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New track at the B&M plant

CrashCoaster

CF Legend
I've been thinking about that track code quite a bit... It's quite obviously for Gröna Lund's invert, but have we ever had an invert with the code IC2 before the alphabetical letter, instead of just IC?

It kind of ties in with my speculation that Gröna Lund's invert will only seat 2 across due to the smaller-looking clearances, but I could be really overthinking it.

Also:-

http://instagr.am/p/B_06gqvJ3kG/
I find it funny that when one person goes to the B&M plant and takes pictures, within a week every Ohio-based coaster enthusiast also decides to show up to take pictures.
 

Hixee

Flojector
Staff member
Administrator
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I've been thinking about that track code quite a bit... It's quite obviously for Gröna Lund's invert, but have we ever had an invert with the code IC2 before the alphabetical letter, instead of just IC?
@roomraider already covered these codes in a post earlier in this thread:


"IC2" just references newer B&M designs. Banshee was one (IC2-J), for example.

I wonder if the spreadsheet has been kept up-to-date?
 

Antinos

Slut for Spinners
I'd assume they just moved onto IC2 after they ran out of alphabet letters to code IC with (so when the 27th Inverted Coaster was built).
This is correct. Inverts are quite popular so it only makes sense that they modify the code to accommodate.

Is there still the turquoise track there?
It's safe to assume that it got shipped somewhere. Where - we don't know yet. At this point, it's a waiting game to see where it turns up.
 

Matt N

CF Legend
I wonder why B&M inverts proved as successful as they did, being by far the company's most popular coaster model, and still selling today.

I'm guessing it's due to the USP?
Probably partially due to the USP, yes, but I also think it might partially be because for years, it was the only model of properly customisable inverted coaster that really suited larger parks. I know the Vekoma SLC existed, but that was a cheaper stock model generally intended for smaller parks; very few custom ones were ever built (I think only 2?).

Until very recently with the emergence of the Vekoma STC (and even that arguably falls into the same category as the SLC that preceded it), B&M pretty much had a monopoly on the inverted coaster as far as larger parks were concerned.
 

Pokemaniac

Mountain monkey
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This is correct. Inverts are quite popular so it only makes sense that they modify the code to accommodate.
Strangely enough, B&M Inverts seem to be everywhere, but extremely few are actually being built these days. Of the 32 Inverted coasters they ever built, only three have been made after 2007 (plus two Family Inverts for the Happy Valley parks, but they seem to be counted as different models). The previous full-fledged Invert to be built before the one for Gröna Lund was Banshee, back in 2014. No new ones seem to be on the horizon either. It's as if all the parks that could afford to build Inverts got one, and then the market was saturated. So it's hard to tell if the model deserves the "quite popular" moniker anymore.

Or more likely, B&M got other interesting models in their product catalogue that out-competed Inverts. Gardaland got Raptor in 2011, and since then there have been 16 new Wing Coasters. I guess many of those would have been new Inverts (or Flyers, I guess) if the Wing Coaster had never been invented.
 

Hyde

Matt SR
Staff member
Moderator
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Strangely enough, B&M Inverts seem to be everywhere, but extremely few are actually being built these days. Of the 32 Inverted coasters they ever built, only three have been made after 2007 (plus two Family Inverts for the Happy Valley parks, but they seem to be counted as different models). The previous full-fledged Invert to be built before the one for Gröna Lund was Banshee, back in 2014. No new ones seem to be on the horizon either. It's as if all the parks that could afford to build Inverts got one, and then the market was saturated. So it's hard to tell if the model deserves the "quite popular" moniker anymore.

Or more likely, B&M got other interesting models in their product catalogue that out-competed Inverts. Gardaland got Raptor in 2011, and since then there have been 16 new Wing Coasters. I guess many of those would have been new Inverts (or Flyers, I guess) if the Wing Coaster had never been invented.
B&M Stand-ups be like:
giphy.gif
 

Markus.Downhill

Mega Poster
Just realised something, the turquoise track that left the CSF a few days ago, which was rumoured to be SeaWorld’s surf coaster, was still at the plant in February. However the shipment to the Clermont steel fabricator for the surf coaster, which had the description ‘SF-A’ was shipped in March
 
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