Psyclone was a

wooden roller coaster A wooden roller coaster is a type of roller coaster classified by its wooden Rail tracks, track, which consists of running rails made of flat steel strips mounted on laminated wood. The support structure is also typically made of wood, b ...

located at Six Flags Magic Mountain in

Santa Clarita, California Santa Clarita (; Spanish for "Little St. Clare") is a city in northwestern Los Angeles County in the U.S. state of California. With a 2020 census population of 228,673, it is the third-largest city by population in Los Angeles County, the 17 ...

. Designed by Curtis D. Summers and constructed by the

Dinn Corporation Dinn Corporation was a roller coaster designing and manufacturing company established in West Chester, Ohio, in 1983 by Charles Dinn. The company is noted for moving and rebuilding several existing wooden coasters and building ten new wooden roll ...

, the roller coaster opened to the public on March 23, 1991. Psyclone's design was modeled after the well-known Coney Island Cyclone roller coaster, a historical landmark located at

Coney Island Coney Island is a peninsular neighborhood and entertainment area in the southwestern section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is bounded by Brighton Beach and Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn, Manhattan Beach to its east, L ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. It featured eleven hills, five high-speed banked turns, and a dark tunnel.

Bolliger & Mabillard Bolliger & Mabillard, officially Bolliger & Mabillard Consulting Engineers, Inc. and often abbreviated B&M, is a roller coaster design consultancy based in Monthey, Switzerland. The company was founded in 1988 by Walter Bolliger and Claude Mabil ...

, a company that builds steel roller coasters, manufactured the trains for Psyclone.

History

Following the debut of Georgia Cyclone at

Six Flags Over Georgia Six Flags Over Georgia is a theme park located in Mableton, Georgia. Opened in 1967, it is the second park in the Six Flags chain following the original Six Flags Over Texas, which opened in 1961. Six Flags Over Georgia is one of three park ...

in 1990,

Six Flags Six Flags Entertainment Corporation is an American amusement park corporation, headquartered in Arlington, Texas. It has properties in Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Six Flags owns the most theme parks and waterparks combined of any a ...

again hired Curtis D. Summers and Charles Dinn of

to design and construct a similar wooden roller coaster at Six Flags Magic Mountain. Georgia Cyclone had caused multiple injuries in the short time since its opening and had to undergo several modifications to tone down the ride's profile. For Magic Mountain, Six Flags requested a gentler version. On December 27, 1990, Six Flags Magic Mountain announced that Psyclone would be added to the park. It would be located towards the back of the park in the former site of

Shockwave In physics, a shock wave (also spelled shockwave), or shock, is a type of propagating disturbance that moves faster than the local speed of sound in the medium. Like an ordinary wave, a shock wave carries energy and can propagate through a med ...

. Summers incorporated eleven hills and five banked turns into the design of Psyclone. It was constructed of unpainted,

Southern Yellow pine In ecology and forestry, yellow pine refers to a number of conifer species that tend to grow in similar plant communities and yield similar strong wood. In the Western United States, yellow pine refers to Jeffrey pine or ponderosa pine. In the ...

and opened to the public on March 23, 1991.

Decline

The ride sustained structural damage after the

Northridge earthquake The 1994 Northridge earthquake was a moment 6.7 (), blind thrust earthquake that occurred on January 17, 1994, at 4:30:55 a.m. PST in the San Fernando Valley region of the City of Los Angeles. The quake had a duration of approximatel ...

in 1994 and though repaired to operate safely again, the ride dynamics suffered greatly in regard to vehicle tracking. Major modifications happened, including adding trim brakes that slowed the trains down to the point of making the trains crawl through each turn. A 2006 poll of roller coaster enthusiasts ranked Psyclone 178th out of 179 wooden roller coasters worldwide. On January 23, 2007, the park announced that Psyclone along with Flashback would be removed from the park for future expansion. The following month after the announcement, Psyclone was demolished and piles of wood remained at the site for several days until construction walls were erected at the site. According to RCDB, Psyclone last operated in 2006. Apocalypse: The Ride opened in its place in 2009.

References

External links

Psyclone Photos
at Ultimate Rollercoaster.com {{SFMM Coasters Former roller coasters in California Roller coasters operated by Six Flags Six Flags Magic Mountain 1991 establishments in California 2007 disestablishments in California