Necropolis wrote:I wonder why the park wouldn't want to sell some concrete slabs off of wolf for some extra $$.
We're talking about small pieces of concrete that would only look great in a dumpster and have no historical significance beyond the coaster community. The market of people that would buy the pieces if they did sell them is incredibly small. Iron Wolf was not a well liked ride, even by enthusiasts. Probably 95% of the people that would buy pieces of the footers are on this forum and don't have the money for them anyway. If you want them badly, you might have to go dumpster diving at SFGAm before the winter.
Now, if we were talking about pieces of the Berlin Wall, those would have some marketable value since that's actually a historic landmark. Even at that though, they aren't highly valued since there are a lot of them around the world, and don't look nice since again, they are chuncks of concrete.
It seems people here also have a double standard. It was not very long ago that people cursed this ride because of the pain it caused them after riding. I had never heard of a single person who called this his or her favorite ride. There was even the rumor at the beginning of the season that it would be taken out, and many speculated how awesome that might be. When the rumor went further regarding it's relocation to SFA, SFA fans got angry because of the ride's reputation. Now everyone seems to be getting teary eyed talking about it and don't want to see it go. I stand by any statements I've made about this ride, and I'm not disappointed about it at all. I'm rather indifferent about it. If it stayed, just another season. If it left, I could only hope that it's spot will be used for something good.
TonyMichaud wrote:Now with IW gone (technically - it has a new name so it can't be called B&M's first coaster any longer)
Your logic confuses me. Yes the name is different, but that doesn't change the fact that it's the first coaster they built, and Vortex won't magically become their first. Sure it will open again in 2012, but it was still built in 1990, that won't change.
Sorry for that. I was trying to be more "creative" then "logical". I hadn't realized the other coasters in the lineup, and sure enough I sound like I don't know anything. Nice catch, and sorry for the unnecessary post.
But I will stand by my goofy logic that Iron Wolf no longer exists, regardless where it is or what it is called, therefore all B&M coasters get bumped up a spot. Weird logic, perhaps
TonyMichaud wrote:Now with IW gone (technically - it has a new name so it can't be called B&M's first coaster any longer)
Your logic confuses me. Yes the name is different, but that doesn't change the fact that it's the first coaster they built, and Vortex won't magically become their first. Sure it will open again in 2012, but it was still built in 1990, that won't change.
Sorry for that. I was trying to be more "creative" then "logical". I hadn't realized the other coasters in the lineup, and sure enough I sound like I don't know anything. Nice catch, and sorry for the unnecessary post.
But I will stand by my goofy logic that Iron Wolf no longer exists, regardless where it is or what it is called, therefore all B&M coasters get bumped up a spot. Weird logic, perhaps
Iron Wolf will always be B&M's first coaster as an independent company. The ride in it's original location just won't exist for much longer. The 2nd coaster they built will just simply be the earliest untouched B&M.
It will be weird not having Wolf there next year. We will not have that one ride which is always a walk on and you sometimes contemplate riding but rarely do. No more going by County Fair and thinking "Yeah, right"...Iron Wolf always looked fun but the head banging ruined it. It was not the standing. It was the roughness. WHICH I still do not understand. I heard it was reported incorrectly Intamin did the trains? Was it always rough? Why didn't the park ever try and do some work on it? I knew it would be the first out of the three in danger coasters (IW, Demon. Whizzer). I said in 2010 I give Iron Wolf another 2-3 years tops. Lasted one more year. lol
The trains were originally Intamin, then B&M made their own. I don't know the exact year they replaced them. I know the harnesses looked a bit smaller on the Intamin model however.
Top 3 Steel Coasters: 1. The Incredible Hulk 2. Maverick 3. Dragon Challenge (Fireball)
Top 3 Wood Coasters: 1. The Beast 2. American Eagle (Red) 3. Hades
onyxhotel08 wrote:It will be weird not having Wolf there next year. We will not have that one ride which is always a walk on and you sometimes contemplate riding but rarely do. No more going by County Fair and thinking "Yeah, right"...Iron Wolf always looked fun but the head banging ruined it. It was not the standing. It was the roughness. WHICH I still do not understand. I heard it was reported incorrectly Intamin did the trains? Was it always rough? Why didn't the park ever try and do some work on it? I knew it would be the first out of the three in danger coasters (IW, Demon. Whizzer). I said in 2010 I give Iron Wolf another 2-3 years tops. Lasted one more year. lol
Not to be argumentative, but I rode Iron Wolf all the time and never banged my head. I would bend my knees a little stick my head out of the restraints and never have a problem. i rode it 10 times straight this year with no issues, and my 8 year old son rode it 3 times in a row the same way with no issue.
I'm not saying you should have to do that, but I ride all coasters that way so i don't hit my head. I don't get why everyone thought it was THE coasters fault, when it was so easily prevented. Not to say the ride wasn't smoother in the early years, but it's not fair to the ride to say that it was a bad ride because it hurt you. It would have never made it to production if it hurt people after 1 ride.
ttd rox wrote:The trains were originally Intamin, then B&M made their own. I don't know the exact year they replaced them. I know the harnesses looked a bit smaller on the Intamin model however.
