why drachen fire closed?

Just looking at the rollback for to day and saw the Drachen Fire note...

Was anything ever found out as to why they closed the ride. I have no idea personally, just wondering if a reason was ever given.

I really dont know why its a shame thought because it was a very good ride.

I think the main reason was low ridership. It was in a very hard to find spot in the park (lots of people didn't even know the ride existed) and it had a reputation of being rough

boy this is the never ending debate, lol....why did it close? YoshiFan pretty much listed them though, low ridership, based both on poor location and on bad reputation.

however...those of you that know me, know i will never forgive BGW (BGE whatever) for removing it...

may you rest in peace my beloved Drachen Fire

Wow - Drachen Fire has its own Wikipedia Entry now:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drachen_Fire

Someone should create a book "Notorious Coasters" or something - with the history of controversial thrill rides.

^This is exactly why wikipedia is so redundant. All that badly written, semi-knowledge packed into one article.

Are we really expected to believe that Arrow could not design an inversion around the first Drop, when they had designed interlocking loops more than a decade earlier?

This is just one of those endlessly repeated myths that are flowing around. Don´t get me started about B&Ms involvement (or lack thereof).

...but you can change all that by pressing the >edit this page< button and writing how it really was, add your knowledge!
(Sorry - I'm a Wikipedia enthusiast, I think it's a great thing, although I aggree, many articles need some development).

The B&M story in that article is somewhat strange indeed, especially the part about the wrap-around loop.
I thought the B&M involvement was just a myth, but there it is again...

It's probably taken from the article on the history.amusementparks.com which is linked there. (it is not very well written, but features an interesting "original artwork")

I always enjoyed the Arrow multiloopers and feel bad that I never got to BGW (BGE) while Drachen Fire was there. Fortunately I did get to ride KWs Steel Phantom while it had the loops (although I agree that the conversion to the loop-free Phantom's Revenge was right). Now if only SFMM and Viper can survive.

Now I haven't been to Busch Gardens, but I've seen many-a-maps of it recently (their park maps). Where exactly was Drachen Fire located, and what currently stands in its location now?

If it's still nothing, I'm surprised the new coaster for next year doesn't pop in its spot instead of taking out the classic LeMans car ride.

Drachen Fire sat in the large open area behind Big Bad Wolf and the Festhaus. If you ride the train, you'll go right by the site. I believe the station and transfer houses still stand.

Arrow has a reputation for rough rides but Drachen Fire was the first and only Arrow Coaster that really made me so uncomfortable that I questioned re-riding it.

I never got to ride it unfortunately but I'll give it this much, it had one of the most interesting track layouts I've ever seen on a coaster.

A sad story. I remember riding (and loving) Drachen Fire many many times, although it should have been a clue that even in its opening year the lines were very short. It was a little rough, but I never thought unbearably so. I was, in fact, kind of ticked off when they removed one of the inversions!

As for location, my only complaint was that it stripped away the forest around the Big Bad Wolf's "village" section, but I suppose that is a minor quibble. I suppose Drachen Fire was tucked away in that corner back there, but if they had put up a big sign for it in between the Wolf and the Festhaus, I'd say that's a pretty high-traffic area.

Hard to say exactly what the problems were, but its one of the sadder coaster stories I've seen.

And it was torn down for scrap metal.

- J

Who couldn't see a big blue coaster behind the BBWolf? Drachen Fire was a work of art. The layout was gorgeous. The removale of the first corkscrew destroyed alot of the beauty. The only real rough spot for me was the hop onto the midcourse brake which at the time I couldn't understand the need for. I thought a nice speed reducing floater hill into the corkscrews would be better.

The trains were also great looking although they were a bit cramped.

I have a picture in an old issue of ACE news showing most of the ride. The train is entering the first corkscrew and at the angle of the pic the rest ride appears to be under the corkscrew.

An old issue of National Amusemnt Park Historical Assoc. newsletter claimed the ride was sold to Parc Asterix who were planning to remove th final cork and paint it brown. This was before the ride closed.

I always thought that Alpengiest may have had a small part to play in its demise as it was strange to have 2 coasters at the park with the same inversion element. The batwing/cobraroll.

All that said I still think the park should consider the site for a childrens section of rides. Land of dragons is nice but not very big. Another sect themed to old word fairy tales would be nice if Busch did it right and we know they can

One thing that has always confused me relating to DF was that the awesome lighting effect on the trains has yet to be reproduced for some other ride. I was too young to actually see DF myself, but I've talked to many people who have, and seen many pictures of it at night, and it seems like the red outlined train snaking around in an otherwise dark environment was a very cool effect.

I wonder why that has never been done again? I'm sure there are many coasters out there that would look great with that. Think about Millennium Force, for example. I think that would be awesome!

Anyway, just saying.

-danny

The only reason I tend to believe that B&M had some involvement in this project was the introduction of the cobra roll into the layout, which stood as Arrow Dynamic's first, and only cobra roll on a coaster.

Too, though, this would have been the first cobra roll on a B&M coaster, had it been B&M manufactured. Since not, the first B&M cobra roll appeared on Kumba, in 1993.

*** Edited 7/12/2006 6:06:41 PM UTC by Rctycoon2k***

On the other hand, cobra rolls had been appearing in Vekoma boomerangs for years, so it wasn't exactly an innovation.

I'm more curious about the batwing and the mid-drop corkscrew - both innovations that haven't been attempted since. I never rode DF but I saw it on the train ride in 1999. And I have an old videotape with Dana Carvey riding it and reviewing it with stupid voices.

"I'm more curious about the batwing and the mid-drop corkscrew - both innovations that haven't been attempted since. I never rode DF but I saw it on the train ride in 1999. "

Well, Arrow had used those elements and combinations in coasters prior. Vortex at PKI immediately comes to mind. But haven't they used them since? Doesn't Dollywood's Tennessee Tornado have a Batwing?

I rode DF many times, and while a rough headbanger, it wasn't as bad as Shockwave at SFGAM....

Oh, wait a minute... it's gone too! ;-)

*** Edited 7/12/2006 6:26:59 PM UTC by Shaggy***

Canyon Blaster (which opened a year later) also had lights on the train. They proved to be problematic however and were removed after only about a year or so of operation.