Extinction of the Intamin Swiss Bob

Today we're going to take a slide into the history of the Intamin Swiss Bob coaster. Six Flags over Texas recently made the decision to retire and demolish the last coaster of its type, La Vibora. This marks the end of an era for the model.

Intamin & Giovanola

This is where the story gets a little fuzzy. Intamin entered the amusement industry as a ride broker and handled the installation of amusement rides. Their name is a sort of acronym for International Amusement Installations. As a broker, Intamin took ride concepts from other manufacturers and marketed them to the industry worldwide. Many manufacturers or small contractors starting out in the industry didn't have the means to market their rides globally. In addition, there is a lack of credibility for a company first starting out, as nobody knows how serious that company is. Intamin would bridge this gap, by standing behind the products of small firms, and assisting in the sale and installation of these products.

At some point Intamin entered into the actual design of amusement rides, relying on some of their subcontractors to fabricate the parts for these designs. One may ask, why would a firm not want to fabricate things themselves. This is mainly because the cost of acquiring machine shop equipment is expensive, as well as qualified staff to create parts to very tight tolerances. Sometimes it is just cheaper to have a third-party fabricate parts.

Giovanola Bridge Company was a Swiss fabricator, oftentimes trusted to produce the steel, track, and vehicles for Intamin designed rides. In fact, it was not long afterwards that they realized they had the know-how to produce their own rides without the help of Intamin's design and sales teams. Now this is why I said the story gets fuzzy. Did Intamin design the Swiss Bob, or did Giovanola design the model?

It is safe to say that Giovanola handled the fabrication of the track and vehicles at the very least, as Intamin still subcontracts fabrication of rides to third parties to this day. However, certain clues point to Giovanola being the true ride designer as well. This article, published in 1983, describes a prototype Swiss Bob track was fabricated at the Giovanola facility, which was common practice at the time to market new rides to interested buyers.

The article describes how the project was greenlit in 1982 to "demonstrate the reliability of the idea," in other words create a scale model. A 1/10 scale was a success, and by May of 1983, a full prototype was ready for riders to test out. Specifically, it was pointed out that Giovanola engineers were responsible for the calculations and prototype model.

Engineers Walter Bolliger and Claude Mabillard had worked for Giovanola in the 1980s, helping to design rides for the company. After a change in management in the late 1980s, they decided to leave and form their own firm, B&M, to design roller coasters. It is very likely they were partially behind the design and creation of the Swiss Bob.

Another clue that Giovanola is the true manufacturer is that any rides produced by Giovanola have them listed as co-assignees on the patents for their attractions. For instance, the stand-up coaster model lists both Intamin and Giovanola as the assignees. This differs from Intamin's River Rapids model, where Intamin is listed as the sole assignee. I'm going to lean towards the possibility that Intamin had a business agreement with Giovanola that in order to market and sell their rides, they would be listed as Intamin products. Giovanola would solely handle the fabrication and production, where Intamin would handle the sales and service of the attractions. A similar agreement is in place today between Zamperla and Soriani, where a model such as the Giant Discovery is produced fully by Soriani, but sold under the Zamperla brand.

The Ride

Given Intamin and Giovanola were both proudly Swiss-based companies, the concept of bobsledding naturally came as a possible concept for an amusement ride. Bobsledding originated in the late-1800s, when Caspar Badrutt hosted some Englishmen at his resort in St. Moritz, Switzerland. The Englishmen, looking for fun, took a delivery sled and raced down the crowded, narrow streets of the town. Later iterations of the sleds included more advanced steering mechanisms. By 1924, the sport of bobsledding was adopted into the Winter Olympics. Disneyland had used the theme for Matterhorn Bobsleds back in 1959, the first coaster to use tubular steel track. However, being confined to pre-positioned rails meant that the ride would have the same outcome every time and not effectively simulate a bobsled chute.

A bobsled-style roller coaster known as the Flying Turns had been conceived in 1926, by John Norman Bartlett. He filed a patent, where a curved wooden chute held individual trains not restricted by a traditional track. Instead, the trains had individual steering mechanisms, and pure physics allowed them to glide through the turns and inclines. While hugely popular through the 1930s, the wooden track had required a lot of maintenance, making the model unfeasible for long-term use.

