Tunnels on Son of Beast

Seriously if PTC trains were put on SOB the ride would be increadable.

For those of you who think the Beast's helix is rough, of course it is, your on a woodie! The roughness adds to the experience of sheer joy that helix has. The difference between father and son is that papa has a l-shaped PTC lap bar that is padded and allows your legs to jostle back and forth freely while son has the stupid foot stands, u shaped lap bars with no side padding which adds up to my legs feeling like they have been purried everytime I ride it.

2022 Trips: WDW, Sea World San Diego & Orlando, CP, KI, BGW, Bay Beach, Canobie Lake, Universal Orlando

Putting PTC trains on SoB wouldn't help any more than the ones on there.

Put some MilF trians on there, then you'd have a winner.

The problem is that you couldn't just slap new trains on there. The track's width is wider than you're standard wooden coaster track, PTC or GCI would have to design completely new trains (which would require, I would assume, a huge monetary investment by the park to convince a train manufacturer to do a completely redesign for a single coaster that they'll never use again.) And that's even if they could convince a company to do it at all. Personally, I wouldn't touch the ride with a 10 foot stick.

Well, it will never have the MFlyer trains, GCI says they won't produce them for any other company:(.

I'm sure if someone named the right price, they would.

You know, I've got my fair share of coasters I don't like for one reason or another.

I don't sit here and bash em every time I can like some do.

I don't care if it's Gerstlauer, Vekoma, Arrow, Pinfari or whatever, I consintrate on the ones I like and leave the others to those who like em.

Chuck, not defending SOB but actually wonders if some of you ENJOY coasters at all?

Touchdown said:
Seriously if PTC trains were put on SOB the ride would be increadable.

I do not think this is possible. PTC trains are not engineered to handle SoB loop.

I don't think anyone really cares that it is the biggest wooden coaster. That hype about the ride is long over. If they are going to do anything to the ride, they need to shorten the first 3 drops so people can acutally ride the ride without fear of neck and back injury and brusing.

I would think a ride thats actually fun to ride would be much better business sense than "the biggest".

^ I see what you are saying about the biggest, but when SOB was built, it seemed that it was all about the height and speed or at least height. Unfortunately, some park had to learn that bigger does not always equal better. I think the park got caught up in the hype of bigger and faster.

Shaggy, I appreciate your insight.

Teckno, thanks as well. You are correct. I never said it was the best, but I won't say it's the worst because my riding experience is limited. Once I start visiting other parks, I'll have a lot more other woodies to compare it to. Just so everyone knows, I do like SOB. Not by far my fav, but I get at least 2-3 laps each time I go. Again, this is based only on my limited experiences. Truly, I have been hearing for 2-3 years about the rumor of adding tunnels. I just wanted to know if it had been considered and then scratched or just another wild rumor.

Woodyman said:

I do not think this is possible. PTC trains are not engineered to handle SoB loop.

Wrong, here's proof: http://www.rcdb.com/id254.htm Wonderland had the original trains on the Texas Tornado replaced with PTC's (lapbars, not OTSR).

Those are NOT your standard PTC wood-coaster trains.

...could PTC build trains for Sonny? Sure, but the trains on Sonny woulda been custom no matter who built them. Turns out that Premier was only a slightly better choice than the B&M tranis on Psyclone...;)

edit: As far as tunnels on Sonny...why does the phrase "making a silk purse out of a sow's ear" keep coming to mind? ;)
*** Edited 5/11/2005 3:41:39 PM UTC by rollergator***

Premier has shown they are learning from experience with each new project. Their seats on the Italian Job coasters are nice and comfortable. Let Premier build two-bench rather than three-bench cars, with properly padded seats already designed for the Z riding profile, and a lot of the problems would be gone.

As far as tunnels are concerned, the second helix could use something other than its one bit of headchopper for some additional excitement.

super7* said:
If they are going to do anything to the ride, they need to shorten the first 3 drops so people can acutally ride the ride without fear of neck and back injury and brusing.

super7

I didn't have a problem with the first 3 drops at all on SOB. The last half after the loop is what always gets me.

Did PKI realize that annual retracking would be necessary for Son of Beast's upkeep? Obviously, they must have planned for major maintenance on such a monster of a ride, but how much of that has been caused by design flaws/poor construction materials?

The irony here is that many of us tried to warn the park about building a wooden coaster with that large of drops and intense speed. The park didn't want to hear it and/or listen. Now I've been told by a realiable source that the park is admitting the coaster was a bad move all along.

The other irony with Sonny is that several ago the park approached CCI about building a looping woodie. Many of us should know that Denise had expressed interest in the idea at the time for woodies. My sources told me that CCI said they would build the ride at 125' with the loop. The park turned them down though because (as I was told) they couldn't justify marketing a wooden coaster that size.

Now look what they have done!!

Wood Coaster Fan Club - "Sharing a Passion for the Classics"

Does anyone have a picture of the SOB trains?

Also, what parts of the ride are the roughest? Is that big drop even enjoyable?

Just a few questions, I'll find out this year though because I'm making a trip in early June.

http://www.pkicentral.com/attractions/rollercoasters/sonofbeast.php

There's a great picture of Son of Beast's trains.

As Shaggy said, the rose bowl (the large helix following the first drop of the lift hill) and the second helix are the roughest parts of the ride. The first drop is enjoyable, but only until the pull out. Then you hang on for dear life and hope the ride ends soon.

I have to give the PKI wood department credit for doing what they've done for the ride (heck, I figure keeping it standing deserves a pat on the back!) but until PKI spends some major bucks (more major, I suppose), the ride is never going to live up to its potential. *** Edited 5/11/2005 10:39:30 PM UTC by CoasterKrazy***

"I think SOB is beautiful. Even if people think it's a crappy ride, you've got to give it's "look" SOMETHING."

Angelina Jolie is beautiful too but I don't want to ride her either! ;)

*** Edited 5/12/2005 1:43:01 AM UTC by Mamoosh***

I rode SOB last year. The only part of the ride that was not painfull was the loop.

Out of curisoity is this ride modeled somewhat after the Crystal Beach Cyclone? Because I see some similarities in the pictures but I am not sure. I wonder if that is another reason why it is so ruff besides the hieght factor? or is it the case that there are other coasters that are similar to the Crystal Beech Cyclone and are not as ouchy?

I rode SOB last year. The only part of the ride that was not painfull was the loop.

Out of curisoity is this ride modeled somewhat after the Crystal Beach Cyclone? Because I see some similarities in the pictures but I am not sure. I wonder if that is another reason why it is so ruff besides the hieght factor? or is it the case that there are other coasters that are similar to the Crystal Beech Cyclone and are not as ouchy?