The Ghost with the most on the West Coast, refurbed from pillar to post...

Can anyone comment on how Milfs load faster than PTCs? I too am wondering about how eliminating the mid-course brakes will affect capacity (unless they are keeping it as a block break but wont use it as a trim).

Note: I didn't spell out Milf to avoid stacking my reply. :)

The people exiting the PTC trains have suffered bodily harm and therefore are slower to get out of the train?

As I am creating a media kit for Cedar Point as a class project, I stumbled upon this!

Full article can be found at Bloomberg Business

"Since 1998, GhostRider has been giving white-knuckle rides to even thetoughest cowpokes. It still looms over Ghost Town as the longest, fastest andtallest wooden rollercoaster on the West Coast. In September 2015, work beganto completely restore and preserve this classic wooden rollercoaster. Theproject is a partnership with Great Coasters International and includesre-profiling and a complete wooden re-tracking of the entire 4,533 ft. longtrack.All of the coasters trains will be replaced with state of the art newMillennium Flyer trains designed to look like mining cars, each with gold,silver, or copper accents. As part of the construction, the mid-course brakerun will be removed, allowing riders to enjoy a relentless, ride from themoment the train descends the first 108 ft. drop to the moment it returns tothe station's new, smooth magnetic brake run."GhostRider was the last attraction commissioned by the Knott family, and thisrestoration project ensures that the family's final gift to the park willcontinue to thrill generations of thrill seekers to come," said RaffiKaprelyan, Knott's Berry Farm's vice president and general manager. "Seventyfive years ago, Walter and Cordelia Knott created a place where guests couldlive out their dreams of the Wild West, and I think they'd be very proud ofhow it continues to resonate with guests of a new generation."When GhostRider re-opens, the queue will snake past Panning for Gold, whichreturns to its original Ghost Town home next summer. The return to its formerlocation will allow for a more spacious panning experience, which means a morecomfortable experience and better photo ops to capture the moment when a lovedone strikes it rich!"

Why do parks keep pouring money into retracking every year when they can get rmc to come in and topper track them and be done with it?

It seems that Topper Track must be a lot more expensive than most people realize. To my knowledge I don't believe that any of the coasters who had Topper Track added after they opened had their entire course retrofitted with that track (I don't believe that Georgia Cyclone ever actually finished its Topper Track project). I'm sure those decisions were financially driven.

There was an interview done with Fred Grubb of RMC who said that the I-Box and Topper Track cost roughly the same amount. Keeping that in mind, Kentucky Kingdom said that if Storm Chaser (an I-Box coaster) was built from the ground up it would have cost $15 million for 2,744 feet, or $546 per foot. Dollywood's new coaster (Topper Track) cost $22 million for 3,800 feet, or $578 per foot. That seems to jive with what Mr. Grubb said about the similar cost of track. For comparison:

• GCI's last major coaster - Wodan at Europa Park back in 2013 - cost about $13 million for 3,444 feet, or about $377 per foot
• Gravity Group's last major coaster - Cu Chulainn in Ireland - cost about $11 million for 3,582 feet, or about $307 per foot
• B&M's last major coaster - Fury 325 - cost $30 million for 6,602 feet, or about $454 per foot.

There are two things to glean from this:

• Topper Track wood coasters are more expensive than other wood coasters all else being equal, from which you can say that the cost of the actual Topper Track is probably significantly more expensive than traditional methods. I'm sure that the difference in cost between GCI coming in to do the Ghostrider refurb and doing Topper Track were significant enough for them to choose GCI, even after factoring in maintenance cost
• that the days of the $10 million RMC coaster are over

The latter point is significant because RMC is now directly competing with the B&Ms of the world. It will be very interesting to see where the next few RMC coasters show up now that their pricing has gone up into the elite tier.

Well, GCI has been doing major rehab work for CF. I know they aren't cheap. But at the same time, GCI built the last two CF wooden coasters. You tend to go with what works best (cough*FURY*cough)

^Including Timber Wolf at WoF, which was running much better the times I rode it this past summer.

Thank you Gary for doing the financials on the projects, as I was wondering as I read through the post that very question.

"Will the MILF suck or not suck?" I asked that question of one of my friends earlier today, and he thought I was talking about something totally different...