Roller Coaster Maintenance Underway at Kings Island

Winter might be the offseason for Kings island’s guests but for the behind-the-scenes crews at the park, it’s the on-season and busiest time of the year.

In the wood coaster maintenance shop located behind the Racer, the process beings immediately following the last day of the season in the fall with the removal of the cars from The Beast, Racer and Woodstock Express. The cars are transported from the ride to the shop with each one is stripped down to every last nut and bolt. Everything is disassembled, looked at and rebuilt during the winter.

Once the cars have been stripped down, the parts from each ride undergo testing methods specified by its manufacturer, Philadelphia Toboggan Coasters, Inc., including magnetic particle testing, X-rays, ultrasonic accelerometer testing and a liquid dye penetrant to detect every crack and scratch. This process is also done on the cars for each and every ride in the park with roller coasters alone accounting for more than 7,000 parts.

In mid-December, the wood coaster crew begins to rebuild the cars starting with The Beast. Once the cars for each of the three trains on The Beast has been completed by mid-January, it’s on to rebuilding cars for three of the trains on The Racer, then cars for each of the two trains on Woodstock Express before finishing up with cars for the fourth train on The Racer in March.

The work is very detailed and takes four months to complete.