Specific Type: Wooden, Terrain
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If you had of asked your average coaster enthusiast back in the early 1990s if the name Holiday World rang any bells, the answer probably would have been a negitive. But today, it's a whole other story. And that story began back in 1993 when the Koch family, owners of Holiday World since the park started out in 1946, approached Ohio's Custom Coasters International with the concept of adding a new signature attraction to Holiday World's ride lineup - a wooden coaster. Possible locations were soon surveyed and details decided on. Finally, the layout for the coaster was finalized: a moderate-sized lift hill of 65 feet, first drop into a tunnel, banked turnaround over the park's Lake Rudolph, and from there a fast run through dense woods back to the station. The ride seemed to be a perfect match for a smaller theme park like Holiday World, and the structure and trackwork went up during the winter of 1994 and 1995 off-season. Residing in the park's Halloween section, the name Raven was given to the ride, but no one would have anticipated that that very name would soon be going down on top ten lists around the globe, nor that Raven would earn Holiday World international renown and recognization. But that was just what ended up happening, and the Raven opened to its first rave reviews on the 6th of May, 1995 with a fast a furious, non-stop layout catapaulting wooden coaster lovers from around the world over 2,731 feet of wood-tracked euphoria.
The ride aboard Raven starts out of the station around a U-turn followed by a 45-degree curve passing under the ride's final brake run. The 24-rider train hits the chain lift and begins the first climb. Before long, passengers are above the treetops and leveling off at heights of 65 feet for a curve to the right before the first drop begins. But after the curve, the track begins steepening and the drop begins, carrying the train and its contents down seven stories into the woods below and over a short straightaway through the tunnel. Climbing over the second hill, the track begins another turn to the right, then dives down into the banked U-turn leading out over Lake Rudolph. Upon completion of the curve, the Raven re-enters the lush terrain and climbs up to parelell the second hill. The coaster curves to the left, dips down, then rises again all before plunging down the third major drop back to ground level. The track veers to the right, then curves to the left and careens through the forest with trees passing by riders on either side. Banking in the opposite direction, the Raven takes on a second banked turnaround to the right. The train hops over another banking element to the left and then finally climbs up and onto level track. To this day, the Raven is still consistantly ranked among the best of the best, and the success of the coaster led to the debut of another world-class wooden ride from Custom Coasters in 2000, Legend, but the coaster that started it all is still the star attraction of Holiday World. |
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