Colorado Adventure
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| Manufacturer | Vekoma | ||||||||
| Product | Mine Train (Custom MK-900 M) | ||||||||
| Type | Steel - Terrain - Mine Train | ||||||||
| Riders per train | 32 | ||||||||
| Hourly capacity | 2300 | ||||||||
| Propulsion | 3 booster wheel lift hills | ||||||||
| Height | 26 metres | ||||||||
| Top speed | 50 km/h | ||||||||
| Length | 1280 metres | ||||||||
| Inversions | 0 | ||||||||
| Duration | 2:55 | ||||||||
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Colorado Adventure is a mine train roller coaster located in Phantasialand in Brühl, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The ride was built by Vekoma and has three tire propelled lifts instead of chain lifts.
History
In 1995, construction on Colorado Adventure began. Cine 2000, a panoramic cinema, had to be removed to make room for the coaster. It also shared space with the two log flume rides of the park, now replaced by Chiapas. Originally five trains were supposed to operate, but only four remain in use to this day. The ride opened on May 11, 1996. Due to noise complaints from residents, later on large parts of the ride were enclosed in a hall and surrounded with noise barriers. In 1999, the Super Globe theater next door was re-themed to fit with the Colorado theme. As Phantasialand's bad luck would have it, in 1996 welding operations caused a small fire, damaging some of the theming.
Theme
The name is based on the state Colorado of the United States. Interestingly enough, the ride is located in the Mexico themed part of the park. The theming includes mountains, deserts, a lake, waterfalls and Indian tents. A large mountain which looked somewhat like a human face (the Smokey Mountain) was also present at first, but got removed in 2011 in favor of the flat ride Tikal.
Design
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Trains
4 trains with 6 cars per train. In each car, riders are arranged 2 across in 3 rows, for a total of 36 riders per train.
Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson visited Phantasialand multiple times during his lifetime. During his first visit he proclaimed it was his favorite European themepark. Gottlieb Löffelhardt, one of the park's founders, presented a scale model of the ride to Jackson while it was still in its planning stages. The King of Pop was very excited about the new ride and offered to adopt it. Phantasialand agreed and in 1996, he officially opened the ride, which got renamed to Colorado Adventure: the Michael Jackson Thrill Ride. In 2013, the subtitle was dropped, possibly due to high licensing costs and dwindling popularity of the name since the singer passed away in 2009.
Images
Colorado logo at exit sign
Animatronic in station
External links
- Colorado Adventure on the Roller Coaster DataBase.
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