Orphan Rocker roller coaster crumbles at Katoomba's Scenic World

The ambitious Orphan Rocker project at Scenic World looks well and truly over as the ride's remains sits decaying past the point of no return, while the tourist destination's other attractions continue to evolve.

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Well its not surprising really. The last time i visited ( and posted a trip report here) was 5 years ago and the Orphan Rocker was in bad material shape then. It is a shame that this long gestating ride which has entered the annals of Australian ride history as the ride that never was, has finally been given its last rites.

Hopefully the Orphan Rocker can be resurrected by a professional ride company in some shape or form. I would not put it past the Hammon family to already have a plan regarding this- the whole site is filled with the ambition of their father and the Orphan Rocker was his pet project.

I would not bet against something being in the wings and being installed in honour of the person who had the vision for the entire site.

 

Fingers Crossed anyway!!

There's no way that if this bat shit crazy ride ever gets built it will be by anyone other than Intamin lol

Many years ago  ch7 commentator Simon Reeve rode OR on an episode of Beyond 2000. It's about the best pov footage of the ride I have ever seen.

Does anyone else know anywhere some footage might be archived? It would be great to see it in action again.

It would be cool to see an alpine coaster in Australia perhaps something like at goats on the roof at Pigeon Forge in the US. 

10 minutes ago, Theme Park said:

It would be cool to see an alpine coaster in Australia perhaps something like at goats on the roof at Pigeon Forge in the US.

To be honest, i think this is probably a better idea than trying to build a custom coaster up there. I'd love to see the hammon's do this.

 

 

I was in Katoomba mid-2015, I hadn't been there since the late 80's.  Beautiful place.

 

I remember that roller coaster being built in 1986 when I went for a school excursion (lived in Sydney at the time) and was super excited at the prospect of riding it..... but it never eventuated

2 hours ago, Theme Park said:

It would be cool to see an alpine coaster in Australia perhaps something like at goats on the roof at Pigeon Forge in the US. 

This is a great idea- it would be far more cost effective than building a full coaster!! Just looking at their website- they have plenty of options that they can bring if this idea was ever to be fully explored. Seriously think this would be the way to go- there is no installations of this type in Australia and it would be a massive drawcard- especially if it was engineered to circuit near cliff faces for added thrills.This could also circuit the existing carpark without affecting capacity and make as much use of the available space.

However check out this video of another of their products- Who could see Scenic World doing a deal with Wiegand and installing one of these and an Alpine coaster on the site? They could probably do it far cheaper than a single coaster and these guys are used to building in inaccessible and hard to get to terrains- perfect for the Blue Mountains!!

This next video shows the Die Flyer in action at a park owned by Wiegand and also showcases several other of theor product offerings- love the Summer tubing!!! Not sure how Australian safety law would react to that though!!!

 

I wonder if an alpine coaster built in Australia could have something extra added to it like an animatronic dragon at one of efteling coasters I mean goats on the roof has well goats on the roof. 

What do people think about a Zip coaster for Scenic World?

 

Edited July 13, 20179 yr by Skeeta

I think it would have suited 1980's Scenic World very well, but these days they build capacity rich attractions that can take a load of people. this, while a great idea, is low capacity and very niche.

 

10 hours ago, Skeeta said:

What do people think about a Zip coaster for Scenic World?

 

There's already TreeTop Crazy Rider at Wyong though, and it is fun, but I'd rather a full sized coaster eventuate.

Is that similar to the thing they're talking about putting in in Brisbane?

8 hours ago, Reanimated35 said:

Is that similar to the thing they're talking about putting in in Brisbane?

Yes at Mt Cootha they were talking about this although I don't know if it will actually end up happening.

The Mt Coot-tha proposal is for a 'zip line' in the council briefing docs, but I don't see any reason why a Zip coaster couldn't be part of their attraction line-up.

Bumping a old thread but here is an article on the now officially dead in the water and much lamented never opening "Orphan Rocker" coaster at Scenic World.

The article has an updated interview with Anthea Hammon and details the reasons why the coaster never opened. It certainly does not paint any picture of positiveness for any coaster enthusiast to hold onto for ANY coaster to open on the site.

It does however , contain some new pics of the ride that have never been published to my knowledge and these some insight as to what the ride could have been had it ever opened.

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/scenic-world-md-anthea-hammon-reveals-what-happened-to-the-orphan-rocker-roller-coaster/news-story/40ddd7cf1b0e8570830ab6e67315cec8

Some new pics... and the rest lifted from Parkz with no credit!

 

Quote

 Rebuilding your main attraction and we had negative feedback from people saying ‘how dare you change the ride, we loved the old train’ 

Wonder if it was counterweight guy sending this?

Wow you got some amazing photos. I haven’t been there since 2008. I doubt I will ever be brave enough to ride the scenic skyway lol