Heide Park's Colossos closed for 2017

[GodsOnSafari]

http://www.noz.de/deutschland-welt/niedersachsen/artikel/864548/holzachterbahn-colossos-im-heide-park-bleibt-2017-geschlossen

Good reminder that things are measured in longer time frames than just individual months or even years. Remember when this tech was going to save parks money in the long run and make traditional wood tech obsolete?

[ri...@aol.com]

I like this picture, which must have been taken when their State of Liberty replica was under construction since, with only its top half sitting on the ground, it looks like Colossos was once "Planet of the Apes: The Ride!"

https://rcdb.com/988.htm#p=52047

[tyl...@gmail.com]

On Tuesday, March 14, 2017 at 12:53:15 PM UTC-4, GodsOnSafari wrote:
> http://www.noz.de/deutschland-welt/niedersachsen/artikel/864548/holzachterbahn-colossos-im-heide-park-bleibt-2017-geschlossen
>
> Good reminder that things are measured in longer time frames than just individual months or even years. Remember when this tech was going to save parks money in the long run and make traditional wood tech obsolete?

Well, I mean if it was built with traditional track it would have RCCA'ed itself into an unrideable mess within two weeks of opening.

[GodsOnSafari]

True as that might be, it is running just as well as the theoretical RCCA coaster in 2017.

[GodsOnSafari]

And now both are going to be just as good as El Toro, which is closed for the season as well.

[richard....@gmail.com]

On Wednesday, 15 March 2017 10:55:09 UTC+8, GodsOnSafari wrote:
> And now both are going to be just as good as El Toro, which is closed for the season as well.

Seems that that was a mistake on the part of the Six Flags web team. El Toro is open this year.

-
www.themeparks.ie

[westernpa...@gmail.com]

I did not take time to translate. Why is it closing...maintenance...obviously, but what is going on with the ride to cause this???

[David H.--REMOVE "STOPSPAM" to reply]

I think that if there's one message that all parks should be taking, it's
that you simply cannot have a world class attraction on the cheap. And
that no matter how much you pay up front, you're still going to have to
continue to do maintenance on ALL coasters and all rides. Period. There
are NO exceptions.

No matter how well built or how well designed they are, great coasters and
rides (and even shitty ones!) require maintenance. I know that the
realities of the stockholder-ruled world would love to have investments
that pay off immediately with no further costs. But there is simply no
such thing, in this industry. It's a fiction.

It doesn't matter who is designing your ride, or how well respected they
are. You're still going to have to SPEND MONEY to keep the ride
operational and enjoyable for your customers.

If you can't handle that, then you probably shouldn't be running an
amusement park.



"With the first link, a chain is forged. The first speech censured,
the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us
all irrevocably." -Capt. Jean-Luc Picard
"The Drumhead", _Star Trek: The Next Generation_

[Dave Althoff, Jr.]

GodsOnSafari <godson...@gmail.com> wrote:
: http://www.noz.de/deutschland-welt/niedersachsen/artikel/864548/holzachterbahn-colossos-im-heide-park-bleibt-2017-geschlossen

:
: Good reminder that things are measured in longer time frames than just
: individual months or even years. Remember when this tech was going to
: save parks money in the long run and make traditional wood tech obsolete?

Hmmm...I'll bet if I search hard enough I can probably find a comment where
I said something about the impossibility of maintaining these rides in the
same way as a conventional wood coaster, because the rails have to be
custom fabricated by the manufacturer. I wonder if Heide Park is having
difficulties getting replacement parts, or finding those to be ridiculously
expensive.....

--Dave Althoff, Jr.
/X\ _ *** Respect rides. They do not respect you. ***
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NEW! When emailing this account, include the 'canonical magic word' in
the body of your message for a quicker response.

[westernpa...@gmail.com]

>
> Hmmm...I'll bet if I search hard enough I can probably find a comment where
> I said something about the impossibility of maintaining these rides in the
> same way as a conventional wood coaster, because the rails have to be
> custom fabricated by the manufacturer. I wonder if Heide Park is having
> difficulties getting replacement parts, or finding those to be ridiculously
> expensive.....
>
> --Dave Althoff, Jr.

