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Gardaland Retracking Shaman

CSLKennyNI

CSLKennyNI

Giga Poster
Pictures from Gardaland Fan Page on Facebook show that track from the park's Vekoma looping coaster Shaman has been removed. Its unknown yet whether this is for maintenance, a retracking or complete removal of the ride.
FB_IMG_1605137020108.jpg

https://www.facebook.com/272825666091848/posts/4626558117385226
 
Oo right. Definitely bits sawn off rather than taken down by the looks of things. Perhaps they're doing an Efteling but I highly doubt that. I would have thought you'd remove specific pieces for a small retrack. Hm.

Edit: The more I think about this the more I think it must be a removal. Unfortunately it looks like this winter may be living up to its feared destiny of ride removals and closures.
 
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SilverArrow said:
Oo right. Definitely bits sawn off rather than taken down by the looks of things. Perhaps they're doing an Efteling but I highly doubt that. I would have thought you'd remove specific pieces for a small retrack. Hm.

Edit: The more I think about this the more I think it must be a removal. Unfortunately it looks like this winter may be living up to its feared destiny of ride removals and closures.
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They probably are doing an Efteling. It was only redone in 2017 and i still couldn't pronounce it's new name Shaman or Sharman pronounced? This is interesting though, i thought sequoia would go first!
 
SilverArrow said:
Oo right. Definitely bits sawn off rather than taken down by the looks of things. Perhaps they're doing an Efteling but I highly doubt that. I would have thought you'd remove specific pieces for a small retrack. Hm.

Edit: The more I think about this the more I think it must be a removal. Unfortunately it looks like this winter may be living up to its feared destiny of ride removals and closures.
Click to expand...

These old steel coasters were welded together, so the only way to remove track is to cut it apart. That being said, these cuts are fairly clean. They have taken at least some care to remove the track, unlike Python where they mangled the old track as they removed it.

This leads me to agree with you and believe that they are removing it altogether with the intention of trying to sell it. I hope I am wrong though as I would love to see it get the CSM rebuild like Python.
 
Indy said:
These old steel coasters were welded together, so the only way to remove track is to cut it apart. That being said, these cuts are fairly clean. They have taken at least some care to remove the track, unlike Python where they mangled the old track as they removed it.

This leads me to agree with you and believe that they are removing it altogether with the intention of trying to sell it. I hope I am wrong though as I would love to see it get the CSM rebuild like Python.
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That's a very knowledgeable and interesting though tbf! Either that or the track isn't welded together that well which i hope isn't the case :p. The ride is 35 years old though, that's old than some rides out there like Anaconda, Vortex (Carowinds) and Viper!
 
Indy said:
These old steel coasters were welded together, so the only way to remove track is to cut it apart. That being said, these cuts are fairly clean. They have taken at least some care to remove the track, unlike Python where they mangled the old track as they removed it.

This leads me to agree with you and believe that they are removing it altogether with the intention of trying to sell it. I hope I am wrong though as I would love to see it get the CSM rebuild like Python.
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Lots of old coasters have been relocated without being cut up, so I think that would be more of a case-by-case thing, or perhaps an old vekoma thing? I can imagine that they may weld them over time if there are specific issues so perhaps that is the case here. It could also be bigger sections cut in half for disposal.

We're going to need some more images to know much more I think. Judging by the amount of shares on the source material I expect someone will go and try and have a look again soon!

Although it's old, it's one of the smoother old vekomas out there with new style trains so it could go either way. I agree that blue tornado would have been a better choice for removal though if that is the case!
 
I would double check this on social media for yourselves but Gardaland replied to someone's comment somewhere confirming it is a refurbishment. However, on Italian theme park forums, it is heavily rumoured the interior of Ramses, Gardaland's dark ride, will be ripped out for a new 2022 attraction... Only time will tell
 
Coaster Chall YouTube said:
I would double check this on social media for yourselves but Gardaland replied to someone's comment somewhere confirming it is a refurbishment. However, on Italian theme park forums, it is heavily rumoured the interior of Ramses, Gardaland's dark ride, will be ripped out for a new 2022 attraction... Only time will tell
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That's interesting. Any source would be good if anyone has it.
 
peep said:
That would be disappointing, I love Ramses.
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Yh absolutely. Someone else did comment on my video about Shaman when I learned this and this is the reply: "The strongest rumour points to an indoor family coaster of some sort, more likely launched, but a dark ride would be cool as well". So, what would people wanna see - Gardaland's own indoor Verbolten/Th13teen with a launch element or Gardaland's own dark ride experience?
 
