Son of Beast closes

MaVeRiCk 'n MaGnUm XL said:
Who in there right mind would design SOB? The ride is insane! Almost 80MPH for what? Jeff is right they took out the only good part of the ride and it was the loop. Now its just a pain making machine! I would hope that after this cedar fair decides to just demolish it and build a new woodie in its place.

Who in their right mind would design Son of Beast? Only one of the greatest coaster designers in history...Werner Stengel.

Except for the prefab woodies, Stengel's office (he's just consulting now, his office now does most of the work) is really bad when it comes to wooden coasters.

Even when they start with an awesome layout, like the Coney Island Cyclone, the result is a disaster! The Bandit at Movie Park Germany got the CI Cyclone layout butchered by Stengel, add the same Premier trains SOB ran and top it off with construction by RCCA and you have one of the worst coaster in the world.

Coaster Express at Parque Warner Madrid (the ex Warner Brothers Movie World Madrid) is basically a SOB junior, half as tall and painful. It even runs the same trains that run on El Toro and even that can't save the ride.

Absimilliard said:
Except for the prefab woodies, Stengel's office (he's just consulting now, his office now does most of the work) is really bad when it comes to wooden coasters.

Even when they start with an awesome layout, like the Coney Island Cyclone, the result is a disaster! The Bandit at Movie Park Germany got the CI Cyclone layout butchered by Stengel, add the same Premier trains SOB ran and top it off with construction by RCCA and you have one of the worst coaster in the world.

Coaster Express at Parque Warner Madrid (the ex Warner Brothers Movie World Madrid) is basically a SOB junior, half as tall and painful. It even runs the same trains that run on El Toro and even that can't save the ride.

I don't think if the ride isn't built right, newer and or lighter trains will not save it. I was wondering how the other coasters they built are doing. Also heard that back in the 80's I think, Beast had to get lighter train's.

And like what other people have said that, what if they just replace the wood track with steel. Again don't think it will matter, the ride was crused when it was being construted. Lighting it a part of the coaster, and RRCA was cought using cheap and low rated wood. So like I said, it was cursed.

Well I am not sure on how true this is but i need to address it. My dad and his friend just got home from Kings Island. They said that the feeling that they are getting is SOB might come down. I guess at around 3:00pm yesterday 4 Suit and Ties from the State and Cedar Fair upper management were standing with a contractor near SOB. Now again i cant say for sure if they were talking about SOB or something else. But again with they way things are looking SOB could be coming to its end here soon.
Also my dad said he was talking to a Ride op on Diamondback, the ride op was working as the operator on SOB. He says SOB will most likely be closed for the remainder of the season...

I stress I cannot confirm any of this because as i say its all here say....

I guess given we know the coaster is under investigation because of the incident that was filed, I don't really see anything strange about official looking people standing around it.

I stress I cannot confirm any of this because as i say its all here say....

Main Entry: hear·say
Function: noun
Date: circa 1532
1 : rumor 2 : hearsay evidence

As Carrie pointed out the mention of official looking people does not seem out of the ordinary, the mention of some type of contractor does peak my interest.

Now this all does depend on the type of contractor. Demo contractor would pretty much mean SOB is gone. Whereas, construction contractor could mean many different things from re-track, to re-structure, to re-build.

The contractor could does not necessarily mean anything as far as the future of the ride goes. There was a contractor guy standing around with cedar point suits which gathered alot of attention about the possibility of getting rid of Mean Streak. Personally I think SOB and MS have the same problem... totally dull layout and rough ride. The one good ride I had on SOB was right after the coaster opened with the Gerstlauer trains. I rode it again later in the season during the Halloween event and the brakes were slowing it to a crawl and it seems like that has been the case ever since.

I remember hear some disappointment when they showed the layout, its like the Beast is good ride because it goes though the woods, but the son is all big hills, and they don't give any air time. All it gives is rough ride, the loop was the only smooth part of the ride.

Just though I'd bring this up, over at KI Central there are 20 poll threads for SOB.

I'll say it over and over...Intamin Plug 'N' Play retrofit. Why not?

Naaaaa...

Just a lighter.

Why does everyone assume you can just start milling wood and slap it on some ride it wasn't designed for?

I don't think people are suggesting that it would be the simplest thing in the world.. But there is an extensive history, dating back to the beginning, of coasters that have been redesigned, reprofiled, or even virtually completely reinvented. Sometimes it works -- even spectacularly (see PR) -- while other times, not so much. Off-handedly negating the whole idea isn't justifiable.

That being said, I'd just as soon tear the whole thing down and put in a much smaller Gravity Group installation that makes better use of the topography under SOB.

I'm all for a tear down, and a Gravity Group installation. They know how to make wooden coasters, never been on a Intamin wooden coaster so can't comment on it.

Tear it down, THEN in it's place build the Bat part 2,but this time, make it like Raptor!

timmyk

The talk on the KIcentral site most people would like to see an Inverted B&M or an Intamin like Maverick. I like the idea of a small to mid sized GG woodie but with our luck we would get a Vekoma SLC.

"New at Kings Island, Headbangers Ball: The Ride!"

A Vekoma SLC would suck almost as much as what's there now.

Jeff, why wouldn't Intamin Plug N play work? I understand that it would be a heck of a large undertaking, and would cost a lot of money, but it could be done.

I've changed my mind though. The layout is very unimaginative, and the entire ride is hidden behind it's massive lift hill. I'm not so sure I would appreciate SOB even if it was glass smooth.

Demolish it and build another winner like Diamondback and Beast. Kings Island could really use a B&M inverted coaster.

The structure for any ride is designed to take a dynamic load in a certain way. The milled track does so in a completely different way than the laminated standard track, and as such, the support structure was not created with that in mind.

^^ I agree with you on those Verkom SLC's being rough. Mind Eraser at SFNE lives up to it's name.

If they DO install a Beemer, make it a floorless. Batman at SFNE, (as well as it's former twin, Dominator at GL), were smooooth and slicker than WD-40 -coated Teflon.

Whatever they do, DO NOT make it a stand-up coaster.