Renegade River Run is a heavily themed river rafting/roller coaster hybrid experience that was created for the 2018 Theme Park Design Competition, hosted by the Cornell Theme Park Entertainment Group. Everything from the queue, to the pre-show, to the full ride experience was considered and planned out. The project was chosen as a finalist in the competition by a handful of amusement industry professionals, out of a total of about 60 entrants.
Artist rendering by Aliyah Decker
Guests have been invited to visit Renegade Gulch, a mining town set in the wild west. At the town saloon, bartender Jessie tells about Renegade Gulch’s history, focusing on the Renegade River Run, an infamous stretch of river connected to the town’s mining tunnels. Its infamy is raised from the fact that it has commonly been used by bandits to escape the town’s sheriffs, due to its dangerous and hard-to-navigate rapids and waterfalls. Jessie is interrupted by a bell warning that bandits have been spotted in town, when guests can see that the bandits have started burning buildings across the street. Jessie escorts guests through the burning town to the old mine elevator next door, where they will travel down to the mining tunnels and board boats to escape down the Renegade River Run.
Artist rendering by Michelle Dominado
Artist rendering by Michelle Dominado
In the mine tunnel, light and sound effects are used to give guests the impression that bandits are following the boats. Strobe flashes represent dynamite explosions, and projection mapping is used to make it appear that the tunnel is collapsing around the boats.
Artist rendering by Michelle Dominado
Artist rendering by Michelle Dominado
After boarding their boats and traversing the mining tunnels, guests are dumped out onto the Renegade River Run, the notorious section of river that they were warned about in the pre-show. After braving their escape from Renegade Gulch and their trip down the Renegade River Run, guests arrive at a small dock where they depart from the ride.
Artist rendering by Aliyah Decker
Artist rendering by Aliyah Decker
Renegade River Run establishes itself from traditional river rafting rides by incorporating thrilling modern roller coaster elements in addition to the water sections. Each boat is attached to a steel chassis with wheel assemblies, allowing the boat to transition between both water troughs and more advanced elements. The ride incorporates a high speed roller coaster section, with steep drops and turns, along with a vertical track drop element (similar to Verbolten at Busch Gardens Williamsburg or Th13teen at Alton Towers).
Boats are allowed uncontrolled spinning from the chassis while attached to rails. The hydraulic lap-bars allow for a low height requirement of 36 inches, and are connected to a gyro system, which will release them in the incredibly unlikely event the boat flips upside down during the water portion. Waterproof battery packs are also included on each boat to power haptic rumble packs and onboard sound effects. I was able to model a concept rendering of the boat design using SolidWorks. The model includes the river rapids boat, chassis, wheel assemblies, and lap-bar restraints.
Just before the river rapids section, the attraction features a thrilling roller coaster sequence which includes a steep drop, airtime hill, and over-banked turn. This seals Renegade River Run's status as a world-class attraction, as there is not another river rapids ride in the world which features anything like this. I modeled and rendered the track and supports using NoLimits 2 Simulation.
The ride layout plan shows how the ride, queue, loading areas, and show elements are packaged very neatly into a compact area. Each square of the grid is approximately 10x10 feet. The show building is estimated to be about 45-50 feet tall.