SOB Trains?
Good point matt. If only someone has said that earlier... ;)
And yes, Tim, that would be a great alternative.
^^ Given what those "standard woodie G-trains" have done to OTHER really-agrgressive rides like Villain and Cheetah, I'd call that a loss...LOL!
Absimilliard is the only one here (who has posted) that has experience with the "upgraded G-2" woodie trains, so his opinion counts more than the rest of us, IMO. I'm willing to give them a try...but I'm keeping my expectations low, just in case... ;)
One comment to raise regarding the "custimization" of trains for SOB. It's been a while ago, but I do seem to recall Tom Rebbie indicating that regauging trains to the various track gauges was something that had to be done on a regular basis when building new cars, and that the PTC chassis could handle this. That being said, I don't know how much latitude is allowed for, but regauging to SOB track may not preclude the use of "standard" cars from any one manufacturer.
I think the ability to customize is built into the PTC design since PTC trains have traditionally run on coasters made by many different people and companies. I'm sure PTC, Miller, Summers/Dinn, Cobb and CCI coasters didn't all share the same track gauge but PTC's ran on them. How much wider is SOB's track gauge compared to other wood coaster track gauges?
Ok, I just checked the info I had on the Gerstlauer 3 bench cars. I was wrong... its not a T bar, but instead, a L bar. It has a small seat divider too, so they're a huge improvement over the current Gerstlauer trains! They run great on Falken currently... Wheel gauge for those is listed as 43 inches. Is that smaller than SOB?
Not sure why, but 43 inches sounds a little wide. Then again, I have no idea what normal wood coaster track gauge is. Maybe I'm comparing it to train track gauge and that's why it sounds a little off.
43" sounds right. Picture two people sitting next to eachother on a bench. ;)
AV Matt
Long live the Big Bad Wolf
I guess. Maybe I was thinking that, like trains, the wheels sit far behind the outer edges of the chassis. Considering that, 43" does make sense.
Premier Rides list the wheel gauge of their wooden trains at 45.5 inches. So, I think Gerstlauer would have to modify their trains for them to fit on SOB!
Some are. Cedar Point, Knotts Berry Farm, and Kings Island come to mind for starters. 36" was also commonly used by many narrow gauge railroads.
That's probably what I'm thinking of- narrow-gauge railroads. I always thought narrow-gauge railroads and amusement park railroads were one and the same.
Technically, any railroad that uses a gauge narrower than 4' 8.5" is narrow gauge. But there is a bit of a difference between trains designed for amusement and real railroads.
Cedar Point, Knott's Berry Farm, Dollywood (I think), and several others use "real" antique narrow gauge equipment. That makes those operations much more interesting than the usual Chance CP Huntington!
36" is one of several guages used for narrow Gauge trains. CP, KBF, KI, as millrace stated, as well as DisneyWorld, DisneyLand, Six Flags Great America, Busch Gardens all use 36" track gauge. Smaller trains, such as Hershey's steam line, the CP Huntington's at many parks, run on 22 or 24" gauge. Knobel's train s are 16" gauge, as are many other parks of that size and vintage.
Premier Rides put the same trains as SOB on the Bandit at Movie Park Germany (originally called Wild Wild West at Warner Brothers Movie World Germany!). They run terribly on it, but still better than the original Intamin trains that ran only a year... Like SOB, the ride is also a Stengel design, based on the Coney Island Cyclone and built by RCCA.
From what I hear, nothing has been decided yet concerning the trains. They still aren't sure if they are going to modify the current trains, or purchase new ones... Now we know partly why it isn't opening at the beginning of the season! haha. Seems kinda late to still be contemplating this.
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