Wild One: Info and Opinions Wanted!
Two fires in the middle of the 1963 season ended the life of one amusement park and extended the life of another by two decades. On July 19, 1963 St. Louis lost its traditional amusement park when the Forest Park Highlands burnt to the ground. One of the rides destroyed was the Comet, Herb Schmeck’s 1941 terrain coaster. The coaster, in my opinion one of the most overlooked P.T.C. coasters built, burned in the fire but the coaster’s trains were saved. In April of that year Paragon Park’s Giant Coaster caught fire and Torrence Jenkins, Jr., said that the, “station, trains, double helix finale and part of the lift hill” were all lost. The park wanted Allen to rebuild the coaster as it was but his estimate proved too high for the traditional park. Instead he left out two bunny hops and the helix finale in order to create an angled approach into the brake run. Although nowhere near as exciting as Miller’s finish, Allen gave the park an affordable option to tearing down the coaster. The park bought the trains from the Comet because they were much cheaper than buying new ones from P.T.C. For a few seasons the Giant Coaster’s trains ran with the name Comet emblazed across the front of the car.
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-Mike Buscema
'No matter how skilled the designer is, every time we push the envelope we learn new things about coaster design.' --Dana Morgan
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But as good as it is now, I would have loved to ride it with the slant turnaround. That looks like it would have given wicked laterals in the back!
lata, jeremy
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I'll do it to you like Billy White Shoes baby!
On July 19, 1963 St. Louis lost its traditional amusement park when the Forest Park Highlands burnt to the ground. One of the rides destroyed was the Comet, Herb Schmeck’s 1941 terrain coaster.
Okay, being a bit anal here, but it's important to point out that in fact the Comet did *not* burn to the ground. It was completely untouched by the fire, but was torn down later.
Bringing this back on topic, I've ridden the Wild One in the Adventure World version as well as the current version. While the turnaround was scary good, the ride *still* packs quite a punch. I was most pleased to find that virtually every inch of track seemed new and tracked as such. Also, during the Adventure World days, the ending helix was very Dinn-like in that is shuffled, and was fairly rough and uninteresting. Now, it's as it should be, fast lateral-filled and most important - FUN. Still very much a Top 10 ride, IMHO.
Jeff
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-Rob
A.C.E. member since 1990
Posting @ Coasterbuzz since 2000
E.C.C. member since 2002
*** This post was edited by Rob Ascough 9/17/2003 1:39:29 PM ***
Wild One hadn't cracked my top ten before, but THIS year it just might have...:)
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"Ju-ju-just like the bad guy, from Lethal Weapon 2, I've got diplomatic immunity, so Hammer you can't sue, can't touch me...." The Peter Griffin Rap
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-Mike Buscema
'No matter how skilled the designer is, every time we push the envelope we learn new things about coaster design.' --Dana Morgan
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Is there a trim elsewhere on the ride? If so, was it always there, or did it get added after 1986?
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-Rob
A.C.E. member since 1990
Posting @ Coasterbuzz since 2000
E.C.C. member since 2002
"Another boring day at the office begs another silly topic..."
You may have had a boring day at work but boy were you wrong about this topic being silly! It's one of the more enjoyable [non-hijacked[ threads I've read in a long time ;)
mOOSH
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2004 Wood Coaster Calendar now available. Order before Oct 5th and save. See S&D Greetings for details.
Gator, what seats did you sit in? I generally opt for the back seat, so perhaps another seat would provide a more air-filled ride (though I can't imagine that...).
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-Mike Buscema
'No matter how skilled the designer is, every time we push the envelope we learn new things about coaster design.' --Dana Morgan
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*** This post was edited by Vater 9/17/2003 2:45:41 PM ***
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-Rob
A.C.E. member since 1990
Posting @ Coasterbuzz since 2000
E.C.C. member since 2002
lata, jeremy
--who wishes to inform you that tommorrow the Federal Government will be CLOSED
I've tried riding in car#1 row #3(the so called ejector seat) & never seemed to get half as much air as I do when riding in the front seat,without a doubt the front is the place to go if you want some air on this ride.
Rob: the trims were added last season (02) & are located on the angled section of track just before you drop into the helix,sometimes they grab hard & sometimes they're not used at all.
