California Great America (CGA) Discussion Thread

Did you guys notice the proper operation of an Arrow looper!? One train goes down the first drop, the next train is on the lift.

 

I never rode TOCentury,

 

GREAT memories if you did. The two bunny hills that used to be there were the best out of control air time I have ever experienced to this day. Rumor has it they did away with the hills as they caused too much stress on the trains which true or not makes perfect sense.

Very cool footage! I can really tell the park had a lot of charm back then. It was interesting seeing the rides that are still there and the rides that are gone. That ferris wheel thing looked really cool! Why did they get rid of it?

They removed it to make room for Invertigo. I hated that thing, was not sad to see it go.

Did you guys notice the proper operation of an Arrow looper!? One train goes down the first drop, the next train is on the lift.

 

I never rode TOCentury, but I do remember that operation at Demon (at my home Great America, here in Gurnee). As soon as the train went down the drop, you would hear that loud ripping sound of the next train latching on and ratcheting at the bottom of the lift. And then the nose would peek out above the 'lift rocks.' Good times! Get in, pull down your bar, and your off! Simple times. Logical times.

Sure did! No wonder they could reach THRC back in the day. I wish you could see parks train their employees to shift trains like they used to...

Great footage! By the way, who made those triple ferris wheels? They sure looked great, had good capacity but none of them are around anyomre (I think?). It would be great for a park (looking at you, Knoebel's) to bring back such an iconic model...

Great footage! By the way, who made those triple ferris wheels? They sure looked great, had good capacity but none of them are around anyomre (I think?). It would be great for a park (looking at you, Knoebel's) to bring back such an iconic model...

The triple-wheels (and more rarely seen double-wheel like Hershey used to have) were made by Waagner Biro AG and supplied by Intamin. It seems the manufacturing company is now only involved in architecture projects.

^There were only 2 of those triple wheels to my knowledge, one at each of the Great Americas. There was supposed to be a third Great America park near Washington DC, but that never happened.

Intamin also supplied Astroworld, Hersheypark, Kings Island and Magic Mountain with similar double wheels; the "Galaxy" at Magic Mountain had 4 smaller "sweeps" on each of the large arms. Those are the ones I was aware of, there may have been more.

I only rode the one at my home park (Great America, Gurnee) and that ride scared me - but I loved it! People were a bit shocked when they took it out for a cruddy ride that never ran (Deja Vu). Sky Whirl was a capacity monster with a very long ride cycle. The ride looked HUGE from the highway and around the park, making up an important park of the park skyline. I believe the highest point was 125', does someone know for sure?

Galaxy at Magic Mountain

Galaxy at Magic Mountain

Giant Wheel at Hersheypark

Astrowheel at Astroworld. Note the *original* drop on Texas Cyclone, with it's snapping break-over and 4-bench PTC train. This drop was modified before 1984 to a more gradual break-over (and the PTCs were changed to 3-benches around 1981).

Racer with Zodiac double wheel. This wheel was later relocated to Wonderland in Sydney, Australia.

Scanning my family's old Super 8 and 8mm film reels to computer and came across a couple marked "Great America 7/77", thought you all would appreciate this pretty rare footage of the park when it was only a year old. There are a couple quick shots of Whizzer, lots of good footage of Turn Of The Century, and several things that arent at the park anymore. I think Tidal Wave was probably under construction when this was filmed, but I didn't see it in the video. There's also some kinda neat footage of driving down the 680 from Sacramento showing a freeway overfly still under construction somewhere in the south bay.

Oh wow! This brings back so many memories for me. I was raised in San Jose and lived there until my late 20s. I recall there were quite a few of those incomplete freeway flyovers. The one I remember the most was the Highway 101/Interstate 280/680 flyover. The Whizzer was my first "big boy" rollercoaster. I remember it was called Willard's Whizzer at the time. I was too chicken to ride Turn of the Century. By the time I got over my fear it was transformed to The Demon. The troika, called Triple Play, was my favorite flat ride. I would spend half the day re-riding it. I was also obsessed with riding the Yukon Yahoo bayern curve. Thanks for sharing!

I think CGA has a very bright future. You're getting a pretty good sized coaster this year and a freaking 250 ft B&M hyper fairly soon too.

