Shane's Amusement Attic

^I have to agree, parks don't want rides that don't shatter records it seems. As I've said before, Ninja is my favorite ride at SFMM (I've yet to ride Tatsu), and I have always wished more suspended coasters would be built.

 

Who would really want to even try a loop on a suspended, I see that as being a nightmare.

I remember that ride. It was torn down before I was big enough to ride, but the look of it scared me as a kid. They did an excellent jump of theming it. You can still see remnants of it in the Vortex station if you look at the ceiling.

 

And I know Robb hates it when you link to other vids, but there is one on YouTube about the Bat that is really cool.

I'll link it here, but if Robb wants to remove it, go ahead.

 

Here is a picture of the working model that Arrow had on display at the 1978 IAAPA trade show in Atlanta, GA. It shows the concept for the inversion for the suspended coaster.

 

As a bonus, here is another great picture I found of the Bat. The name was so perfect for the ride! Parks were much more creative in those days, either that or maybe now-a-days all the good names are taken.

A lot of times, parks reuse names because it saves money on marketing. They can reuse logos and graphics for different parks.

 

Eric

In the words of the scientists who rebuilt the Six Dollar Man " We have the technology, we can rebuild him!" It would be nice if the coaster companies would listen to the people who actually ride their creations for feedback maybe they would give us something like The Bat today. It's not like that they don't have the technology to rebuild a ride like that today. Oh well, wishful thinking. Great trip down memory lane, please keep the report coming!

Actually as I understand it, the Bat wasn't that good of a ride. I've always heard it was slow and rather boring. I could be wrong, seeing as how it was removed 2 years before I was born, however people whom I've spoken to who have been on it, say that it was nothing special.

Watching the Video seems to clear up a couple things.

 

First: it looks like fun to me. Swaying like that back in the day must have created a sensation that hadn't been done before, I bet it was nice to get on something innovative.

 

Second: it's pretty obvious from just watching the footage that the swinging trains and non banked track definitely did a toll on the structure and the trains. Some parts of that video you can see where the train is tugging on the track in both directions which I'm sure was a lot of fun, but it looks like the ride simply wasn't made to be doing that everyday if they expected it to last a couple years.

 

5 years after this closed they had finally worked out the kinks for Ninja at MM which is one of the best suspended rides I have ever been on, and overall is a lot of fun for kids, especially if they don't like loops (although when waiting in line for Ninja this past Friday I heard young kids mentioning loops and their parents discussing amongst each other if there were loops or not).

 

However Ninja still has minor flaws. There are minor structure problems with the ride, especially in places where the train swings rapidly and creates strong pull forces. Every so often there are minor cracks in the track structure, and they get have to get repaired. The train design is great for swinging side to side, but has a forward/backward "tugging" feel that's hard to avoid. The ride can valley if its too cold, or if the wheels have been over-greased.

 

But if you rode it at all this summer you'll know it was riding much better and faster than usual. In fact the safetys had problems with the train coming in too fast almost every day, it would miss its mark, and the ride would be down for about a half hour.

 

Thanks for all the videos and pictures, it really makes it easier to understand how these rides have evolved and improved over the years! Very interesting!

I found the promo video of The Bat as well and was amazed to find out that either me or my brother is actually in the video at 6:14, in the front row. I say it is me, my mother says it is my brother, it is definitely one of us. Check out the huge 1980s style glasses he or I was wearing.

Admin Edit - Make sure that you read the TOS and posting rules stickied at the top of this forum. Pointless posting is not tolerated. Consider this your one and only warning.

 

dt

This is from a Magic Mountain brochure (slightly OT I guess, since it's not from a magazine):

Thanks for posting that pic from the brochure. I remember seeing that model, they had it on display near the front of the park before Colossus opened.

 

I remember they also had a model of the Revolution, it wasn't the whole ride, just basically the loop and the track coming through the loop. It had little dolls in the trains. Does anyone else remember that?

I remember that model. It was at the old food court. The food court still stands but it has some horrible sushi place in it now.