While traditional bobsledding takes place on a concrete trough covered in ice, the Swiss Bob coaster utilizes a 10 mm thick steel trough, with a diameter of 3.8 meters. Throughout the normal ride track, the vehicles are free running, only rolling and steering through the road wheel assemblies. For the station platform, lift, and braking segments, the trough ends, and the vehicles are squeezed into a narrow ride track that resembles a typical roller coaster. Because the vehicles need to be aligned fairly well for the chain lift, brakes, and drive tires to operate properly, there are spring-loaded guide wheels that contact a side rail, which guides the vehicles into the narrow tack sections.

By 1984, three models were already sold to American parks all featuring the same ride layout. Two of which would go to the Six Flags chain to enter the "ride rotation" program. What likely sold parks on the attraction was the ability to ride the closest thing possible to a real Olympic bobsled.

Installations

1. Sarajevo Bobsled- Six Flags Great Adventure

On May 9, 1984, this was the first Intamin Swiss Bob to open. Named after the 1984 Winter Games in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, the name was chosen since the term "Olympic" was trademarked and could not be used for the ride. Developed over a parking lot, the ride was originally supposed to feature canvas mountains to help fill in the ride some more and theme it, however these plans did not come to fruition.

Featuring an alpine theme, the track was painted shades of white and blue. Each bobsled sat 6 riders in single file fashion. A single lap bar secured each group of two riders, leading to some complaints of discomfort if strangers had to sit in each other's laps.

The coaster ran for 5 seasons before being removed for a new record-breaking roller coaster "The Great American Scream Machine." As part of the ride rotation program for Six Flags, the ride was carefully disassembled and shipped to Six Flags Great America in Gurnee, Illinois. It reopened in 1989 as "Rolling Thunder," a play on words of the loud sound created by the rolling wheels echoing off the steel trough. Six Flags went to Bolliger & Mabillard (B&M) to redesign the bobsled vehicles for improved rider comfort.

B&M created two-per-row seating, with four rows, not only improving rider comfort, but also capacity. Painted black and white, the ride still retained its bobsled theme, but in a much more generic fashion. Rolling Thunder lasted until 1995, when it was removed for park expansion. Between 1996-1997, the ride remained in storage, until the decision was made to relocate it to Six Flags Great Escape in New York.

Alpine Bobsleds opened in 1998, returning to its original theme, and now painted an elaborate purple and white color scheme to appear as snow-capped mountains or icicles. Each individual vehicle was painted to represent a famous bobsled team from the Olympics, United Kingdom, United States, Jamaica, Italy, Switzerland, and Canada. A much better fit for the smaller park, given the ride's low hourly capacity, it remained in service for its longest run yet, until 2023, or 25 years. Ultimately high maintenance costs as well as other issues led to the ride's removal, in favor of a new coaster for 2024, The Bobcat.

2. Sarajevo Bobsleds- Six Flags Magic Mountain

Merely days after the opening of the first Swiss Bob at Great Adventure, Magic Mountain opened their Sarajevo Bobsleds on May 9, 1984. The ride was the exact same track layout and had the same vehicles as at Great Adventure, but featured much more developed landscaping, as it had not been built over a parking area. While popular, its capacity had hurt it, causing long lines, and the ride only survived two seasons at the park. It was replaced with another ride to be in the ride rotation program, Shockwave, a stand-up coaster from Intamin/Giovanola.

Sarajevo Bobsleds went to Six Flags over Texas for 1986, opening as "La Vibora," Spanish for Viper. Instead of a bobsledding theme, the ride's track was painted to resemble a snake, in the colors of red, black, and yellow. La Vibora became the longest tenured Swiss Bob at a single park, operating from 1986 to 2024. The decision was made to remove and scrap the attraction as a result of cost cutting from the Six Flags and Cedar Fair merger. La Vibora operated with the original single-file seating vehicles for its entire life, receiving some used vehicles from Efteling's Bob coaster in 2005.

3. Screamin' Delta Demon- Opryland

The third Swiss Bob to open in 1984 was the only one not to open at a Six Flags park. The independent Opryland park opened the attraction in June of 1984. Copying the layout of the Six Flags versions of the ride, it featured the most drastic change in theme from the other Alpine-themed rides.

