Six Flags Great Adventure announces Jersey Devil roller coaster, the largest single-rail to date

Posted | Contributed by Jeff

From the product page:

Soar single file through the dark and foreboding woods on the world's longest, tallest, fastest single rail coaster. Towering 13 stories and reaching speeds up to 58 mph, riders will straddle the single-rail and experience three intense elements and two inversions over 3,000 feet of track.

Read more, see video and images from Six Flags Great Adventure.

ApolloAndy's avatar

I don't get it. I'm sure the ride will be awesome as RailBlazer is a pretty kick butt ride (though, is that an MCBR I see?), but the single rail concept makes sense for CGA and SFFT where they're trying to cram a major ride into a tiny space at the cost of anything resembling decent capacity ("oh, the humanity!"). Given SFGAdv.'s attendance and space, why wouldn't they build a bigger ride with better capacity?

Unless they really think single-rail coasters are a feature in-and-of themselves and not just a gimmick to make a super compact footprint.

Edited to add: But like Jeff said, I hate fun things.

Last edited by ApolloAndy,

Hobbes: "What's the point of attaching a number to everything you do?"
Calvin: "If your numbers go up, it means you're having more fun."

Vater's avatar

Isn't single rail track just an I-beam instead of 2 tubular steel rails with ties? Maybe a little narrower?

I watched the video and I like what I see. Hopefully we will see more of these installations in the future at a Cedar Fair Park.

There does appear to be a MCBR, but if we’re to trust the video it sails right through. And maybe it will allow for three train op, but SF isn’t exactly known for load-n-go. The track does appear to be a large I-beam, but I’d call it narrower than a standard track with a cover. And I seem to remember from my one ride on Railblazer that there was some sort of straddle that the single riders did. Maybe just the feet, I don’t know. The train on Jersey Devil is longer, it seems to hold 12 rather than 8, so this version will at least have that going for it.

And I’m glad to see a longer version of the ride, and with the double out and back arrangement it doesn’t seem to lose any speed. That was the remarkable thing about Railblazer- it was so fast and out of control that it was a little disarming. I held on tight. It sure was short, though.

I wonder why nobody’s picked up on the larger TRex track and train, but that may fall into the “expensive, so why bother?” category. Or maybe it’s left for CP to try. But I rather think the single rail track falls in line nicely with the novelty of the single rider trains. (Pun intended?)

Vater's avatar

My enthusiast level attention to detail is slipping. I hadn't noticed these were single person rows.

OhioStater's avatar

Then take off that damn helmet. I mean, you'll die....but still...

Last edited by OhioStater,

Promoter of fog.

I think this would be a good match for CP's next coaster. It's different enough from the rest of their coasters that it would add a new experience.

I really enjoyed Rail Blazer and would love to ride a bigger, faster version. I've never visited SF Great Adventure and this will likely motivate me to go in late 2020 after they finally complete construction.


tall and fast but not much upside down

Or spring of 21... 😑 Pro tip: don’t buy those plane tickets just yet, folks.

I agree with PointMan. I think if CP was looking for the next big thing, different from what they have now (no one but us will notice that the stunts can be found on Steel Vengeance, I promise), it seems like a viable choice. And now that one exists at a CF park they’re hip to what’s what with all that, so (provided that experience was a good one) they might find a way to squeeze one in. I think we should start the rumor up right now.

Last edited by RCMAC,
Bobbie1951's avatar

Great Adventure is my home park and Jersey Devil strikes me as the most interesting new attraction to be announced since Zumanjaro opened in 2014. Since then we've gotten a Larson Giant Loop, a 4-D free fly coaster, a tourbillon, a pendulum and probably one other (the type of which escapes me) so I consider this to be a major step up. Although the raptor model at SFFT was not without flaws - the main one being that the shoulder strap kept slipping off one of my shoulders - it provided an exciting ride, so I am looking forward to this.


Bobbie

bjames's avatar

Looks like a great ride, perhaps one of the best ones Six Flags has done since their last RMC upgrade. But this feels like an odd choice for SFGAdv, I visited on Monday and was surprised to find an extreme number of people there (comparing to Carowinds and SFOT which I visited last week). With that said, they better be planning to run three or four trains with faster than light load times to keep the lines down. Otherwise....well I'll suppose they'll just meet expectations of Six Flags parks haha.


"The term is 'amusement park.' An old Earth name for a place where people could go to see and do all sorts of fascinating things." -Spock, Stardate 3025

LostKause's avatar

As much as I dislike this park, this ride looks fantastic. The only other bad thing I can say about it is the capacity...

But that theme. Wowzers! The lead car is so cool. The layout looks so intense and fast. Wow!

I just came up with an idea that would increase capacity on future rides like this. Why not make two tracks that race and interact. It would cost more money, sure, but aren't these coasters already cheaper than others to build?

The other single rail coasters like this has the train move in the station. The urgency to get on the train and pull your lap bar down probably helps a lot with capacity, and will especially help with a park as big and busy as SFGAdv.

Last edited by LostKause,

The ride will have four trains with 12 passengers apiece, so it could have acceptable capacity if operations are good. It’s not a guarantee that the ride will have continuous loading, however. I took the maintenance tour when CoasterCon was at Fiesta Texas, and the maintenance head said that they do a lot of conversions to continuous loading in-house at that park. For example, the Gerstlauer mouse has a moving station at Fiesta Texas but not at Over Texas.

The one at SFOT had continuous loading when I was there a few weeks ago.


LostKause's avatar

The Mad Mouse at Hersheypark is the only coaster that I've been on with moving cars in the station, that I can recall. I really like the idea.

"GET IN NOW! HURRY UP AND BUCKLE THE SEAT BELT NOW! OMG, HURRY! THE RIDE IS ABOUT TO START!"

LOL


If I remember, Rip Ride Rock-it at US-O had continuous loading, too...


But then again, what do I know?

Continuous loading is great- when it works. My experience with HRRR is that the belt stops a lot. People are slow, or large, or the trains are out of synch and one time it was shut off and wasn’t moving at all. I thought the single rail, single seat situation might be ideal for it. Just bring em in one at a time. Six flags went with it, but CF didn’t. I’ve only been on the one at Gr America so I can’t compare.

Cobra's Curse at BGT has the moving platform. It was great, though you do feel a bit rushed.

Jeff's avatar

I think that's kind of a benefit. Those things really do provide a sense of urgency, and it's a tactic that dates back to the Disney omnimovers.


Jeff - Editor - CoasterBuzz.com - My Blog

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