originally posted on 9/8/2023
Photos: John Chidester. View full-sized image.
View full-sized image.
Central Florida has long been known for the flourishing of steel roller coasters, but those of the wood variety have not had similar luck. Florida Hurricane at Boardwalk and Baseball (Haines City) and Gwazi at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay both operated for less than two decades, and Cypress Gardens’ Starliner (relocated from Miracle Strip Amusement Park in Panama City Beach) operated for a short time between 2007 and 2008. It wasn’t until 2013 that the area’s lone surviving wood coaster — Legoland Florida’s Coastersaurus — was joined by White Lightning at Fun Spot America’s expanding Orlando location. An L-shaped out-and-back by Great Coasters International, Inc. (GCII), it was considered an unlikely but welcome installation as the park’s most ambitious roller coaster.
In 2017, Fun Spot America expanded its nearby Kissimmee location with a wood coaster of its own but opted to contact The Gravity Group instead of GCII for its encore. Exhibiting zeal in a way typically reserved for the steel coasters of Central Florida’s multibillion-dollar theme parks, Mine Blower was announced to feature two of the supplier’s Gravitykraft Corporation’s Timberliner trains that would navigate a high-in-the-sky corkscrew inversion and a 105-degree banked turn following a close-to-vertical 80.5-foot first drop.
“We received everything we had hoped for and more from The Gravity Group,” said Senior Vice President of Marketing John Chidester. “Mine Blower is an incredibly thrilling ride.”
The thrilling ride was the result of an ambitious design that received early accolades, but the maintenance requirements of an aggressive wood coaster operating year-round in Florida’s heat eventually rendered it a less-than-comfortable experience for many park guests. It was therefore a not-so-unexpected surprise when the coaster shut down for a brief period of overhaul in March; however, it was a surprise when it was discovered that Rocky Mountain Construction (RMC) — and not the coaster’s original designer and builder — was tasked with the project of revitalizing Mine Blower.
Chidester insisted that the work wasn’t the result of any unhappiness with The Gravity Group but instead a desire to explore all options provided by an industry that’s recently embraced new means by which to extend the life of wood coasters — with or without actual wood.
“Like everyone in this industry, we are always looking for new solutions to sometimes old problems. While each organization offers outstanding solutions for track management, we wanted to try something different and selected RMC,” said Chidester. “It also came down to [RMC’s] ability to deliver on a tight timeline as we were about to move into our high season, plus the potential to forego lengthy downtime consistent with previous retracking projects.”
Rocky Mountain Construction’s 208 RetraK was Fun Spot America’s solution to recent maintenance requirements of Mine Blower.
Photos: John Chidester. View full-sized image.
The new solution Chidester spoke of is RMC’s 208 RetraK, based on the company’s proven I-Box system. Among its promoted advantages are five times the lifespan of traditional layered wood track and the ability to install utilizing a coaster’s existing components such as trains structure, mechanical systems and controls. According to him, “208 RetraK steel was installed on the most dynamic sections of the track, and this allowed for a smoother and more consistent ride experience through those sections.”
Following a few hiccups to be expected with the implementation of new technology, Mine Blower reopened to Fun Spot America guests in time for the busy summer season, and Chidester is enthusiastic about the response, encouraging others to find out for themselves. He asked, “How else do we explain to our fans that the ride is so much faster and smoother?”
As for the future for Mine Blower, Chidester has no immediate answers about future work to be done, instead taking the wait-and-see approach. “We believe in having good intentions but for now we are waiting on additional feedback from our guests.”
— Rob Ascough, ACE News Editor
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