Worst Coaster Layouts

-Excalibur - Valleyfair: Trimmed first drop, straight section of track, figure-8, back to station. Very creative .

-Mean Streak - Cedar Point: The definition of meandering, just a bunch of slow, drawn-out turns that seem to go on forever.

-Goliath - Six Flags Great America: While this is still a top ten ride for me, the layout itself doesn't do a lot and the ride is over in a heartbeat. I get the feeling that Six Flags probably cheaped out on it.

[Paradox]

Twisted Colossus lol

Silver Bullet, Knott's

[mkingy]

Rita @ Alton / Desert Race @ heide park

Waste of a launch.

[gouldy]

mkingy wrote:

Rita @ Alton / Desert Race @ heide park

Waste of a launch.

So much this.


Rita has a terrible layout, especially within the context of its setting (being Alton Towers), where layout is king because gimmicks like fastest and tallest simply aren't possible. It's almost like they said let's put the launch here and launch off down into the valley, then they realised they wouldn't be allowed to do that, so they left the launch where it was (pointing directly at the valley) and just drew a basic figure 8 squiggle for the rest of the layout. They couldn't have tried any less if they had tried to try less.

And then to think that Intamin reproduced this same layout for another customer? Bluergh.

When planning the ride, Rita had the potential to be one of the greatest launched coasters on the planet, with massive topographical assistance. Instead, the layout ended up resembling the musings of a small child.

I'm not really a fan of calling layouts 'bad' since I tend to forget about that detail while I'm on the ride, the elements themselves are fun, and parks might have money restrictions or have to reuse existing structures or footers. However there are roller coasters where if it were up to me and if I was designing something like it in NL2, they would have a better looking layout:
Storm Chaser-Just a simple meandering out and back for its size. I wish it could have been more spaghetti bowl-like.
Leviathan-Just a few hills and overbanks, then an end brake run that's about 1/3 the height of the lift hill and is also the MCBR
Son of Beast (when it was still a thing)-Might as well be a small coaster with oversized elements. I don't remember much of being on it but the POV's make it look like there's virtually no forces other than the occasional 'greater than 1G' and maybe some laterals. It was situated in an area with varying terrain and they could have used that to their advantage but no, they had to make each element as high as possible just to waste more wood. Maybe I'm okay with calling the layout of this one "bad."
Beast-not a lot of hills, a lot of long straight segments into tunnels, picking up speed, then another lift takes you to a shallow drop leading to a partially tunneled helix. At the same time it's genius cuz the designers have managed to make that into something exciting and memorable.
Thunderbird-kinda reminds me of one of the RCT grid-based layouts

Gatekeeper needs a bit more "umph" after the key-hole element. It's one of my favorite rides and it would probably be my number one if the last section after the MCBR was little more interesting. I think it could have used one of those cool Wing-Coaster-Ending slow twists.

[Oscar]

All Boomerangs

[Paradox]

Oscar wrote:

All Boomerangs

Turbo is triggered

[slosprint]

In terms of layout? Any RMC non-remodeled ride. They all just kind of wander around aimlessly. Stormrunner also comes to mind, just one big square.

[Dirk_Ermen]

Oscar wrote:

All Boomerangs

Layout wise they are quite good. Very intense ride on a small template. It's just that Six Flags bought a shitton of these in a few years time and never properly maintained them. Causing them to go even more terrible.

Worst coaster layout, I would say "De Vliegende Hollander".

[gouldy]

slosprint wrote:

In terms of layout? Any RMC non-remodeled ride. They all just kind of wander around aimlessly. Stormrunner also comes to mind, just one big square.

As awesome as the individual elements of RMC coasters are, their non-remodeled layouts are incredibly bad, yes. Storm Chaser is shocking, so much wasted area.

I'm not sure if I agree about Storm Runner though. The flow of the ride works as it is and, while I've never been to the park or looked into it in too much detail, I'm imagining there's other stuff inside of that square? Or am I wrong? Or at least other things could easily fit into that square, unlike the wasted spaces in Storm Chaser which can't be filled with anything.

I thought Storm Runner's layout was terrible when that first animation was unveiled. I think that coaster changed my opinion more than any other after my first ride. Now I love the layout and in particular how it isn't compact and instead has a large space in the middle. It made me appreciate that aspect of Outlaw Run, Storm Chaser, and Thunderbird too.

Gold Rush at OK Corral (France). Because, well...

Oh man haha how's that for a couple Easter eggs

[Paradox]

Why would they connect the ends of the lifts if it's a shuttle coaster?

[mkingy]

It's really weird and does a full circuit and shuttle coaster thing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPiSjpA4L_0

What the hell is that thing?

Maybe because it's Gerstlauer! They have WOT loops for EuroFighters so no wonder that it's got a funny section! Humorous though! I love that idea!

Goliath at La Ronde is pretty straightforward, but it still is in my top five because of the insane amount of perfect floater air throughout.

KingRCT 3 wrote:

Gold Rush at OK Corral (France). Because, well...

Did jeremy clarkson design this ride?

Dragon Mountain at Marineland.

Never has a ride been given 200ft of elevation and a mile of track.... and one less with it.

I agree with not wanting to call coasters "bad" based off of their layouts BUT, for the purposes of this particular topic, Pony Express at Knott's Berry Farm comes to mind... It's literally just a single figure 8

EDIT: I'm not sure if this is just a given but, I'm surprised that no one listed the Superman: Rides of Steel at Six Flags America and Darien Lake?

That sounds like blaming a "historical" PTC that had built neat "Figure 8" models way before!