Park News
in association with
Park Hoppin’ with Paul Ruben
Silly Season T
his my favorite time of year, the silly season, when the parks open and new bragging rights are claimed. By bragging rights I mean new world records, and this has been going on now for nearly a century. Back in the
1920s, before speed-measuring radar guns, park operators claimed their new roller coaster went 100 mph (161 kph). These were 27 to 30m tall coasters. Just so you understand, a body in a vacuum with no friction would have to fall more than 102 m to reach a velocity of 100 mph. These old coasters went fast, and if the park claimed the speed was 100 mph it must be so. Bragging rights took on new importance in 1952 with the release of the
wide screen motion picture, This Is Cinerama. One scene in the film, pictured here, was taken with a camera mounted on a small coaster (21m tall) at Rockaway Playland in Rockaway Beach, New York, called the Atom Smasher. With the wide screen projection the audience felt as if they were actually on the ride. The park quickly capitalized on the notoriety by renaming and promoting their coaster as the Cinerama Coaster. Other parks took notice and began to imagine how they might differentiate their coaster from others. Today, with more than 50 different style and variations of roller coasters it
is possible to set world records for that particular version of ride. The simplest claims are the most general, like being the tallest or fastest coaster, but those are only two of many. So operators become more specific, as the tallest wood coaster, fastest steel, looping, inverted, spinning, racing, and so on. As mentioned, there are more than 50 sub-categories, so it seems everyone can create a bragging right for a new coaster that will last at least one season. This year Silver Dollar City claimed six new bragging rights for Time Traveler,
their new spinning coaster from Mack Rides. For spinning coasters, it’s the tallest, fastest, steepest, most inversions, most vertical loops, and most launches. Two new first-ever monorail coasters appear this year, Wonder Woman
Golden Lasso Coaster at Six Flags Fiesta Texas and RailBlazer at California’s Great Adventure. From RMC, these are deserving of instant bragging rights for being single rail. Not to be outdone, Cedar Point deserves the bragging rights for being the
most inventive park when it comes to creating bragging rights. (Get that?) Upon opening Steel Vengeance, their massive hybrid coaster from RMC, they claimed 15 new coaster and park world records! My favorite? Most roller coaster track at one amusement park. They boast 18.4 km, or 11.4 miles, of track. Silly season indeed. Records are made to be broken, and we’re here to chronicle them. And to experience them. That’s the best part.
JULY 2018
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68
