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Darien Lake issues (Possible Ride of Steel removal after 2022 season)

Wazzupnerds

Mega Poster
Screamscape just posted a big rumor tagged post on Darien Lake, and its... not good.

Here is the link to the full post

But the highlights:
Predator is getting retrack work, but only because of the fire possibly.

Mind Eraser is going to be SBNO for the 2022 season, the coaster needs new trains, and couldn't afford the new trains for 2022.

Ride of Steel is becoming too much to operate, and is running one train because of using the others for parts, plans is for this season to be the last.
 

Matt N

CF Legend
Oh dear… this doesn’t sound too good. Darien Lake must be really struggling at the moment…

The news on Predator is good, and I do remember GCI Titan Track for it being talked about a couple of months back, come to think of it, but the losses of Mind Eraser and Ride of Steel sound like real blows… Ride of Steel in particular is going to hurt, I’d imagine, as it can’t be easy losing your park’s biggest ride.
 

cookie

Giga Poster
Shades of Geauga Lake/Kentucky Kingdom if the Ride of Steel rumor is even remotely true.
 
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TPoseOnTantrum

Giga Poster
The Mind Eraser part is believable; it hasn't exactly been in the greatest shape for years and it definitely looks/rides the part. On top of that, it just recently failed inspection, which is a major red flag for a park that prides itself with 1 train ops on its coasters and cannibalizing other trains for parts on existing rides instead of simply buying new ones. Honestly, it's one of the rides that they shut down whenever staffing is short, and it's a ways away from other parts of the park, so its removal would be easy to justify. Really easy to block it off and pretend that said piece of garbage doesn't exist.

Ride of Steel, if I recall, went down from 2 trains to one around 2015 or so after reports that both trains weren't in the greatest condition. Either that, or they scrapped the two existing ones and bought a single brand new one from Intamin, my memory is foggy. Nethertheless, I'm calling bull**** on this until it happens, if Screamscape reports that a hypercoaster at one of your home parks is about to bite it then you take it with a pinch of salt until proven otherwise.
 

Youngster Joey

Strata Poster
Either that, or they scrapped the two existing ones and bought a single brand new one from Intamin
this is what I recall. Also Superman (as it's still known by all the locals) has been on one train ops for what feels like almost a decade local gp new it only ever had one train, everyone was aware. Even when they had 2 train they basically never ran both if the ride was even open at all. It was infamously closed... frequently...

I just struggle to believe getting rid of your marquee marketable attraction makes finnancial sense, and I struggle to believe herschend left it so messed up that the one at SFA is fine and the one at DL is not. Unless they're shutting down the park or replacing it with a new marquee highly marketable attraction I just struggle to believe this as well.

oh and mind eraser can go to hell, the piece of ****.
 

Indy

Hyper Poster
I'm sorry, but there is zero chance that they remove Ride of Steel at the end of the year. This makes absolutely no sense at all.

The justification is that they have cannibalized the second train, which happened a long time ago. A new train will likely cost in the neighborhood of $250-300K. The cost of removing a mile long roller coaster will be considerably higher. It is impossible for me to believe that they will remove their premier attraction because they don't want to pay for a second train.
 

TPoseOnTantrum

Giga Poster
Here’s a screenshot from a local Darien Lake enthusiast group chat that I’ve ties with, should tell you what you need to know about this;
96487E01-B9FB-4115-BE46-3FBC754049E0.jpeg

For context, contrast this information to that of the Screamscape article, and the resulting numerous reports composing of ill-informed misinformation that has stemmed from such and are circulating online as a result. Therefore, it’s probably bull.

Oh, but that bit about Mind Eraser, however, I’d strongly recommend keeping an eye on, because something did come up. It could still possibly open this year, or it could not, in any case that particular morsel has credibility. The coaster was only open in May/June of last year.
 
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Youngster Joey

Strata Poster
Good news, looks like Ride Of Steel is not going anywhere for a while:
this is silly to me. I find it unlikely the person who responded to this knows what private high level talks may be happening between SF and EPR. Even if the person did they almost assuredly couldn't say so publicly. while I still think the removal is highly unlikely, this twitter exchange did nothing the needle.
 

Wazzupnerds

Mega Poster
this is silly to me. I find it unlikely the person who responded to this knows what private high level talks may be happening between SF and EPR. Even if the person did they almost assuredly couldn't say so publicly. while I still think the removal is highly unlikely, this twitter exchange did nothing the needle.
this is the very much correct answer
 

TPoseOnTantrum

Giga Poster
The park's been replying with the same copy pasta to anybody who answers. It's not worth pushing the rumor any further unless something substantial flares up this year.

However, I'd recommend keeping this thread handy for now, because whilst RoS will almost certainly live past 2022, there's still plenty going on with Darien Lake. We've received this little bit of supposed information regarding Predator, this likely doesn't have credibility, but it's worth posting here for the juice. Always have to keep an eye on things.
 

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Youngster Joey

Strata Poster
Well they had announced Predator was getting titan track but we never knew to what extent. I'll wait for something more official but if this is true i'll be bummed. Was REALLY still hoping it'd get an RMC iron horse conversion.
 

BenJacobs

Roller Poster
23% conversion? What does that mean?

Also this looks uhh… sketchy as heck to say the least.
Replace certain sections of tracks with steel inversions, and maybe also certain high stress sections of track, while keeping the rest of the coaster the same (or for all we know the rest of the wooden sections could be getting retracked also - with wooden track still).

This mix of wooden and steel track is similar to the model that at IAPPA, and presumably provides an even cheaper alternative to RMC that still rejuvenates the ride.
 
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