About the original trains that Wild one first ran in 86,does anyone know if they were the same ones used from 92 through 98? I know the original wild world ones were black & red but during the AW era the trains were red with a gold stripe & the other was gold with a red stripe (usually the gold one was the only one in operation) now what I want to know is did they buy new trains between 86 & 92,or were the original black& red ones simply repainted?
Of course in 99 the AW era trains were replaced with the current PTC trains that it runs with today.
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I want to live where it's all the same.
I want to live where it's all just like today.
I want to live where it's always Saturday.
2Hostyl said:
Wild One is still "slick as snot on a doorknob"!
Wow, that is one I have never heard before! Whatever the park did to make it that slick outta pass on the secret to other Six Flags parks... if only our Six Flags in NJ had a wooden coaster that was half as good!
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-Rob
A.C.E. member since 1990
Posting @ Coasterbuzz since 2000
E.C.C. member since 2002
Rob Ascough said:
... if only our Six Flags in NJ had a wooden coaster that was half as good!
Or a steel one! (ba dum ching!) ;)
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www.coasterimage.com
Dorney Park Visits in 2003: 17
The park just has so much potential in the coming years.
As for Wild One, I can't imagine that helix without the trims. It's absolutely insane as it is. My favorite part of the ride is the pop of lateral air you get on the return leg.
The ride is absolutely incredible in my books.
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If I was part of a coaster, I would be an upstop pad on an Arrow Mine Train.
MAGNUM HAD MY BABY!
When Miller designed the upstop safety systems that allowed the trains to be locked to the track, wild rides like Coney's cyclone began to pop up and make the leisurely ride at Paragon Park look mild. In order to keep their guests thrilled the ride was re-designed into a major thriller-named the Giant Coaster.
The Giant indeed lived up to it's name, towering an unheard of 100ft in the air, this ride had a 98 foot first drop an larger air producing camelback, and then a diabolically evil little lane change rabbit hop before the 3plus G force climb to the Triple Down twisting turn around drop. Another rabbit hop lane change lined up with the outbound track and sent the train into another airtime large camelback before dropping again, and coming up and thru the lift stucture. it was just after the lift where the original helix apparently was, which burnt and was replaced by a simple brake run before coming into the station (the opposite direction of today) its popularity even attracted the Kennedy's and Judy Garland in their childhood.
When the ride came to MD the helix was again added, but now it was after the track was modified to ride over the lift for a nice helix view before diving into it's lateral inducing madness. Some say at this point the train hit the helix still doing 50mph.
During its Wild World days the "Wild One" developed a "kink" and the bottom of it's 98 foot drop, which eventually got so bad that the state wouldn't allow it to run w/o modification. Wild World was in finacial trouble and the ride stood closed.
Tierco, a company out of Oklahoma City bought the park, renamed it Adventure World (rising the drop 9 feet) to once again breathe life into this thriller, but other problems arose..... The ride was now much faster on the turn around, and was causing considerable damage to the trun, and to the trains. One winter rehab alone the coaster cost well over $50,000. just in repairs to the wild turn around.
When it was announced that Adventure World would become a six flags park for the 1999 season a 3.5 million dollar rehab began. this rehab sadly removed the wildest portion of the Wild One the turn around, and replaced it with a double up to a banked flat turn to a double down. While this modofocation wasn't greeted with alot of fanfare, it did one thing that was very good. It made the ride infinitly cheaper to run and potentially one of the next coasters to be able to celebrate a century in existance, in just a few short years.
Today the Wild One sits proudly in the Western Territories section of Six Flags America, still wowing people and providing one of the smoothest, fastes rides in the entire eastern United States.
Sam A. Marks
Coaster Zombies Club
*** This post was edited by Sam A. Marks 9/19/2003 8:33:29 AM ***
*** This post was edited by Sam A. Marks 9/19/2003 8:49:19 AM ***
*** This post was edited by Sam A. Marks 9/19/2003 8:54:26 AM ***
Its too bad that the bottom of the drop had to be raised, as it seems as though a fix to the original problem would have made more sense, and would have saved the park from having to spend the money on a redesign of the turnaround. When the turnaround was redesigned, was a speed hill removed on the outbound run in order to make room for the double-up into the turn?
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-Rob
A.C.E. member since 1990
Posting @ Coasterbuzz since 2000
E.C.C. member since 2002
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