Wooden coaster maintenance....
This was started by the reliability thread....OK, just as a sort of exercise in futility (hey, here at work it's the only exercise I get)...thought it's be cool to rank parks accoridng to woodie maintenance. We normally assume smaller parks do a better job - and that's usually, but not always the case.
My thought is that HW obviously "sets the standard" - many thanks to Jeff H. and the support he receives from the HW family - so I'll assign an arbitrary score of 100. SFGAdv (sorry guys) has the worst wooden coaster maintenance of any park I've been to....so I'd assign them a 5 (same scale, 0 - 100). Name your park, name your woodies, give a rating for how well they run.....just for fun!
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....teachin' people about towel safety and proper towel usage...it's important!
Big Chief's does a real great job keeping their 3 CCI's running smooth and consistant at all times. I always get a good ride out of them. They also added roofs to their stations improving them even more now. I would give them a 95
Great America does an OK job. They have kept up Viper real well and they have done some retracking on Eagle but last year one side(cant remember which one) was really bad. I would give them a 40.
These are the only two parks I can speak with any accuracy on.
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Bob Hansen
Bolliger/Mabillard for President/VP 2004
Well, Despite first year problems with Sonny, It is very rare that any of the woodies at PKI are not running.
I give them a A for reliablility, B for how for how they run and F for restraints on the PTC's
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Charles Nungester
Americana (Now called The great americana amusement park at Lesourdsville Lake) is opening in 2002. Indivdual visits are very improtant to the parks survival.
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"Attention all Time Travel Commitee Members; the reasearch and development meeting will take place last friday at O-Three-Hundred hours. Do not be late."
I have to agree with you there, MisterX.....SFoG woodies were "rough and tumble" rides, but not bad rough at all...and I managed several re-rides on both. GASM wasn't quite as good as last year's closing days, but still WAY fun, and FULL of air...the tracers just put it "over the top", as did the ride crew.......good meeting you!
Ga Cyclone, was WAY better than last year - the park reps said there was some major work to do in the off-season, and I applaud heartily the effort....the ride was brought back to life!
Springer's final thought: I guess I should have clarified in the original post, but I'm referring more to the CONDITION of the rides than to downtime issues....if it runs all the time but runs horribly, that shouldn't get a good grade on this particular "exercise"....
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....teachin' people about towel safety and proper towel usage...it's important!
*** This post was edited by rollergator on 5/3/2002. ***
Six Flags New England definitely puts forth some effort, but still leaves something to be desired.
The Thunderbolt is usually quite smooth, and there is often new wood on the track meaning that it is often a nice smooth ride, The fact that the ride still uses skid brakes (although they are not manually operated) is nice, and the lack of ratcheting lapbars is also a huge plus. The ride could use a good coat of paint though. I don't think it's had one since 1998 or so, and all of the new track is unpainted.
The Cyclone woodie was unbearably rough at the end of last season, but on opening day this year, it was noticeably better. There was a lot of new wood (unpainted of course) all over the track. Unfortunately, they added a trim heading into the second helix, but the laterals are still awesome. They reprofiled the first drop maneuver last season and that section has still yet to receive a new coat of paint. The biggest problem however is the horrible squeak of the train. Some lubrication would definitely be a good thing.
I'll give SFNE a 40 for putting in more effort than some other Six Flags parks, but still not quite being where they need to be in order to keep their two woodies in workd-class condition.
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Erik Johnson
Theme Park New England
Save Whalom Park!
Well i would give Canobie Lake Park a 95
There painting Yankee Cannonball for this season, and the ride always seems to run really good. And every time ive been there, its never broken down.
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Im the #1 Canobie Lake Park Fan!!!These are my top 3 coasters:
1. S:RoS @ SFNE 2. Yankee Cannonball 3. Cyclone
I would give SFA a 100 for the Wild One and Roar. These woodies are kept in EXCELLENT Condition.
PKD though needs some work. Their woodies, even Hurler, are extremely rough. I would give them a 35.
rollergator said:
SFGAdv (sorry guys) has the worst wooden coaster maintenance of any park I've been to....so I'd assign them a 5 (same scale, 0 - 100).
LOL.....I am a Great Adventure ho but I can't disagree with you there. Sometimes I wonder if they deliberately want it to rot away so they can have an excuse to build something else in its stead. I dunno. Great America (Paramount) also deserves a -50 for Grizzly. All of their coasters for that matter are rough save Psycho Mouse and Demon. Top Gun was the roughest BMer Ive been on.
SFWoA I give a 80.
They keep the wooden coasters running nicley, except RWB since its the trains they need!
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BKF Rides-0
SFWoA Online
**STAFF**
SFA - 90 Does a very good job
Hershey - 70 LR is beautiful. Comet very good. Wildcat needed retracking last year. If Wildcat got what it needed ove the winter this could come up to a 90-95 range.
PKD - 55 None are really bad or great. Grizzly could be a top rank woodie if got the maintenance to run its best consistantly.
Williams Grove - 10 Ejector air on the warps in the track.
Knobels - 105 They not only maintain them great, they build them great.
*** This post was edited by Jim Fisher on 5/3/2002. ***
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Webmaster of Travis's Websites of Infinite Boredom!
Less than 2 weeks until SFGAm opens!
-l(saying woodies are different every day)
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SFEG awaits The Flying Coaster-coming in 2002!
Knoebels does love there woodies. Every year they keep running flawless. Once in a while the trains will squeal on the Phoenix on the turnarounds. Usually they add some grease to the track and they quiet down. They get a 100 and a gold star to boot. Phoenix and Twister 100%
Dorney on the other hand need help. Although a good bit of Hercules was replaced last season it's still bumpy. Thunderhawk runs pretty good though. Hercules a 20% Thawk 80%
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