Vekoma, B&M, Intamin, Giovanola, Premeir Rides, Arrow, e

[Virtua Tennis]

It was made by Intamin but built by a different contracting company.

Too old to make my cut though .

[coasterzak]

Yeah Virtua Tennis, I'm sure you could get nitpicky about any company. We let you go to the park so much, so don't worry about us liking Intamin. A lot of those coasters you named are top notch coasters that have really changed the market. What would the coaster industry be without . . . S:RoS, MF, TTD, the impulses, etc. I like the forces, speed, and height of these coasters. If Intamin wouldn't have come along with those coasters, we'd be sitting back riding Beemers every day that are too smooth and get old fast. If the only hypers out there were Morgan and B&M, you'd have to cut me down from a tree. I don't care how many problems the coasters have had - I still consider Intamin to be my favorite company.

[Virtua Tennis]

They may be good but theres no excuse for the best rated coaster in the world to have to send an empty car when it's hot out or the worlds second tallest coaster [structure at least] can't even run both sides at the same time.
Also...tell me it's acceptable when a ride has a brake failure (and the trains collide) due to poor engineering.

[planea380]

Brad you also forgot that TTD and Wicked twister have a huge swaying problem.

[NoUseForAName]

I'm also not an Intamin fan. Something is definately wrong when you have to send every train with an empty car. A Stengal designed B&M would have to be one of my favorites even though Wardley is also good with Beemers.

[sfgamer2]

Yeah B&M because they definatly have a unique track style and train seats. You never have a bad ride experience with them.

Intimin stand up track is almost the same as B&M track.

Well yeah but they only have five cars on them. And FYI Z-Force isn't stand up.

[planea380]

Iron Wolf is not B&M track....It may be the same type but its a whole different guage than all other B&Ms. It is a gio/Intamin track guage.

[Mr. SFGAm]

I really can't say. I love the B&M Hypers, and Inverteds, the Intamin Impulses, Vekoma Invertigos, and Arrow Suspendeds(Top Gun at least). I also really like PKI's Vortex, and SFOG's Mindbender.
So I guess I don't have a favorite, but I guess I'd prefer B&M.

[Ilovthevu']

They may be good but theres no excuse for the best rated coaster in the world to have to send an empty car when it's hot out or the worlds second tallest coaster [structure at least] can't even run both sides at the same time.
Also...tell me it's acceptable when a ride has a brake failure (and the trains collide) due to poor engineering.

And Demon didn't have a brake problem and the trains didn't collide??? Intamin makes a good Roaring Rapids also (They don't make good water rides someone said.)

I guess I will definitely have to add PTC to the coaster companies. Screamin' Eagle, The Great American Scream Machine, and even The Little Dipper. Too bad they don't make coasters anymore. (Sad Face)

[Virtua Tennis]

They may be good but theres no excuse for the best rated coaster in the world to have to send an empty car when it's hot out or the worlds second tallest coaster [structure at least] can't even run both sides at the same time.
Also...tell me it's acceptable when a ride has a brake failure (and the trains collide) due to poor engineering.

And Demon didn't have a brake problem and the trains didn't collide???

I never heard about it.

[DejaVu The Ride]

Intamin makes a good Roaring Rapids also (They don't make good water rides someone said.)

I'm not usre which one, but one of their rapids rides had a tube flip and think someone drowned from the accident. Intamin has a lot of accidents.

[Ilovthevu']

The roaring rapids ride I heard that flipped was in Texas and it was not made by Intamin. Canyon something or another. An article I put is in the old Ice Mountain Spash VS. Logger's Run.

It's in this long quote about Demon colliding.

Removal Reasons-

Sky Whirl- Maintenaince issues (cracked rotek amongst other things)
Tidal Wave- Low Ridership, and it took up alot of space for such a small ride
Shockwave- extreme low ridership, high maintaince, see below
Hayaler-low ridership/high maintence
Bayern Kurve(had several names in the park in various locations)- Maintenance issues/lack of spare parts
Gulf Coaster-honestly it was a dud, they got it used and it had extreme technical difficulties to say the least and was removed after one season (I do have video footage of it though
Rolling Thunder- park needed space
Z-Force- Ride Rotation Program (good riddence)
Southern Cross- without the Great Southwest it served no purpose, it was removed as the east station was in the way of White Water Ramapge
Delta Flyer (Skyride)-insurance mostly, there was a rash of sky ride accidents in the 80's, buckets would drop off the cable usually due to the passengers rocking the car with less then ideal results. Also all sky rides are fairly high maintenanice(can anyone tell by now I dont know how it's spelled)
Bunch of kiddie rides- Random reasons.

That's all I can think of right now, on to accidents

I wont list them in order, just by ride and I'll list dates if I have them handy

American Eagle-
9/7/97- low-speed collision on the brake run. The train coupler failed between the second and third cars, allowing the train to separate and cars to bump together.
9/9/84- 2 Trains collide in the station at low speed sending 3 riders to the hospitial

Demon-
4/18/98- a Mechanical failure of an axle assembly causes the black train to become stalled and jammed in a vertical loop leaving riders stuck upsidedown for up to 3 hours.

7/13/93- Eight people suffered minor injuries when two sets of cars collided. The accident happened in the station just before 7:25pm; the speed of the moving train was about 3 mph.
(follow up)-Jennifer Coleman is awarded $775,000 for an injury sustained on July 13, 1993 when she was riding the{Demon} roller coaster at Six Flags Great America. The collision jolted her resulting in {aqueductal stenosis}, a brain condition which results in fluid accumulation due to a blocked duct.

Pizza Orleans- A small fire at Six Flags Great America, Gurnee, Illinois causes $125,000 damage and destroys a pizza restaurant in the park's {Orleans Square} section.

Edge(also the cause for it's removal)-
4/22/84- A car on The Edge broke loose from the lifting mechanism and dropped about 60 feet. The three passengers, eighth-grade boys from LaSalle, IL, were hospitalized for five days with relatively minor injuries.

Shockwave- Though none were ever made public, Shockwave had several accidents all involving broken axles/subsequent derailment (there were at least 3 incidents that I know of, one with passengers aboard, and the final incident marking the ride for removal saving the Whizzer.

Viper- a Teenage boy had has hand/arm hanging out the side of the car as the train entered the station, his arm became caught between the metal plate of the station and the car, nearly severing his hand.

Raging Bull- SFGAm's first *ride related* death, a girl died from a heart defect while riding the ride, though her death was initially blamed on her choking on Taffy.

Cajun Cliffhanger- Through unknown causes a riders foot became stuck between the floor and the side of the cylinder resulting in the loss of several of her toes.(I have a pic somewhere, but it's to gruesome to post anywhere, plus it'd be indecent)

Ragin Cajun- 2004-After performing maintaince on the ride a maintaince worker was struck in the head by a car on the ride, the worker survived in the hospitial for several weeks before passing away.

Whizzer- between 1976 and about 1978 Both PGA and SFGAm whizzers had a number of train collisions usually in the staiton(s), one being fatal at PGA, this prompted Anton Schwarzkopf/The Marriott Corp. to redesign the braking system and since the new system was installed there have been no major problems since.


I guess that's all the major stuff, there have been other fairly minor accdients/incidents none really important enough to take note of (chain breakages, hydraulic hoses bursting covering young children in hot oil(once on Red Baron before anyone asks), all the usual run of the mill stuff)

[coasterzak]

I also have heard about that Demon accident. I saw it on the coaster rollback on CBuzz on the day that it happened. That's one major quote though! That was an interesting read. Hah - we have your 'Edge' now and it's a POS. That thing is Intamin!