The big 5 (or more?) traveling rollercoasters.. end of an era?

Currently only a few big rollercoasters are traveling from fair to fair (mostly in Europe / Germany), some of those are very well known within the rollercoasterscommunity, one perhaps a little less known.

In Germany we have now 3 Schwarzkopfcoasters on tour: Alpina Bahn, Teststrecke and Olympia Looping

Alpina Bahn , is a non-looping coaster with a few airtime moments and helixes. It has a nice familyfriendly theme over it with some bavarianstyle houses with big bears.

Teststrecke used to be called Laser at Dorney Park

Olympia Looping is an amazing multilooper where the loopings are grouped as the sysmbol of the olympics, it is a very smooth but intens ride. It has a double restraintsystem and the one over the shoulders tends to go more down because of the G-forces during the ride.

In the past there was also an inverted loopingcoaster traveling in Germany: Eurostar. The tracks look as if it was been made by B&M but it is in fact from Ginovanola / Intamin and several other subcontractors. It left the German fairs many years ago because it had been sold to a russian compagny to operate it in Gorkypark Moscow, over 5 years ago it was decided to remove the rides from Gorkypark since then the Eurostar is in storage. I was able to ride it up to 2005 in Germany but it was not a very comfortable rideexpierence, every connection of the trackparts could be felt in the train, you could even hear it.

Rumors are going around each year that because of high costs other rollercoasters will stop traveling. Last year Olympia Looping was in Vienna on the Prater for most of the time, and this year the indoorcoaster Hollenblitz went there. The Prater in Vienna is a combination of fixed rides and fairgroundrides, lost of different owners which means it has a pay per ride system.

But there is one more big ride, but much less known.

The King Coaster in France, run by Karl Vancraeyenest. This rollercoaster can be found in Paris on the Foire du Trone (a 2 month fair starts end March untll end May) and in Saint Tropez.( from end June untill mid September)

Onride on King in Paris 2006, it has been built by Soquet and travels up to 100km/h , the layout has some similarities with the Alpina Bahn.

Perhaps in the near future all these big 5 coasters will stop traveling? I would find that a sad thing, these really look impressive and draw people to the fairs (even non-rides) that want to see it. What do you think? There is no place anymore for such big rides to be able to make any money when the keep on traveling? Did you ride any of these if so, what are your expierences?

I'm waiting for these portable rides to show up on Coasterbuzz so I can count 'em!

The traveling rides are a marvel, considering they arrive on as many as 60 trucks, sit someplace for three weeks, then move on. The required labor alone and the associated expenses blows my mind. Fuel prices aside, it's hard to imagine (especially considering the current state of traveling shows in the US) how they stay afloat. But each stop is an event that attracts millions and at 10.5€ a ride...
I always thought traveling fun fairs were the mainstay of the European amusement industry, and permanent amusement parks were fewer and farther between. But my experience there told me that parks are on the rise, so maybe Pieter raises a valid question. But I so hope there's no need to worry.

The Schwarzkopf monsters are somewhat of a holy grail for us North Americans, and they are a pleasure to ride. Thrilling, flashy, and huge, with many trains equipped with only lap bars. Sit, click, and go. I didn't care how expensive they were and disregarded the fact that it was pouring rain. I was in heaven.

One of my absolute favorites from Oktoberfest was Hollenblitz, formerly Space World, formerly something-something, billed as the world's largest indoor portable coaster. It was long, spinny, and had a surprising amount of dark effects for a traveling ride. (It was also dry in there). The outside was so detailed and elaborate that it made quite a huge billboard for the attraction.

It's coming up on a year since I was there. Hard to believe.

There are other websites to count your coasters, I know of one that has those traveling ones too and even Alpine Coasters. You can use the option to count those too, or not.

The German fairs are insane, Dusseldorf Rheinkirmis attracts over 4 million visitors ! Most Themeparks don't get that many people in a whole year, where the Rheinkirmis is just 10 days long.

The Hollenblitz was cool as Star World aswell.. it had a huge robotanimatronic standing in front of it.. just the robot came in 3 trucks! Name Galactor, standing 18m high weighing 33 tons ! Before Star World that it was Magic Mountain, jungle theme with a giant ape. The current version has a different first drop, the previous versions did not go all the way down then.

Time flies when you are having fun/

They would not be running if not profitable. I mean, Olympia Looping is €8 per person and runs 5 trains with a line from 10 am to 11 pm. There is some money to be made. Of course the cost must be crazy, but somehow it works.

Eurostar just did not work, it was a very uncomfortable ride. I think it even went to scrap by now

Alpinabahn is fun and as it has no inversions, can be be put up within a day, so that should not be to to expensive

Is Teststrecke still travelling? I have not seen it around for a while

Höllenblitz is rather good. I do not blame them to have a solid location for the summer before coming to Oktoberfest. Olympia did that last year and this year they did travel again.

In general these rides will eventually dissapear, but I think we have a couple of more years to enjoy them

Had the chance to ride Olympia Looping at the Hamburg DOM in Nov. 2002. Cost then was 4 euro and I do not remember it having OTS restraints. Rode it twice with only a one or two train wait.

There was also a Mad Mouse there. Rode that also.

Speaks volumes about US's "spread out" geography that the biggest travelling coaster we have is Comet II.

Alexatucla said:

Eurostar just did not work, it was a very uncomfortable ride. I think it even went to scrap by now

I was smooth in it's early years ( I have been told), also it got a big touch up over the 2004winter at the factory of Gerstlauer.. to me it felt better after that. Last I saw of it was that the trackparts where in storage on woodens blocks somewhere in Moscow.

Alexatucla said:

Is Teststrecke still travelling? I have not seen it around for a while

Yes it is.

