Will we see more reprofiled Arrows?

After riding Phantom's Revenge for the first time this summer, I was blown away! And judging by it's ranking in the top 10 steel coasters, I am not alone in feeling this way.

So why isn't there more of this going on? There certainly are enough mediocre Arrows to do this to. Is it because Morgan is no longer in the coaster biz? It doesn't seem like it would be too expensive, certainly much cheaper than a new coaster.

Just wondering :)

When did Morgan get out of the coaster biz?

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For those about to ROCK, WE SALUTE YOU!!!!!

Morgan isn't out of the business. They've merged with Chance (www.chancemorgan.com) but they're definitely still making coasters.

-Nate

There really aren't many Arrows that can be "re-shafted" a la PR....you need a *stretched layout* or there really isn't any way I can see it being feasible.....the megaloopers really are too compact IMO for this sort of modification to make much sense....

Phantom was unique amoung Arrow loopers in its exceptional first 2 hills that made it ideal from conversion to a looper to a hyper. This really wasn't just a reprofiling. Morgan built a complete new coaster after the first 2 hills.

A far more economical and practical conversion for most Arrow loopers would be to rebuild or replace the trains in the same basic manner that Premier has done on their trains. While Arrow may not be able to do this with their financial condition, it could be a nice market for someone else, maybe even Premier. Certainly the parks have benefited from the positive public reaction to the conversions. I've seen Premiers go from walkons to consistent half hour waits.

Jim, you got that right.....last time at PKI, FoF was running about 40 mins....I liked the line better "in the old days", but the ride improvement more than makes up for it....:). Kudos to PKI for going ahead with the project, and to Premier for making the trains SO much better...now if the station were just high enough so that ops could do restraint checks without needing chiropractic treatment...(which would reduce waits, too)....

Too bad Drachen Fire could not have been reprofiled. I really would have liked to ride it. The pictures I have seen of it and the glance I got of it when I was at BGW really make me want to ride it. But that might be hard.

I wish Viper @ SFDL would get profiled that would be sweet. It would make a great ride even better.

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Hyper Rails The Best thing Since Sliced bread!

Hey, as I posted in SFGAm Riddle, Shcok Wave's trains are currently MIA, and the coaster hasn't been torn down yet...

The last time that I checked, Chance-Morgan only does non-looping coasters. Could they reprofile only the existing Arrow hypercoasters? Could Drachen Fire have been a mini hypertwister? Or, will they start designing inversions?

I would like to see more reprofiling. It is a neat way to "recharge" a rollercoaster and it gives the regulars a different point of view of the park while riding it. I heard that the Steel Phantom reprofiling cost Kennywood $7 million.

I'd love to see redesigned trains instead. You gotta wonder what an Arrow megalooper would be like without OTSRs, or what a mine train ride would be like in cars without side panels. Just a thought.

-'Playa

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The CPlaya 100--6 days, 9 parks, 47 coasters, 2037 miles and a winner.....LoCoSuMo.

I'd definitely like to see Magnum with some new trains - preferably ones that you can actually get into without breaking your legs.

Um, I know this could be construed as nitpicky, but I think it's worth mentioning...

Did Morgan actually "reprofile" the Steel Phantom? Or did they totally re-build it? As far as I can tell, it's a whole new ride, that just happens to share some of the old supports. I mean, ALL the track is new, the trains are new, and I'll bet that the gears, chain, and station drive system had to be replaced (to work with the new trains). The supports for the first two hills might be the same (I'm not sure abotu this... they look the same...), but all the rest are new. I mean, come on. This is a new coaster. In fact, the only reason it's called a "re-profiled" version of a ride is the fact that much of the old ride's profile is the same as the new one!

(SF)GA - no offense but you didn't follow the change from Steel Phantom to Phantom's Revenge closely, did you?

Not all of Phantom Revenge's track is new, only the portion from the top of the second drop to the brake run. The rest [brake run, station, lift, first drop to the top of the second drop] is all original Arrow track. Morgan made their track the same gauge as the Arrow track. Next time you're at the park look at where the second drop begins...you can clearly see where the Arrow track ends and the Morgan track begins.

Also, Morgan simply removed the chasis from the old Arrow trains and built new fiberglass ones w/ lapbars. Everything below the shiny new green and purple fiberglass is the original Arrow train [well, OK...the wheels were most likely new as well].

I also believe much of the original electical work, brakes, and lift mechanisms remained as well. Since the bottom of the trains are the old Arrow chasis nothing new needed to be added.

However you are right on one thing: what is left of the original Arrow track was not reprofiled.

Moosh

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"Mmmmm....forbidden donut!" - Homer Simpson

*** This post was edited by Mamoosh on 9/19/2002. ***

Mamoosh, I just checked out some pictures on the RCDB, and you are absoloutly right. I could swear that those pictures showed Morgan track before. oh, well. Everyone, please pretty much disregard my previous post.

No worries, (SF)GA. I hope you didn't think I was flamming you, I wasn't.

Moosh

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"Mmmmm....forbidden donut!" - Homer Simpson

Vipper said:
I'd definitely like to see Magnum with some new trains - preferably ones that you can actually get into without breaking your legs.

Yes, save the leg breaking for the ride itself :-D

OK, everyone can hate me now, but we all saw it coming.

The ride has been doing pretty good lately, actually. when you get a good "loose" ride, it doesn't hurt too bad.

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I could even keep Maggie's trains IF (huge IF) we could get some nice tight springs that would KEEP the lapbars in the position they were when we leave the station.....Unfortunately for us, there seems to be a significant trend in the industry for those loose lapbar springs that come slamming down at the first sign of positive g's.....oh well....thank goodness for KG's Twister, the one coaster with trains that "buck" the trend....

http://www.coastergallery.com/2000/KW28.html

There is the transition for Arrow 2 Morgan.

Here's an even clearer view of the transition.

As Moosh said, significant parts of the old Phantom were reused. What I find amazing is the lap bar retrofit on the old Arrow chassis.

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--Greg
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