SilverArrow said:
Lots of old coasters have been relocated without being cut up, so I think that would be more of a case-by-case thing, or perhaps an old vekoma thing?...
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Sorry, I should have been more specific. The standard practice for old Arrow and Vekoma coaster was to weld them together. So, the tube of the track pieces would be welded together, and the track-to-structure connections on the track were then welded to a plate at the top of the support structure. These rides can still be relocated, but it's a more difficult process. Care must be taken when cutting the ride apart.

In general, the industry has moved away from welds in favor of bolted connections. Nevertheless, you can still see this practice of welding track to the structure in coasters built in the 21st century. Superman el Ultimo Escape at Six Flags Mexico comes to mind.
 
Indy said:
Sorry, I should have been more specific. The standard practice for old Arrow and Vekoma coaster was to weld them together. So, the tube of the track pieces would be welded together, and the track-to-structure connections on the track were then welded to a plate at the top of the support structure. These rides can still be relocated, but it's a more difficult process. Care must be taken when cutting the ride apart.

In general, the industry has moved away from welds in favor of bolted connections. Nevertheless, you can still see this practice of welding track to the structure in coasters built in the 21st century. Superman el Ultimo Escape at Six Flags Mexico comes to mind.
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Ah right. It makes sense that they've moved away from that because it doesn't seem ideal. Interesting how other older manufacturers never went down this route though, perhaps cost?

Looks like we're in the refurb camp now then. I wonder how much they're retracking. ?
 
SilverArrow said:
Ah right. It makes sense that they've moved away from that because it doesn't seem ideal. Interesting how other older manufacturers never went down this route though, perhaps cost?
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It is certainly not ideal. Welds eventually fatigue, crack, and fail. If a bolt starts to fatigue, you just replace the bolt. It's a lot harder to adequately fix a weld. And yeah, welding an entire ride together in place is pretty tedious.

Other manufacturers certainly used similar practices back in the day, but their rides simply weren't as prevalent as Vekoma and Arrow. Many of the surviving coasters for older steel manufacturers are portable models, which obviously require bolted connections. Scorpion at BGT has been there for 40 years, but was a portable model so it is all bolted together.

Anyway, I feel like I'm digressing a little. Back to Shaman speculation!
 
Indy said:
It is certainly not ideal. Welds eventually fatigue, crack, and fail. If a bolt starts to fatigue, you just replace the bolt. It's a lot harder to adequately fix a weld. And yeah, welding an entire ride together in place is pretty tedious.

Other manufacturers certainly used similar practices back in the day, but their rides simply weren't as prevalent as Vekoma and Arrow. Many of the surviving coasters for older steel manufacturers are portable models, which obviously require bolted connections. Scorpion at BGT has been there for 40 years, but was a portable model so it is all bolted together.

Anyway, I feel like I'm digressing a little. Back to Shaman speculation!
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Oh yes, I know, hence why I said it wasn't ideal. I was just commenting that not all old coasters are welded.
 
I also really hope that this isn't the end of the ride. It was my first big coaster and it still rode surprisingly great last May (I'd say it was even smoother than Raptor on the day).

And yeah, while the retheme and repaint were fairly recent (some five or so years ago), they were made with the intent of making it a VR attraction that never ended up working properly, so I wouldn't count on that being the proof of the ride being safe.

I do agree with the others that Blue Tornado needs to go first if anything. It's rough as pants and it sits on a better plot of land.
 
TilenB said:
I also really hope that this isn't the end of the ride. It was my first big coaster and it still rode surprisingly great last May (I'd say it was even smoother than Raptor on the day).

And yeah, while the retheme and repaint were fairly recent (some five or so years ago), they were made with the intent of making it a VR attraction that never ended up working properly, so I wouldn't count on that being the proof of the ride being safe.

I do agree with the others that Blue Tornado needs to go first if anything. It's rough as pants and it sits on a better plot of land.
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Yh Blue Tornado should definitely go because it is not all great! I always hoped Sequoia or Blue Tornado would go first as they are definitely the worse rollercoasters at Gardaland!
 
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