com (Referring to The "George" on the $1 bill - Not Me)

The only land that would be freed up would be around the Hometown Square station. Look what PGA did with Vortex and you'll see what I mean. I'm not saying it's worth freeing that up (it's not), I'm just pointing out how removing the railroad could potentially free up space for a coaster.

-Nate

Nope PGA had the SRR and had Votex at the same time:

http://www.themeparkbrochures.com/maps/1998/pga1998.html

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The Demon He's gonna getchya!

Oh, you're right. Somehow I missed that. They *did* free up room for a wild mouse with the removal of the train, though. :)

So the question is, what's sitting at PGA where the hometown station and steps used to be? Is that all still there? I can't seem to remember...

-Nate

Yeah, and after looking at that map of PGA, you will see that Vortex actually intertwines with the railroad.

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Arena football has arrived in the Windy City. Go "Chicago Rush"

Whoa. I checked out the recent map of PGA and it looks like they took out the bridge for the railroad that connects Carousel Plaza to Hometown Square.

Did they actually open up a midway right behind the Columbia Carousel into Hometown Square? What a major change. Check it out. Oh yeah , and with that new midway also meant the removal of the Hometown Square RR station.

http://www.pgathrills.com/visit_map.jsp

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Arena football has arrived in the Windy City. Go "Chicago Rush"
*** This post was edited by Chitown 2/25/2003 11:27:41 PM ***

Ah, yeah that's what they did. No wonder I didn't notice the RR station and such, as I wasn't really looking for it. :)

Not to turn this into a PGA thread, but they really destroyed all the nice things the park had going for it. Hometown Square looks nothing like the SFGAm one (all the nice gardens are gone), and it's just a lot of cement. Anyone who thinks SFGAm is doing a bad job needs to take a trip to PGA. ;)

-Nate

Would anyone think it inapropriate if I asked what the hell PGA was thinking when they did that? I mean, I'm sure anyone could find a reason to take out the major portion of a themed area's theme, for the purpose of widening a midway that is never clogged...

(Granted, I'm only speaking from SFGAm experience... But stil...)

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I hear America screaming...

The one humorous thing I just noticed is that both Great Americas got rid of their Sky Whirls for Vekoma Boomerangs ;) One A regular boomer, and the other a GIB... too funny

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--George H
---Superman the ride...coming to a SF park near you soon...
Currency tracking experiment... http://www.wheresgeorge.com (Referring to The "George" on the $1 bill - Not Me)

The Park is spending less than $100 each day to operate the train, So yes, it would be a Bad idea to remove the Ride, considering that they really have it easy there, (no steam locomotives to maintain) and it serves as a Valuble Transportation Service for tired feet at the end of the day. If they did remove the Ride, it seems that a certain Marriott charm would be lost, and it would also make the Park seem smaller too.

At least the management at SFGAm. still has a sence of Theming and the Park's original family ideas. PGA's management has absoulutly no consideration for the park as a whole.

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"Grit Your Teeth, Bare The Load, Enjoy your ride, on Thunder Road"

PGA is the ultimate example (because you can compare the Six Flags park to it) at how horrible Paramount is at theme park management. Everyone knows that Six Flags isn't exactly top quality at theming, but when you look at Illinois compared to Ca, it makes them look like Disney.

To take a park that was perfectly themed and do that to it. It doesn't take a huge budget to maintain theming that is already in place and all it takes is a small ounce of creativity to make rides match the theming that is already in place.

Look at Carowinds. At one time the theming there was impeccable. Now it is jsut another Paramount hodge podge of cheesey tv theming. When the paramount parks were built, they all had a sense of magic to them because of the theming. Paramount has managed to destroy that. The Paramount parks are defintiely B class parks these days, medicore coasters, minimal flat rides at most of their parks (althought they are slightly correcting that), and poor theming.

On a side note, why do you think PGA has kept their cable skyway (which was massively removed from most parks after the Six Flags St Louis and Magic Mt incidents), especially being in an earthquake zone and opted for removal of the railroad (which as said above, did not free up much room) ?
*** This post was edited by super7 2/26/2003 8:27:46 AM ***

super7, what happened to the sky rides @ SFSL and SFMM?