Blog

October 9, 2011

I probably have a soft spot in my heart for the SkyTrail® Ropes Course we installed at Nickelodeon Universe because it was our first project in collaboration with our friends at Ropes Courses, Inc.  While not a coaster, the structure is imposing as it looms over the entire park.  It stands 4 stories tall, but it is also set about 13 feet above the midway, which really allows the blue and green structure to make a statement.

Every time I go on this attraction, called “Flying Dutchman Ghostly Gangplank” by the park, I admit that I get a little nervous.  Now, I have climbed on coasters, tower rides, and a lot of vertical structures, but even that does not quite prepare me to scamper across a rope or two while hanging 60 feet in the air.  The crowning jewel of the entire installation is the “plank”.  This was the first time that Ropes Courses, Inc. installed this element and it has proven to be a huge winner.  Guests that climb all the way to the fourth story are greeted by three elements.  There is the plank in the middle, and then on either side is a simple element, one has just two ropes that criss-cross and form an “x” on at the bottom with a simple assistance rope on top, and the other has essentially a rope ladder laid on its side.  These lead out to the plank, which I approached with a little trepidation the first time I climbed, but kids about one-third of my age loved.  Here you walk out on a dead-end, see the bright colors of Nickelodeon Universe all around you, and use both hands to pull the foghorn.  The trick here is that the foghorn only goes if both ropes are pulled, which means you need to completely let go of your harness.  I did it, but it certainly was not easy the first time.  However, every time I visit now I feel like an old pro.

If you are in the neighborhood we recommend you stop by.  There are 3 Ride Entertainment projects in the park, the “Fairly Odd Coaster” (a Gerstlauer Spinning Coaster), SpongeBob Sqaure Pants Rock Bottom Plunge (a Gerstlauer Euro-Fighter), and the afore-mentioned SkyTrail® from Ropes Courses, Inc.  All of their ticket information is at: http://www.nickelodeonuniverse.com/ticketpurchasing.html and it is worth the extra price to go for a climb.

September 27, 2011

We wanted to take a quick moment here and say “thank you” to Ron Toomer, who passed away yesterday.  For those who don’t know, he was a key part of Arrow Dynamics (Arrow Development) for decades, beginning in the 1950’s.  As someone who was part of the growth of the modern steel roller coaster, Toomer was a key reason why the steel coaster did more things in different ways than designers ever thought possible.  Some of his creations, such as “Magnum XL-200” and the “Big Bad Wolf” were groundbreaking attractions, others, such as the “Bat”, had their share of issues.  Regardless, in the 1970’s and 80’s it was Toomer and his team that competed with Germany’s Anton Schwarzkopf as steel coasters got bigger, faster and taller.  Rides like Cedar Point’s “Corkscrew”, which is now an afterthought at that park, were media darlings.  That particular coaster generated attention and lines down the midway, even with three train operation.  Ron’s contributions were honored by the industry.  In 2000, he was inducted to the IAAPA Hall of Fame (http://www.iaapa.org/aboutus/hof/RonToomer.html).

His designs also got people interested in the amusement industry.  Like many people in my thirties who are now in the amusement industry, especially on the supply side, I remember being excited when I saw promo material for “Steel Phantom” (http://youtu.be/Etk9xieGIs4) and “Drachen Fire” (http://youtu.be/EXIjRwDhQJI) in the early 1990’s and was floored by the unique design direction these rides were taken.  A big thank you goes out to Ron and his contribution to the amusement industry, which spanned five decades.

