For theme park geeks like us, the ultimate dream would be to own our own park. It’s a dream that very few actually realize. But we all have it, and we are always pondering the “what if…” There are so many possibilities and options for how to build the ultimate theme park, we can literally talk about it for hours at a time. Indeed, much of our time at Silverwood, let alone any other park we visit, is spent discussing what we would do if the park were in our hands.
Beyond the possibility of owning our own park, the dream becomes even bigger when you add on the thought of having a coaster designer literally in the backyard of your park. And yet, that is the position that Silverwood finds itself in. Rocky Mountain Construction has captivated the theme park world in the past few years. From their makeovers of old wooden coasters, to the revolutionary Raptor and T-Rex tracks, to their custom designed wooden coasters, everyone knows that an RMC is not to be missed. As such, one of the big questions on our minds has always been: “Why the heck is there no RMC coaster at Silverwood??”
True, the company has its fingerprints around the park in several subtle ways. They have been the construction company of choice when it comes to building most of the major attractions at the park. Indeed, it’s a little-known fact that all of the major coasters at Silverwood, and several attractions in Boulder Beach, were assembled and constructed by RMC in their early days. They initially tested out the revolutionary “Topper Track” first on the far turnaround on Tremors. And, we hear that RMC helps out with ongoing maintenance on the historic Corkscrew coaster as well.
Still, what we coaster geeks long for is the full meal-deal: a ground-up, custom designed coaster from RMC to grace our home park in northern Idaho. And while we can certainly speculate on the reasons why it hasn’t happened yet, we’ll save that debate for another day. Here, we give our top 4 ideas (in no particular order) for what we would want RMC to do at Silverwood.
Both of Siverwood’s coasters have always been world-class crowd pleasers. However, both are also showing their age in recent years. Timber Terror and Tremors are both over 20 years. While the park has certainly put a lot of effort into re-tracking and keeping the rides as fresh as possible, there’s ultimately only so much that can be done to keep an aging CCI coaster running like new.
That said, every time we ride Tremors, there are two sections of the ride that are markedly better than the rest: the uphill left turn out of the second tunnel, and the far turnaround by the Roller Coaster Alley sign. No coincidence that these are the two sections which have received Topper Track, and are two of what used to be the worst parts of the ride. The difference between the sections with Topper Track and those without is literally night and day. Just imagine if both coasters were that smooth from start to finish!
These are the newest offerings from RMC, and we love what we have seen so far. Early reviews indicate that RMC has yet another winner on their hands with this unique, truly ‘single-rail’ track design. To be honest, we think this is the most likely of our ideas to actually become reality, for a couple of reasons. First, the Raptor Track allows for very elaborate designs to fit into a relatively compact space, which would work well for Silverwood. And secondly, it’s probably the most affordable of the options while still allowing for a highly marketable attraction. Topper Track on one of the two woodies might be cheaper (might), but it’s much harder to sell to the general public in comparison to a brand new shiny coaster.
We would love to see Silverwood get their hands on a custom Raptor track layout, or even be the first to get a T-Rex coaster. The empty space in between the Log Flume and the Tremors turnaround would be a perfect spot to stick one of these bad boys.
Silverwood already has two great wooden coasters, so one could argue that a third might be too much. But when RMC custom wooden coasters such as Outlaw Run and Lightning Rod are captivating the coaster enthusiast crowd as some of the best rides to grace the industry in recent years, you can bet there would be very few complaints if one came to Silverwood.
Each time RMC comes up with a new design, it seems there are more new elements being added. Our thoughts: Relocate (or remove all together) the Chuckwagon John’s BBQ and picnic pavilion area, and re-purpose that for a wickedly-twisted new coaster from RMC, complete with those insane inversions, outward banked turns, and record-breaking drops. Maybe even have it cross over the train tracks if extra room is required.
For our final idea, we take the dream beyond just applying the Iron Horse treatment to one of the wooden coasters. First, picture a re-imagined version of Tremors using the I-Box treatment, a la Twisted Timbers, or Steel Vengence. Make the first dive into the gift shop straight down. Add a couple barrel rolls to the sections going over the pathways in between the tunnels. Change the far turnaround into a dive loop before heading back towards the station.
But here’s where it gets really fun. After that fourth tunnel, instead of heading right to return to the station, the coaster banks left, hops over (or under?) the pathway, and hooks into a re-imagined version of Timber Terror. In the same vein as “Lightning Rod”, imagine the coaster rocketing up a the current lift path of Timber Terror via launch. Then flip a zero-g roll at the top, diving straight down and completing the Timber Terror circuit with several more RMC hybrid coaster features. Top it off by adding a couple more tunnels throughout this section of the ride, to thereby reclaim the title of “most tunnels on any coaster in the world”. At the end, hop back over the path…perhaps for another pass through the gift shop before returning to the station.
Sound insane? This is the kind of stuff we dream about. And while this is about as far-fetched of an idea as you could get, you have to admit it would be awesome! As for a name? How about “Twisted Tremors”, or “Timber Vengence”…or maybe a call-back to the past with “Iron Grizzly”?
Whatever the park ends up doing, we sure hope someday to see one of these ideas (in one form or another) come to Silverwood, and we hope it comes sooner rather than later. The possibilities are far more than the ones we’ve mentioned above; these are just our favorites.
What do you think of the above suggestions? Which one would you like to see the most? What other ideas would you suggest for an RMC application at the park? Let us know in the comments below!
The official Silverwood Theme Park website can be found at: www.silverwoodthemepark.com. All business-related questions should be directed to this site.
