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Iron Gwazi
Iron Gwazi (formerly Gwazi) is a steel-track hybrid roller coaster at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, a theme park in Tampa, Florida, United States. The ride, named after a fabled creature with a tiger's head and a lion's body, was built by Great Coasters International (GCI) as Gwazi, a wooden dueling roller coaster with two separate tracks. It opened to the public on June 18, 1999. The two tracks, named Lion and Tiger, were long and high. Trains reached a maximum speed of . Gwazi replaced the former Anheuser-Busch brewery that was located in the middle of the park. Gwazi operated both tracks until 2012, with the closure of the tiger side. Following rising maintenance costs and declining ridership, the remaining side was closed in 2015. Following the closure, the wooden structure sat dormant for several years. Replacement attractions were considered by the park, including a remodeled roller coaster, an amphitheater, and a new attraction. In 2018, the park announced plans to refu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rocky Mountain Construction
Rocky Mountain Construction, often abbreviated as RMC, is a manufacturing and construction company based in Hayden, Idaho, United States. The company is best known for its I-Box track and Topper Track for wooden roller coasters. History In 2001, Rocky Mountain Construction was established by Fred Grubb and Suanne Dedmon. Fred Grubb previously had experience in the construction industry having worked on custom homes and zoo exhibits. The company has worked on several projects including the construction of roller coasters, water parks, steel buildings, miniature golf courses and go kart tracks. In 2009 Alan Schilke of Ride Centerline began providing design and engineering work for Rocky Mountain Construction. He previously worked with Arrow Dynamics (later S&S Worldwide) to design Tennessee Tornado, Road Runner Express, and X. Working with Rocky Mountain Construction, Schilke and Grubb designed the I-Box track for wooden roller coasters. The first installation of this trac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alan Schilke
Alan Schilke is an engineer and roller coaster designer based in Hayden, Idaho, United States. He first made his mark on the industry by designing the 4th Dimension roller coaster, X2, while working with Arrow Dynamics. Schilke now works as a design engineer at Ride Centerline LLC and occasionally works with Rocky Mountain Construction (RMC). Career Schilke worked with Arrow Dynamics for many years working his way up to the role of head engineer. During his time at Arrow Dynamics, Schilke was credited as the designer of '' Road Runner Express'' at Six Flags Fiesta Texas and '' Tennessee Tornado'' at Dollywood. Around the same time, Schilke came up with the concept of the 4th Dimension roller coaster. This concept was criticised by his colleagues at Arrow Dynamics for being too extreme and impossible to engineer. The project only got off the ground when Six Flags' President Gary Story asked the company to develop a scaled-down prototype. This then led to the design of '' X'' wh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Busch Entertainment
SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment is an American theme park and entertainment company headquartered in Orlando, Florida. The company is a subsidiary of SeaWorld Entertainment Inc. and owns and operates thirteen recreational destinations in the United States, including eight theme parks and five water parks. Notable brands within its portfolio include SeaWorld and Busch Gardens. In May 2018, Themed Entertainment Association and the global management firm AECOM reported that SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment ranked ninth in the world for attendance among theme park companies, led by parks SeaWorld Orlando and Busch Gardens Tampa Bay. History Busch Gardens Anheuser-Busch started its Busch Gardens parks with its Tampa, Florida location in 1959, which is considered the beginning of its Busch Entertainment unit. Tampa was expanded in 1962. A second modern Garden theme park and tropical reserve, was built in 1966 next to the Van Nuys brewery. A third location, Busch Gardens Williamsburg, opene ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Roller Coaster DataBase
Roller Coaster DataBase (RCDB) is a roller coaster and amusement park database begun in 1996 by Duane Marden. It has grown to feature statistics and pictures of over 10,000 roller coasters from around the world. Publications that have mentioned RCDB include ''The New York Times'', ''Los Angeles Times'', ''Toledo Blade'', ''Orlando Sentinel'', ''Time'', ''Forbes'', ''Mail & Guardian'', and ''Chicago Sun-Times''. History RCDB was started in 1996 by Duane Marden, a computer programmer from Brookfield, Wisconsin. The website is run off web servers in Marden's basement and a location in St. Louis. Content Each roller coaster entry includes any of the following information for the ride: current amusement park location, type, status (existing, standing but not operating (SBNO), defunct), opening date, make/model, cost, capacity, length, height, drop, number of inversions, speed, duration, maximum vertical angle, trains, and special notes. Entries may also feature reader-contributed p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Philadelphia Toboggan Coasters
Philadelphia Toboggan Coasters (PTC) is one of the oldest existing roller coaster manufacturing companies in the world. Based in Hatfield, Pennsylvania, it was established in 1904 by Henry Auchey and Chester Albright under the name Philadelphia Toboggan Company. The company manufactured carousels, wooden roller coaster, wooden roller coasters, toboggans (roller coaster cars) and later, roller coaster trains. History The Philadelphia Toboggan Company was incorporated January 20, 1904. It built and designed roller coasters until 1979. Notable designers included Joe McKee, John A. Miller, Herbert Schmeck, Frank Hoover, and John C. Allen. When Allen retired as president in 1976, the company stopped designing roller coasters but continued to work on coaster projects until 1979 when it exited the coaster-construction industry permanently. The company manufactured carousels known for their elaborate carvings and decorations. It expanded with the acquisition of the inventory of the De ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amusement Today
