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Busch Gardens Tampa | Iron Gwazi | RMC Gwazi | 2022

CoasterMac305 said:
Where'd you pull Hakugei's price tag from? would like to see that
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tomahawk said:
I mean, the big draw for single rail is it lowers manufacturing cost? Wasn't that the big point when it was introduced?

I'm gonna call bull :emoji_poop: on those numbers without some evidence. I can't imagine a world where Hakugei is only 8 million less than Fury, even taking into account demolition costs and factoring in for added supports for earthquakes.

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I think that was the big draw of the Raptor Track, since it's much smaller than the TRex.

Links:

Hakugei:
https://rcdb.com/15515.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hakugei_(roller_coaster)
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=2.8+billion+Yen&t=ironbrowser&ia=currency

https://rcdb.com/11662.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Texas_Giant

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outlaw_Run
https://rcdb.com/10582.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Rattler

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storm_Chaser_(roller_coaster)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wicked_Cyclone

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wildfire_(Kolmården_Wildlife_Park) -lists conversion to USD-
ps://rcdb.com/12032.htm

https://rcdb.com/13369.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightning_Rod_(roller_coaster)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fēnix_(roller_coaster)
https://rcdb.com/14717.htm
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=€13,000,000&t=ironbrowser&ia=currency
hmmm, rcdb says 17 million vs 13 million. Maybe that's including all the theming/new area?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fury_325

I can't remember where I heard about TRex being so expensive, but I'm 99% sure it was an interview video with Fred Grubb, might have been with Schilke.

As far as cost of IBox track, I've heard that a few places, one of them during a backstage tour of NTG. I remember the Six Flags guy commenting about how expensive it was. I think I've also heard that from another Six Flags guy high up in the chain during some event at Magic Mountain or some other park, I can't exactly remember.

Another interesting fact most people don't know, but some of you guys might: IBox track is lighter weight than standard wooden track, because it's so hollow. If it wasn't for that, I doubt they'd be able to do some of the stuff they're doing.


Another interesting fact: The Ghostrider conversion, they use a special hardwood from brazil. It's so hard they can't hit it in with nails, they have to use power tools. This is because Ghostrider is actually the longest operating modern wooden coaster by hours of use, due to the climate and Knott's being open pretty much year round. They only use this wood where it's needed. The pre lift and lift don't have it. For example: During the first major airtime hill, it's only on the underside and sides. During the valley's it's on the top side and sides. During the helix, it's only on the left side. If you watch a POV, you can see this at this special hardwood is a darker color. Maybe they should do this to more coasters in harsh climates, or offer it at the beginning? What if Gwazi had this treatment?

Example:
You can see, during the first airtime hill, where the darker wood is on the underside and side rails, and then where the valley starts the darker wood transitions to the top and side rails. Then, during that next left turn, you can see how it's only on the right top rail.
 
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I'm still going to take many of those price tags with a grain of salt - especially the ones from only Wikipedia. The authors of said articles didn't properly cite the info and in some cases stated that they're estimated costs.

Regarding RMC track design itself - I would think it'd be cheaper since they're cutting a few sheets of steel plate, bending them, and welding them in a box as opposed to taking the time to line up a bunch of cross ties and weld many of them to a few tubes. Maybe the fact that they can't just bend some generic tube like everyone else is the reason as to why it's supposedly more expensive.

Regarding T-Rex track specifically...it's intended to be used for an absolutely monumental coaster that's well over 300 feet tall. The sheer scale of the ride is the main driver behind its cost.

Regarding Brazilian Walnut. It was actually Kings Island's maintenance department that began investigating the wood to improve the longevity of The Beast. They introduced GCI to the material when they were hired to do track work on The Beast almost a decade ago now, and they started experimenting with it shortly afterwards. It's neat to see that their current solution is to use it smartly and sparingly, especially since their Carpenters absolutely hate the wood with a living passion for the reasons Jcoasters stated. I attended FREDxGCI back in 2014 and they had two full scale mockups of two elements behind their shop as a demonstrator of the wood. The entire structure was Brazilian Walnut - the Carpenters were not pleased.
 
I don't know, rcdb has them too. They tend to be pretty reliable, and to be fair, Wikipedia is anything but an open encyclopedia. If I were to go on and try and list Fury 325 as a 525 foot tall coaster, it would get modded pretty quick. That's one of the reasons I dislike it, personally. If it's something unrelated to coasters, sometimes I think they're totally biased, whoever gets to decide what information is deemed as standard.

I'm no engineer, but I've heard from many souces: youtube interviews and in person at behind the scenes tours, that RMC track is very expensive to produce.

1: Lets's compare it to generic tube track: You bend the tubes, the cross ties are cut out by lasers and are all the same, you just place them on evenly
2: Intamin/Mack/Gerst/triangle/box track. Same thing. bend the tubes, manually welding cut out laser peices, I assume
3: B&M Track. Box spine pieces and cross ties and cut out by lasers, than welded together. The tubes are shipped in from Switzerland and welded to the rest.

RMC track:

Peices of flat steel are cut out. Like some other companies/techniques with pre bent tubes, a grid is placed on the floor and markers are made and adjusted to exact specifications on the grid. Than, the pieces are bent by hand to fit the struts laid out on the grid. After this, all of the pieces are welded together.

If you have a piece that also has lateral movement, let's say a roll, something like an "s" shape or whatever is cut out, and then it gets bended from there by hand, as you can only bend the steel pieces the one way. For a flat turn, like from brake run to station, I'd imagine it's just all laser cut out, no hand bending is required.

The result is the smoothest track in the industry, even though no bending machines are involved, it's all hand bent.

Of course, RMC is a premium product, they don't cut corners anywhere. I think they are very comparable to B&M in terms of quality. They also pretty much have cornered the market: no one else does, or can do what they do. The inverting GG's don't really compare. They've also massively changed the industry as you know.

GCI is obviously higher quality than GG in terms of construction, which is why they're pretty expensive too. I mean, according to Wikipedia, Mystic Timbers was $15 million in 2017 compared to $12 million for Wildfire in 2016, and Wildfire has a longer track length! Maybe the no catwalks and steel support structure on the drop/lift helps.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mystic_Timbers
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wildfire_(Kolmården_Wildlife_Park)

But RMC definitely has the ease of maintenance.


That info about the Brazilian Walnut is fascinating, thank you.
 
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That Mystic Timbers number initially seems like it'd be way too high, but lumber costs apparently more than doubled in the timespan since Prowler was built, which cost $8,000,000. One would think that two similar rides sitting on similar terrain would have a similar cost, but that's not the case when the main construction material has a price hike. That bit of data actually makes all the other numbers much more believable as well.
 
Antinos said:
That Mystic Timbers number initially seems like it'd be way too high, but lumber costs apparently more than doubled in the timespan since Prowler was built, which cost $8,000,000. One would think that two similar rides sitting on similar terrain would have a similar cost, but that's not the case when the main construction material has a price hike. That bit of data actually makes all the other numbers much more believable as well.
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Also, I’ll include the facts that Great Coasters International (with Skyline Attractions’ help) had to design that coaster’s layout around multiple preexisting rides, as well as engineer a structure that would allow Mystic Timbers’ layout to cross that pond owned by the government.
 
Yeah, that definitely seems like it would eat up costs.

I'd like to know the cost of Goliath, as that's the only topper track build on relatively normal ground.
 
Kinda crazy to think how RMC has literally taken over the entire industry in a little more then 5 years. Goes to show the genius of Alan Schilke and basically everyone at RMC really.
 
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