Well if the parts are too expensive then the company designing those parts may need to rethink their strategy or they may not have anyone buying their coasters anymore...

[kat...@aol.com]

On Tuesday, May 9, 2017 at 6:48:07 AM UTC-4, westernpa...@gmail.com wrote:

> Well if the parts are too expensive then the company designing those parts may need to rethink their strategy or they may not have anyone buying their coasters anymore...

They haven't built one with the pre-fab track since 2008.

Ken

[waltz...@gmail.com]

On Tuesday, March 14, 2017 at 12:53:15 PM UTC-4, GodsOnSafari wrote:

> http://www.noz.de/deutschland-welt/niedersachsen/artikel/864548/holzachterbahn-colossos-im-heide-park-bleibt-2017-geschlossen
>
> Good reminder that things are measured in longer time frames than just individual months or even years. Remember when this tech was going to save parks money in the long run and make traditional wood tech obsolete?

Having never been to Heide Park and not knowing German, reading through the comments in this thread leaves me with no idea what is going on. Is Colossos a wood coaster i.e. with conventional wood track, or is it something else, and why is it being shut down?

[GodsOnSafari]

It is a wood coaster, but the track is laser cut and put together in sections before shipping rather than wood cut, shaped, and stacked together during installation. As a result, traditional wood coaster maintenance basically doesn't work, since you can't just cut the boards to the same precision as the machines do.

[Dave Althoff, Jr.]

GodsOnSafari <godson...@gmail.com> wrote:
: On Wednesday, May 10, 2017 at 8:21:17 AM UTC-4, waltz...@gmail.com wrote:
: > Having never been to Heide Park and not knowing German, reading through

: > the comments in this thread leaves me with no idea what is going on.
: > Is Colossos a wood coaster i.e. with conventional wood track, or is it
: > something else, and why is it being shut down?
:
: It is a wood coaster, but the track is laser cut and put together in
: sections before shipping rather than wood cut, shaped, and stacked
: together during installation. As a result, traditional wood coaster
: maintenance basically doesn't work, since you can't just cut the boards
: to the same precision as the machines do.

More than that, the track rail sections are prefabricated and custom cut
blocks with metal joints on the ends. It's not just a matter of precision
in construction, it has to do with the rail sections being first of all an
engineered one-piece substrate, and second having precision hardware
attached to allow for the connection to the structure, to the ledgers, and
to the other rail sections. It's wood track, in that it is made out of wood
(though not "lumber" as we know it) but it's designed to go together like a
steel coaster.

The idea was that first of all you get a more precise ride because the
construction is CNC-precise. Second, the track should last longer because
each rail section is a single solid piece, not a stack of nine boards.
Third, if a section is damaged or worn, in theory, you call Intamin, give
them the serial number for the rail section, they call the mill and have a
new section fabricated for you, and you drop it into place. Instead of
skilled wood coaster carpenters, all you need is a good mechanic to
maintain the ride. Let's see, that's a win-win-win, right? Oh, yeah, there
is a "lose" in there as well, but the parks didn't know that when they
bought these things...

So what happens to these rides now? Do they get fully re-tracked with
conventional wood track? Repair with OEM parts? Sections replaced with some
variant of Topper track? Demolition?

[spacemtfan]

Where it gets interesting with the "Plug n Play" wooden coaster like El Toro, Colossos, Balder: Intamin only supplied the non wooden components, using a german wooden mill called Cordes-Holzbau to supply the wooden coaster track. In 2008, Gerstlauer used Cordes-Holzbau to supply the laser cut track for Mammut, a wooden coaster at Tripsdrill in Germany. Gerstlauer currently advertise a family wooden coaster on their website: http://www.gerstlauer-rides.de/assets/downloads/brochures/JuniorWoodenCoaster.pdf

Here is Cordes-Holzbau website: http://www.cordes-holzbau.de/en/business-activities/amusement-rides-and-buildings/

Where I am curious now is who did the T-Express in South Korea? Its a plug n play wooden coaster from Intamin, but Cordes-Holzbau does not have it on their reference list. Who did Intamin use to supply the track?