24.03.2017 – 23.04.2017 Hamburger Frühlingsdom
06.05.2017 – 14.05.2017 Maimesse Minden
02.06.2017 – 02.07.2017 Berliner Sommerfest an der Allee
28.07.2017 – 27.08.2017 Hamburger Sommerdom
22.09.2017 – 08.10.2017 Cannstatter Volksfest Stuttgart
13.10.2017 – 29.10.2017 Bremer Freimarkt

Source

Alexatucla said:

Höllenblitz is rather good. I do not blame them to have a solid location for the summer before coming to Oktoberfest. Olympia did that last year and this year they did travel again.

I only rode Höllenblitz once, but I rode it as Space World on several occasions.. the front of the coaster changed and it's first drop..

At the end of 2015 there was a rumor that Olympia Looping would stop traveling, but see what happenend.. after it's long say in Vienna it went to Oktoberfest Munich then to London and as a "bonus" stop before being shipped to London it was in Bremen ( after many years not being there)

rollergator said:

Speaks volumes about US's "spread out" geography that the biggest travelling coaster we have is Comet II.

These giant rollercoaster are build in such a way that their parts fit on normalsize containerunits, thus most of the time they travel by train, otherwise one would need a lot of trucks ! I am not 100% but I believe the Olympia Looping is 65 containers !

Some other bigger rides allread left the fairs, there was a huge logflume traveling in Germany called "Wildwasser III", it is now in Skylinepark near Munich. That park is owned by the family that had the ride traveling. Special for that Flume was that they had the bottompart (frame) of the ride twice, in such that they could build up allready on a different location before having it taken apart on the other location.

Olympia Looping does Hyde Park winterwonderland again at London.

17th Nobvember 2017 untill 1stJanuary 2018

And for those intrested in the double-looping Teststrecke it is about to open at Bremer Freimarkt starting 13 oktober 2017 untill 29 oktober 2017.

Here are some Oktoberfest statistics for 2017 (remember it only goes for 16 days)

• Size 103.78ha
• Large Tents: 14 (some seat over 7/8000, largest tent Hofbräü(incl garden: 9947)
• Mid Size//Small Tents: 20
• Visitors 2017: 7.2Million(a plus of 600000 vs 2016)
• Beer consumed;7.5 million litres(non alcoholic 169000)
• Wine consumed:135426
• Water/Lemonade/Coffee/Tea: 1.4 Million
• Chicken sold: 549 899
• Pork Sausage:140225 pairs
• Pork shanks 75487
• Attempted thefts of the mugs: 110000
• Items lost:4500, incl a walking stick,, some wheel chairs(How?),, 2 wedding rings and 2 license plates(?) Edit: found a great Website with curious items from the Lost and Found office on the Fest: Stroll down and you can swipe to the pictures http://www.muenchen.de/veranstaltungen/oktoberfest/besucher-service...buero.html
• Restrooms: 980 and 858 meters of urinals
• Gastro/Beer/Fast Food stalls:143
• Ride(incl Coasters, Flats, Fun Houses,classic rides, Ghost houses and shows: 151
• People working at Oktoberfest: 13000 (8000 permanent/5000 Temp)
• Electricity: 2.7 Million kwh(what a family of 4 would use in 52 Years
• Beerpreis 2017: €10.60-€10.95
• Letters sent from the Oktoberfest post office: 130000
• Total capacity of the14 large tents: 119000

Olympia Looping is called Munich Looping at Winterwonderland in Hydepark in London and it has done some good business again.

£ 9,- per ride... and they are using the 7 coaches long trains !

Olympia Looping can be used with up to 5 trains of 5 couches each or up to 4 trains of 7 couches each, in the 2nd configuration it has a bigger throughput. In Germany they only use 7-long trains at Oktoberfest.

5 long trains on event in 2016 ... they changed later in that event to the 7-long

Footage from last weekend with the 7 long trains.

I hope that coaster will come back there over the next years, one day I will want to visit that event for now it is a little bit out of reach, travel there and the prizes on the event are very high... but so is the atmosphere.

btw I have heard that the 7long train give an even more intense ride esspially in the last rows.

I think it important to state that Germany has five Schwarzkopf coasters on tour, not three.

It's easy to forget Rock'n'Roller Coaster and Alpen Coaster – they're both good rides.

I see they have the German Wild Mice xxl at Winter Wonderland too. Been on that once and that was enough for me. Great ride, it just leaves me dizzy.

Olympia Looping can not use the word Olympia outside of Germany as they have a special deal with the Olympic Organisation to get an excemption without having to pay for rights to the name, hence, why it is called Munich Looping in London.

The ride is in top condition and gets a overhaul every winter,it is basically a new ride at the beginning of the travel season, I am sure it will be around for years to come.

Plus there are new rides coming into the circuit like the Drifting coaster which really surprised me this year(I posted a video of it in a prior thread). That ride was so silly and fun, I was laughing the entire ride.

Answering the question, if these rides are the end of an era, I think not as long as they make money. Will we see massive rides like Olympia Looping again? Probably not, but rides like the Drifting coaster will pop up and keep the tradition going. I can only advice any US Coaster fan to visit at least once in there lifetime a big German Fair like Oktoberfest or the big fairs in Düsseldorf and Hamburg. Not cheap, but so worth it!

For those intrested in Olympia Looping.

The main part of 2019 it will be in Vienna at the Prater.

Other two currently known events are:

Munich Oktoberfest - 22th September 2018 untill 7th October 2018

London Hydepark Winter Wonderland ( They made a 3 year deal... )

In 2019 it will again do Rheinkirmes in Dusseldorf (ussaly 2nd half of July) and Cranger kirmes (3rd August 2018 untill 12th August 2018 ) in Herne.