Le Scoot
- Thread starter Zachary
- Start date
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=2W7Rxz9eCPs in this video at about 4:04, it appears to be the only footage/photo of that small drop having a small climb after it. It's interesting because as far as I know, that was still up for debate; sorry if it wasn't. For those who have no idea what I am talking about, on the small drop headed towards the shed, there used to be a small hill back up. At some point, this was taken out. You can still see where the supports look a little funny.
is the best shot I could find. If the picture were to go another few feet left, you'd see the horizontal support be about at the height of the horizontal support to the right.
Update: I attempted to explain what I was talking about by drawing this:
I then took a look at the video again around 4:04 as I originally mentioned, then skipped too many frames back, felt like an idiot, and saw this at about 3:53
So to sum it up, it appears that there was a small climb (gravity powered) after that drop.
Album of Photos
Clear as day in the youtube video
Update: I attempted to explain what I was talking about by drawing this:
I then took a look at the video again around 4:04 as I originally mentioned, then skipped too many frames back, felt like an idiot, and saw this at about 3:53
So to sum it up, it appears that there was a small climb (gravity powered) after that drop.
Album of Photos
Clear as day in the youtube video
So there is the drop then a straight part, but there used to be a drop then lift then straight? That sounds interesting. Those supports do look very odd in the picture, almost as odd as Verbolten's supports, but of course there is a logical reason for all funny looking supports.
Party Rocker said:
I think we have found that Le Scoot's funny supports are funny not by original design, but because of adaptation. (I edited my above post)
I mention in the drawing that Le Scoot may have been a transport from another park. I heard that rumor about a year ago on the Coaster Insider tour. It was the tour guide, but IIRC, he said no one could really remember. You might think that it is too terrained to be a transport, but if you think about it, the whole ride just sits in a big easily created for any ride hole. Any body here have any ideas about that?
Swiftman said:
You'd think so. Although I brought it up, it seems unlikely to me that it was relocated, the first log flume was built in 1963. That's only a 12 year period for a log flume to be built and sold. Of course it's possible, parks close all of the time. However, Le Scoot is a fairly large ride particularly for its type; presumably it wouldn't be that hard to figure it out. If it were a large park, the information would be easy to find, if it were a small park the log flume would have been a major attraction. There should be a decently sized park that dismantled/removed/closed a log flume in 1970-1975 or so. I did a little research and found nothing.
Near misses:
1 Log Flume was sold around that time ~1974 from Pixieland (oregon) to Lagoon AP (Utah), but it's tiny
In 1975, WB's proposed building one at Jungle Habitat in NJ, but it was never built.
It seems to me that if there is any truth to this rumor, perhaps Le Scoot wasn't physically a transplant, but perhaps the plans were not original for BGW.
I don't think it is a transplant. It just is not the park's style. Every ride they have was made for the park exception of the carousel. It just doesn't seem right that the park would buy another ride when they usually get them made specifically for their park. I also want to include Griffon in the exception since the one in Tampa was built first.
Party Rocker said:
While not "transplants" the other full size opening day/year 2 rides Glissade and Wildekatz were stock coasters. Glissade was a Shwarzkopf Jet Star 3 and Die Wildekatz was a Shwarzkopf Wildcat (makes the name sound far less creative knowing that). Sort of leaves the door open for the possibility that Le Scoot not being created specifically for BGW.
I'm not saying it wasn't, I'm simply saying that the rumor, at best, meant this since it appears it certainly wasn't a transplant.
Well I clearly think it wasn't built at any other park, however what could be really likely is, they planned to for the dip, but something happened with the dip that was required for its removal. Not necessarily, planned for another park or anything. Think of it like Drachen Fire. The ride opened, it had issues, and I believe they took out parts and modified it to be smoother. Same concept could be said for Le Scoot.
^ Good question Gavin...
Anyway, I imagine the other lift was removed because it was more trouble than it was worth to maintenance. Why maintain two lift motors when you don't have to?
Anyway, I imagine the other lift was removed because it was more trouble than it was worth to maintenance. Why maintain two lift motors when you don't have to?
Party Rocker said:
Are you saying Griffon and Sheikra are clones? If so, you are wrong.
Anyways, I thought the rumor was that Le Scoot was on the property when Busch bought it... at least that's what I remember hearing once.
