Texas Tornado being removed from Astroworld

As I stated.. the harnesses were too hard (they were afraid of that) and when they had 40-ish people complaining, they went ahead and closed it back down.

And one of the full time area supervisors told me the day before the park opened "You're not gonna like the new restraints.. if you lean forward a little bit, you'll be okay, but it still hurts".

I have no clue what schwarzkopf was thinking when they designed these harnesses.

THEN there was the issue of media hounding the park ALLLL The time about the ride because it was #1 on Ed Markey's list of top G Force coasters. The park even contacted Duane Marden of RCDB and asked him if he could remove the g-forces listed for tornado (which he kindly did). The parks answer to the media was that the ride was closed because they were making modifications to the harness system, and that current accelerometer testing was not available. So then AstroWorld tested a theory of removing cars from the train to lower the G-Forces. Well, it worked, but the number of cars removed considerably lowered capacity (think Mindbender in Edmonton). So between the media issues, the heat, maintenance, the restraints, and many other factors, it simply made sense to move it to a park that could handle the lower capacity.
*** This post was edited by Panther Modern on 11/12/2002. ***

I was looking at a pic of Tornado at it's original location as Thriller when it was still in the european traveling fair market & yes it did have the OTSR's on back then so my guess is that they were there from the beginning.

If anyone here has a copy of Rollercoaster by David Bennett you'll find it on pages 112 & 113.

That's right folks, riding in the back of car # 5 will be a thing of the past. The trains might even be reduced to 3 cars.

"so my guess is that they were there from the beginning."

You don't have to guess, we have told you exactly what the scenario was with the restraints. There have been three different variations, and a fourth seems likely.

I would love for it to come to the great northwest. Even if is third hand, still is much better then what we have here.

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84 coasters and counting

Did anyone even think of it not going to to EV, and instead going to SFMW? The climate there is cooler, but not as cool as EV.

Considering SFMW currently has no rumors on new additions for 2003, EV getting the woodie, and PGA putting in a new ride, I can see them putting it at SFMW. *** This post was edited by SteelForce on 11/12/2002. ***

Doesn't SFEG have pretty cool climate?

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It isn't so bad. . .
Once you're used to it

We've added today some close-up shots of the crane and "man-basket", and a photograph that illustrates the station house has been removed.

@superman/fierce pancake/Jeff

The ride DID open with lapbars and a loose safetybelt in 1986.

The accordeon OTSR were added a year later.

CLEARANCE ISSUES had nothing to do with it! Each german coastertrack is tested with a clearance mask. TÜV would have not allowed to open the ride if there would have been narrow supports.

The OTSR were needed because people had problems keeping their torso in an upright position in the circular loops. Another risky spot of the ride used to be the exit of the first loop.

@superman: The problems you are referring to have been a faulty spot in the track design. Due to a mistake in construction, one rail of the track had one tiny hump (just a fracture of a millimeter) which caused the spine injuries during the first weeks of operation. The spot was soon discovered and repaired. This tiny mistake caused the g-forces rocket up for a fracture of a second.

THRILLER was an insane coaster. Bring it back!

F_T

There were no seatbelts when I rode Thriller, that much is sure. The shocks I remember that hurt my spine where mainly the entrance to the two small loops in front, notably the smaller one. My head was torn forward with a really violent force there.

Maybe that is why they added those restraints later, I doubt they fix the problem though.

The coaster opened on a Monday, and I rode it on Wednesday. I remember news reports saying they had problems with the smootheness of the track, but they had supposedly fixed those before I rode it. Maybe more bumps were discovered later.

As I said, I know many people who rode it without notably injury, but I still think this ride is definitely overstepping the limits of good coaster design, and I would wish for it to rest.

Why does a ride that is known to hurt riders in the way that this one does need to be revived over and over again?
There is of course the fascination of the seemingly impossible, like in the Christal Beach Cyclone... the coaster of death etc. But shouldn't people be protected from these self-destructive challenges?

I rode THRILLER on CRANGER KIRMES in 86. Maybe the safety belts were added between Freiburg and Crange. That would as well explain the oblivious behaviour of the ride ops: Nobody knew how to wear those belts!

superman: I guess you´re german so I´d like to recommend the book: "Rollercoaster-Der Achterbahndesigner Werner Stengel"! Theres a whole section about the Thriller and its problems.

I think the ride is not too intense, they just need decent restraints, that give your torso enough hold. One good thing about the accordeon OTSR is, that they prevent headbanging. If they could come up with a device that holds the restraints in their position during the ride, it would be a fantastic coaster again.

F_T

No clearance issues? I beg to differ. I know there are points on BGT's Scorpion where you could reach out and touch the ground, and I seem to remember Dorney's Laser has padding on a couple of supports.

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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com - Sillynonsense.com
"Climbing as we fall, we dare to hold on to our fate, and steal away our destiny to catch ourselves with quiet grace" - The Stairs, INXS

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No clearance issues? I beg to differ. I know there are points on BGT's Scorpion where you could reach out and touch the ground, and I seem to remember Dorney's Laser has padding on a couple of supports.

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Same with the "Looping Star" models.. (i.e. Viper at AstroWorld, Silver Bullet at Frontier City, etc)

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Panther Modern
SixFlagsHouston.Com
An Astroworld Tribute Site

This is kinda sad for me. TT or Thriller, whatever you want to call it, was very high on my list of must-ride-before-dying rides. I seriously hope they put it up somewhere else, but i'm sure if SF keeps it, they'll trim it or do something nasty to it.

I'm sure the ride hurt some people, and that sucks, but some people like their ride's that intense. I'd be willing to sign a waiver or something even to ride it. Of course, that'll never happen, but it's wishful thinking anyways. Oh well, i still hope to ride some version of the ride.

~me

Yeah, i was kinda sad when i heard it was leaving. Im glad i got to ride it. I thought it was fun, and even if the accordians were painful, the ride was still one of the best astroworld had to offer. I just hope i can ride it once again some other time in life...after my back stops hurting from falling on purpose in PE...not a word about that. Hope something good replaces it.

Added some new pictures today of the progress for those interested...

http://sixflagshouston.com/tornado.html

Hi, Coaster fans!

I believe that Six Flags should erect the Texas Tornado at the Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom Amusement Park. We desperately need a "good coaster" besides "Chang". If they built it here, THEY WILL COME TO RIDE. The attendance at the Louisville, Kentucky Six Flags stinks compared to Kings Island jam packed crowds only two hours away. The difference is management and rides. The Six Flags pencil pushers need to do some exit polling and marketing research for the Louisville park. Then they would realize, they are sitting on a centrally located gold mine. Their park could be as good as Kings Island, but instead it's a glamorized county fair.