The '07 wooden installation NO ONE is talking about....

Well, there's lots of new wood coming around in '07, and apparently Asia hasn't caught on quite yet to the joys of WOODEN coasters (WCFC has no Asian representation?)...

Europe has been mentioned, but only insofar as to say that Toverland is getting a GCII - details have been sparse...

There's *another* wood coaster being (re-)installed, at Killarney Springs Family Park...and it's as exciting as Knoebel's Turns project, IMO. A *side-friction* wooden coaster, like our L-t-D, is coming in '07. Here's the coaster/park page, notably lacking in information.
http://www.rcdb.com/pd1508.htm

Following the link to the previous owner/park got me here:
http://www.rcdb.com/id862.htm

Now THAT is something to smile about... :)

Thats pretty cool, I wonder if Flying Turns (though across the ocean) had any influence on the restoration of this classic ride. If these are very successful, possibly might have some influence on other parks and classic ride types.

Eeeenteresting.. :)

It's a nice ride. There's a few pictures of it here in its previous location:

http://www.themeparks.ie/europe/rot/index.htm

Thanks, Richard....that looks sweet, maybe a bit faster than L-t-D. :)

*Someone* wanted me to say that Japan, at least, HAS good wood....not that I meant to imply there weren't wooden coasters there, only that the "new" rides over in Asia mostly seem to be new Beemer and Intamin designs (capitalism in China must be *thriving*, LOL)...they've just hyper-saturated the US market, LOL.

GCII *has* crossed the Atlantic....how long 'til Msrs. Hain, Pike, Boodley, et al. make a trip to the EAST? ;)

*** Edited 11/17/2006 11:17:05 PM UTC by rollergator***

Sweet. The two types of wood coasters that I have always wondered about and if they still existed when I saw them in RCT are getting new life. I can't wait to ride them. :)

There was a side-friction coaster already running when RCT1 came out: Leap The Dips @ Lakemont in Altoona, PA.

Leap the Dips! The oldest coaster in opperation. My last visit to Lakemont was just a few years ago and it's great to see such a classic peice of Americana still in operation.

Leap the Dips is quite a lot larger than the Runaway. I can't really judge speed with any degree of accuracy, since I rode one in 2002 and the other in 2006.

Nice to see the ride is getting rebuilt. It would have been a shame to lose that one, especially since examples of that type of coaster are extremely few and far between.

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Richard Bannister said:
Leap the Dips is quite a lot larger than the Runaway. I can't really judge speed with any degree of accuracy, since I rode one in 2002 and the other in 2006.

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We got to ride this on the ACE ECO tour in 2002. I didn't think Runaway was that much smaller that LTD. Perhaps LTD is a little longer, but Runaway had much larger drops and traveled around the course faster than LTD. Both lifts seemed to be about the same height, at least to me.

My impression was that they were comparable in size. Runaway was a lot shakier than Leap-the-Dips though, at least at that time. Richard and I were both on the bus that had extra time there. I don't know about Richard, but I had more than enough rides on it, nostalgia value or not...

That's not to say I think saving it is bad -- it's a fine piece of history.

I don't remember to be honest. I'll see if I can arrange to ride it again in its new home and report back :)

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Jeffrey Seifert said:Perhaps LTD is a little longer, but Runaway had much larger drops and traveled around the course faster than LTD. Both lifts seemed to be about the same height, at least to me.

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That was what I had *gathered* from the pics Richard linked to....

bill, would LOVE to get on another side-friction... :)

Doesn't the Log Flume at SFMM count as a side-friction roller-coaster credit? ;)