Matt N
CF Legend
Hi guys. Apologies if this sounds like a slightly odd question or one with an obvious answer that I'm missing, but I had a question regarding Big Thunder Mountain Railroad at Magic Kingdom in Florida; who actually manufactured it? I know it sounds odd that I'm asking this given that I could just look on RCDB, but I've noticed that RCDB do not seem to list any manufacturer for quite a few of the older Disney roller coasters.
There's a bit of a disconnect between different sources on this question; I could have sworn I read somewhere that Arrow Dynamics manufactured the Florida version of BTMR as they did the Disneyland original, and I figured that that made a lot of sense given how enmeshed Arrow and Disney were in the early days of the American Disney parks. I'd previously heard no real contradiction to the notion of Arrow Dynamics having manufactured Big Thunder Mountain in Florida, so as such, I listed the Florida version of BTMR as an Arrow ride in my spreadsheet.
However, Wikipedia now states that every version of Big Thunder Mountain with the exception of the Disneyland original was manufactured by Vekoma: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Thunder_Mountain_Railroad
Now, I knew that there was a wide consensus on the Paris version, the newest version, having been manufactured by Vekoma, and there was also some degree of consensus on the Tokyo version having been manufactured by Vekoma (it too is listed among the list of Vekoma coasters on Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Vekoma_roller_coasters), but it is not listed as a Vekoma on RCDB), but I'd never heard it said that the Florida version was manufactured by Vekoma before; I'd heard little aside from Arrow previously, although yet again, RCDB does not list a manufacturer for it.
So my question is; does anyone know who manufactured the Florida version of Big Thunder Mountain? And come to think of it, the Florida version of Space Mountain is also an enigma; Wikipedia states that it's an Arrow, but RCDB provides no manufacturer. I've listed the two old coasters at Magic Kingdom as Arrows in my spreadsheet, but I'm now wondering if that was an error, so I would appreciate it if anyone is able to find an answer to this conundrum!
There's a bit of a disconnect between different sources on this question; I could have sworn I read somewhere that Arrow Dynamics manufactured the Florida version of BTMR as they did the Disneyland original, and I figured that that made a lot of sense given how enmeshed Arrow and Disney were in the early days of the American Disney parks. I'd previously heard no real contradiction to the notion of Arrow Dynamics having manufactured Big Thunder Mountain in Florida, so as such, I listed the Florida version of BTMR as an Arrow ride in my spreadsheet.
However, Wikipedia now states that every version of Big Thunder Mountain with the exception of the Disneyland original was manufactured by Vekoma: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Thunder_Mountain_Railroad
Now, I knew that there was a wide consensus on the Paris version, the newest version, having been manufactured by Vekoma, and there was also some degree of consensus on the Tokyo version having been manufactured by Vekoma (it too is listed among the list of Vekoma coasters on Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Vekoma_roller_coasters), but it is not listed as a Vekoma on RCDB), but I'd never heard it said that the Florida version was manufactured by Vekoma before; I'd heard little aside from Arrow previously, although yet again, RCDB does not list a manufacturer for it.
So my question is; does anyone know who manufactured the Florida version of Big Thunder Mountain? And come to think of it, the Florida version of Space Mountain is also an enigma; Wikipedia states that it's an Arrow, but RCDB provides no manufacturer. I've listed the two old coasters at Magic Kingdom as Arrows in my spreadsheet, but I'm now wondering if that was an error, so I would appreciate it if anyone is able to find an answer to this conundrum!
