Alpine Bobsled is a steel bobsled roller coaster located at the

Six Flags Great Escape and Hurricane Harbor Six Flags Great Escape and Hurricane Harbor is an amusement and water park owned and operated by Six Flags. It is located approximately north of Albany, in Queensbury, New York. It was one of three Six Flags parks not to be officially branded ...

amusement park in

Queensbury, New York Queensbury is a town in Warren County, New York, United States. The population was 27,901 at the 2010 census. It contains the county seat of Warren County, located at a municipal center complex on U.S. Route 9 south of the village of Lake George ...

. Manufactured by

Intamin Intamin Amusement Rides is a design and manufacturing company in Schaan, Liechtenstein. It is best known for creating thrill rides and roller coasters worldwide. The Intamin brand name is a syllabic abbreviation for "international amusement ins ...

, the coaster first opened to the public in 1984 at

Six Flags Great Adventure Six Flags Great Adventure is an amusement park located in Jackson, New Jersey. Owned and operated by Six Flags, the park complex is situated between New York City and Philadelphia and includes a water park named Six Flags Hurricane Harbor, Hu ...

. It was relocated to

Six Flags Great America Six Flags Great America is a amusement park located in Gurnee, Illinois, within the northern Chicago metropolitan area. The amusement park originally opened as Marriott's Great America on May 29, 1976, as one of two theme parks built by the Ma ...

in 1989, and then to Six Flags Great Escape in 1998.

Theming

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

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

where the

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning System time epoch begins at 00:00 UTC. * January 9 – ...

and

1932 Events January * January 4 – The British authorities in India arrest and intern Mahatma Gandhi and Vallabhbhai Patel. * January 9 – Sakuradamon Incident (1932), Sakuradamon Incident: Korean nationalist Lee Bong-chang fails in his effort ...

Winter Olympics The Winter Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'hiver) is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were h ...

, both of which included bobsled races, were held. The ride has six cars, all themed from different countries: the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

and

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

. The ride regularly runs three sleds with the fourth being stored on the transfer track next to the load station. The four sleds are regularly rotated in and out over the course of the year, with the ride occasionally running all four at the same time. The two sleds not being used during a season are rehabbed and rotated out on a yearly basis. A large archway is the entrance to the long queue area leading up to the loading station. The arch itself is decorated with an old Olympic-style

bobsled Bobsleigh or bobsled is a team winter sport that involves making timed runs down narrow, twisting, banked, iced tracks in a gravity-powered sleigh. International bobsleigh competitions are governed by the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Feder ...

and the path up to the loading area is scattered with old broken sleds as well. The loading station is built to resemble a 19th-century alpine

ski lodge A ski lodge or day lodge is a building located in a ski area that provides amenities such as food, beverages, seating area, restrooms, and locker rooms for skiers and snowboarders. Larger resorts have a day lodge at each base area and also at mid- ...

. The outside of the bobsled's trough is purple and white, with the inside also being white.

History

The coaster was built in 1984 and was located at

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 A stand-up roller coaster is a roller coaster designed to have the passengers stand through the course of the ride. History The first stand-up roller coasters in the world were originally built as sit-down roller coasters. Japanese manufacturer ...

named

Green Lantern Green Lantern is the name of several superheroes appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. They fight evil with the aid of rings that grant them a variety of extraordinary powers, all of which come from imagination, fearlessness, ...

. After the ride was dismantled and removed, it was relocated to

in 1989 and opened as Rolling Thunder. It was replaced by ''

Raging Bull ''Raging Bull'' is a 1980 American biographical sports drama film directed by Martin Scorsese, produced by Robert Chartoff and Irwin Winkler and adapted by Paul Schrader and Mardik Martin from Jake LaMotta's 1970 memoir '' Raging Bull: My St ...

,'' 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 closes the line at 6 PM every operating day.

Trains

Riders are arranged two across in four rows per car with the cars made by

Giovanola Giovanola Frères SA was a prominent steel manufacturing company based in Monthey, Switzerland. It was known for building electrical power stations, water storage tanks, pipelines, boilers, highway bridges, submarines, ski lifts and many other st ...

. As of 2015, there are 4 cars in use and 2 in storage and the back rows are closed off due to whiplash.

References

External links

* {{Intamin Roller coasters in New York (state) Bobsled roller coasters Roller coasters manufactured by Intamin Roller coasters introduced in 1998 Roller coasters introduced in 1989 Roller coasters introduced in 1984 The Great Escape and Hurricane Harbor Six Flags Great America Six Flags Great Adventure Roller coasters operated by Six Flags Steel roller coasters Former roller coasters in New Jersey