Again thanks for the great pictures! It really takes me back to the days when I worked at Magic Mountain. I was there from '85-'89. I worked in Attractions and got to work on a lot of those now defunct attractions. My favorite rides to work on were Shockwave and the Revolution. What good times we had!

I loved the old sarejvo bobsleds ride at magic mountain, for the short time they were there

Great Pics/info- you should upload some of the pics to Roller Coaster Database, because the last time I looked, there were not many graphics attached to the entry for "The Bat"

 

Went to KI when The Bat was in it's 2nd year of operation but we hit the park on a day when it was down. I talked to an employee on The Eiffel Tower who informed me that it never ran very regularly after it's first season, and that it might have to be rebuilt or torn down. Somewhere I think I might have some Kodak 110 pics of the ride, if I can find the shoebox that they're in, I'll try and post them. I didn't take too many because I was mad that the ride was down for the day, and the next time I got back to KI, The Vortex was brand new and sitting in place of The Bat.

 

Thanks for the memories.

I love looking at the old brochures from different parks. You are doing a great job my friend, keep it up and keep the trips down memory lane coming!

What happened to the trains?

 

Just another Arrow/Chessington link, I've heard that the trains were re-used on the Vampire. Can anyone confirm?

 

The Vampire was a great ride in its day, just a shame the original Bat cars could not be replaced. I always feel the new Vekoma ones just don't run as smooth. They seem to jolt a little round the track, but that said it still is a lot of fun.

Nice

This is the BEST THREAD EVAR! Thanks so much for posting this stuff, this Japanese catalog is just sheer awesomeness.

 

But you give you a little head start on an upcoming topic of yours...

LaserLoop Pin

This stuff is truly amazing-- thank you so much! I got especially twitterpated over the Pipeline stuff.

 

Could Moonsault Scramble look any cooler? It could not.

I remember the airtime on the Turn of the the Century at Marriott's Great Adventure--before they "demonized" it. And I remember the old Knott's ads, too--from when it was great park. Sigh . . .

I don't know, you tell me if these are the same cars? Found the pic on rcdb.com under The Vampire. They might be, but this was the only shot they had that showed the cars. It says these were replaced in 2002 with newer trains.

 

 

link:http://www.rcdb.com/ig784.htm?picture=1

From the Bat?

Original as posted by Monte on the front page

^Marriott's Great Adventure?????? You mean Great America, right?

^ Marriott was the company that built both of the Great Americas.

 

My uncle was part of a construction co. that was hired when Marriott sold the Santa Clara park to Paramount in the 80's.

 

I still have the Paramount Parks jacket he gave me.

KENNYWOOD

LASER LOOP & STEEL PHANTOM

 

OK so thanks for getting me started on my Kennywood Laser Loop and Steel Phantom update. Unfortunately it is one of my smaller updates, Kennywood didn't change their brochures from year to year as the other parks did so I will just post the brochures that I do have and also some pictures from Laser Loop and the building of Steel Phantom.

 

I am not sure why they had to remove Laser Loop to install Steel Phantom, I have heard many rumors from; "it was sinking" ,"the foundation that the flywheel was on was bad and caused the flywheel to spin off balance" and "basically it was just too complicated for that park to keep operating" If anyone can fill me in on the correct reason the Laser Loop had to be removed I would love to hear about it. Anyways on to the old stuff I have on Kennywood.

 

 

Updated 4/6/08: added super 8 film footage including POV of Laser Loop

Updated 5/4/08: added super 8 film footage of the Dipper circa 1982

 

 

finally they use the real ride in the brochure

The Phantom starts to rise

The map gets a much needed update and look.

The Phantom makes it onto the map

Here is the Thunderbolt before the Steel Phantom dove down between it

This looks nothing like the Steel Phantom but more like the Viper at Magic Mountain

ah you gotta love the 80's. I believe the year the Laser Loop opened the track was left primer red and later painted black. It was the least attractive of all the shuttle loops but it rode pretty good!

This is the artwork for Montezooma's Revenge at Knott's Berry Farm

The park map showing the Laser Loop