Is Tripsdrill Building a Woodie?

The rumours are flying around for quite some time now.
The park recently denied the plans to build a woodie, but it is known that Germany will indeed get a new woodie in the near future.

There are only a few parks that fit the category to get a woodie soon, Tripsdrill is one of the few.

Actually, i am one of the few people who doesn´t like Tittsdrill at all! They might have unique rides and beautiful landscape, but I absolutely hate that "homely", stupid kitch concept of the park. I know that people fall over themselves to praise that place (it would be big with the Japanese) but I just can´t stand it.

That´s why i hope that they build it somewhere else!

I really do hope it's wood, and if it is, will it be a junior/family, or something a little bigger?

Tim.

> There are only a few parks that fit the category to get a
> woodie soon, Tripsdrill is one of the few.

I'd discount Heide Park and probably Phantasialand. How about Holiday Park, or that long-rumoured GCI at Europa?

> Actually, i am one of the few people who doesn´t like
> Tittsdrill at all! They might have unique rides and
> beautiful landscape, but I absolutely hate that
> "homely", stupid kitch concept of the park. I
> know that people fall over themselves to praise that place
> (it would be big with the Japanese) but I just can´t stand
> it.

An interesting viewpoint! You know better than me, but I always think the park looks lovely, green and open. I know what you mean about the "kitsch" theming, but it doesn't seem crowded or overbearing to me (unlike Chessington, for example).

> I really do hope it's wood, and if it is, will it be a
> junior/family, or something a little bigger?

Going by Cobra, anything bigger and better than G'Senge Sau would be a very good coaster indeed.

I really liked Tripsdrill, but I'd like it a lot more if a woodie were there.
Gsengte Sau is a good ride, but I can't do too many goes on it, the helixes make me nauseous!

> Gsengte Sau is a good ride, but I can't do too many goes on
> it, the helixes make me nauseous!

Good, it makes me feel less of a wuss for becoming disorientated after 10 goes! ;)

> Gsengte Sau is a good ride, but I can't do too many goes on
> it, the helixes make me nauseous!

> Good, it makes me feel less of a wuss for becoming
> disorientated after 10 goes! ;)

See Cal, see what you've started? You've wussied him up already, and the day's still early... well here anyways. Now he's going to be all wussy all day, and I'll hear all about it if he's on msn today. :P :D I think for punishment, you should walk around in your nipple-tastic UKRides shirt. ;)

On topic, from what I saw of Tripsdrill, I thought it looked fantastic, as I like a bit of scenary and theming here and there.
A woodie would bit nice there, especially if it's nicely themed GCI twister, as it would probably be.

Tim.

There's a nice bit of open grass right by G'sengte Sau that would look lovely with some lumber on it!

As for me...it's something about tight helixes on small steelies. I can't do 'em. Hence my hatred for X:\, which not only does them, but does them backwards. El disastro!

There's nothing I won't try once, though. Which is more than I can say for King Wuss! :D

> There's nothing I won't try once, though. Which is more
> than I can say for King Wuss! :D

Some things I just have no desire to ride, though.

And I don't know why some of you think Stealth is so important - it's just one of five UK coasters that opened in 2006. Stealth is no more important than Rockin Roller at Skegness.

> There's nothing I won't try once, though. Which is more
And I don't know why some of you think Stealth is so
> important - it's just one of five UK coasters that opened
> in 2006. Stealth is no more important than Rockin Roller at
> Skegness.

Ahem...I think we ALL know why Stealth is more important than Rockin' Roller at Skeggie.
Because it has my name on it, duh.

* This Post Has Been Modified *

I've ridden on Fraser!

Seriously though, Stealth = intense, fun and a real rush. I'm pleased to have it at my local park.
Rockin' roller? What is that exactly?

> I've ridden on Fraser!

To be precise you've ridden on Fraser and Sir Sean Connery. You were the filling of a MacSandwich.

Woodie is confirmed. Do not know which manufacturer though ... / A

Excellent news regarding the woodie, in a perfect world, we'd know who I'd choose from. I wonder how Tripsdrill is going to go about theming it.

Tim.

> Excellent news regarding the woodie, in a perfect world,
> we'd know who I'd choose from.

Well, let's play the elimination game. I'll rule out a giant Intamin.

S&S... well I'm sad to say I don't think they still have the reputation they did when they built Falken, but who knows...?

It might be a modest Gravity Group coaster, but can you see them building a small European woodie yet? Boardwalk Bullet sets the right tone though...

