Space Spiral destruction

bjames said:

Well if I thought I was going to get graded on semantics I would have taken the time to find the right word for it.

What? Are you new to CoasterBuzz?

I know the ride was up there in age, but was it a complete maintenance nightmare that they had to get rid of it? Maybe they consider Windseeker as the replacement?

They could have easily built Gatekeeper around it (see Tatsu at SFMM).

Just curious.

bjames said:

Well if I thought I was going to get graded on semantics I would have taken the time to find the right word for it.

Your anti-semantic views have been duly noted.

I

Chitown said:
I know the ride was up there in age, but was it a complete maintenance nightmare that they had to get rid of it? Maybe they consider Windseeker as the replacement?

They could have easily built Gatekeeper around it (see Tatsu at SFMM).

Just curious.

But have you seen Gatekeeper? From what i can tell, it seems to go nowhere near the now former home of Space Spiral. I think the ride was old and crappy and the removal gives them the opportunity to develop a nice new plaza and entrance for the coaster. (and one hundred mile long queue).
Some people consider Windseeker to be a calm scenic ride, like Space Spiral was, but I don't. Maybe it's not the big thrill ride we were expecting, but it still has features that would surely keep Grandma and the like on the ground. I think it's not a fitting replacement.

I went on the thing once and couldn't see out of the windows. From what I could tell it was either never open or no one ever rode it.

That explosion was pretty cool. I can't imagine how stressful the job is to plan the explosion.

Did anyone else find the music hilarious?

Awesome video, it's awesome how they can position explosives to make it fall in a certain direction.

I'm actually fascinated by the way lumberjacks are able to get trees to fall with exact precision, as well. In fact, I think they should have chopped Space Spiral down. They took the easy way out.

Well, I guess that means we can't try to sell the ride. We always wanted to know what would happen if one of those towers toppled over, and now we do.

At least this was a 'before lunch' event, and not allowed to fester like the Skyscraper at Geauga Lake.

It was cool to see the cabin take off after it separated from the counterweight cables. Not cool to ride,, but cool to see.

It had nothing to do with the counterweight, if it was even in place at all. It slid "up" because of the horizontal momentum.

Picture of what I'm assuming of the counterweight.

http://pointbuzz.com/Photos/Photo.aspx?id=8250

Looks like they chained the counterweight to keep the cabin from falling, which would explain why the cabin slid up.

~Rob

TIIIIIIMBEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEER!!!

When did the cabin start sliding up the tower?

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Mid-timber.

If the tower did not have the counter weight attached, the cabin would be at ground level. Yes, the tower falling carried it outward, but there has to be a separation at some point in the collapse.

I wonder how the cabin and tower segments held up, if at all in the crash. Intamin could have done some studies on how a 40+ year old ride held up over time and the elements.

Why? If the weight is pinned to the bottom, the cabin is free to move up the tower when it's no longer burdened by gravity.

Why does there have to be separation between the counterweight and cabin? The counterweight won't keep the cabin from going up...as long as the tower is still vertical. The centripetal force pulling the cabin toward the top gives the cable(s) slack. In other words, the cabin would have moved up whether there was separation from the counterweight or not.

I'm sad to see it go, except that I can't remember riding it more than a few times in the nearly 750 days I've spent at the park. Given the age of the ride, and the low ridership numbers, it makes sense to see it removed. What a fantastic display watching it fall!

Carrie J. said:

I'm actually fascinated by the way lumberjacks are able to get trees to fall with exact precision, as well. In fact, I think they should have chopped Space Spiral down. They took the easy way out.

The first thing that came to mind when I read that is this. HAHAHA!

Agent Johnson said:

At least this was a 'before lunch' event, and not allowed to fester like the Skyscraper at Geauga Lake.

I could be wrong. But, from what I understand, Skyscraper was taken apart for potential reuse. Ralph Plumpton of RP Motors originally bought it at the auction for $12,500 and said it would be scrapped. He later resold it on eBay for $50,000. It then turned up on ITAL and sold in July of 2009 for (presumably) $69,000. The ride was disassembled and removed from the site shortly there after. Scrap value was pretty low in the summer of 2009. Considering they spent the money to disassemble it rather than just tare it down, I am assuming that their intentions were to relocate it or possibly use it for parts.

What things don't explode when they fall over? I was expecting more fire. ;)

Oh, this isn't Hollywood? ...or RCT3?

birdhombre said:

When did the cabin start sliding up the tower?

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...

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Mid-timber.

Post of the month.

Vater said:
Why does there have to be separation between the counterweight and cabin? The counterweight won't keep the cabin from going up...as long as the tower is still vertical. The centripetal force pulling the cabin toward the top gives the cable(s) slack. In other words, the cabin would have moved up whether there was separation from the counterweight or not.

It's very possible the attachment to the counter weight caused the cabin to go up. Think of it this way As the tower fell over, it came off of its base. Assuming the counter weight was still in the bottom of the base that didn't move, that would lengthen the distance from the base to the top of the tower, forcing the care upward. Given that these were steel cables, it's possible they stayed attached and ultimately ended up being cut with a torch later on.