United States ZDT's Amusement Park — Switchback Has Been Sold!

[Mr. Porkchop]

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I think this is the best thing that could have happened to the main building. @zachclarke Thankfully, it looks like all the murals were untouched. Hopefully, Switchback finds a new home.

 

[zachclarke]

Some footage of Switchback that I took during my visit:

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[TPoseOnTantrum]

Well, it is official.

Switchback is SOLD.

ZDT's owners say a contract is signed, deposit put down, and it will live on elsewhere. They're mum about where and when.

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[warfelg]

It’s going to the shuttle coaster kingdom of SFGAdv just to annoy @northdetective

 

[northdetective]

I was gonna call that but it felt too self-important

 

[Zachary]

I feel like Enchanted Parks could be a good answer here, no? Switchback would be great at a number of their parks and given their position, bargain hunting seems like the best course of action.

 

[harry580]

I wonder what park enchanted park that needed switchback (looking at valleyfair)

 

[TPoseOnTantrum]

I feel like Enchanted Parks could be a good answer here, no? Switchback would be great at a number of their parks and given their position, bargain hunting seems like the best course of action.

We don’t really know their purchase right now so anything could happen really, but I think they will recognize that it doesn’t fit with any of the Six Flags acquisitions. At best case it’s obsolete in their lineups and at worst far too low capacity for the thrilling experience it offers.

However yeah that’s a good place to start brainstorming since the game has now changed from who could buy it to who bought it. Small parks where it could fit that have strong financial backers who might be itching for an opportunity to invest.

The list I can come up with in this sub genre of parks is;
• Castle Park (Lucky Strike)
• Water Safari (Enchanted)
• Lake Winnie (IB Parks)
• Atlantic Splash Adventure (Santa’s Village Canada)

Am down to be surprised. I think Knoebels looked into it and told everyone that it wouldn’t fit well in their park. I quite like his transparent they are about these things

 

[amperedragon]

Glad to see the coaster saved, though I can't really think of any established parks where it makes sense. I'm pretty sure the best case capacity of this coaster is under 300 riders per hour, so it seems like something likely going to an unknown FEC or very small park that happens to have a couple million for a new signature ride. It's simply not going to be able to keep up at any park with average daily numbers of four figures.

 

[warfelg]

If we take my $5 and $50million from someone else:

 

[shodowhater]

I just rewatched a POV of this and, to my eyes, it looks like it could support a second train. Obviously would need to modify the maintenance bay, but that's hardly impossible. Is there anything stopping that from happening?

 

[TPoseOnTantrum]

I just rewatched a POV of this and, to my eyes, it looks like it could support a second train. Obviously would need to modify the maintenance bay, but that's hardly impossible. Is there anything stopping that from happening?

That has two trains, no?

 

[shodowhater]

That has two trains, no?

That was my initial thought as well - but all this 400 riders per hour talk made me think otherwise. Upon searching... yes, two trains, 700pph. Not near as bad as I've seen thrown around. I guess this is what I get for not doing my research.

 

[amperedragon]

I just rewatched a POV of this and, to my eyes, it looks like it could support a second train. Obviously would need to modify the maintenance bay, but that's hardly impossible. Is there anything stopping that from happening?

Switchback is designed to run with two trains, but each train only seats eight passengers. While the official capacity stat given for the coaster is 700 riders per hour, that would require 88 trains, which is a completely unrealistic 40 second interval (it takes longer than that just to clear the lift) and was probably calculated by estimating the best case loading time for an eight passenger train. Approximating the time to clear the block from a POV, I'd guess the realistic best case is probably around 33 trains per hour, which translates to 264 riders if every seat is full.

 

[shodowhater]

Switchback is designed to run with two trains, but each train only seats eight passengers. While the official capacity stat given for the coaster is 700 riders per hour, that would require 88 trains, which is a completely unrealistic 40 second interval (it takes longer than that just to clear the lift) and was probably calculated by estimating the best case loading time for an eight passenger train. Approximating the time to clear the block from a POV, I'd guess the realistic best case is probably around 33 trains per hour, which translates to 264 riders if every seat is full.

o h. That... that is astounding. Thank you for clarifying.

 

[warfelg]

In all honestly I think it would do wonders for a park like Lake Compounce, but they have a shuttle and a SRII already so another low capacity shuttle isn’t the greatest. But their park can handle it.

Waldemere and Kentucky Kingdom would do well with it too.

 

[Zachary]

Given @amperedragon's capacity analysis, I can't recommend this for anything other than the absolute smallest parks. 264-ish PPH with good operations and two trains would be really rough at the majority of small, recognizable parks (like all but the tiniest Enchanted properties, like Waldameer, like Lake Compounce, like Kentucky Kingdom, etc.)

Then, on the flip side of that, at really small parks and FECs, taking on Switchback means onboarding a maintenance-heavy wooden coaster that may not even be all that marketable.

Definitely see why it took so long to sell. Very curious to see where it ends up.

 

[RollyCoaster]

It won’t happen but I would love to see Knoebels, Bay Beach, or Wild Adventures take this on.

Zippin Pippin and Switchback combo would be nuts - They take great care of Pippin too!

 

[warfelg]

Given @amperedragon's capacity analysis, I can't recommend this for anything other than the absolute smallest parks. 264-ish PPH with good operations and two trains would be really rough at the majority of small, recognizable parks (like all but the tiniest Enchanted properties, like Waldameer, like Lake Compounce, like Kentucky Kingdom, etc.)

Then, on the flip side of that, at really small parks and FECs, taking on Switchback means onboarding a maintenance-heavy wooden coaster that may not even be all that marketable.

Definitely see why it took so long to sell. Very curious to see where it ends up.

Yea agreed it’s a tough sell. A park where it’s not the headliner, small enough that people won’t overflow it, and has enough of a backing to maintain/fix it. That’s why my mind went to this parks.

I wonder is Lagoon in SLC would take the risk. They built their own ground up coaster right? Maybe they are crazy enough to try something like that.

 

[MaxxForceFan]

I wonder is Lagoon in SLC would take the risk. They built their own ground up coaster right? Maybe they are crazy enough to try something like that.

It appears they already have two coaster projects in the works.