Someone correct me if I'm wrong but I believe the trains were always the same ones, and the only thing changed were the restraints.
I thought that they never changed trains. I think the transition was more around the 2000 area but i don't know for sure. And i doubt IW was ever a people eater either. Standups take a long time ot board
onyxhotel08 wrote:It will be weird not having Wolf there next year. We will not have that one ride which is always a walk on and you sometimes contemplate riding but rarely do. No more going by County Fair and thinking "Yeah, right"...Iron Wolf always looked fun but the head banging ruined it. It was not the standing. It was the roughness. WHICH I still do not understand. I heard it was reported incorrectly Intamin did the trains? Was it always rough? Why didn't the park ever try and do some work on it? I knew it would be the first out of the three in danger coasters (IW, Demon. Whizzer). I said in 2010 I give Iron Wolf another 2-3 years tops. Lasted one more year. lol
Not to be argumentative, but I rode Iron Wolf all the time and never banged my head. I would bend my knees a little stick my head out of the restraints and never have a problem. i rode it 10 times straight this year with no issues, and my 8 year old son rode it 3 times in a row the same way with no issue.
I'm not saying you should have to do that, but I ride all coasters that way so i don't hit my head. I don't get why everyone thought it was THE coasters fault, when it was so easily prevented. Not to say the ride wasn't smoother in the early years, but it's not fair to the ride to say that it was a bad ride because it hurt you. It would have never made it to production if it hurt people after 1 ride.
The head banging WAS the coaster's fault. The restraints were too high. The headbanging was never an issue with the Intamin restraints. I'm sorry, but there shouldn't be steps required to avoid having a bad ride. I tried everything and always had my ears hitting the restraints. It was an uncomfortable ride at the end. The lack of lines is proof 99% of riders agreed.
ttd rox wrote:The trains were originally Intamin, then B&M made their own. I don't know the exact year they replaced them. I know the harnesses looked a bit smaller on the Intamin model however.
Someone correct me if I'm wrong but I believe the trains were always the same ones, and the only thing changed were the restraints.
That was my bad. I didn't mean the whole train, just the harnesses OF the train. Just a little mistype by me. I believe the Intamin models (in reference to the harnesses) were smaller though and didn't come all the way down.
Top 3 Steel Coasters: 1. The Incredible Hulk 2. Maverick 3. Dragon Challenge (Fireball)
Top 3 Wood Coasters: 1. The Beast 2. American Eagle (Red) 3. Hades
I would the blame the harness for the headbanging its the same with Batman you get headbanging on them. The ride would have been nice if they replaced the restraints with softer padding just like in Superman. Iron wolf had a great layout specially with the trees all around the ride feels like your gonna hit them when the train passes by hopefully if they replace the ride with a coaster ie floorless/divemachine cross fingers they would leave the trees for a great layout instead of just plain concrete or grass. Will miss u IW.
Since they added X-Flight to the site already, it would make sense that they would have removed Iron Wolf. I guess most people who look at the site would not go there to ride Wolf anyways but still it should have been updated.
Top 3 Steel Coasters: 1. The Incredible Hulk 2. Maverick 3. Dragon Challenge (Fireball)
Top 3 Wood Coasters: 1. The Beast 2. American Eagle (Red) 3. Hades
From what I could see, the final uphill turn into the brake run is gone and I'm guessing some (if not all) of the brake run is gone as well. Didn't have my phone on me to snap any pictures, so I'm sure a few more pieces will be gone come Fright Fest.
^Thanks for the update. By the time I go (October 9th) a lot more will be gone. I realize they usually remove the brakes and lower parts first but regarding the drop, on most removals do they remove the actual drop or lift first? Just trying to figure out what will be leaving next.
Top 3 Steel Coasters: 1. The Incredible Hulk 2. Maverick 3. Dragon Challenge (Fireball)
Top 3 Wood Coasters: 1. The Beast 2. American Eagle (Red) 3. Hades
From what I've seen on most ride removals, they start somewhere on the final brakes and work their way backwards, the first drop and lifthill are usually the very last parts to be removed.
Favorite Wood Coasters: The Voyage, Ravine Flyer II, Thunderhead, Balder Favorite Steel: Voltron Nevera, Steel Vengeance, Expedition GeForce, Olympia Looping Parks visited: 232, Coasters Ridden: Steel: 894, Wood: 179, Total: 1073
Looks like the got a lot of the track down from the corkscrew to the station (judging by the amount of track in the parking lot). This is not all of the track removed is in the picture, but they seem to be moving along quickly.
I hated seeing pieces of Shockwave on the field. I hated seeing Deja Vu coming down. Seeing Iron Wolf in pieces is one sight I actually have no problem with. Six Flags Great America did not lose a coaster, it got rid of its disease.
Did anybody else catch themselves grinning a bit at that last picture. I'm normally sad when any coaster comes down but I couldn't help but be a bit glad. I think it's more of the fact that I know something better will eventually replace it.
Last edited by ttd rox on September 29th, 2011, 9:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Top 3 Steel Coasters: 1. The Incredible Hulk 2. Maverick 3. Dragon Challenge (Fireball)
Top 3 Wood Coasters: 1. The Beast 2. American Eagle (Red) 3. Hades
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