Blue Streak at Cedar Point.. A really Great Ride.

I can't stand people who try to "stand up" or circumvent ride safety systems to "add more thrill" to the ride. Don't get me wrong, I love airtime, and do not like to get stapled. I like when I have a bit of room to float out of my seat, but I would never try to stand up on a coaster that is not designed for that.

Reminds me of the two girls on Jack Rabbit at Kennywood a few weeks ago who said it's more fun if you unfasten your seat belt... ugh.

It is very stupid to stand up on any ride! If anyone finds it "fun" to stand up on a roller coaster, why don't you try it on Thunderbolt at Kennywood park. I wouldn't because 2 people died from standing up in the early 70's

Gullible is now spelled with a J. It is so easy to start a flame war these days.

I rode Blue Streak for the first time yesterday. While it wasn't the best of rides, it was pretty fun. A lot of air time. :) I think it was pretty much the only coaster that they were running in the rain.

Although Blue Streak still runs great I still prefer Blue Streak with the pre-retrofitted trans and the queue on outside. Those headrests and seat dividers really detract from the whole ride experience.

I know this topic is a year old and I apologize for bringing it back. I didn't want to bring back a new topic since there is a million topics around Pointbuzz anyway. So I figured I'd ask a question on a topic that's only a year old. Here it goes. Does anyone know if Blue Streak is considered a historical coaster by ACE? When I've gone to Cedar Point, I haven't noticed one.

It was considered a historical coaster by ACE until 1994-ish when the bench seats and lap bars were replaced.

^ That's crazy that it's not considered historical anymore just because it was modified a little bit. I guess we'll have to wait until 2014 or 2015 for a new historical Sign off. Speaking of Blue Streak, did anyone notice that she placed #47 as far as top wooden coasters?

It was a classic because it had skid brakes with hand brake levers, and buzz bars,and no seat dividers.

Trust me when I say it was a totaly differant ride back in the day. Cedar point cut off it's....well, you know.:)

The buzzing of the bars and the smooth slide into the brake run were definitely among of the highlights of Blue Streak back in the day.

Shawn Meyer said:
^ That's crazy that it's not considered historical anymore just because it was modified a little bit. I guess we'll have to wait until 2014 or 2015 for a new historical Sign off.

They took the Landmark from it because ACE has a certain list the coaster has to follow. Blue Streak used to follow it. After it got made-over they took the ACE Landmark back because it no longer met their standards.

Beast, however, is still a Landmark.

Lots of misinformation here...

Prior to 1996, the Blue Streak was considered an ACE Coaster Classic, which describes wood roller coasters whose trains and operations met certain specific criteria. The Blue Streak qualified because...

o it did not have individual, adjustable lap bars
o it did not have seat dividers
o it did not have headrests
o while only 24 riders were allowed on the platform at a time, seats were not assigned

The computer controlled braking that was added in the 1994 season, along with the changes to the platform configuration, did not affect the ride's Coaster Classic designation. The idea behind the Coaster Classic designation was to recognize those coasters that give the experience that wood coasters were originally designed to deliver. Examples of Coaster Classics surviving today include the Thunderbolt and Jack Rabbit at Kennywood, the Cyclone at Lakeside, and the Sea Dragon at the Columbus Zoo.

Blue Streak lost its Coaster Classic status in 1996 when the seats were changed and the lap bars were modified.

The ACE Roller Coaster Landmark program is different from the Coaster Classic designation. The Roller Coaster Landmark designation is to recognize coasters that have some particular significance to the industry (even if they have been modified into non-recognition over the years) to recognize their particular significance regardless of age, type, or particular operational characteristics.

Magnum XL-200, The Beast, and Magic Mountain's Revolution (among others) are all designated Roller Coaster Landmarks even though of those three, only the Magnum XL-200 operates in a way that even resembles the way the ride was when it opened.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Does anybody think maybe another 20 years later that Blue Streak might get that classification back?

Sadly, once something becomes an accepted industry safety standard, it doesn't seem likely to go back to the way it was. Plus, I'm sure that insurance premiums would skyrocket (if not flat-out be denied) if CP went to their underwriters and said "We'd like to put buzz bars back on Blue Streak, and take out the headrests and divider bars"

I was raised on buzz bars, and never had any problem or felt unsafe while riding coasters featuring them, but the ratcheting lap bars have become universal for new rides, and I think more people would be inclined to see anything less as unsafe, whatever the reality may be. Since Timberliners haven't serviced the public yet, it's hard to say if they will create an experience closer to the classic buzz bar; it all depends on the restrictiveness of that lap belt.

On a side note, has a coaster ever regained classic status after losing it? When was the most recent installation to be built with a classic status?

Perhaps the better question to ask is, as these "Coaster Classics" are retrofitted over the years, will the classification be changed so that Blue Streak (and others) are granted the designation once again?

If the classification changes, I would imagine that it would only be in response to some sort of new restraint that makes individually-ratcheting lapbars and headrests seem quaint by comparison. As I see it, the classic classification exists as an incentive (no matter how slight) for parks to resist the lure of insurance company recommendations. Kennywood, for instance, makes a big to-do about the classic status of its woodies. If the standard remains individually-ratcheting lapbars, then there would be little incentive to confer this status for simply complying with the status quo.

So from that perspective, I can't see the standards for classic status becoming more relaxed. The worst restraints on any woodie I've ridden have been the original lapbars for Son of Beast, which pinned you in more by your chest/abs than your thighs. If that trend picked up, and we started seeing coasters retrofitted like that, then an incentive-based program to shift restraints back to current levels would make sense.

I really don't know what to make of the Timberliners. With current lapbars, I usually press my leg against the restraint during the ride, and this keeps me from being stapled at the bottoms of hills, so there's actually some real airtime in coming up off the seat just a bit. With the Timberliner belts that actually secure the waist area itself, I'm not sure that real airtime will be possible. So I suppose from that perspective, ratcheting lapbars, while inferior to buzz bars, might still offer a less-restrictive experience than we might have in the future.

It's not just that the insurance companies are driving the change. Eventually, it's conceivable that replacement parts for ratcheting lap bars (and the like) will simply not be manufactured any longer, and/or the cost for parks to fabricate them themselves (or contract out said fabrication) would be prohibitive.

I'm not the biggest ACE fan in the world so this will come off as somewhat biased, but...I'll say it anyway. I think ACE cuts it's nose off to spite it's face more often than not. I rode both incarnations of the Blue Streak and by and large it is the same ride now as it was in the 70s. Yes, there have been alterations to meet safety standards but you know what...cars didn't use to have seat belts or airbags either.

I was a Big Dipper (Geauga Lake) fan (and ride operator) but I wish Funtime would have upgraded it's trains and safety systems over the years. If it had perhaps there wouldn't have been two significant accidents that led to injuries.

Now, does it really mean ANYTHING if a coaster has a "designation" or not? No. 95% of the population isn't going to care one way or the other. But, I might take that organization a little more seriously if they gave me a reason to do so.

When I rode it back in July, it was very smooth. Did not have that spine compressiong feeling at the bottom of the drops.

Break Trims said:

I was raised on buzz bars, and never had any problem or felt unsafe while riding coasters featuring them, but the ratcheting lap bars have become universal for new rides, and I think more people would be inclined to see anything less as unsafe, whatever the reality may be. Since Timberliners haven't serviced the public yet, it's hard to say if they will create an experience closer to the classic buzz bar; it all depends on the restrictiveness of that lap belt.

That's one thing I really miss from my youth-no seat belts and just a buzz bar...slide in, push forward and pull down, attendants checked the bar was locked and off you go. And I'lI agree with you-I never felt unsafe