September 19, 2011

We could not help but be proud as Larry Chickola from Six Flags Engineering and Sharon Parker from Six Flags over Texas were called onto stage. On Saturday, September 19 we were at the Golden Ticket awards, which were being hosted by Holiday World in the tiny town of Santa Claus, Indiana. While the city may be small, this park’s coaster collection is not. It sports three different, fantastic wooden coasters (The Raven, The Legend, and the Voyage) that they added in an eleven year span. Anyway, back to us feeling like parents when their child steals the scene at the school play. At the awards ceremony the New Texas Giant at Six Flags over Texas was chosen as the “Best New Ride”. It is definitely an honor and we enjoyed how happy the park’s representatives were. When you work on something for so long (Gerstlauer was brought into the project in the fall of 2009) you definitely grow attached to it. In Texas, we designed trains from the ground up, which is not done often. To us, the result was award-winning, but we are thrilled that others agree!

June 12, 2011

From the outside, Six Flags over Georgia in Austell, Georgia and Canobie Lake Park in Salem, New Hampshire appear to have little in common.  One is part of the best-known regional theme park brand in the United States and has a coaster collection a mile long, while the other is a trolley park that dates from 1902 and just got its third roller coaster.

While they appear different from the outside, we were lucky to work with both properties on two very unique Euro-Fighter projects this year and, now that they are open, have to talk a little bit about the projects.  Georgia’s Euro-Fighter, “Dare Devil Dive”, stands nearly 100-feet tall, featured the first use of our new lap bars, and was really shoe-horned into the site.  This area of the park, the U.S.A. section, needed some new investment and we were fortunate enough to offer the unique Gerstlauer product at just the right time.  There had been a lot of rides in the area over the years.  One of the earliest Intamin/Giovanola Free Falls (the “Freefall”) stood on the site, as did a theater and in recent years an enclosed Eli Bridge Scrambler had taken up residence.  By hook or crook, Siegfried Gerstlauer and Ron Ebert, the park’s Director of Maintenance and Construction, were able to shoe-horn a big ride, all the additional supporting buildings, and a stage into a triangular corner of the property bounded by train tracks.  “Dare Devil Dive” with its red and yellow color scheme, screaming riders, and fantastic theme package (a control tower and air racing pylons), breathed new life into the site.  With all of the great investment, the ride looks brand new and feels like it was custom-designed to slide right in.

Over one thousand miles north in the small town of Salem, New Hampshire we installed another Euro-Fighter at Canobie Lake Park.  It was the 320+ model, which had already been a hit at the family-owned parks of Adventure Island in the United Kingdom and Duinrell in the Netherlands.  What Canobie faced were some severe code restrictions.  The ride had to stand less than 80 feet tall and be quieter than 55 decibels at the property line.  To give you an idea of how loud 55 decibels is, a quiet living room is 40 db and a normal conversation at four feet is 60 db.  For most roller coasters, that’s unheard of.  However, Gerstlauer had experience making their roller coasters silent for over a decade.  Today when “Untamed,” Canobie’s Euro-Fighter, runs the only thing you hear are the screams- and there are lots of them.  The beauty of a family-run park is that they do things differently.  In March this area of Canobie was a mud field.  Now, it houses not only a roller coaster, but also a beautiful garden within the ride, and one of the best roller coaster stations you will find in the country.  From the local stone that comprises the station’s structure, to the antler chandeliers, to the handmade wooden fencing, this is a roller coaster station like no other.  Like Canobie’s other ride installations in the past decade such as the Chance Wipeout and the Wood Design Wave Swinger, “Untamed” looks like it has been integral part of the park for decades, when it only opened a few days ago.

None of these great things can happen without the right people.  There is a lot of talk about America’s corporate theme parks being run on shoe-string budgets and that they are not run “the way they used to be”.  We can tell you that is just not the case at Six Flags over Georgia.  There, Park President Melinda Ashcraft and Director of Maintenance and Construction Ron Ebert have built a team that does everything in a first-class manner.  We could tell it throughout the project, and if you tour the park with them you can see that they seem to know every employee in the park, no matter how long they have worked there, by name.  Up north at Canobie, the Berni, Captell, and Ulaky families run Canobie Lake Park and do so in a wonderful way.  Their ownership dates from the purchase of the park in 1958 and it still functions like a well-oiled machine.  Unfortunately America has lost many of its trolley parks over the decades.  These were amusement parks started by trolley companies in the late 1800’s and often have a very traditional feel.  Canobie Lake Park is still running strong thanks to a family commitment and wonderfully combines the old with the new.