While those skywheels sure look interesting (I was unable to get on one), but how reliable were they? Why did they go the way of the dodo?

I first went to Great America (Santa Clara) as a child, and all of this brings back great memories. In hindsight, the park in those early years really had so many things you just don't see today (trolleys and bands and whatnot). Anyway, a few points to add and consider:

Turn Of The Century. In 1976, this was my first REAL coaster, and those bunny hills were amazing. Though I have often wondered if the fact they ejected me so forcefully had as much to do with the hills themselves, or with the fact that my child self was much smaller and more easily forced from my seat. I don't suppose there is anyone here that rode it as an adult sized person or knew of someone that did ride it and experience this? In any case though, the ride experience was much better than the Demon. However, the change to the Demon was quite a big deal, and based on advertising and hype, the addition of the loops was based entirely on how new inversions still were, and how marketable. Though, as with all things, if this also wound up reducing maintenance cost, that surely would have been a plus that would've made such a decision easier. I feel lucky that I got to ride both versions of this so many times (I fondly recall literally running out of the station exit on TOtC and running all the way back to the entry on quiet days, and riding over and over with my friends). Sadly, my height has made the Demon extremely uncomfortable (the restraints push me down in the most painful way), so I probably will not partake again, but still some wonderful memories.

Sky Whirl was a pretty iconic ride, though not a personal favorite. I don't ever recall there being issues with reliability (it seemed to be always running).

Triple Play was easily my favorite flat ride... and in an interesting connection with TOtC: One of those visits when my best friend and I were probably very cute kids, the way older adult seeming girl that was the ride op in Triple Play (probably all of 18 years or so?) told us to tell the ride op on TOtC we could ride whenever we wanted. Well, obviously, in hindsight, the guy running TOtC probably had a crush on the girl, and indeed, invoking her name did grant my friend and I special riding privileges for that day!

On a last note, like everyone else, I dearly miss the Whizzer. As with the ejector experience on TOtC, I imagine the experience would not be nearly as wonderful as it is in my memory, but that and Yankee Clipper are definitely missed.

That video was awesome ... thanks for sharing! I grew up in the Bay Area so I went to Great America a lot. I used to pay for my season pass back in the 80s with my paper route money.

I made my yearly trip to CGA this week and it was a mixed bag for sure. Three of the first four rides we wanted to go on were closed (Gold Striker, Tiki Twirl and Drop Tower). We went on Patriot first and it was OK. I had forgotten how relatively short the track was.

We did not wait in line much, which was great. We walked on to the front row of Flight Deck and it was incredible. I had never been in the front row for that ride and it added so much for us. It was the highlight of the day.

Gold Striker did eventually open in the afternoon. We pretty much walked onto the back row. That ride is just relentless and that is what I love about it.

We also went on Delirium, which is my test ride to see if I can still handle spinning rides at my age. I am happy to say I was totally fine afterwards!

"Face unseen twists and turns along the path #ProjectSR1"

From Twitter

Hmmm... indoor portion?

This is looking more and more like a much bigger (in scale) project than I had originally thought. And I couldn't be happier for CGA after years of uncertainty and lackluster additions, this is great!

It's gotta be a Rocky Mountain Raptor...called Railblazer is the rumor right? Seems to fit all of the teasing. Also, wouldn't be surprised if it's a clone of WW.

Exactly what I've been saying. If not a clone, def near clone, IMO. The 110' height permit gives it away

^ I think the prototype at the RMC manufacturing facility is Rail Blazer. The colors of the Raptor track are teal and burnt orange. The colors on the WW concept video are yellow and a reddish salmon color. I doubt Six Flags would use the colors of the RMC prototype for WW it doesn't fit the theme of the ride.

Rail Blazer

Wonder Woman

There's currently a killer sale going on. Its basically buy one ticket, get one ticket to Winterfest free.

https://www.cagreatamerica.com/tickets-passes/daily-tickets

I have to do it. Cant pass that up.

I've been wishy washy regarding my choice between Santa Cruz or going to SFDK again.

This deal made up my mind. Unfortunately they're not open many days the rest of this month. I've also never been to a Winterfest. Looking forward to that.

