It's Official: Texas Giant Gets A Makeover!

[jayman]

i now have no reason to visit sfot... http://www.wbap.com/Article.asp?id=1719448&spid=
jerks

[Dirk_Ermen]

Omg... I wonder how this is going to turn out...

Interesting...do we consider this a steel coaster like Excalibur or Gemini now?

I never really liked Giant to begin with, so I don't really care. My question is: does this count as a new credit?

[jayman]

like this, only in rollercoaster form.. i hear it's going to be sponsored by the welfare department .

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That Steve Martindale character wouldn't know "pretty serious math" if it hit him in the freakin' face. This "improvement" does little to sway my opinion that Texas sucks.

Well, they're fighting chapter 11, so is this better or worse than seeing it bulldozed and sold for scrap? It is sad to see a well thought of woodie turned into something else, but at least it's still a coaster.

Very interesting that they're re-tracking it with steel rails in the wood track configuration. This way they can probably put polyurethane wheels on the original rolling stock and not need to buy new ones. And no doubt they're hoping this steel-for-wood cyborg rides smoother and requires less maintenance than the all wood original. I wonder how they're accounting for the fact that the wood frame will flex far more than a steel one does?

More picts and info: http://www.amusementtoday.com/

[slosprint]

*facepalm* of all the gimmickey new elements...

Originally posted by Zazu Yen

Well, they're fighting chapter 11, so is this better or worse than seeing it bulldozed and sold for scrap?

A brand new coaster from GCI or TGG would be considerably cheaper than the $10 million they are putting into this rehab.

Wow... I really don't know what to call on this one. But I must say a 79 degree drop sounds pretty awesome.

Originally posted by guitarplayer673

Originally posted by Zazu Yen

Well, they're fighting chapter 11, so is this better or worse than seeing it bulldozed and sold for scrap?

A brand new coaster from GCI or TGG would be considerably cheaper than the $10 million they are putting into this rehab.

Well, I'm pretty sure they're banking on the maintenance costs dropping enough to make up for it. Apparently the coaster took quite a lot of maintenance over the winter and was still becoming so rough locals were no longer riding it much. Sfot was probably shopping around for some way to cut costs on it when the Rocky Mountain Construction company came up and said, "We'll re-track it and make it faster, smoother and cheaper to maintain." Also because it's the first of it's kind, and Rocky Mountain probably expects to get a lot more business if it works, I wouldn't be surprised if Rocky Mountain wasn't helping to finance the costs, if not footing part of the bill outright.

FYI Rocky Mountain is calling this track style Iron Horse.

Well i really dont know if this will turn good or bad, but its either going to be REALY good or REALY bad.

[slosprint]

My bet is really bad. It seems to me like it's simply a marketing gimmick like Bizarro was.

[Mikey]

Do not get me started on SFOT issues....

You should no longer recognize that pile of wood as The Texas Giant. The Texas Giant was made of warm wood, it had heart, it had soul. It never let you down and it was a blast until the end. She was a living breathing organism until Shapiro ripped her guts out. I for one will not call it the Texas Giant, but rather recognize it only by its serial number "TX90".

[jayman]

Originally posted by A7XandCoasters

Wow... I really don't know what to call on this one. But I must say a 79 degree drop sounds pretty awesome.

i'm sure that theres already plenty of drops that steep on steel rollercoasters..

[Kev]

Texas Giant used to be an awesome ride, but 'used to be' was several years ago. I dunno... I guess I will keep an open mind about it and see how it all turns out. Definitely not a woody anymore, but it still might turn out to be fun to ride.

Im not detrimenting the design of the new re-build but all that extra weight on a coaster thats 20 or so years old? But 10,000,000!!! Thats absolutely crazy. Meh it might be cool.

Originally posted by english coaster guy

Im not detrimenting the design of the new re-build but all that extra weight on a coaster thats 20 or so years old? But 10,000,000!!! Thats absolutely crazy. Meh it might be cool.

In an article they say ("they" being Rocky Mountain) that the steel weighs about the same as the 9 layers of plywood that was the track before (glue is heavy). I'm more worried about how much more wood flexes than steel and what that stress will do to the new track.

Sick! I'm all for it...Texas Giant was pretty mediocre when I rode it in 2006, but that 79* drop and whatever else they choose to add into the mix should spice it up plenty. Hopefully they include lots of small hills where possible, that way they can have a bit of a Boulderdash thing going on with lots of tiny hills following a profile (this time the profile is the existing structure) instead of mostly just following what they have, which isn't all that great. Excited to see how this works out as far as the layout and other features like tracking and such go.

MEH

"The Chinchillian Red painted track is not bent, but is cut, then welded together in 40 to 53-foot lengths before being bolted to the Texas Giant's wooden support structure."

The hell? That sentence has been kicking around in the back of my head all afternoon. There must be a trick to it, either they're lying or they bend it as they bolt it down (much like how wood rails are done). Those things don't look like they bend willingly or smoothly though... if they don't do something this is going to be one hell of a jerky ride at 65 miles an hour.

Are they going to put shock absorbing trucks on the cars? That'll blow you're maintenance savings. I'm hoping they go back over the ride and weld properly bent strap steel to the inner sides and tops of those rails to smooth out the sectional transitions.

Also, Chinchillas are grayish you dipshits. Saying Chinchillian Red is like saying Charcoal Green.

[slosprint]

Originally posted by Zazu Yen

That'll blow you're maintenance savings.

As a grammar Nazi I object to this sentence.

Edit: The title of this thread should say "It's" not "its".

[jayman]

it's o.k. , i'm not threatening anyone

As a logic Nazi I object to using 'threat' for 'thread'.

Also you used self referential logic. "As a grammar Nazi I object to this sentence." means you object to the sentence "As a grammar Nazi I object to this sentence." As a grammar Nazi, you should.

But I'm not objecting to your objection, I didn't like "That'll blow you're maintenance savings." when I orphaned it from the sentence it was attached to. But I was too lazy to fix the whole paragraph and make it work properly.

[slosprint]

Well I suppose I am an idiot for the rest of the week! You may all throw objects at my forum posts until Saturday.