Steve Shiver and Rollercoaster Pro

It's an uphill battle to revive Ghost Town at Maggie Valley, North Carolina. The online journal, Rollercoaster Pro, is tracking the fortunes of the former Miami Dade county manager, Steve Shiver. My favorite line is the closer: "It’s like you have one flea on a dog and you start looking, and you’ve got 15 or 20,” said Roger McElroy, the mayor of Maggie Valley. Who is the flea? (Click on "read more")

The Uphill Battle to Reopen Ghost Town's Flagship Attraction (Posted on 19 Nov 2008 by Brandon A)

Maggie Valley, North Carolina, (Smoky Mountain News) - When a small group of investors bought the shuttered Maggie Valley amusement park three years ago, little did they know the extent of structural problems they would soon uncover.

It was no secret that Ghost Town, built in 1962, had fallen into disrepair due to lack of upkeep. But investors maintain that the scope of problems was far more vast than anyone thought.

Millions in repairs and replacements have been poured into Ghost Town’s deteriorating infrastructure, yet problems still persist, primarily in bringing two of the park’s top rides into working order.

“No one really understood how poor shape the park and capital facilities were in,” said David Huskins, managing director of Smoky Mountain Host, a regional tourism development entity. Huskins helped facilitate the purchase of Ghost Town.

Steve Shiver, president and CEO of Ghost Town, wouldn’t say how much they’ve spent on repairs only that it was $5 to $7 million more than they thought it would be. Shiver’s investment partners include Adventure Landing and American Heritage Railways, owner of Great Smoky Mountain Railroad.

Ghost Town’s largest hurdle has been rehabbing the park’s only roller coaster and the incline railway that takes guests up the mountain. Owners wanted both to be up and running when the park debuted last summer. But two seasons later, the rides still aren’t open. Shiver said they are almost complete, but getting there has been a painstaking process.

The roller coaster was shut down eight years ago under the park’s previous owner and has been dormant ever since. It’s the biggest ride and main attraction as far as some visitors are concerned — the visible icon of the mountain-top amusement pack from the valley floor below.

The park’s former owner, R.B. Coburn, threw in the towel on making the needed repairs to get the roller coaster up to snuff, unwilling to make that kind of capital investment in a park he was trying to unload.

The new owners have been trying to get the roller coaster reopened for two years, but faced significant hurdles. So far, the N.C. Elevator and Amusement Device Bureau says it won’t pass safety inspections, much to the chagrin of Ghost Town owners and Maggie town officials. State inspectors have been pressured for holding up the roller coaster from reopening, but have stuck to their guns.

“It benefits their community economically and we understand that but we aren’t going to jeopardize anyone’s safety,” said Dolores Quesenberry, spokesperson for the Department of Labor. “Our guys aren’t going to put a sticker on it just because someone complains.”

Problems with the roller coaster were exacerbated during the years it sat dormant, posing more of a problem than the ride’s sheer age.

“It has nothing to do with age. It has to do with the structural integrity of the device,” said Tom Chambers, the assistant bureau chief of the amusement device bureau.

But during its dormant years the roller coaster saw “excessive deterioration to integral parts of the device,” Chambers said.

Over the past two years, the new owners have struggled to get it working again. But it’s been an uphill battle.

“When the new owners took over there was a lot of stuff left just hanging,” said Jonathan Brooks, the bureau chief of the Amusement Ride inspection division.

Ride inspectors have made numerous trips up the mountain to give the roller coaster a look-see and offer advice on what to do next.

“We have been asked on multiple occasion will you look at this and tell us what needs to be happening,” said Brooks.

Some of the trips spanned multiple days, with top to bottom assessments of the ride.

One problem was that the concrete footers that support the track had deteriorated. They have since been redone, Brooks said.

Another issue involves the track itself. The metal rails are supposed to be a uniform width the length of the track, deviating by no more than plus or minus one-eighth of an inch. Otherwise, the car will fit too snuggly or not snuggly enough as it progress down the track.

Years of wear can alter the shape of the rails, however, enough so that they no longer fall within the margin of error. The elements also play a role, even causing expansion and contraction of the tracks.

To ensure the track width is uniform and consistent, falling within that eighth-inch margin of error, it has to undergo an intensive precision test where every inch of track is gauged.

It was a labor intensive process, but the track itself has now been check off, Brooks said.

The remaining hold up rests with the roller coaster train rather than the track. Ghost Town owners had a brand-new train custom built for the roller coaster, Brooks said. But there are two problems. One is that the car isn’t perfectly synced with the track. The other involves load testing.

Before a roller coaster train gets a green light from inspectors, they want to see a series of tests performed on certain elements of the car. In particular, they want to make sure the harness system and seat frames hold up.

But the company Ghost Town hired to build the roller coaster train had never built one before. The design lacks the necessary tests, which have to be done before the train will be approved, Brooks said.

“Since this is the first train this particular company has done, I think not being familiar with the process has slowed the process,” Brooks said.

The company needs to build a sample seat to run it through a series of simulations.

The second problem was a little trickier to fix. While the width of the track varies within the acceptable margin — namely plus or minus an eighth of an inch — the car was built assuming the track was precisely the same width all the way along.

“In some places the track is too narrow and in some places it is too wide,” Brooks said. The roller coaster train doesn’t have enough tolerance for the slight variation in track width.

Shiver says they have now completed the installation of a gauge that makes the car fit on the track. Shiver said the park’s engineer has checked off on the system and signed a letter stating that it is compatible with the track itself.

The letter should be en route to state officials, Shiver said,

The park has also completed nearly 400 test runs of the new coaster. The results of those accompanied the letter sent to state officials.

Brooks said his inspectors have gone out of their way to help Ghost Town operators.

“We’ve done everything we know to do that is physically possible to try to help those folks,” Brooks said.

While the roller coaster has been Shiver’s top priority, the incline rail-way is still on the park’s to-do list. A pulley and braking system still has to be installed.

Aside from rides, the rest of the park’s infrastructure was in poor shape, too.

One deck, meant to support groups of people, was held up by shaky wooden beams that had to be replaced. Workers poured a cement foundation to stabilize another tottering building. Ghost Town officials are putting in an underground water and cable system to replace the above-ground lines that are still splayed across the mountainside.

“It’s like you have one flea on a dog and you start looking, and you’ve got 15 or 20,” said Roger McElroy, the mayor of Maggie Valley, describing how park officials encountered one thing after another that needed to be fixed.