I think the most likely is for GCI to continue their trend of building European coasters: their 1st in Finland, their 2nd in Holland and their 3rd in Germany. I imagine it'll be full size too (80ft). :)

I thought I had clicked onto an Alton Towers thread and almost pooed myself when I read this-and then relaised that it was Trippsdrill. :(

> I thought I had clicked onto an Alton Towers thread and
> almost pooed myself when I read this-and then relaised that
> it was Trippsdrill. :(

That's a coincidence. Earlier in the day I was looking at an atlas and remembered Gary's 1999/2000-ish post "New Brighton Woodie".

I'd never heard of New Brighton, and thought it meant a New Woodie for Brighton! I can't tell you how excited I was at my misinterpretation!

I hope GCI.
Falken may have been great when it was built, but when I rode it this year it was rough and painful. It is in desperate need of retracking. Shame for the park, which is superb and really friendly.

I'm hoping myself it's TGG, seeing as the Boardwalk Bullet has been an instant hit already, and it shows that Gravity Group CAN build smaller coasters, just like CCI used to.

Tim.

I've also heard Hades is getting rough and Voyage may follow suit. I will judge for myself next year when I ride all three, but certainly, I think the test of a coaster is not how it rides when it's new, but how it rides when it's 5 years old.

> I've also heard Hades is getting rough and Voyage may
> follow suit. I will judge for myself next year when I ride
> all three, but certainly, I think the test of a coaster is
> not how it rides when it's new, but how it rides when it's
> 5 years old.

The thing is Cal, HW take care of their wood, it'll be interesting to see though how it ages. Maybe Graeme was right with all those discussion I had with him and that coaster...

Tim.

> The thing is Cal, HW take care of their wood, it'll be
> interesting to see though how it ages. Maybe Graeme was
> right with all those discussion I had with him and that
> coaster...

Thank you. You see, you mistake my wisdom for something else! ;)

This was why I didn't want to admit it. ;) I just thought because it was too... tall for you. ;)

Tim.

The park announced today that they are going to open "Mammut" on March 11.

"Mammut" will be 30 m high and 780 m long. The trains will look like a saw and are supposed to "cut" through the wood of the mammut tree. (I wanted to write "Mammut wood" but then I had second thoughts).

Anyway, there will be a tunnel, a sawmill and a blade along the way.

"Mammut" will be a collaboration between "Holzbau Cordes" and Gerstlauer. The design is made by Stengel.

"Cordes" is the company who built "Colossos" and "Balder". Gerstlauer will deliver the trains, chain lift, brakes and various stuff.

> "Mammut" will be 30 m high and 780 m long. The
> trains will look like a saw and are supposed to
> "cut" through the wood of the mammut tree. (I
> wanted to write "Mammut wood" but then I had
> second thoughts).

Don't worry, I got it. ;)

> "Mammut" will be a collaboration between
> "Holzbau Cordes" and Gerstlauer. The design is
> made by Stengel.

> "Cordes" is the company who built
> "Colossos" and "Balder". Gerstlauer
> will deliver the trains, chain lift, brakes and various
> stuff.

Will the design use Stengel's pre-fabricated track? If so, this could be incredibly significant to the amusement industry.

Check out the Mammut construction progress on OnRide.de

Its coming along nicely, i hope this ride will be open in time for my visit to Tripsdrill in early April :)

HighExtreme

> Check out the Mammut construction progress on OnRide.de
> Its coming along nicely, i hope this ride will be open in
> time for my visit to Tripsdrill in early April :)

So do I!

Grazza, are you going to Tripsdrill as well? ;) I have to say, this has to be the most beautiful woodie I have ever seen, even if it's the sun manipulating it. Seeing as it's almost done, was this a plug and play woodie, or no?

Tim.

> Grazza, are you going to Tripsdrill as well?

No, it was just good wishes for Stu. :)

> I have to
> say, this has to be the most beautiful woodie I have ever
> seen, even if it's the sun manipulating it. Seeing as it's
> almost done, was this a plug and play woodie, or no?

No, apparently, only Intamin can use the "pre-fab" track for the forseeable future. Shame.

These photos are the first time I've seen the profile (before, I'd only seen the overhead layout). I must say, it looks like all the hills after the first drop are very low. The pacing and airtime should be exceptional.

With Tripsdrill and Toverland getting woodies recently, it's a great shame the UK can't.

After the first mixed reviews, I managed to visit Tripsdrill to ride their new wooden coaster Mammut:

The exterior shows very well, that Trpsdrill was apparently very busy to open the coaster as soon as possible as the whole area around the coaster, which dominates the skyline of the park in a very nice way, is still in a very early stage of landscaping...To be honest, there is hardly any...But let's not talk about that as it is pretty obvious that Tripsdrill will work on that: former projects showed the love to the detail and I dont even want to remember the look of Gsengte Sau in the first year. And to finish the theming aspect: the beautiful station gives already a good foretaste of what to come until 2010, when the section of the park should be complete.

