Oakwood Discussion

[Poisson]

Out of curiosity, what's the difference between relocating the ride and building it in a different park with the same layout? That sounds like two ways of saying the same thing!

Probably cheaper to clone the layout than relocate it, simply as you wouldn't have to dismantle and relocate. Would also make it almost entirely unrelated to Megafobia and would be pointless in a different setting.

 

[NuttySquirrel]

Probably cheaper to clone the layout than relocate it, simply as you wouldn't have to dismantle and relocate. Would also make it almost entirely unrelated to Megafobia and would be pointless in a different setting.

Yeah I'm struggling to think why anyone would want to do that when you could just get GCI in to design you a nice layout with decent trains. Megafobia is a bit of a relic really.

 

[Enter Valhalla]

You could build a clone of the ride with all new wood using the same layout

A clone of Megafobia already exists in Alabama, although it’s been SBNO since summer 2023.

So…. what would be the point of making another clone exactly?

 

[John]

A park might buy a clone (or a near-clone, in the case of Rampage*) to save money on the design costs. If you've already done all the background engineering calculations then you can skip a lot of the design work. This occasionally gives some odd results, like the Colossus clone in China that has a whole load of extremely tall concrete footers where they didn't bother to re-engineer the supports but the ground levels were totally different.

There are a few cloned woodies out there - quite a few parks built the "standard" Cyclone layout and Cedar Fair have 4 (near-)identical junior woodies at various parks. More recently, two GCI layouts have been reused - Thunderbird/American Thunder & Heidi/Werewolf. In the case of Megafobia it's a bit more complex as CCI no longer exist, which likely means there are no potential savings in design cost anyway.


* I've no idea how accurate the RCDB stats are but it seems to think Rampage is significantly taller and longer than Mega. They're clearly very similar in layout but not identical

 

[Steve74]

A park might buy a clone (or a near-clone, in the case of Rampage*) to save money on the design costs. If you've already done all the background engineering calculations then you can skip a lot of the design work. This occasionally gives some odd results, like the Colossus clone in China that has a whole load of extremely tall concrete footers where they didn't bother to re-engineer the supports but the ground levels were totally different.

There are a few cloned woodies out there - quite a few parks built the "standard" Cyclone layout and Cedar Fair have 4 (near-)identical junior woodies at various parks. More recently, two GCI layouts have been reused - Thunderbird/American Thunder & Heidi/Werewolf. In the case of Megafobia it's a bit more complex as CCI no longer exist, which likely means there are no potential savings in design cost anyway.


* I've no idea how accurate the RCDB stats are but it seems to think Rampage is significantly taller and longer than Mega. They're clearly very similar in layout but not identical

Veering slightly off-topic but do parks own the copyright (if that's the right term in this instance) to the track layouts of their coasters or do the manufacturers reserve the right to reuse them at another park if required? I suppose it's a clause that has to be written into the initial contract? Just wondering in years to come if we may see a Wickerman clone (in layout only)?

 

[rctneil]

Veering slightly off-topic but do parks own the copyright (if that's the right term in this instance) to the track layouts of their coasters or do the manufacturers reserve the right to reuse them at another park if required? I suppose it's a clause that has to be written into the initial contract? Just wondering in years to come if we may see a Wickerman clone (in layout only)?

I'm not 100% sure but i'd expect it to at least be an option for a park if they did want to keep the layout exclusive then they could ask for ask and be promised or pay for it.

I know that when I was riding Lightning at Furuvik, you could tell especially at the final turn into the station that all the supports all were on a flat plane and the footers made up the extra height where the terrain dropped off slightly at the back end of the ride. I thought that was a clear sign that the layout would be cloned in the future. It was obviously designed for a flat plot of land and was adapted very very slightly for there and low and behold a clone is heading to France next year!

 

[owenstreet7]

Veering slightly off-topic but do parks own the copyright (if that's the right term in this instance) to the track layouts of their coasters or do the manufacturers reserve the right to reuse them at another park if required? I suppose it's a clause that has to be written into the initial contract? Just wondering in years to come if we may see a Wickerman clone (in layout only)?

Could it be possible that a park may have exclusivity for a layout in a specific region?

Let's say for example Taron has a clone in China but there isn't one over in Europe or the US.

 

[Enter Valhalla]

A park might buy a clone (or a near-clone, in the case of Rampage*) to save money on the design costs. If you've already done all the background engineering calculations then you can skip a lot of the design work. This occasionally gives some odd results, like the Colossus clone in China that has a whole load of extremely tall concrete footers where they didn't bother to re-engineer the supports but the ground levels were totally different.

There are a few cloned woodies out there - quite a few parks built the "standard" Cyclone layout and Cedar Fair have 4 (near-)identical junior woodies at various parks. More recently, two GCI layouts have been reused - Thunderbird/American Thunder & Heidi/Werewolf. In the case of Megafobia it's a bit more complex as CCI no longer exist, which likely means there are no potential savings in design cost anyway.


* I've no idea how accurate the RCDB stats are but it seems to think Rampage is significantly taller and longer than Mega. They're clearly very similar in layout but not identical

Yeah I guess so. I forgot about all the Blue Fire clones and the Taron clone. These tend to be at parks in Asia, particularly China, so if we do ever see a clone I don’t think it’ll be close to home. Plus I don’t think parks will now want to clone Megafobia since park operators can’t go on Mega to do the research, thereby making it a less appealing investment.