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Drayton Manor Park

Up until just now I could’ve sworn that Shockwave was a B&M due to the signature box track. Never realised at all that it was built by Intamin! I assume B&M haven’t patented their box track which makes their coasters so recognisable?
 
Have a look at photos of Anaconda at Gold Reef City which is a Giavanola inverted Coaster which looks very similar to the B+M design
See also Goliath at Six Flags Magic Mountain and Titan at Six Flags Texas (near clone of Goliath). There’s a few Intamin’s with box track, as the steel work and track was subcontracted out to Giovanola. Walter and Claude left Giovanola, but Giovanola kept the box track design and manufactured some rides (listed above) under their own steam, with layouts designed by Stengel. Pretty sure that Giovanola are now defunct as track contractors and ride manufacturers, hence B&M (ex Giovanola) now having (I believe) sole ownership of the box track design (and why there’s often some confusion about pre-B&M company coasters looking like B&M’s when they’re either Intamin or Giovanola.
 
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As much as I’d love the new train(s) to be the same trains on pipeline at sea world Orlando, I can’t see it. The height restriction there is 1.4m and I just can’t see the layout of shockwave making the most of that train design. That said, I didn’t think they’d add new trains or convert it - so what do I know! Personally, I’d take some new theming elements and B&M flourless trains (we’ve not got them in the UK, either). Either way, Drayton have got their closed season work cut out. Repaint, new trains, new theming and testing, plus the build of a new coaster, theming, testing etc - be interesting to see what happens over the next few months!
 
See also Goliath at Six Flags Magic Mountain and Titan at Six Flags Texas (near clone of Goliath).
Should've thought of Titan as I rode it last summer, probably didn't notice at the time due to how intense the thing was. Also how far away from the rest of the park it is.


I'd guess new Shockwave will open with the park for the main season whilst the new coaster probably late spring. Be interesting to see how this effects the marketing campaign for the new coaster as well.
 
I hope if they get 1 train, it is 4 across seating. 2 across seating on 1 train will be painful for queues
I have the same hope, but with that being said, the standup riding position is quite uniquely hard to operate efficiently, so if they had a regular sit-down train, the easier operations of a regular sit-down train might cancel out the fact that there are less seats and lead to a similar overall throughput to the current iteration of Shockwave.
Joke aside, aren't the B&M floorless trains 1.4 as well? So extremely unlikely unfortunately.
If they were able to put vest restraints onto them, then maybe they could lower the height restriction to 1.2m? Mandrill Mayhem has vests and a 1.2m height restriction, so it can be done!
 
I think it is very unlikely that they will be going to B&M for a new train, not least because it would probably be their most expensive option! Floorless would also require quite a hefty station modification.

You have to think a new train would be from Intamin, seeing as that's who they're working with for the 2024 coaster.
 
The main thing for me is theming. It’s a dull track, very short ride and I don’t think any type of trains will really change that. However, add a proper storyline, maybe some dark ride sections, some decent audio and they could have a ride to be proud of, especially with the reduced height restriction.

(And by the way, for anyone who’s not ridden it, Anaconda at Gold Reef City is awesome!) 😁
 
It’s hard to think what sort of trains intamin would offer for this. Their standard two across train (Kondaa/Toutatis) would be a disaster for throughput and their 4 across train seen on Hyperion would surely be too heavy? But I could be wrong. Maybe it is a more unique or bespoke option as some have pointed out.
 
@Relife plausible but there seems to be a lot of assumptions being made already.

Chances are your right but I'm not ruling anything out.
 
I would be surprised if it's from Intamin. Intamin doesn't (and has never) produced suitable sit-down trains for that ride system, so they'd have to be developed from scratch. To make it worse, Shockwave is the last Intamin stand up in operation so they'd be developing the train for a single customer, unless they started offering that track system again.

All told It's quite different to the B&M stand up to floorless conversions, where there were several potential future customers and they already had designs for the trains.
 
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