Busch Gardens Houston did not have a log flume if I recall correctly. The Van Nuys park did have one though. Not sure if that one was moved to Williamsburg or scrapped. I can't seem to find an accurate picture of the layout (just an RCT3 recreation and that looks different from Le Scoot's layout).
Le Scoot is the only ride in the park that's older than the park itself. What gets me is that Le Scoot is a terrain ride and moving terrain rides is difficult. If the ride was moved, it had to be modified unless its former home had the exact same terrain as BGW has.
Le Scoot is the only ride in the park that's older than the park itself. What gets me is that Le Scoot is a terrain ride and moving terrain rides is difficult. If the ride was moved, it had to be modified unless its former home had the exact same terrain as BGW has.
Gavin said:
You bring up a great point. From a quick read here and here it seems BG-H didn't have many large rides (only one comment even mentions a roller coaster, which was as he said abandoned, so it was perhaps a small Shwarzkopf with small resale value; which we should take with a grain of salt anyways), further there wasn't a picture of either in the photo album included. This doesn't mean there wasn't a flume there, but we still have no evidence. I can say with some certainty that the Stanley Falls Flume (BGT) opened in 1973 and was the same designer as Le Scoot (if you watch a video, you can see that a lot of the same technologies were used (and another site hypothesizes this was arrow, which is believable since they did a lot of flumes at that time)
Also, as late as mid-1972, when Stanley Falls Flume would have been contracted at the latest, BG-H was still going strong, or at least hopeful. It wasn't until the end of that season that things had started to look bleak.
TL;DR; With that said I wonder if the park didn't pair up on the contract (A practice the company still seems to employ) for Stanley Falls/BGH-Log Flume, but renege on a planned houston flume (which perhaps was already designed or even manufactured) and had it built instead at BGW when Houston started to fade. I think either of those would be enough to start the rumor. However, the lack of definite answer in something that really isn't that mysterious, does make me doubt the validity also.
It seems odd to me that there is any doubt even amongst park employees, particularly doing the tours who you'd think would be given some ability to find out historical information. Seems like there would a record somewhere that would clear this all up. I don't doubt that it is in some "corporate eye's only" folder somewhere, but it seems someone there could look and find it out. Then again, I guess it's not that important, only interesting, either. The doubt in something that need not be secret does make me doubt the validity of the rumor.
Swiftman said:
It appears this small climb was small enough as to not need a lift:
http://i.imgur.com/FzB2F.png
netdvn said:
If you think about it, it's not that crazy.
1) The hill near the train station/ eagle's nest and on the back before the mill, the supports are different even though (even supports of the same height), which would make me think they are replacements of the original supports likely to adapt to a different terrain.
2) The basin the lower half of the ride sits in could be built to whatever specification was necessary and tends to have plenty of clearance below the ride.
I guess Gavin already cleared this question up, but I'll throw this out there too:netdvn said:
This old Van Nuys old timer posts here that the Van Nuys log flume was tiny, and although he says he believes it went east, I doubt one would describe Le Scoot as tiny.
Edit*3: added a number of more responses from other things I have found. This is sort of fun for me, haha.
"It appears this small climb was small enough as to not need a lift:"
The small rise on the log flume did not have a lift at all. I was all gravity and the rushing water that propelled the flume back up the small rise. The flume was changed back in the early 80's for saftey reasons. Busch Gardens was concerned with a log being stuck at the bottom of the drop if the pumps had to be tuned off or if one of the pumps broke.
I was a welder, machinist working for Craft Machine works at the time and we did all the steel work when the Log flume was changed. In fact Craft did many modifications and repair work for the park back then. It was a great job and alot of fun to be working at the park.
Eric M
The small rise on the log flume did not have a lift at all. I was all gravity and the rushing water that propelled the flume back up the small rise. The flume was changed back in the early 80's for saftey reasons. Busch Gardens was concerned with a log being stuck at the bottom of the drop if the pumps had to be tuned off or if one of the pumps broke.
I was a welder, machinist working for Craft Machine works at the time and we did all the steel work when the Log flume was changed. In fact Craft did many modifications and repair work for the park back then. It was a great job and alot of fun to be working at the park.
Eric M
That's what I thought, I didn't see anything that looked like lift machinery. Thanks for the info!