The Beast (roller coaster)

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The Beast

Location	Kings Island
Type	Wood
Status	Operating
Opened	April 13, 1979
Manufacturer	Kings Island Maintenance & Construction
Designer	Al Collins
Track layout	Terrain
Lift/launch system	Chain lift hill
Height	110 feet (33.5 m)
Length	7,359 feet (2,243 m)
Max speed	64.8 mile per hour (104.3 km/h)
Inversions	0
Duration	4:50
Max Vertical Angle	45 degrees
Capacity	1000 riders per hour
Cost	$4,000,000 USD (estimated)
Max G force	3.1
The Beast at RCDB
Pictures of The Beast at RCDB

The Beast is a wooden roller coaster located at Kings Island near Cincinnati, Ohio. It is currently the longest wooden roller coaster in the world. It was also the fastest, longest, tallest roller coaster in the world when it opened in Spring 1979. Paramount sold King's Island to Cedar Fair LP. in 2006 and The Beast is now under Cedar Fair LP's ownership. (Cedar Fair's main amusement park is Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio.)

The Beast has been constantly rated as one of the top roller coasters in the world since it first opened, having earned itself a cult-like following among some coaster enthusiasts. Even after nearly 30 years , it still the main attraction at Kings Island, located at the rear of the park in Rivertown.

To date, over 33 million riders have ridden The Beast.

1 Facts
2 History
3 Trivia
4 External links

[edit] Facts

Designer: Al Collins¹
Builder: Charlie Dinn
Manufacturer: Kings Island Maintenance & Construction ²
Length: 7359 ft (2,243 m)
Height: 110 ft (33.5 m)
First Lift-Hill Drop: 135 ft (41 m) ³
Second Lift-Hill Drop: 141 ft (43 m) ³
Speed: 64.77 mph (104.24 km/h)
G-Forces (max): 3.1
Tunnels: 4
Angle of Descent: 45 degrees
Capacity: 1000pph
Duration: 4 minutes 50 seconds
Trains: 3 trains with 6 cars per train (6 riders per car, 36 riders per train)
Area: 35 acres
Cost: $4,000,000 USD

¹ Al Collins was the person leading up the design, but Jeff Gramke was also very involved with the design and engineering of the Beast. John Allen was contacted to design the ride, but was close to retirement and decided not to design the ride. However he did provide Al Collins and Jeff Gramke with the dynamics equations on a napkin during a visit at the International Street Restaurant

² It has been incorrectly reported by some sources that the Philadelphia Toboggan Company was involved in the construction of this coaster. They were responsible only for the train/cars. Design and Construction was handled internally by Kings Island's Maintenance & Construction department.

³ Due to its construction (the ride follows the contour of the land as well as dropping into a tunnel below grade), the drop is larger than its height.

[edit] History

The Beast became the world's longest wooden roller coaster when it opened its queue on Friday April 13, 1979.

In 2002, after a brake failure that caused several minor injuries, the park replaced The Beast's original skid brakes with a newer fin and magnetic brake system.

[edit] Trivia

R.L. Stine wrote a novel which featured the roller coaster and was named after it, simply titled "The Beast". The book also had a sequel called The Beast 2.

[edit] External links

The Beast An informative article about the roller coaster on ThrillRide.com
The Beast Pictures and details from CoasterGallery.com
Video of The Beast
Kings Island Central information - Alternate source of details and stats.

Roller coasters at Kings Island
Adventure Express - The Beast - Face/Off - Fairly Odd Coaster - FireHawk - Flight of Fear - Italian Job: Stunt Track - Little Bill's Giggle Coaster - Racer - Rugrat's Runaway Reptar - Son of Beast - Top Gun - Vortex -