Did you guys notice the proper operation of an Arrow looper!? One train goes down the first drop, the next train is on the lift.

 

I never rode TOCentury, but I do remember that operation at Demon (at my home Great America, here in Gurnee). As soon as the train went down the drop, you would hear that loud ripping sound of the next train latching on and ratcheting at the bottom of the lift. And then the nose would peek out above the 'lift rocks.' Good times! Get in, pull down your bar, and your off! Simple times. Logical times.

I miss these days! Back when the PLC was basically non-existent, the loading gates WERE non existent, and you used a hand crank to let the train in and out of the station! I remember I used to get so excited on LNM at BGW when they'd over-shoot the station and the whole train got to go for a second ride!

Hell, even up through the 90s you could crank arrows out with a train leaving the station the moment the first one left the lift. I have some old footage of even Alpengeist somewhere with a train leaving the station the moment the first one is off the lift from 1997.

I think early 2000s were when parks started going crazy with the anti-idiot policies, fear of lawsuits that never actually happened, and the like. This was also the time when cellphones became more mainstream, camcorders became more affordable, and bags started coming into parks with greater frequency. The uptick in personal belongs at the same time as the uptick in safety "features" caused dispatch times to go WAY down.

Here's some good ol' Psyclone Steve footage of Vortex in 93 with the "ASAP dispatch!" I love seeing the coaster going through the block brakes with the one behind almost at the lift crown, and seeing the loading station dispatch with guests still walking out the exit. Different times. I miss them too!

There's currently a killer sale going on. Its basically buy one ticket, get one ticket to Winterfest free.

 

https://www.cagreatamerica.com/tickets-passes/daily-tickets

 

I have to do it. Cant pass that up.

 

I've been wishy washy regarding my choice between Santa Cruz or going to SFDK again.

 

This deal made up my mind. Unfortunately they're not open many days the rest of this month. I've also never been to a Winterfest. Looking forward to that.

Worlds of Fun was running a similar deal last this month. If you don’t have a season pass, it’s an incredible value.

Screamscape confirmed it's a Wonder Woman clone.

Even though I almost always take everything from Screamscape with a grain of salt, I'm still very excited for this (assuming it is true). Capacity will be atrocious, but Wonder Woman looks like a great ride. It definitely beats an Intamin Impulse!

Take Screamscape as you will, but remember they called the RMC Raptors for SFFT and CGA in early July. I think they're right on with this one

Screamscape confirmed it's a Wonder Woman clone.

They are also claiming it will only have two trains and no moving loading platform, which is a travesty if true. I can't believe that CF would cheap out like that, especially on such a low capacity coaster.

The SFFT announcement blew my ever-loving mind...and CGA is relatively cheap and painless for me to get to. Plus, I need all the new killer coasters in NorCal (Joker, this if it pans out like we think, and sadly even Gold Striker, plus SCBB's rooftop spinning hotness). Not to mention I'm thirsty for revisits to these parks anyway: my only visits to all but SFDK were in 2009, and I haven't been to SFDK since 2012! Hmm...

The SFFT announcement blew my ever-loving mind...and CGA is relatively cheap and painless for me to get to. Plus, I need all the new killer coasters in NorCal (Joker, this if it pans out like we think, and sadly even Gold Striker, plus SCBB's rooftop spinning hotness). Not to mention I'm thirsty for revisits to these parks anyway: my only visits to all but SFDK were in 2009, and I haven't been to SFDK since 2012! Hmm...

I feel ya! In fact, I've never been to NorCal, but I'm highly considering doing a little road trip there from Northern Utah next summer...if I can find time and some people to go with. With CGA's new coaster, SFDK, SCBB, and even Gilroy Gardens, plus a bunch of sightseeing stuff in San Fran, I gotta get out there sooner than later!

Was *this* close to going this year, but timing didn't quite work out. Figured waiting until 2018 wouldn't be such a bad idea anyway, with CGA's new coaster.

^Definitely don't skip Gilroy Gardens if you can help it!

^Definitely don't skip Gilroy Gardens if you can help it!

Agreed, I second this. As much as it's a kid park, they've got a kickass coaster tucked away in the back and everyone I've gone there's been no lines.