Zonga: why oh why?
Why exactly did the great Schwarzkopf legend become part of our past? I'm sorry if this is outdated, I'm just not sure why it closed down. For the past couple weeks when I've been to SFMW, track is sitting in the lot and last week it wasn't there, it was in storage somewhere.
Why?
To the best of my knowledge, SF has tried to run trains with OTSRs on it since day one.....it ran originally without them and was a LEGENDARY ride. With OTSRs it was just painful (see FOF both with and without restraints for example). Despite SF trying to "fix" the ride, it never delivered a good experience...it was never "Thriller".
Real Cbuzz quote of the day -
"The classes i take in collage are so mor adcanced then u could imagen. Dont talk about my emglihs" - Adamforce
Uh. Zonga's closure has nothing to do with how "painful" it was. The ride's system would repeatedly fail in either extreme heat or very cold temperatures. In addition, the drive tires on the lift would slip if it was drizzling, raining, or the air was too moist. So, it was more trouble than wanted.
Prehaps in CA with all the alterations that were made(I heard that as well). In TX it was causing quite a bit of bleeding! I have an enthusiast friend who got a rather bloody mouth from the bashing he took. It was BRUTAL. Remember, it was modified rather extensively after being removed from it's first American location. It was not open with I was at SFMW so I can't comment personally on it's roughness there.
Real Cbuzz quote of the day -
"The classes i take in collage are so mor adcanced then u could imagen. Dont talk about my emglihs" - Adamforce
Was just there last Sunday and took a few pix for an update:
http://www.sfmwzone.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=222&start=15
Still sitting there in the parking lot, not sure if some pieces are in storage as you stated, but doesn't look like it's going anywhere anytime soon.
As for the reason, both of ya'll are actually right. Reliability, costly maintenance and low ridership (1 painful ride was enough for most people) were the main reasons for it's removal.
What really sucked was passing it at SFAW multiple times and it wasn't open at all that year. In a small park like SFAW, it really stood out. Well, if it was a painful ride, than it's a good thing we didn't get on it.
It only ran three days that one year! (That was during the painful bleeding a described :( )
Real Cbuzz quote of the day -
"The classes i take in collage are so mor adcanced then u could imagen. Dont talk about my emglihs" - Adamforce
To survive, Thriller really needed to have trains, and maintenance, that were in keeping with a ride of its intensity...seemingly, it got neither, and would have been better off never leaving Europe... :(
As far as Anton's coasters go, for me, this is "the one that got away"... :(
Well, rain was never a problem with the tire-lift. We still have two remaining Schwarzkopfs in Germany using this system and they even run in the rain.
Maybe it was rain mixed with extreme heat and humidity which caused the problems. But they installed an anti-rollback on Thrillers lifthill, so "slippery when humid" should not have occured anymore.
wiki wiki wiki wiki...ahh shut up!
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