Welcome back to another installment in our “A-Z Coaster of the Week” series, where each week we feature a different coaster starting with a different letter of the alphabet. This week, we head to America’s Roller Coast for our “D” coaster – Disaster Transport.
Once one of the many roller coasters at Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio, Disaster Transport was an indoor bobsled-style roller coaster. Originally built as an outdoor coaster called Avalanche Run, it was the only bobsled roller coaster in the entire Midwest region. Riders zipped down the track in cars rolling along a U-shaped track like bobsleds, turning and twisting along with the track.
CEO of Cedar Fair at the time, Dick Kinzel’s first and last attempt to theme a ride was spending $4 million dollars on transforming the Avalanche Run bobsled ride into Disaster Transport for the 1991 season. It was given a flashy new space theme and was transformed from an outdoor roller coaster to the park’s first and only indoor coaster. Those four million dollars were spent on special effects, including black lights and video presentations while guests waited in line to get on the ride. The ride itself was heavily themed, with strobe lights and television screens.
While all of this was impressive when the ride first opened, Cedar Point failed to maintain the new elements. The costly special effects soon fell into disrepair, with most of them no longer functioning within several years. In his autobiography, Dick Kinzel would later share his honest opinion about the coaster: “When I first rode Avalanche Run I thought it was the dumbest ride I had ever ridden…I put a big box around a junk ride and we ended up with a junk ride inside a big box.”
In 2012, it was announced that Disaster Transport would be torn down and replaced with a new, more modern roller coaster. A charity auction was held where fans of Disaster Transport could bid on the opportunity to take the last ride on the old roller coaster, and in July of 2012, Disaster Transport had its last run. The station for Cedar Point’s record breaking wing coaster, GateKeeper, roughly occupies the location where Disaster Transport’s ugly box walls used to block the view of Lake Erie, another reason for tearing it down.
Disaster Transport POV Video
Disaster Transport Stats
- Location: Cedar Point, United States
- Type/Category: Steel, Bobsled
- Opened: 1985 / Closed: 2012 / Dismantled: 2012
- Age when closed: 27
- Replaced by: GateKeeper
- Designer/Manufacturer: Intamin
- Height: 63ft (19.2m) / Drop: 50ft (15.24m)
- Speed: 40mph (12.19kph)
- Length: 1,932ft (588.87m)
Have you ridden Disaster Transport at Cedar Point or were you even luckier to get a ride on Avalanche Run? Share your thoughts about the bobsled coaster in the comments section below.
We’ll be back next Monday for the “E” coaster in our A-Z Coaster of the Week series! See the other coaster in this year’s “A-Z Coaster of the Week” series here.
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