Son of Beast closes

Now that KI is open, I am just curious if anyone has seen any signs of SOB going, or staying. Anyone???

SVLFever said:
Now that KI is open, I am just curious if anyone has seen any signs of SOB going, or staying. Anyone???

SOB was announced not to open this season. That being said, Park officials have been all over HW in their search for options

^ Huh?

Yea...Huh?

It's staying exactly where it is... but not in use for the year...

Maybe they could just throw a tarp over it... Like a white one. And throw some black circles on it to make it into a huge ghost for Halloweekends...

Totally kidding by the way

I am still in disbelief that so many wonderful trees had to be downed to built that POS.

Maybe cf should take the SOB and MS down and build a good coaster out of the wood.

Charles Nungester said:
SOB was announced not to open this season. That being said, Park officials have been all over HW in their search for options

New trains?

They have already tried new trains.

To me the answer is simple, but expensive. Do the same thing Six Flags is doing with the Texas Giant. Have it be a wooden coaster with steel tracks. After all, it has a 200-plus drop and one heck of a helix. It would be a fun ride. I really doubt they want to tear down a structure that large, and if they do, it's a shame when there is an answer.

Crazy Horse: The "new" trains that were tried on Son of Beast are mechanically similar to the old ones. The only real substantial difference is that they were lighter and had fewer seats.

I don't know what they are doing. But if I were Cedar Fair, I would watch very carefully the projects going on at Holiday World and at Six Flags over Texas. Elements of both projects may be meaningful to the future of Son of Beast.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

RideMan said:
The only real substantial difference is that they were lighter and had fewer seats.

Didn't the chassis have to be modified quite a bit to fit the SOB track? It was my understanding that they had to widen the chassis.

I'd heard that as well, but never verified it. I know the Son of Beast trains look a little different from "standard" Gerstlauer trains in that they have some extra stainless steel on the back of the bar, probably related to mods made so they could run on that coaster.

The point remains, though, that in terms of the basic car configuration, the Gerstlauer, Premier and PTC cars are all basically the same. Much to my disappointment when the ride opened.

Riding Son of Beast, many of the ride's more annoying problems could be ameliorated a bit by running it faster and/or reducing some of the banking. But that would exacerbate other problems. A new train design or a new track design might be good to fix both.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

jwhoogs said:
Maybe cf should take the SOB and MS down and build a good coaster out of the wood.

I recall hearing that the wood used to build SOB was of low quality, and thus may be part of the problem. But I see what you're saying. :)

As much as I absolutely despise SOB, if it was fixed with the same steel track system that Texas Giant is getting, it may become a really wonderful coaster. It's very difficult for me to state that as my opinion, because of how much I hate SOB.

I don't like SOB at all, by the way. :)

If it was smooth, and didn't jolt people into the sideways universe, that layout, theme, and it's name recognition might be worth saving... "might".

Edited to add - And then there is Rideman's awesome idea of changing the layout to an out-and-back, which I fully support.

Steel tracks would certainly bring back the loop!

I still think no matter how many modifications are made to SoB, it will still suck. Unless the layout was changed entirely.

The coaster has sucked money both in maintainence and lawsuits since it was built. I wouldn't expect a 15 million dollar makeover. Word is they are looking at the Timberliners but Im not so sure they would cure it. The bottom of that rosebowl is brutal and I've found its a lot how your feeling when you get on as to how you feel when you got off. Got a bit of a headache? SOB will make it worse. Got Gas? UGH.
Feeling alright? YMMV

I could possibly see a few spots filled in with the TG type track. They've reinforced SOB several times and it still needs more in High Stress locations, Replacing wood with three inch steel would stiffen them areas.

Chuck, 325 SOB rides and only a few of them I found unplesant.

I wonder what the weight comparison is between the G-trains and Timberliners. I would think the most critical question for Timberliners is if they can navigate the rose bowl without shaking the crap out of you.

I'd love for the rose bowl to be demolished and replaced, but I can't imagine the odds of that happening are very high.

I have a few more ideas.

1. Have they ever imploded a large coaser like they do to old stadiums? That would be a show in itself, and KI could charge admission to recoup maintenance costs.

2. Fourth of July is only little over a month away, we could consider a "blazin inferno" theme.

3. Make woodchips and sell them to any park who has a parking lot coaster.

Honestly, with all of the patchwork, mickey mouse maintenance, the ride is a nightmare. If the coaster had strucutral problems from day one, future problems are very likely especially with low quality wood. Lastly, Cedar Fair shouldn't think twice about demolition, this mess was not created by them.

I have said since the loop removal that replacing the trains with an articulated (MF type) train would greatly improve the ride experience. If they are MFs or TLs I don't care, but I would have to believe that the high speed negotiation of the rose bowl with this train type would be beneficial on multiple levels - rider experience and ride maintenance.

While we are speaking of, I think that papa Beast could use them as well, and allow the removal of the trims, but I think it would almost lose some of it's character/charm if that happened.

I think we haven't seen any activity because CF is looking closely at both projects, as mentioned, and have been considering them for a year or more.