Wooden coasters dwindling in number?

[davidm]

Just playing with the numbers from RCDB...

Operating Wood : 175 (5%)
Operating Steel : 3381 (95%)

My wood count is approx 15% of my total and ~60% of the operating total, so thats all a bit lopsided (60% of the overall total would be a count of >2k) - I think all that was what really got me. :goon:

--

Other stats; (operating woodies only)

Parks with more than 2 woodies;
Pleasure Beach, Blackpool 5
Six Flags Great America 4
Mt. Olympus Water & Theme Park 4
Kings Dominion 4
Six Flags St. Louis 3
Michigan's Adventure 3
Luna Park 3
Knoebels Amusement Park & Resort 3
Kings Island 3
Kennywood 3
Indiana Beach 3
Holiday World 3
Hersheypark 3
Happy Valley 3
Carowinds 3
Canada's Wonderland 3

Woodies opened by year (where more than 2 built that year); (not sure that says too much though)
2000 - 8
1996 - 7
1995 - 7
2001 - 6
1999 - 6
1994 - 6
2013 - 5
2011 - 5
2009 - 5
2004 - 5
2008 - 4
2007 - 4
2006 - 4
1998 - 4
1997 - 4
1990 - 4
1981 - 4
2014 - 3
2003 - 3
2002 - 3
1992 - 3
1989 - 3
1976 - 3
1958 - 3
1927 - 3
1924 - 3

--

But I agree with the posts that say we should really think of a woodie just as another type of coaster rather than something on an equal par with steel - the RCDB 'census' function breaks the numbers down;

Steel
Bobsled - 8
Flying - 21
Inverted - 144
Pipeline - 5
Sit down - 3139
Stand Up - 13
Suspended - 36
Wing - 15

Wood
Bobsled - 1
Sit down - 174

so there are the same sort of numbers of wood as suspended+inverts!

--

Moral of the story ; cherish your wood folks, there's less of it about than you might think.

 

[SilverArrow]

Just playing with the numbers from RCDB...

Other stats; (operating woodies only)

Parks with more than 2 woodies;
Pleasure Beach, Blackpool 5
Six Flags Great America 4
Mt. Olympus Water & Theme Park 4
Kings Dominion 4
Six Flags St. Louis 3
Michigan's Adventure 3
Luna Park 3
Knoebels Amusement Park & Resort 3
Kings Island 3
Kennywood 3
Indiana Beach 3
Holiday World 3
Hersheypark 3
Happy Valley 3
Carowinds 3
Canada's Wonderland 3

That list in itself is quite shocking! So only 16 parks. The vast North American bias is quite sad too, but probably expected! Which Luna Park and Happy Valley do you mean? I couldn't find them on rcdb. Forgive me if it's glaringly obvious!

 

[njn63]

Re: Wooden coasters dwindling in number

Yeah I think you're probably right. Also, the general public, like those who want to show off to their mates that they have the biggest balls would rather ride the likes of Stealth that's 200ft, or the Smiler with it's 14 inversions than a woodie that goes to 100ft (maybe), and, in most cases, no inversions. They look tamer, there's no doubt about it, but that often means they're a better ride in general. Certainly have more re-rideability anyway.

Goliath at SFGAm is defying that logic I think. I am interested to see what the lines are like in the future because it had consistently longer lines than Raging Bull in it's first year.

One unique characteristic about wooden roller coasters is they are all pretty much the same. Yes, some are larger and some are faster, but the design of the wooden roller coaster remains the same: they all have lap bars, they all have airtime hills, and majority do not invert (save for Outlawn Run, Hades, and Wildfire). There is a significant amount of continuity throughout the wooden coaster industry, as the design remains pretty constant.

I disagree with that. Again referencing SFGAm you have 4 woodies that all deliver different rides: A classic out and back racer, a twisting air time machine, an extreme modern RMC with inversions, and a kiddie coaster.

 

[gavin]

Which Luna Park and Happy Valley do you mean? I couldn't find them on rcdb. Forgive me if it's glaringly obvious!

The Happy Valley stats aren't accurate. There are three woodies across the whole chain - well, technically four seeing as one of them is dueling - not at any one park: Shanghai, Tianjin and Wuhan.

I'm guessing that it's done the same thing with Luna Park and grouped all the parks with that name together as one entry. The Luna Parks in Sydney and Melbourne both have one woodie each. I'm not sure about the third one.

Everything I was thinking when I opened the topic has pretty much been covered. I'd throw space in there as well though. Yes, there are some compact woodies out there, but in general they take up large areas of land which can't be used for anything else. At least with steel coasters, the support structures allow for them to be built around and over existing attractions where necessary. The mass of supports for a woodie make that a lot less viable, meaning that you're having to essentially write off a huge area of land for one ride.

 

[Martyn B]

Somebody got it spot on on the other page, woodies are a rare treat.

Maybe if there were thousands of them we wouldn't be so fond of them?

 

[Gazza]

I think one important factor to keep in mind in terms of the numbers of woodies versus steel is the sheer proliferation of big apples, jungle mice, reverchon spinners etc that really bloat the total number of steel coasters worldwide.

 

[davidm]

Which Luna Park and Happy Valley do you mean? I couldn't find them on rcdb.

86% of statistics are just invented.

Gavin is, of course, quite correct - what I failed to account for was that RCDB just lists all the Happy Valley parks as "Happy Valley" and so the numbers have been added up wrong. Same for "Luna Park".

http://rcdb.com/r.htm?ot=2&st=93&ty=2&page=1&order=4

Apologies for the confusion caused.

 

[SilverArrow]

No worries about the confusion, thanks for the clarification guys! Probably not the outcome that we'd all like anyway!

 

[Serena]

 

[ThomVD]

This is why we need like buttons on CF Hahaha!

 

[PeskyTrimBrake]

^^Oh my god, I'm dying.

 

[GuyWithAStick]

This is why I love being an enthusiast(and the fact that I can ride a bunch of roller coasters)

Sent from my VS840 4G using Tapatalk

 

[ATTACKHAMMER]

Absolutely brilliant appeal! I'm getting my two pounds a month ready!

 

[nadroJ]

Aaaah Serena <3

 

[Chris Coasters]

That is the greatest thing ever.

 

[peep]

Ha, Serena that's amazing <3 I proper guffawed out loud in the officer earlier today when I saw it for the first time.

I think it's quite amusing that Blackpool is top of the most woodies in one park list.

 

[davidm]

http://rcdb.com/380.htm

 

[TilenB]

^ Is it? The coaster has been SBNO for years now and it was also damaged in a storm earlier this year. I think it is safe to say it wouldn't operate again, even if it didn't get axed. Sad loss only for Urban explorers, actually...

 

[Ryan B]

What we also need to remember is the fact Gravity Group, Intamin and GCI are all opening class wooden coasters. RMC will gradually produce more and more true wooden coasters (like outlaw run) which means they can now have the same crazy elements/inversions steel coasters have, and hybrids even crazier. It seems to be 7 woodies closing a year with 3/4 opening and a few hybrids. As long as Grand National doesn't get scrapped, I'm good!

 

[NTAShawn]

Another thing that somewhat scares me, if you will, there was only one wooden coaster built in the USA in 2015 (ZDT's Switchback). I don't count RMC conversions as woodies. It looks like the last two years or so, the majority of woodies are being built over seas in China.
IMO it boils down to people being "lazy" in that steel coasters are easier to maintain that wooden. Sure, the general public wants to go fast, upside down and twisted beyond belief. But there are still people like me that will ride a wooden coaster before any other in the park. I was at Dollywood a month or so after Mystery Mine opened, but we still road Thunderhead first.