Attraction Colossos

[Shane]

So this story is about a year late, but Heide Park did not open Colossos, their Intamin Prefab wood coaster, for the 2017 season . ScreamScape had heard the following from their sources:

From what Screamscape has heard, Germany's TÜV ordered the coaster shut down late last summer, as the ride experience had just deteriorated to the point where it was clear something was wrong. According to one report, Colossos had simply become too rough.. and not in the same way that you would expect a wooden coaster to get rough with age, but had evolved into an experience similar to having a jackhammer on your spine for the duration of the ride.

For those that may not know, Colossos represented the first version of a new experimental construction method for wooden coasters from Intamin. Instead of putting down layers of wood under the rails, these sections of the ride were each custom milled from large wooden blocks for each track section, had the custom designed rails mounted to them, and then delivered to the site ready for installation. The large wooden track sections are designed so they can be assembled together on site, almost like putting together a Lego model. (A photo showing off a couple of these can be found here.)

The idea was that down the line, when a section of the ride was in need of re-tracking, they could simply order the specific pieces needed and then swap them out, much like you would do with a steel coaster. As Colossos is the oldest of the four Intamin Pre-Fab wooden coasters, built to open in 2001, apparently we now know just how long this new design of track will last, as we've heard that Colossos is now in need of extensive re-tracking.

So what's the problem? It seems this is going to be one hell of an expensive job, and by the time the ride was closed last season the park had already committed their 2017 budget towards building the new Ghostbusters dark ride, and did not have the funds needed to also re-track Colossos for 2017, so it is expected that the park's 2018 attraction budget will be spent to fix Colossos at this time.

On a related note, I've also been told that T-Express at Everland in South Korea, the youngest of the four Intamin Pre-Fab coasters (opened in 2008) is now also listed as being closed on the park's website. While T-Express is probably just closed for regular maintenance, it does make me interesting in knowing how well it and the other two Intamin coasters (El Toro at Six Flags Great Adventure and Balder at Liseberg) are holding up as they age, and if any of them have had to under-go any track replacement over the years.

Well it's been almost a year and Heide Park has finally announced their plans for the coaster:

(1/12/18) Heide Park has announced that they have come to a decision regarding the fate of Colossos, the giant Intamin wooden coaster (with pre-fab track) at the park, which has sat closed since July 2016. Colossos will be renovated and reopen in 2019 after spending about 12 million Euros on the renovation, giving the park back a much missed iconic attraction.

The process will be a lengthy one as they have determined that all of the ride’s existing track must be replaced with new pieces, which will thus keep the coaster’s status intact as a true wooden coaster experience. They do admit that they were considering a plan (I assume from RMC) that would have replaced the track system with a new “hybrid” model track with steel rails, but opted to stick with the wood. Look for Colossos to be up and running for the start of the park’s 2019 season.

Source

I think it will be interesting to see if they go with a company that does more traditional wood coaster retracking like GCI, Gravity Group, or Martin & Vleminckx or if Intamin will be creating new prefab track pieces to replace the old, worn out track.

As crazy and intense Intamin Prefabs are, I am not sure that a smooth and comfortable ride experience can be maintained with traditional wood coaster retracking techniques. I would hope that the park has Intamin build new prefab track. And while the park has said they are not going the Hybrid coaster route like so many American parks have done in the past few years, I would be interested to see if the park chooses to instead install RMC Topper Track since that track system is still technically a wood coaster track.

 

[Unagi]

I think it will be interesting to see if they go with a company that does more traditional wood coaster retracking like GCI,

I doubt GCI will touch it. This coaster is almost 200-feet tall and the tallest on their roster is only 131-feet. This will most likely be complete prefab track replacement but I could see RMC installing their topper track as well.

 

[I305Evan]

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If you have time- I would suggest watching this documentary on the rebuild of Colossos. Lots of information about why they did the rebuild and the new techniques that were learned along the way.