life expectancy of rides

Because of it's importance to the roller coaster community, I don't see Magnum XL-200 leaving the park anytime soon. Disaster Transport seems like it will be the next victim to leave Cedar Point.

Let's just say, Magnum will NEVER be removed. That ride has too much importantance and history. Even if it's the last Arrow Dynamic ride standing, they would do anything to save it. Although I'm not looking forward to the day where it goes down to a 2 car operation. I've heard that's what's going on with ID. They're using the 3rd trains parts for the 1 and 2. Hopefully that never happens with Magnum.

Because of the 2 train operation, sadly I never ride ID anymore because the line gets to be too long.

Willijs3 said:
If any coaster has a life expectancy it's a wooden coaster. There is only so much rebuilding you can do before the ride needs to be completely torn down and rebuilt.

That's not an accurate statement, unless you qualify it by saying that proper maintenance isn't being performed. Wood coasters are constantly being rebuilt. They just do a little bit every year. So, you don't notice it as much. It's probably not that much of a stretch to say there's not a single piece of original wood on Blue Streak. It's probably been completely rebuilt a couple times since '64. But, I don't know that for sure.

Someone mentioned Bayern Kurve, Schwabinchen and Monster in the current Wildcat location; that is not entirely correct...the Monster was across the midway. If I remember correctly, Monster was right about where the Iron Dragon station is now, and the Paddlewheel dock was on the main midway side of it....about where the Iron Dragon queue is now.

Someone else talked about the difference between welding and bolting in terms of part replacement...are you aware that Magnum XL-200 got some new rails recently? And it's all welded. I also remember an off-season when the entire turnaround was replaced, and because of transition problems into and out of the "new" turnaround, two more track sections had to be replaced mid-season.

Some years ago, I read that from a financial perspective, Cedar Fair depreciates rides on a schedule of something like 13 years. Meaning that the minimum life span is probably 13 years unless there is a really serious problem (you know, like major supports falling down in the off season).

ASTM F 2291-11, the World Standard for Design of Amusement Rides and Devices, specifies that ride structures and components (with some exceptions for consumable parts) should be designed for a minimum 35,000 hour operational life. That's 35,000 operational hours, which if you figure 12-hour days in a 180 day season and an appropriate reduction for loading and unloading time, works out to about 24 years. The standard goes out of its way to emphasize that it is a minimum design criterion, not an arbitrary service life, and notes that "owners and operators...commonly extend the operational hours...significantly...by performing proper reevaluations, inspections, repairs, refurbishment and ongoing maintenance...". Of course, extending the life of a ride in this manner is no longer a matter of design, and so is not covered explicitly in the design standard.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

RideMan said:
Someone mentioned Bayern Kurve, Schwabinchen and Monster in the current Wildcat location; that is not entirely correct...the Monster was across the midway. If I remember correctly, Monster was right about where the Iron Dragon station is now, and the Paddlewheel dock was on the main midway side of it....about where the Iron Dragon queue is now.

Close. But, the Western Cruise was on the Millennium side of Monster

http://www.rollercoasterfreak.com/CP_Brochures/1972_pg_map.jpg

I would love to see a new mouse! I love the one at Waldameer! It is really fun!

What Waldameer has is definitely fun. But, it's not a mouse, spinning or otherwise.

I would have to vote for Wildcat as #1 to go.

Not only the bad (relatively speaking) track record lately, but it looks (and feels) like a carny ride that you could build at any state fair.

That said, I kinda sorta like it, but only kinda sorta. Then again, we're falling into that "medium sized semi-family-ride" category that Cedar Point can't seem to wrap their heads around, so who knows.

^^ if they were to take wildcat out, that could leave room for a zacspin. I personally never want to see a Zacspin come to Cap but it's just a thought.

Nickster said:
Because of it's importance to the roller coaster community, I don't see Magnum XL-200 leaving the park anytime soon. Disaster Transport seems like it will be the next victim to leave Cedar Point.

If DT goes, I would be anxious to see if they would build a GCI that's goes over the beach. But if something were to not go over the beach, I sure hope they would clear the concrete and plant some grass along with a new ride.

Wildcat IS a carny ride of the sort you could build at any state fair, except that the Wildcat is so big that most shows won't put up with it. I know that NAME (Conklin) has one, or at least had one, and there is at least one other out there, but for the most part, the Wildcat is pretty rare. It was Schwarzkopf's first coaster design, and it still holds up remarkably well, especially compared with the similar-looking Zyklon and Galaxi coasters. The Zyklon and Galaxi are ubiquitous, and unfortunately, dreadfully dull compared to a Wildcat. It's amazing; the Wildcat layout looks so much like a Zyklon, but the Wildcat is a much, much better ride.

I think it is interesting that Cedar Point has invested heavily in the Wildcat, upgrading its controls more than once, to the point that now it has probably the most elaborate service braking system of any coaster in the park. I'm surprised that they didn't do what Funtastic did with their Wildcat: get rid of most of that extra hardware and put magnetic brakes on the thing.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

I can see Iron Dragon leaving 10 years from now just because of what happened with Big Bad Wolf, it could become hard to find parts for it in the year 2020. Heck I"m surprised that Shockwave at Kings Dominion is still operating. You don't see too many 2 across stand up coasters anymore.

I would have personally guessed Mine Ride, based mainly on the fact that it seems to have little attention paid to it, almost never has a line, and its trains have are limited even compared to others in the park {in terms of being able to sit in them}

But CCMR is one of the "staple" amusement park rides, and it also provides something for kids to enjoy with their parents. The only other non-kiddie coasters with a lower ride height requirement are DT and ID.

In other words, if CCMR were removed, they'd likely replace it with something similarly themed and (hopefully) with similar ride height requirements. If that's the case, why replace it at all?

Yeah, they'd never do something as ridiculous as that.

*Cough, cough. White Water Landing. Cough, cough.*

Point taken. :)

Though I'd suspect the maintenance cost for CCMR isn't significantly higher than a modern replacement, as was the case with WWL->StR.

Shawn Meyer said:
I can see Iron Dragon leaving 10 years from now just because of what happened with Big Bad Wolf, it could become hard to find parts for it in the year 2020. Heck I"m surprised that Shockwave at Kings Dominion is still operating. You don't see too many 2 across stand up coasters anymore.

I don't know if anybody would know or not; but unlike TOGO, isn't it true that Arrow's identical and similar parts are available by Morgan, Vekoma, and S&S? For some reason, I remember either reading or hearing this.

coolkid said:
I don't know if anybody would know or not; but unlike TOGO, isn't it true that Arrow's identical and similar parts are available by Morgan, Vekoma, and S&S? For some reason, I remember either reading or hearing this.

I was thinking the same thing. Vekoma has been supplying parts for Arrow coasters for a while now.