Steel Dragon Closure

[Psycho]

I read on another message board that Steel Dragon 2000 in Japan is now closed. Seeing as the ride is only a few years old and held the "world's tallest" claim before Top Thrill Dragster, it seemed a bit odd. But sure enough, rcdb lists the ride as being SBNO since 2003. Does anyone know why Steel Dragon isn't running anymore? Just curious because it only spent less than 3 years in operation. :confused:

[Gazza]

A wheel fell off it and it de-railed and it hasn't reopened since, someone in my class last year was on a Japan study tour and she was at the park a few days after it happened and she said about it to me since everyone in my class knows im a coaster nut. I have no idea what possesed them to build with morgan anyway, it was very expensive and it uses a slow and heavy chain lift instead of a cable. Intamins are a much better hyper for larger applications and the layouts are better, on steel dragon most of the final section is just loads of little bunny hops. But back to the question, i dont know why they havent just repaired it yet, it must be a serious problem with the ride for it to be down for so long.

[Psycho]

Thanks for that. Now that you mention it, I vaguely remember hearing about that. It is a bit strange they haven't just fixed it...Seems like such a waste considering how much they spent on the thing.

[Slick]

Go to themeparkreview.com and check out Rob and Elissa's Japan trip. There is quite a bit about Steel Dragon 2000. And by the way, not the world's tallest, it's actually the world's longest at 2,479 metres. I wish it was an Intamin hyper, it would've been so awesome, and it would look absolutely stunning, given anything intamin looks stunning.

[Psycho]

Oh I meant it used to be world's tallest, it broke Millennium Force's height by a few feet or something tiny like that.

[Richard]

Its cost was so high because of the earthquake proofing required for the ride, not because Morgan built it. It has been noted that a coaster designed for an earthquake prone area can be said to more or less cost twice what it would in a non-earthquake prone area. Steel Dragon 2000's cost was something like US$50,000,000 and is 2479m long, i.e. $20169 per metre. Millennium Force was $25,000,000 and is 2010m long, making it $12436 per metre. I'd say the park got the ride for a good price, and I'd be willing to bet an Intamin of the same size in the same place would cost more. Many people (who have actually ridden it) suggest that Steel Dragon is a better ride than Millennium Force. I'd suspect that there's more to the situation than just what happened as reasons for keeping it defunct for so long. I'd be looking at faulty design in some respect.

[Gazza]

Ah, of course, earthquakes, so would parks like SFMM and KBF also have the same problems in regards to quakes.

[Richard]

GhostRider cost something like $13,000,000 due to earthquake-proofing, no less than twice what a CCI of the same size would cost otherwise. I don't know about SFMM, but ironically enough a fairly severe earthquake hit California (somewhere up north near San Francisco) while we were queuing for X, about two trains from the front of the queue. Nothing serious given we were so far from the epicentre, but it was definitely noticeable (probably shaking a good few inches to each side). Needless to say they shut every ride in the park to do a full inspection before reopening - it took us a further hour to get on the ride.

[brady]

I didn't know you had been in an earthquake. Was it actually hard to keep your balance and it feel really weird? Remember that earthquake in Indooroopilly, I didnt feel that at all where I am at unfortunately.

[steve$]

Is there protection on every ride in the parks,or just the tall,big and fast rides