Random/Misc. Interesting Facts Thread

[BBH]

Have any facts that don't fit in another topic or in any specific part of the forum? Chuck 'em here.

I'll get the ball rolling:

B&M's sit-down coaster design has the least amount of orders from that company with five.

All of the stand-ups use B&M's single vertical friction wheel, as found on some of their rides from the 1990s, such as Bizarro GAdv and Kumba.

Vertical friction wheel as seen on Iron Wolf:

Horizontal friction wheels as seen on Wild Eagle:

 

[bmac]

Bar clones, prior to 2002 all B&Ms were built with kicker drops. After 2002 only two custom-built coasters were built with kicker drops, Hair Raiser and Daemonen.

 

[PeskyTrimBrake]

In 2012, Golden Horse Rides was sued by Zamperla at Iaapa 2012. As a result, Golden Horse's booth was removed from Iaapa and further legal action was made. Beijing Jiuhua Amusement Rides actually abandoned the convention early due to Zamperla's lawsuit with Golden Horse.

The more you know...

 

[BBH]

^According to RCDB, there have been 76 documented orders (and 77 iterations including the one relocation) of Golden Horse's spinning coaster model, all with the same layout, making it by far the most cloned coaster in existence.

 

[caffeine_demon]

According to the "100 of the fastest roller coasters in the world" book I got for my birthday - number 1 is listed as this - http://rcdb.com/2668.htm# suffice to say, it's an awful book!

 

[Darren B]

B&M's sit-down and stand-up coaster designs are tied for the least amount of orders from that company with five apiece. All five of the stand-ups use B&M's single vertical friction wheel.

B&M surely have had more than 5 orders for stand-ups? I count Apocalypse, Vortex, Vortex, Georgia Scorcher, Mantis, Riddlers Revenge and Green Lantern. I'm sure none of them are Intamin's.

 

[Hixee]

B&M's sit-down and stand-up coaster designs are tied for the least amount of orders from that company with five apiece. All five of the stand-ups use B&M's single vertical friction wheel.

B&M surely have had more than 5 orders for stand-ups? I count Apocalypse, Vortex, Vortex, Georgia Scorcher, Mantis, Riddlers Revenge and Green Lantern. I'm sure none of them are Intamin's.

Yeah, I thought there were more too. A quick RCDB search says there appear to be 7 still operating:

http://rcdb.com/r.htm?na=&nm=na&pl=&de=7&co=6831&ot=2

 

[BBH]

My mistake, I forgot the two Vortexes. In that case, the sit downs are in last place with five.


Posted while reading your mind.

 

[rtotheizzo17]

So far we should rename this thread the mundane and mostly inaccurate "facts" thread.

 

[Hyde]

Some Cedar Point facts:

The Blue Streak at Cedar Point is named after a local high school sports team, the Sandusky Blue Streaks. The roller coaster was not originally painted blue.

Banshee was the original name for Mantis at Cedar Point, but was scrapped due to negative publicity over the connotation of the mythical Banshee monster. The original Banshee logo (pictured below) was later reused as the basis for Dorney Park's Steel Force logo (pictured below).

Each of Maverick's trains is named after one of former Cedar Fair CEO Dick Kinzel's children.

The Judy K steam train at Cedar Point is named after former Cedar Fair CEO Dick Kinzel's wife.

The former Disaster Transport had "12 E" painted on the side of its exterior. This stood for the 12th ride to be designed by the ITEC employee, Eric.

Cedar Point once had a Jumbo Jet where Gatekeeper now stands. Noone really knew what happened to it, which led to one enthusiast's blog, The Lost Coaster: http://thelostcoaster.wordpress.com/cat ... er/page/3/

Cedar Point has had two 65m Schwarzkopf roller coasters named Wildcat. The first operated from 1970 to 1978, and was relocated to Valleyfair as Rails. In 1979, the next Wildcat was added, and later removed in 2011.

 

[Ben]

Bar clones, prior to 2002 all B&Ms were built with kicker drops. After 2002 only two custom-built coasters were built with kicker drops, Hair Raiser and Daemonen.

Well, no, that's not true.

To be really pedantic Hulk doesn't have one, and Inferno does, built in 2003. So does Patriot, 2006. There's probably more but I'm bored of this game.

 

[ECG]

Well this topic certainly got off to a good start. :lol:
The first two posts by BBH and bmac are inaccurate and Glennderp's third post was covered in depth in our own 2012 IAAPA topic. So a little more research before posting here might be prudent. :wink:

 

[ignace]

Cedar Point once had a Jumbo Jet where Gatekeeper now stands. Noone really knew what happened to it, which led to one enthusiast's blog, The Lost Coaster: http://thelostcoaster.wordpress.com/cat ... er/page/3/

Is this about this ride?

http://rcdb.com/355.htm

if they checked the RCDB, the mysterie would have been solved quickly. The machine still exists in Minsk.

 

[Hyde]

^ Yes, the Jumbo Jets were eventually confirmed to be in Belarus. But that was only after a good chunk of years of research, digging up the coasters dotted past.

While the past of other former CP rides is relatively well documented, the Jumbo Jets had relatively little chronicled on their existence after the point.

 

[bmac]

^ Yes, the Jumbo Jets were eventually confirmed to be in Belarus. But that was only after a good chunk of years of research, digging up the coasters dotted past.

While the past of other former CP rides is relatively well documented, the Jumbo Jets had relatively little chronicled on their existence after the point.

Great Adventure had one, too. Just unlike CP's it never opened to the public.

Here's the rcdb page.
Here's GreatAdventureHistory's documentation of the ride.

 

[Serena]

The creaky sound effect when the air gates open on Charlie and The Chocolate Factory at Alton Towers, is the same sound effect as The Swarm's 'scream' noise at Thorpe Park.

 

[PeskyTrimBrake]

From the Roller Coaster Insider Tour at BGW:

B&M's Scoops were not added for effect but as trim breaks. The amount of water that is in the body of water has to be precise or the train will approach the other round of breaks too fast.

Alpengeist's Lift hill supports style are actually not for Ski Lift theming but due to lack of space.

When Sheikra at BGT was made, the trains originally had floors. When BGW planned for Griffon, they asked for 10 per row instead of 8 but B&M told them it was too much weight, so they removed the floor from the Griffon train design. It then led to Sheikra's floor removal but only for effect in Sheikra's case.

 

[elephant58]

^So, if the weren't added for effect, why wouldn't use standard magnetic trim breaks?

 

[rtotheizzo17]

It saves on the wear and tear of the brakes. Less work to catch a train going say 20MPH instead of 40MPH into the brakes.

 

[Hixee]

It saves on the wear and tear of the brakes. Less work to catch a train going say 20MPH instead of 40MPH into the brakes.

Although a magnetic trim wouldn't really cause any wear and tear on the brakes as there's no contact.

I think the water splashes serve a double purpose. To simply say that they're for slowing down the train, or for the visual effect, isn't very logical. Hitting the water scoops like that would put a lot more stress on the chassis than a simple magnetic fin, but there's the added bonus that you can create the big visual effect if you do so. The water splashes trim some speed off, and look fantastic, and are a nice 'feature' on the coaster.