''Amusement Today'' is a monthly periodical that features articles, news, pictures and reviews about all things relating to the amusement park industry, including parks, rides, and ride manufacturers. The trade newspaper, which is based in Arlington, Texas, United States, was founded in January 1997 by Gary Slade, Virgil E. Moore III and Rick Tidrow. In 1997, ''Amusement Today'' won the Impact Award in the services category for "Best New Product" from the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA). A year later, in 1998, the magazine founded the Golden Ticket Awards, for which it has become best known for throughout the amusement park industry. On January 2, 2001, Slade bought out his two partners, giving him sole ownership of the paper. The paper has two full-time and two part-time staff members at its Arlington office, along with two full-time writers and several freelance writers in various parts of the world. Golden Ticket Awards Every year, ''Amuse ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tampa Bay Times
The ''Tampa Bay Times'', previously named the ''St. Petersburg Times'' until 2011, is an American newspaper published in St. Petersburg, Florida, United States. It has won fourteen Pulitzer Prizes since 1964, and in 2009, won two in a single year for the first time in its history, one of which was for its PolitiFact project. It is published by the Times Publishing Company, which is owned by The Poynter Institute for Media Studies, a nonprofit journalism school directly adjacent to the University of South Florida St. Petersburg campus. History The newspaper traces its origins to the ''West Hillsborough Times'', a weekly newspaper established in Dunedin, Florida on the Pinellas peninsula in 1884. At the time, neither St. Petersburg nor Pinellas County existed; the peninsula was part of Hillsborough County. The paper was published weekly in the back of a pharmacy and had a circulation of 480. It subsequently changed ownership six times in seventeen years. In December 1884 it w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gwazi (Busch Gardens Africa) 02
Iron Gwazi (formerly Gwazi) is a steel-track hybrid roller coaster at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, a theme park in Tampa, Florida, United States. The ride, named after a fabled creature with a tiger's head and a lion's body, was built by Great Coasters International (GCI) as Gwazi, a wooden dueling roller coaster with two separate tracks. It opened to the public on June 18, 1999. The two tracks, named Lion and Tiger, were long and high. Trains reached a maximum speed of . Gwazi replaced the former Anheuser-Busch brewery that was located in the middle of the park. Gwazi operated both tracks until 2012, with the closure of the tiger side. Following rising maintenance costs and declining ridership, the remaining side was closed in 2015. Following the closure, the wooden structure sat dormant for several years. Replacement attractions were considered by the park, including a remodeled roller coaster, an amphitheater, and a new attraction. In 2018, the park announced plans to refurbi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nielsen Holdings
Nielsen Holdings plc is an American information, data and market measurement firm. Nielsen operates in over 100 countries and employs approximately 44,000 people worldwide. The company was listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and used to be a component of the S&P 500. History Formation Nielsen was founded in 1923 by Arthur C. Nielsen, Sr., who invented an approach to measuring competitive sales results that made the concept of "market share" a practical management tool. The company was originally incorporated in the Netherlands and later was purchased on May 24, 2006, by a consortium of private equity firms. Merger and listing In January 2011, Nielsen consummated an initial public offering of common stock and, subsequently, started trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “NLSN”. On August 31, 2015, Nielsen N.V., a Dutch public company listed on the New York Stock Exchange, merged with Nielsen Holdings plc, by way of a cross-border merger under th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
American Coaster Enthusiasts
American Coaster Enthusiasts (ACE) is a non-profit organization focusing on the enjoyment, knowledge, and preservation of roller coasters as well as recognition of some as architectural and engineering landmarks. Dues-paying members receive the quarterly magazine ''RollerCoaster!'' and bi-monthly newsletter ''ACE News''. Amusement parks have also invited members to exclusive ride events at amusement parks as well as sneak peek events at new roller coasters under construction. The organization maintains an online database of roller coasters including ride specifications and archives of published news articles. The club also recognizes historically significant roller coasters with the Coaster Classic and ACE Coaster Landmark statuses. History Organization founders Roy Brashears, Paul Greenwald and Richard Munch met at a roller coaster riding marathon event promoting the 1977 movie ''Rollercoaster'' at the ''Rebel Yell'' roller coaster (now called Racer 75) at Kings Dominion ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Times Publishing Company
Times Publishing Company is a newspaper and magazine publisher. Its flagship publication is the ''Tampa Bay Times'' (formerly the ''St. Petersburg Times''), a daily newspaper serving the Tampa Bay area. It also publishes the business magazine ''Florida Trend'' and the daily newspaper ''tbt*''. Times Publishing Company is based in St. Petersburg, Florida, and is owned by the Poynter Institute, a nonprofit journalism school in St. Petersburg. The current chairman and CEO of Times Publishing Company is Paul Tash, who also serves as editor of the ''Tampa Bay Times''. On January 1, 2012, the ''St. Petersburg Times'' was renamed the ''Tampa Bay Times'', with ''tbt*'' (which was an acronym for "Tampa Bay Times") only referred to by that name. Properties The Times Publishing Company owns several other publications, most of which are co-branded with the ''Tampa Bay Times''. * ''tampabay.com'' is the online presence of the ''Times''. Articles are free to view. Subscribers to the printed o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Orlando Sentinel
The ''Orlando Sentinel'' is the primary newspaper of Orlando, Florida, and the Central Florida region. It was founded in 1876 and is currently owned by Tribune Publishing Company. The ''Orlando Sentinel'' is owned by parent company, '' Tribune Publishing''. This company was acquired by Alden Global Capital, which operates its media properties through Digital First Media, in May 2021. The newspaper's website utilizes geo-blocking, thus making it unaccessible from European countries. History The ''Sentinel''s predecessors date to 1876, when the ''Orange County Reporter'' was first published. The ''Reporter'' became a daily newspaper in 1905, and merged with the ''Orlando Evening Star'' in 1906. Another Orlando paper, the ''South Florida Sentinel'', started publishing as a morning daily in 1913. Then known as the ''Morning Sentinel'', it bought the ''Reporter-Star'' in 1931, when Martin Andersen came to Orlando to manage both papers. Andersen eventually bought both papers outrigh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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