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Wooden Coaster (Prefabricated Track)

sparky2u

sparky2u

Mega Poster
Wonder why this type of wood coaster has not taken off as there are only 4 in the world. Love their smoothness & masses of "Airtime", suppose to be easy to look after as well.

Wish "Thorpe Park" could build one of these coasters in the water area which the log-flume goes round the outside.
 
I know the guy who checks the track on El Toro, the inspection and maintenance of it is extremely strict compared to other wooden coasters. With all the forces in El Toro and Intamin's knack to make them as extreme as possible the cost of maintenance is also a lot higher than GCIi's coasters and closer to the realm of Gravity Group's, who also design a lot of force into their coasters.Manufacturing prices I'm not 100% sure about, I think El Toro cost like 10-12 mil but I really am not sure.
 
I agree, they are amazing and there should be more of them, but i can see why parks would prefer to buy a GCI because they are cheaper and can be targeted for families and thrill seekers.
 
Trying to see what the actual "poll" or "opinion" aspect of this topic is.

Think that three of the four are great rides, with Balder only being in the "good" category.

Wish people would put a subject in their "sentences".
 
^ See what you did there. Should perhaps move this to General Discussions?

But yeah, I myself have wondered why more Intamin prefabs haven't been built. It's got to be the maintenance costs. Considering the emerging trend of hybrid woodies, which I imagine may be slightly more expensive up front but easier and cheaper to maintain in the long haul, we may not see many more.

This also begs the question, do Intamin megas have the same issues? The last one to be built was Thunder Dolphin in 2003, and it's already been closed.
 
sparky2u said:
Wonder why this type of wood coaster has not taken off as there are only 4 in the world. Love their smoothness & masses of "Airtime", suppose to be easy to look after as well.

Wish "Thorpe Park" could build one of these coasters in the water area which the log-flume goes round the outside.
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Why the air quotes? Are those things not real? :wink:
 
madhjsp said:
^ See what you did there. Should perhaps move this to General Discussions?

But yeah, I myself have wondered why more Intamin prefabs haven't been built. It's got to be the maintenance costs. Considering the emerging trend of hybrid woodies, which I imagine may be slightly more expensive up front but easier and cheaper to maintain in the long haul, we may not see many more.

[b]This also begs the question, do Intamin megas have the same issues? The last one to be built was Thunder Dolphin in 2003, and it's already been closed.
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[/b]

I was under the impression Skyrush was a Mega, and it was sort of built this year.
 
Wow, totally forgot Skyrush. Didn't show up when I RCDB'd Intamin mega coasters & just slipped my mind. Anyway, that's still a roughly 9 year gap between megacoasters (7 years if you count I305). It's also noteworthy that these two rides both use a completely different track style from that of Intamin's previous megas. Since this new design isn't any cheaper up front (I305 & Skyrush each reportedly cost around $25 million), I'm guessing it's supposed to be easier to maintain and more cost-effective long-term than the previous track style.

I guess I've just answered my own question. :roll:
 
Skyrush uses that track system because they didn't want to have a city of supports jammed into the river (they went through a lot of **** just to get it approved, before other rides weren't allowed to be supported into the river), I don't know why the hell i305 has it.
 
Right, since I305 and Formula Rossa both have similar double-spined track, I'm assuming it's intended to hold up better to the high stresses those rides place on their track. Same goes for Skyrush. I don't know that being able to use fewer supports has much to do with it.
 
Its a mixture of both. The double spine makes the track support higher forces, plus it also has the added benefit of not needing as many supports to hold it up.

Bmac, I believe you are only partially correct about the creek. The side in which the corkscrew of Great Bear is located doesnt allow supports to be built there, at all; however, I dont believe they had to readilly jump through as many hoops as what you believe as the side Rush is located on is man-made (I will confirm this later after I talk to some friends) and they were restricted to how many supports they could use in the creek.
 
Intricks said:
Its a mixture of both. The double spine makes the track support higher forces, plus it also has the added benefit of not needing as many supports to hold it up.

Bmac, I believe you are only partially correct about the creek. The side in which the corkscrew of Great Bear is located doesnt allow supports to be built there, at all; however, I dont believe they had to readilly jump through as many hoops as what you believe as the side Rush is located on is man-made (I will confirm this later after I talk to some friends) and they were restricted to how many supports they could use in the creek.
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I thought it was banned everywhere on the creek, since even Comet and Sooper have bridges over the river. I think Comet has some little supports in areas of the river but I'm not 100% sure.
 
I actually believe Comet is on a bridge where it crosses the creek. Im not 100% on that, but I believe it has a form of structure built underneath it (I only said ridge as that is what it looks like to me).

No, they were allowed an alloted amount on the side Skyrush was built in. I believe it had changed after Bear was built, but I will need to double check.
 
Intricks said:
I actually believe Comet is on a bridge where it crosses the creek. Im not 100% on that, but I believe it has a form of structure built underneath it (I only said ridge as that is what it looks like to me).

No, they were allowed an alloted amount on the side Skyrush was built in. I believe it had changed after Bear was built, but I will need to double check.
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I was just there, it does. Skyrush is the only ride that even THINKS about touching that water.
 
Ok, I wasnt going crazy then lol.

However, I gotta clear up some horrendous misinformation on MY end.

Apparently Hershey, in order to get approval for Skyrush, had to go through far more hoops than what bmac could have been suggesting. From my friends, they said Hershey had to do years (no few or several....just years >_>) worth of Environmental Impact studies just for the approval for the supports. Plus the approval they had to get for the daming of the creek as well for construction to begin.

Lastly, they said it not only had to go through local, but state and possible Federal Agencies as well (not sure what he meant, but possibly involving the studies).

I really need to start paying a lot more attention to detail when reading something I don't consider all too important >,> As when I was reading their responses to my inquiries, it sounded far too familiar...my memory is **** at times :lol:
 
Depends on how many loops you were saying they had to go through :lol:

I still dont have a complete answer to what I asked, so god only knows how many stipulations they had to deal with for the ride itself.
 
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