This is super random which is why I find it fascinating. Someone from the roller coaster community (I guess a roller coaster geek?) posted on reddit asking for videos of a roller coaster that used to be in Shaab Park called the Spiral Coaster. Turns out it was an ultra rare roller coaster with only one ever made by Intamin Amusement Rides, a major player in the amusement park attractions industry and based out of Liechtenstein.
The Spiral Coaster was a pipeline coaster meaning the train rides between the tracks as opposed to a traditional roller coaster where the train rides above them. The Spiral Coaster concept was originally designed by the US company Arrow Dynamics and was featured in the National Geographics special on the company. You can actually see the prototype of the coaster in the video above (starts at 16:00). Arrow Dynamics couldn’t produce the roller coaster so Intamin took the concept from them and built it themselves.
Originally the roller coaster was called the Comet and was located inside a recreational complex in South Korea called Sky Plaza from 1996 to 1999. Sky Plaza eventually failed and the building demolished and Shaab Park acquired the roller coaster. Shaab Park renamed the roller coaster to Spiral Coaster and it was active in the park from 2000 to 2005.
Eventually, the ride was marked as SBNO from 2005 to 2017 which is amusement park lingo for standing but not operational. I actually found some pictures I had taken back in 2012 with the ride in the backdrop in poor condition. The area underneath the coaster was used as part of the MILSIM airsoft battleground.
If anyone here has any videos or photos of the ride, please let me know or share it. They’re rare and the roller coaster community would love it.
11 replies on “The Spiral Coaster at Shaab Park”
And now it’s being sold off for scrap metal 😡
So many memories here. All my School picnics.
This spiral coaster and the Sky Coaster were my favourites.
I’ll check if I have some photos
Mark, Google “Shaab Park Roller Coaster”, then go to Images and you will see plenty of clear images
the few that do pop up are from here
https://rcdb.com/1604.htm
the rest are of their other roller coaster
Oh cool! Thanks for letting me know
I remmeber when I saw people on that coaster, when they would cream it had this zig zag echo effect 😂
I have a bad memory of this coaster back in i think in 2006-7(though it states the operation ceased in 2005) when on the 3rd loop (the ride goes full circle 3 or 4 times due to its small size) the safety harness suddenly opened 2 ticks !! from the shock I couldn’t move a muscle or talk to my brother who was next to me. To this day i don’t remember ever sharing the story even my brother doesn’t know
Spiral Coaster doesn’t have a loop, thats their other roller coaster
i have a bad English. what i meant by loop is (laps) it wasn’t a only a one lap like other coaster i hope it clear things up
This is so randomly delightful- thanks!
Man this whole post was a Roller coaster, for a second there i was so excited that we have an operational roller coaster in Kuwait and almost called my buddies to go check it out!! Just to find out that it closed years ago 🙁
Dammit
lol