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Mean Streak RMC Conversion Update #11: Alan Schilke - The Ejector Perfecter
You may have seen in my previous update that RMC is hard at work on constructing a new element in the altered layout of Mean Streak. This layout is suspected to be an inversion as the front ledger (steel cross beam) that was recently placed was upside down. This could be confirmed because the track connectors on this ledger were also upside down. RMC is now continuing to work on this inversion, and we finally know what element will come between it and the outside banked turn from the new photos.
Before I give you the update, I wanted to take a quick trip back in Mean Streak's short and rough history. I will discuss its beginning and popularity, but also its demise and bad qualities. (Scroll to the post divider below to see the conversion update.)
Mean Streak opened in 1991 at Cedar Point as the tallest wooden coaster in the world. At the time, Mean Streak was an engineering marvel. It was more than a mile long and almost as tall as Niagara Falls. Mean Streak was a hit and attracted crowds across the country to Cedar Point. Sadly, things didn't go so well for Mean Streak in later years.
When Mean Streak first opened, it had lines that were three hours or longer. As most of you know, that is no longer the case, as the ride almost always had the shortest line in the entire park during the late 2000s and early 2010s, until it closed late last year. Mean Streak fell victim to being placed in the back of the park. While this usually is a park's way of distributing crowds, wooden coasters aren't typically the best to place out of the way from other attractions because they deteriorate and rot, causing decreasing ridership, and Mean Streak did exactly that.
Mean Streak had its first hit to the gut when three years after it opened, Cedar Point installed trim brakes on the first drop, which lowered the ride's top speed and g-forces. The hits continued when Mean Streak began to get rough a few years after the trim brakes were installed. Throughout the 2000s, Cedar Point retracked Mean Streak several times, and the same continued in the 2010s, until its demise in late 2016. A section of the structure of Mean Streak even caught fire in September 2010. Even though all this bad happened, Cedar Point finally made a good move that will change the coaster forever, and that was to bring in the big guns, Rocky Mountain Construction (RMC) and their designer, Alan Schilke, to make Mean Streak a steel hybrid coaster.
Since September 2016, shortly after Mean Streak closed, we have seen RMC on the site of Mean Streak. RMC did not come in quietly, but more like a tornado of rumors and spottings, such as the photos of RMC trucks next to Mean Streak and the markings on unneeded footers. Even the park got in on the fun, as Cedar Point held a "funeral" for Mean Streak on its final day, and one of the men who spoke at it was named Richard Michael Crosby (whose initials oddly were "RMC"), and that was Cedar Point's way of hinting to us coaster enthusiasts that RMC would be coming in to work their magic on Mean Streak.
We found out in October of 2016 that RMC would be using their I-Box steel track to convert Mean Streak to a hybrid coaster, rather than a Topper Track wooden coaster that was what most industry experts expected. The I-Box track was spotted in the infield of Mean Streak's giant turns, and it quickly was placed on the turnaround out of the station. The placement of track has continued since then, and it has shown us just how crazy RMC went on this coaster. Track has been placed partially up the lift hill, and at the bottom of the first drop through the second turn.
Now, it's time for the update.
RMC is currently working on the element following the exit of the outside banked turn. This element appears to be a double up. You can see at the far right of the photo that the track drops almost to the ground after the outside banked turn, and it then goes into this double up. This should provide a lot of airtime because at this point, the coaster should be going somewhere between 68-75 mph, depending on how tall the lift hill will be, and this double up is very low to the ground. This double up leads into the element found in the next picture. This element is actually the one I shared in yesterday's update. You can see that the track will bank slightly left, then to the right as it heads toward the turn over the lift hill. It will then lead into an inversion, which will be the first we've seen in the new RMC Mean Streak layout. I think that this inversion will be a stall of some sort, as the way the track is directed by the ledgers being placed. I really hope this inversion is epic, because it really is in a weird spot. In the old layout, this element used to be a giant turn over the lift hill. I don't know how RMC will get an inversion to fit that profile, but, look what happened last time we questioned RMC; they turned a giant, slow turn into a huge outside banked turn that may very well be one of the best elements on any coaster across the globe. We can never doubt Alan Schilke - The Ejector Perfecter.
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Both photos in this article are courtesy of CoasterFanatics on YouTube.