We hope you get to visit both these parks this summer and not only go for a ride on the great Euro-Fighter roller coasters, but truly get time to take in the atmosphere these properties provide and enjoy what sets them apart from the competition.

April 15, 2011

A lot of people have asked us what we are happiest about when it comes to the Texas Giant’s new Gerstlauer vehicles.  Is it the seats, the way they handle the course, that classic Cadillac look?  Well, all of the above.  But there is something more.  What we continue to tell people is that a great new design has entered the amusement industry, and it comes from a company that many felt could not handle this kind of project.

Fred Grubb and his team at Rocky Mountain Construction were an unlikely choice to be the company chosen to rework the Texas Giant.  Their Iron Horse track had never been tried before and a lot of people were a bit skeptical.  Another unlikely candidate for the job to many outsiders was Gerstlauer.  The German company had built coaster vehicles for years and had their own line of wooden coaster trains.  These trains, which debuted on Twisted Sisters at Kentucky Kingdom, were created with a specific purpose in mind- offer the buyer a choice.  At the time they were made, Gerstlauer was only the second option amusement parks had when purchasing a wooden coaster train.  Bringing new takes on wooden coaster design to the table they incorporated bucket seats, a u-bar restraint and metallastic bushings.

When it was announced that Gerstlauer was chosen to design the new Texas Giant trains there was a lot of hand-wringing.  How could this company, known for simple trains and spinning coasters create a vehicle that could handle being dropped down a 153-foot hill or withstand severe negative G’s?  We are happy to say that these vehicles can not only handle the aggressive track of the New Texas Giant, they tackle every twist, curve, and drop perfectly.

Our challenge was to create a roller coaster vehicle that met severe weight restrictions, but also looked one-of-a-kind and had the best restraints available.  All-in-all; no small feat.  We worked a long time to come up with chassis and wheel assemblies that could handle the unique weight restrictions of the Texas Giant, but were robust enough to handle a severely-twisted layout.  After figuring out the best way to keep the trains on the track we turned our attention to the restraint.  The problem with a lot of lap bars out there is that they rely too much on the lap, and not enough on the leg.  If you think about it, there are a lot of different “people shapes” from the waist up.  From beer gut to bean pole, the ability to restraint a guest can change significantly depending upon how their weight is distributed.  This means that if you rely on the gut area only, you are going to hit some people in the wrong place.  This is why we concentrated on the legs.  In addition, a rider’s leg is an extremely strong part of the body.  The femur on everyone able to ride the Texas Giant is stout and resilient.  They are built to handle forces, especially negative g’s, much better than the stomach, or the old-school “horse collar” restraint found on a lot of Arrow looping coasters from the Seventies.  The leg is a great spot to hold people and keep them safe.

The last part of the Giant puzzle was the great classic car design.  We have to admit, when Les Hudson and his creative team at Six Flags came to us with the desire to have a “big ole Texas Cadillac” we were a bit nervous.  However, Gerstlauer’s fiberglass shop, which had come up with some great designs for unique attractions like Dollywood’s “Mystery Mine” and a Thomas the Train™-licensed Family Coaster at Drayton Manor, certainly seemed up to the challenge.  A lot of emails were sent back and forth, but we finally came to an agreement on trains that looked just like a 1961 Cadillac Deville (or, as close as you can get a roller coaster to look like a Caddy!).  From the fins to the headlights, no roller coaster has ever been this stylin’.  To add just a little more Lone Star flair we added a pair of longhorns to the hood of the car.  Is there any better way to top off the roller coaster known around the world as the ride that represents Texas?  We think not.