Residing in the park's Louisiana Cajun Bayou area, the ride's track was placed over a creek bed of the Cumberland River, and the vehicles were themed to that of an eerie bayou monster. Even the station house was themed to that of a "ramshackle cajun building." Opryland continued to operate the coaster until the park's closure in 1997. Many of the rides were sold off to other parks, and Screamin' Delta Demon was purchased by Premier Parks, later the company that purchased Six Flags.

Premier, now operating under the Six Flags name, had purchased the site of Old Indiana Fun-n-Water Park, which was forced to close after financial difficulties, and an accident with a train ride at the park. Hoping to redevelop the site into a major park again, Six Flags moved several rides to store at the property in hopes for a 1999 reopening. Screamin' Delta Demon was one of four coasters purchased from Opryland after its closure. The plans for the Indiana site fell through, with Six Flags selling the land off to another buyer and eventually moving the rides or recycling them completely. The latter was unfortunately the fate for this Swiss Bob.

4. Bob- Efteling

For the 1985 season, Efteling requested the first custom Swiss Bob layout to fit a specific area of the park. In comparison to the Sarajevo Bobsled track, Efteling's version was only slightly taller, faster, and longer. The ride was hosted in the park's "Different Realm" section, featuring a loose Alpine theme, with the station house featuring skis, cuckoo clocks, Austrian music, etc. Painted dark green and white, the ride meandered through an extensive area of trees.

Over the years Bob received many updates. In order to meet noise compliances required for nighttime operation, the ride's original wheels were replaced with a soft rubber in 1996 to minimize the roaring sound created from rolling through the trough. In 2000, the control system was upgraded and modernized.

Possibly the ride's largest update was in 2005, when the original ride vehicles were sold to Six Flags over Texas, and new ones courtesy of BOM Engineering were installed. Much like other parks, the desire to increase the ride's capacity arose. BOM created 2-across seating, similar to what B&M created for Six Flags Great America.

As time went on, the maintenance for Bob became more difficult, especially with Intamin discontinuing support for the Swiss Bob model. The decision was made to retire the ride in 2019, as the new Max & Moritz family coaster would take its place, reusing the station building from Bob.

5. Avalanche Run, later known as Disaster Transport- Cedar Point

Possibly the most well-known Swiss Bob operated at Cedar Point. Opening in 1985, Avalanche Run was the second custom layout Swiss Bob. With an alpine theme, the ride unusually crossed over Cedar Point's beach area. Demanding a better hourly throughput than what was offered, Avalanche Run was the first Swiss Bob to open with the 2-across seating cars.

While popular, the coaster did not pan out to what the park had expected. Therefore, instead of removing the relatively new coaster, the park decided to give it a pricey overlay, one more expensive than the rides original cost (4 million to 3.8 million). ITEC Productions was called in to design an overlay for the ride. Cedar Point lacked theming, and wanted to create an attraction that could give a similar experience to that of one from a Disney Park. The entire ride was enclosed by a show building, which would allow it to run in the rain and provide more uptime.

ITEC created Disaster Transport, a space journey where riders would board a cargo transport to deliver a product to Alaska. In addition to the in-the-dark experience, special effects, lighting, an immersive queue, and even an animatronic named Dave were added. The ride was meant to offer a similar experience and story to attractions like Space Mountain and Star Tours at Disney Parks.

Over the years, the popularity of the ride and effects diminished, leading to many broken effects that were never repaired. Disaster Transport still had to close in the rain, as the roof leaked, causing the same issues as when the ride was Avalanche Run. Matt Ouimet took over as CEO of Cedar Fair in 2012, and decided to remove the aging attraction, calling it an "eyesore" and explaining that the effects and ride system were too outdated to salvage. The park opened Gatekeeper, a record-breaking B&M wing coaster in its place for the 2013 season. A portion of the ride's track and a single vehicle were salvaged and donated to the National Roller Coaster Museum for display.

Phantasialand's Unrealized Swiss Bob

At one point, Phantasialand of Germany was considering installing a Swiss Bob named Bobbhan. The ride's track would interact with Wildwasserbahn, an existing log flume. Given Phantasialand's dedication to immersive ride experiences, this could have been the best themed Swiss Bob available had it come to fruition.

