Your favorite Coaster Station House

Dueling Dragons...of course
Hulk...especially when they had the sub turned up so loud that the floor was shaking

and...

The Beast. Back when it was The Beast. Long live the gum tree! (sigh)

Chipster
Wondering if they can bring back the 4 bench cars too...

Here's one that has been gone for 35 years, the Euclid Beach Thriller. I liked the lighting, setting, and the overall art deco design of the facade. Oh...and for all you "metal" fans out there, TTD's station is very asthetic too in it's design and lighting. Probably my favorite metal coaster station of all time.

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

www.woodcoaster.org

Winjas (Phantasialand, Germany)- the station is indistinguishable from the ride(s) itself and vice versa.

Grand National (Blackpool Pleasure Beach, England) - art deco perfection. Hope it's as good post-renovation.

Dueling Dragons (IOA) - yeah, yeah, yeah....

Mr Freeze (SFOT) - well, it's just so sublimely bizarre *** Edited 8/12/2004 11:50:32 PM UTC by Martin V***

Let's see

Hulk and Dueling Dragons (anybody mention these yet :) )

Superman: Ride of Steel

Coney Island Cyclone, just because it's a "classic"

Rock 'n' Rollercoaster

Storm Runner, simple yet cool looking and I love the rock music they blast and the ride effects

Robin: The Chiller (Batman wasn't open, but that too)

Batman: The Ride at SFOG

Anaconda

Montu (except the traffic jam on busy days)

Kraken

Volcano

Basically of the of the BGW ones

FOF

Boring ones:

Stealth/Borg

SUF

Zonga

Deja Vu

Georgia Scorcher

I can think of one that beats Dueling Dragon's, The Mummy.

Also, X was just such a great experience, that station was cool, and The Beast and GhostRider.

Raging Bull and Viper - both have that true "Southwest Territory" look

Batman

Not a coaster, but Bugs' white water rapids at Fiesta Texas has the best themed Que of any ride I have ever seen in person. If you like Bugs and Yosemite Sam this is great. Second also goes to Fiesta Texas with Roadrunner Express.

angnjc, couldn't agree more about SFFT....best theming in the chain *by far*, and does justice to the fantastic staff at the park. Roadrunner Express is themed as well as any ride in Orlando IMO, and that flume ride is just plain awesome...

Six Flags could certainly use more parks like that one in San Antonio...:)

I am in love with TTD's station...it's just...wow. Love it.

lets see...

5. Rock n' Roller Coaster (WDW) - The sight and sound of the launch gets your really pumped for the ride to come.

4. Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (WDW) - I like the whole underground feeling of the actual loading zone. I like the queue better at DL. It gets pretty hot and claustrophobic in the upstairs queue area WDW's.

3. X (SFMM) - I agree it does seem like an event when the train rolls into the station. The station is just so big like a giant airplane hanger...its great.

2. Riddler's Revenge (SFMM) - When it first opened and had the question marks all over the place with the music...very nice especially at night.

1. Space Mountain (DL) - It has that classic outer space theme. I remember riding it for the first time. I was 6 years old. I remember getting scared when we got to the loading area and telling my mom I didn't want to ride anymore. She said "after waiting in this long line, you're gonna ride!". And so I did, and loved it every since!

I think Dueling Dragon's is a perfect example of how a long wait in line should be. Entertaining, and not boring, miserable, and hot. It's basically a walkthrough before you get to the coaster.

As far as the old style wooden stations go.

#1. Lightning Racer.

#2. Mister Twister, The only Elitch Garden's.

#3. Giant Dipper, Santa Cruz

#4. Knoebel's Twister, curved station.

#5. Hersheypark Comet, before the new braking system.

#6. Racer, Kennywood.

#7. Waldameer's Comet, curved station.

#8. Starliner, Miracle Strip, curved station.

#9. San Diego Giant Dipper.

#10. Tivoli Garden, Copenhagen's Scenic Railway,

I don't know how to spell it's name.

I give a thumb's up to Thunderhead for it's flyby through the station. Pretty cool.

How about Journey to Atlantis? I consider it a coaster, however, I only rode it once 3 years ago. so I really don't recall the station all that well.

No. 1 Coney Island Cyclone

No. 2 Hershey Lightning Racer

No. 3 Knoebel's Twister

No. 4 Lakeside Cyclone

No. 5 Excalibur at Funtown, Me

Hold on to you wigs and car keys!!!

MiAdv Corkscrew - SAVE THE STATION!!!!!!

When judging a station, IMHO, one needs to also judge how easy it is to wait for a given row and how much general confusion there is. I also look at the looks of the station as well. Very few stations are good in that way, and seeing I'm feeling pesimistic today, I'm gonna list the worst ones ;) LOL

Viper, SFGAm: Because I love this ride so much, this tops the list. It's a beautiful station from the outside. It's well themed to the Southwest Area of the park, well, too well themed if you ask me, because when you enter the station, you feel like you're at a cattle auction and you're one of the cattle. On hot days it's unbearable in there with the throng of people waiting. Most people don't know exactly what row they are waiting for. In fact, when you enter the station, it will be about a ten to twelve train wait before you ride, if you find a row...

Iron Wolf, SFGAm: What in God's green earth were they thinking when they designed this station. If the wait for the front row goes over two trains, it effectively paralyzes the line and makes it so no one else can get to the other rows. It is so narrow that realisitically only one train worth can wait on the platform at any given time and even THAT will block some rows.

X, Six Flags Magic Mountain: Another beautiful looking station house gone wrong. See Viper for my comments about screwed up lines and not knowing which row you're waiting for. I was waiting an hour and a half once I got into the station and that was without breakdowns. To make matters worse, it was 108 degrees outside and they had no way to keep the station cool.

TTD and MF at night top my list.

Dueling Dragons and Batman: The Ride.

My current favorites are MF and Alpie. MF for the cool music, and the way you can see how steep the lift hill is but can't see the whole thing. It gets me so psyched to ride. Alpie for sticking with a theme and making it work. My all time favorite was the old coaster house for what is now called Thunderhawk at Dorney. The coaster shared the buidling with classic old bumper cars and had a small tunnel going to the lift hill. It had a magic smell of both bumper cars and a classic woody. The top of the building had a giant Alfundo ( Dorney's old clown mascot) juggling balls. I wish CF had kept that building.

My faves in no particular order:

Alpengeist - the ski lodge theme as well as the general area around it is sweet.

PKI Vortex - I'm glad they kept the old Bat station. I dig the Victorian mansion look of it.

TTD - Definitely the multi-colored ceiling at night and the fact that you can look into it from the midway.

CP Corkscrew - not sure why but it really is a 70's station.

Villain - fits in well with the western area at Geauga Lake.

Iron Dragon - I really like the modern medieval look to it.

The Beast - it just has a cool atmosphere being that far back in the park.

X Factor

I have to add Batman Knight Flight and Superman at SFNE to the list. Both were very neat when I was up there a few weeks ago.

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Matt Scott said:
My four favorites:

Lightning Racer--beautiful!

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Definitely. Lightning Racer's station is awesome.