Alpine Bobsled

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Alpine Bobsled" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (September 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

Alpine Bobsled was a steel bobsled roller coaster located at the Six Flags Great Escape and Hurricane Harbor amusement park in Queensbury, New York. Manufactured by Intamin, the coaster first opened to the public in 1984 at Six Flags Great Adventure. It was relocated to Six Flags Great America in 1989, and then to Six Flags Great Escape in 1998. The Alpine Bobsled closed permanently on September 4, 2023 and is in process of being dismantled to make room for a new Gravity Group family wooden coaster named The Bobcat.

Theming

The alpine theme of the coaster was partly inspired by the park's proximity to

The coaster was built in 1984 and was located at Six Flags Great Adventure as the Sarajevo Bobsled. The ride was quite popular. Its purpose was to commemorate the 1984 Olympics. The area of the park was becoming dull and needed an overhaul.

In the spring of 1988, it was determined that this area would have an Airplane/Space/Boardwalk theme, and that the park needed a larger roller coaster, and that the coaster would occupy the land that Sarajevo Bobsleds was occupying. The Bobsled was then closed mid season and dismantled. The coaster was replaced with a multiple steel looping roller coaster that was then state of the art and would for a month be the tallest coaster in the world. Great American Scream Machine was built in its place and it stood there until it was dismantled in July of the 2010 season to make room for a new stand-up roller coaster named Green Lantern.^[1]

After the ride was dismantled and removed, it was relocated to Six Flags Great America in 1989 and opened as Rolling Thunder. It was replaced by Raging Bull, a state of the art steel hyper twister non-looping coaster. Rolling Thunder was then sold to Premier Parks and then moved to Great Escape in 1997.

It reopened in 1998 as the Alpine Bobsled. Premier Parks bought Six Flags in 1998 bringing Great Escape into and this coaster back to the Six Flags family. During its run at Great Escape, due to noise complaints, the ride closed the line at 6 pm every operating day.

On August 4, 2023, Six Flags Great Escape announced Alpine Bobsled's last scheduled run would be September 4, 2023. The park later reveled on August 30, 2023 that Alpine Bobsled would be dismantled to make room for The Bobcat, a new for 2024 Gravity Group family wooden coaster. On September 4, 2023, members of the American Coaster Enthusiasts gathered at Six Flags Great Escape for one last ride, following which Alpine Bobsled officially closed permanently.^[2]

Trains

Riders were arranged two across in four rows per car with the cars made by Giovanola. From 2015 onward, 4 cars were in use, 2 were in storage and all had the back rows closed off reducing the capacity to three rows per car.

References

External links

• Alpine Bobsled at the Roller Coaster DataBase