Bobbhan appeared on park maps in the mid 1980s, notably excluding a potential opening date. It is rumored that due to Efteling's installation of their Swiss Bob, that Phantasialand did not think the timing would work out installing a similar attraction as their competitor. Phantasialand's next coaster opened in 1988 with the enclosed Space Center. It wasn't until 1996, that Colorado Adventure opened in the space meant for Bobbhan. It would have been intriguing to see what Phantasialand could do as far as theming of a bobsled ride, given so many of them had potential for a theme, and opened with generic appearances. However, for the longevity of the attraction, maybe waiting to install the mine train ride was the better option.

Issues with Operation

Some of the pitfalls of the attraction have already been explored in this post, but let's take a look at some of the issues with the Swiss Bob.

1. Capacity: Intamin had boasted a theoretical 1,260 to 1,300 rider per hour capacity for their standard Swiss Bob, however the awkwardly seated vehicles limited its performance. Grouping riders together to make full bobsleds was difficult, and in order to meet capacity goals, loading had to be performed quickly. On the best days, Swiss Bob rides often saw between 50-75% of that capacity met per hour. Low throughput led to extremely long lines, for what was essentially a family coaster. For major parks like Great Adventure and Magic Mountain, the Swiss Bob wasn't really an efficient attraction, leading to short tenures at their parks.

2. Weather: Any sort of precipitation on the ride tracks led to the shutdown of Swiss Bob rides. Precipitation led to the pooling of water, which greatly affected the vehicles' performance. The road wheels had more of an ability to hydroplane on the tracks, making the vehicle's trajectory unpredictable. Vehicles rolling over was a concern, given that the vehicles were not restricted to the track. Giovanola originally included "roll bars" on the cars to prevent major injury to riders in the event of a rollover. While there is no recorded instance of this happening, it was clearly a concern that was amplified in wet conditions. With an attraction having to close unexpectedly for weather, it led to higher downtimes, and more customer complaints of a major ride being down. It is believed that the ride's braking system may also have been affected by water.

3. Maintenance: Giovanola split off from Intamin at some point in the late 1980s to become an independent manufacturer. They later went out of business in 2001. It is unknown who handled parts and service of the Swiss Bob, but it is very likely that Intamin discontinued services of the model at some point. With spare parts becoming more of a concern for many parks, they sometimes had to resort to third-party manufacturers to supply certain components. When Efteling wanted to update their Bob vehicles in 2005, they had to go to B&M for assistance, who in turn had to find a third-party fabricator of their own, which is not a cheap task.

Over time, the ride's original control systems had become outdated, and many parks needed to update them, including Great Escape and Efteling. Originally, the ride could have multiple trains on the lift, but proper blocking should prohibit this from happening. There was also a complex drive tire system meant to determine vehicle speeds and try to match it or change it when entering block sections. The original motors and drives had issues performing reliably. In the event of a fault or block set up, a team member had to climb stairs of each brake section to clear the block and get the ride operating again. This happened often enough at Great Adventure that at one point they permanently staffed ride operators at posts on each block, similar to a log flume, to ensure efficient return to service.

4. Noise: Due to the design of the wheels and track, the Swiss Bob produced a lot of sound pollution. This was a concern for parks near residential areas, as well as affecting the ambience of an area in a park. Efteling switched their wheel compound from polyurethane to rubber, which is much softer and quieter, but also slows down ride vehicles more significantly.

Legacy

The Intamin Swiss Bob was a unique idea, that not only resurrected the Flying Turns model of the past, but one that also meant to give park guests a whole new ride experience, one that they likely hadn't seen before. Mack Rides also produces a Bobsled model of their own, one that they still offer parts and service for today. Although the idea has been around for a while, I hope that with all of the Intamin models now being defunct, that we don't see this trend continue with the Mack models as well. The US has two operating bobsled-style rides, a Mack model at Kings Dominion, and Knoebels throwback Flying Turns ride that was built in-house. It is a rare model that can be extremely popular with families. Not many coasters give you the experience of gliding through turns, unrestricted by track rails. While the Swiss Bob model may have had its quirks and issues, it certainly is much unlike most of the traditional coasters of today.

Other Reference Material:

Great Adventure History- Sarajevo Bobsled

Park Vault- Giovanola Info