Twisted Colossus and Scream! Backstage Tour – February 16th 2015

I was honored to be invited to my second backstage Twisted Colossus Tour! The tour included the Scream! repaint this time, so I’ll be writing about that too in this update!

– Recently our images have popped up on other sites and forums, awesome that our coverage spreads, not so awesome that no one mentioned where they got the images from. We are totally fine with our audience using our images, BUT ONLY IF credit is given to californiacoasterkings.com. Thank you! –

Let’s start off with the Screampunk District in general!

In about two weeks the construction crews will start the complete demolition of this plaza, to place the new entrance plaza of the Screampunk District! Magic Moments theater hasn’t been touched yet, but soon will also undergo its refurbishment.  Twisted Wiches, the Gourmet Sandwich shop, is slowly starting to be refurbished. Notice the style they’re going with at the entrance of the building.  They will replace all pavement in the area, they are not exactly sure what the new layout or colors will be.  Finally, the awful looking Coca Cola vending machine collection has been removed! This is right next to the entrance of Twisted Colossus, and near the new Twisted Whiches. The park is placing sets of small stairs in the hill-side. 

Let’s move to the Twisted Colossus station!

The bridge that will be Twisted Colossus’ exit is being refurbished with new fencing and flooring. Beneath, the actual track, has received the beams that will house the drive wheels. These wheels will accelerate the train to a speed needed to get through the TWISTED Pre-lift.  The station track is connected on both sides. They yet have to modify the station platforms. The new trains and track are wider than the old.  The control-panel booth has been taken out and the gap in the station is filled. The new panel will be on station level, located on this metal platform below.  WHAT? That’s shiny Scream! We’ll get back to that later in this update.   The unused side of the station is now covered up!  Here’s the actual TC station where guests will board one of the 4 trains. They repainted the walls below the track white.  Here’s the view of the brake-runs from the station. The transfer track has been placed as well. They’ve been working on that for months due to the fact that the new track is a lot larger and thus the transfer track couldn’t just be added to the old structure but had to be altered, which turned out to be very time consuming!

There’s lots of room next to the station, this wall is bordering Scream! Plaza, so hopefully one day the fence disappears, and we’ll find ourselves a flat ride. 😀 Looks a little messy, but there sure are lots of tiny details going into a monster hybrid coaster like this. One of the many container-work-shops. 

Let’s throw in some exciting Twisted Colossus trains!

Wrapped… UNWRAPPED!  What?! It’s the famous lead car! And she’s a real beauty in person. The details on the train are incredible!   The trains have seat-belts, and lap-bars with shin-guards.  Some second row good-ness.  The nerd back-side of the train! This is only the first of 4 trains, the other trains will each have a different color scheme, blue, green, and purple.

Let’s move on to some actual back-stage construction pics of the world’s longest Hybrid Coaster! Completed lift-hills and catwalks! Here’s the trim-brake section before riders will enter the second (green) half of the ride.  That transition from blue to green!  Interesting looking structure in which two break-runs will be located. The green one on top, the blue trim-breaks on the bottom.   In case of an evacuation from the blue-brake section or the green lift-hill, behind this panel a staircase will be installed.  The empty Colossus Turnaround Colosseum… For those of you who were worried the blue trim-breaks indicated that the out-ward bank on the blue side would not be placed. Worry no longer, no such thing was ever mentioned, the blue outward-banked airtime hill will still be part of Twisted Colossus.  I say… FLATRIDE! Really, they could fit some in here, it’d be spectacular with Twisted Colossus flying by. Sadly no such thing was mentioned… 😀 Rest in pieces block-brake section! Here’s the booth and staircase that were connected to the mid-course break-run on the Ol’ Colossus. The deepest point of the ride is located before the double-up. This dip is coated with asphalt. Rocky Mountain Construction is adding a lot of extra wood to the already existing structure to support the heavy track. The old track crossing through will not be demolished, but has become part of the supporting the structure. Wood is being placed all over it! See, this is a sign of the construction moving along at a great pace, track everywhere!  And then… like Twisted Colossus wasn’t looking pretty enough yet, here’s two absolutely stunning drops. These will be filled with ejector-time!  Look at those little floater hills!   The new, white, structure seen here is the structure for the green double-down, and the blue dive underneath it.  What?!? I’m in the middle of the two drops! Notice that the old track on the left will not be demolished. It will be part of the supporting structure.  Artsy air-time hill shot!  Beyond these hills… lays the magical twisted High Five element! Oh, there it is!  They were placing the High Five element as we were taking the tour! Very exciting!

Let’s move on to Scream!

The park is taking the trains off the track to start the overhaul of the trains. Oh, and see the parking lot underneath… Yes, we learned that sadly that will stay the way it is. Scream! will remain to be the parking lot coaster it has always been. Wood of Twisted Colossus meets paint of Scream!…  All of Scream! is being painted by hand! The primer for the supports is peach, and the actual coat of paint is bright orange, as Sue from Six Flags Magic Mountain said, it really pops. It does, I was a bit conflicted with the colors at first, but now I got to walk around the ride, it really does pop. It looks great!   Busy painting!   After the primer, the bright orange is added, and then it looks like this, amazing! The helix on Scream! has completely been painted. There are two trains still on the storage tracks. The track on top of the Zero-G-Roll behind it has been painted as well! The painted track on the loop! Let’send with this shot of Scream!’s interlocking Corkscrews! Looking awesome with the new paint!

Thank you so much for checking out this rather long report of our second backstage tour of Twisted Colossus! For more details on the new Screampunk District, and to see the amazing progress made, check out our first backstage tour report here!

I collected some 300 pictures, many of which will be posted on our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram soon, so make sure to follow us everywhere! Comment your thoughts, and let’s get TWISTED!