Lets start with the trains: gerstlauer. Unfortunately not really pretty. The front car looks great but the look of saw blade pictures on the covering of the modern trains dont really fit to the rather old-school theming of the rest of the ride. And somehow, I dont really like the six-seater cars, don't know why. I just love the PTC trains and though the Gerstlauer ones are not uncomfortable, they are not as good as concurrent products.

The ride starts pretty bad with a pre-drop into the lifthill: Tripsdrill will add here a house with a saw blade effect but right now there is nothing but a brutal backstroke (?) into the lift chain, which catchs the train way too late. So better lean forward!

The coaster itself is pretty good with a nice layout. It's only in the second half, that the train is just too slow for the layout and the banking of the turns. With an additional 20% speed, the coaster would be awesome (soft wheels?), but right now, some of the lower turns have a bit hangtime and could be passed with just some more speed. The great finish with a nice tunnel is a big highlight, but I would have prefered a final turn between the tunnel exit and the final brake. But still, from the nice observation platform you see many happy faces in the train, which show that the coaster fits perfect into the young-families orientated park. You don't see scenes as at the final brake of tonnere de zeus or stampida, but you see most of the people smiling.

Mammut is a good family coaster, but lacks some speed to be among my favorite (wooden) coasters. It's definitely rougher than the other Cordes coasters (cooperation with Intamin), but still okay. I hope though that Cordes / Gerstlauer will fix the lifthill problem and maybe reduce a bit of the side-wheel tolerance, which is okay right now, but which I could imagine to turn worse in the future...

Mammut pictures

Great to hear your review, hatt. Did you notice any trim brakes?

There isn't any trimbrake.

Now you see if Intamin would have built this, it would have been alot smmother... and would have opened around Grazza's birthday. :P

All jokes aside, I think once everything settles in, the coaster will be another beast of its own. As for the trains, I like the G-trains for the leg room, but they eat at the track too much, presumably being too heavy. These trains have been used on alot of CCI coasters, and most are now quite rough.

Tim.

> All jokes aside, I think once everything settles in, the
> coaster will be another beast of its own.

Indeed. I'm sure they'll be able to sort it out, one way or another. Give it a year when all the theming is done too, and hopefully it'll be a much better ride.

I really liked the photos, good to see all the expressions from people in the park

> I dont even want to remember the
> look of Gsengte Sau in the first year. And to finish the
> theming aspect: the beautiful station gives already a good
> foretaste of what to come until 2010, when the section of
> the park should be complete.

Yes we saw the framed newspaper reports/photos in the Gsengte station, the "castle" looked very different before the log flume was built!

I'm confident the park will complete the landscaping and the themed house section in the future, this is quite unusual to most other parks in these times who if they rush to finish a ride late just kind of leave it how it is

> Mammut is a good family coaster, but lacks some speed to be
> among my favorite (wooden) coasters. It's definitely
> rougher than the other Cordes coasters (cooperation with
> Intamin), but still okay.

Overall a slightly positive move forward for the park, do you think that Tripsdrill's policy of using mainly small local manufacturers to supply their rides has impacted on the potential of Mammut?

HighExtreme

> Overall a slightly positive move forward for the park, do
> you think that Tripsdrill's policy of using mainly small
> local manufacturers to supply their rides has impacted on
> the potential of Mammut?

Maybe, but the fact, that this is the first product of Cordes in cooperation with gerstlauer I can imagine that the financial aspect plaid a certain part as well...

A year after our first visit to Tripsdrill and we're back in contrast to the last time the park was full of people although we didn't have to wait long for the rides, the sun was shining for most of the day and Mammut was open

The area around Mammut is still looking much like a construction site with a large crane building some kind of workshop next to the storage track and foundations in the middle of the current queue line which i'd guess from the other tripsdrill queues will be some kind of walk through exhibits eventually

She looks stunning this giant is visually very appealing, when the construction area has been completed and softened into the landscape it'll be a real beaut

The dip into the Lifthill has had the rotating saw blade attached now since hatt's review and i'm pleased to report there's no jolt as the trains connect to the lift chain

Mammut is a gentle giant very much a family orientated coaster, with smooth swishing curvey directional changes and hang time in the over banks, the perfect coaster for Tripsdrill

It is still breaking in, by the end of the day when the wheels had warmed up a little the faster pace really improved the ride

> The dip into the Lifthill has had the rotating saw blade
> attached now since hatt's review and i'm pleased to report
> there's no jolt as the trains connect to the lift chain

Very reassuring to hear these sorts of problems can be fixed.

> It is still breaking in, by the end of the day when the
> wheels had warmed up a little the faster pace really
> improved the ride

Good, good! Reminds me of Cobra at Paultons, in a way. I remember the first reports of that was that it wasn't very intense, but by the time I rode it, I thought it was perfect.