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Wooden Coaster Maintenance

therick311

Mega Poster
I have read a few different comments lately about how Cedar Fair, and Six Flags don't know how to properly maintain their wooden coasters. This got me thinking, who does do excellent maintenance on their wooden coasters? Also, what exactly is considered good maintenance?

I know that this kind of thing will vary ride to ride. Obviously, a ride like Voyage is going to take more to keep up than a ride like Prowler. Is part of the maintenance problem on these rides simply the fact that some of these rides are just too large and forceful?
 

Hyde

Matt SR
Staff member
Moderator
Social Media Team
Good maintenance mostly involves regular replacement of track during the off-season.

Outside of actually knowing the retracking schedule of an amusement park, it can be difficult to know if a park maintains "good maintenance."

Wooden coasters can ride extremely rough in one seat, and silk smooth in the next. Roughness is also not mutually exclusive with good maintenance - Son of Beast saw an increased rate of retrack work under Cedar Fair, but still was one of the roughest wooden coasters in history. In this case, ride comfort was not an indicator of poor maintenance, but poor design.
 
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