originally posted on 8/8/2020
Photo: Courtesy Vekoma. View full-sized image.
Germany boasts many world-class theme parks. Elebnispark Tripsdrill in Cleeborn is filled with its own blend of unique character. Fans of the place love its regional themes and fanciful storytelling. Where else can one ride a flume themed to bathing? Riders experience the journey in floating bathtubs. Or a rapids ride themed to laundry?
At the foot of a hillside winery, Tripsdrill has an abundance of one-of-a-kind charm that most parks could only dream of offering. As marvelous as it is, the park has an interesting mix of coasters, if not a large collection.
With its oldest coaster being a simple Zierer Tivoli family ride, the park showcased its creativity with one of the first Gerstlauer bobsled coasters, G’sengte Sau in 1998. In this case, the cars zip and turn and travel through a castle-like building (which the flume travels through also). The woodie Mammut really made Tripsdrill an enthusiast’s destination in 2008, followed by the Gerstlauer launch coaster, Karacho, in 2013.
Now, seven years later, Tripsdrill adds not one coaster, but two. Both are supplied by Vekoma, and the fact that they are intertwined with each other makes the result greater than the sum of its parts.
Thematically, both rides have a regional reference.
The larger is a newer model of ride, the Suspended Thrill Coaster. (More on that shortly.) Named Hals-über-Kopf (translated from German to mean “headlong”), the theming of the coaster refers to the local heroic story of the “Sieben Schwaben” (“Seven Swabians”). Each individual car is designed with a shield and lance, and on the back of each seat, riders find a rucksack with equipment like a pan, map and blanket. Outside of the industry giants in Orlando and Southern California, European parks often exemplify attention to detail that far outshines American parks.
STC Theming details are found on the back of each car.
Photo: Courtesy Vekoma. View full-sized image.
The ride stands just under 100 feet tall, and from the top of the lift, trains of 20 riders plunge down a first drop that isn’t exactly straight but not a traditional curving drop either. With nothing below one’s feet, it’s bound to give a sense of flight. The rise out of the initial plunge sends passengers into the first inversion, one of two zero-G rolls. This maneuver takes place directly over the glass-domed station of the second installation. From there, Hals-über-Kopf rises into a highly banked turn sending riders back toward the station, starting with an airtime pop. The remaining snarl of track has numerous low-to-the-ground elements that accentuate the speed and make the ride much more exhilarating. The second zero-G roll and an inline twist are mixed in with sharply banked turns.
Even with inversions, the STC train does not feature over-the-shoulder harnesses.
Photo: Courtesy Vekoma. View full-sized image.
Hals-über-Kopf turns upside down over Volldampf’s station.
Photo: Courtesy Erlebnispark Tripsdrill. View full-sized image.
ACE members who have enjoyed Dragonflier at Dollywood (Pigeon Forge, Tennessee) are familiar with the comfort level of Vekoma’s Suspended Family Coaster. This style of train is now featured on rides with inversions, making for an exceptionally smooth ride but, more important, also a very comfortable one with delightful freedom for the upper body.
Photo: Courtesy Vekoma. View full-sized image.
The second coaster is a Family Boomerang. Inspired by a famous Swabian folk song, “Auf de Schwäbische Eisenbahne,” the train is themed to a 19th century locomotive. The theme to the song refers to life on the Swabian railroad. It is called Volldampf, which translates from German to “full steam (ahead).”
One of the thematic details is a goat hanging on to the last car. When asked about this detail of the theming, Birger Mekierjohann, press spokesman, said: “This song is about a railway journey in Southwestern Germany. In one verse, a farmer ties his goat at the back of the last wagon. After arrival at the final station, he finds the goat’s head, torn apart from its body, dangling from the rope. For Tripsdrill, this was not family friendly enough. That’s why we designed a model of a goat, clinging on the last wagon and enjoying the tumultuous journey through Tripsdrill.”
The goat jumping aboard the last car makes for a more family friendly variation on the song’s tale.
Photo: Courtesy Vekoma. View full-sized image.
Photo: Courtesy Erlebnispark Tripsdrill. View full-sized image.
Kudos to the management of Tripsdrill for finding a less gruesome ending to the verse. The cute goat makes for a more whimsical inclusion to the ride, particularly one aimed at families.
Vekoma has found the Family Boomerang to be a hot seller, reaching that in-between market of junior coaster and high thrill. The manufacturer offers a handful of variations of the model. Most of them stand just over 70 feet tall, and, like the bigger brethren namesakes, feature forward and backward direction. The Family Boomerang just doesn’t feature loops or any kind of inversions.
Tracks of both Volldampf and Hals-über-Kopf intertwine with each other, so the visual appeal is enhanced for both the spectator and the rider.
The innovations of these two rides offer a time of reflection. During the 1980s and 1990s, Vekoma became an incredibly busy supplier, mostly because of the high demand for the company’s Boomerang and Suspended Looping Coasters. Like many rides of that era, they offered big thrills in a compact space but also developed a reputation for being aggressive rides with rough transitions.
The new regime at Vekoma has gone to great lengths to develop exceptional new products in the new millennium. The supplier has a long list of clients buying new, smooth and fantastically thrilling rides, many of which are of moderate size and fill the need for big fun without gigantic stats. Unfortunately for Americans, at present the majority of Vekoma’s new installations are being built overseas.
In a statement from the company: “Vekoma’s Suspended Looping Coaster (SLC) has probably been one of the most successful coaster models in history, with more than 40 models built all over the world, mostly in the mid-90s and early 2000s. The combination of high thrill, compact footprint and great cost benefit converted the SLCs into a winner and the signature coaster for many parks. However, as time passed by, it was time to completely overhaul the Suspended Looping Coaster and come up with a next generation state-of-the-art inverted coaster, namely the Suspended Thrill Coaster (STC).”
A major difference from the old-generation track design is how the company is now developing and manufacturing coasters. With new tools and technology, Vekoma is able to fully translate the G-force experience into the track design, resulting in smooth transitions with a continuous pace throughout the ride. Latest state-of-the-art technology with machined chassis and steering wheel boggies has been used, which runs very smoothly and requires less maintenance.
Hals-über-Kopf features three inversions.
Photo: Courtesy Erlebnispark Tripsdrill. View full-sized image.
“The high-class train of the STC meets all of the latest safety standards and is ready for the next decades to come. Unlike any other inverted coaster in the world, our STC is equipped with seats that can swing slightly to the side via a double redundant hinge point connected with a specially developed tuned spring-damper system. This ensures the smoothest ride experience of any inverted coaster in the world,” said the statement from Vekoma.
For decades now, the over-the-shoulder restraint has been an accepted norm of securing people safely through inversions. However, as ACEers know, it isn’t always the ideal solution when it comes to comfort, particularly if the restraint is close to a rider’s head. Now with the introduction of an overhead lap bar, enthusiasts are sure to consider this a giant leap forward, along with all the other developments and improvements made in the train design and track fabrication.
Hopefully, a Suspended Thrill Coaster will find its way to the United States before too long.
— Tim Baldwin
ACE News Editor
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