ZDT's Amusement Park

ZDT's Amusement Park is a 10-acre (4.0 ha) family amusement park located in Seguin, Texas. The park first opened in 2007 and has grown to feature 12 attractions, three of which are water rides, along with a video game arcade. It is open year-round with the exception of its water rides which only operate from March through September. The park opened its first roller coaster, Switchback, in 2015.

ZDT's Amusement Park

Location	Seguin, Texas, United States
Coordinates	29°34′48″N 97°58′1.2″W
Owner	Danny Donhauser
Opened	March 2007
Previous names	ZDT's Amusement Center
Operating season	All year
Attractions
Total	13
Roller coasters	1
Water rides	3
Website	www.zdtamusement.com
Status	Operating

History

In March 2007, ZDT's Amusement Park first opened its doors to the public and featured five indoor attractions. Owners Danny and Sarah Donhauser named the park after their three children – Zac, Danielle, and Tiffany – using the first letter of each name. Multi-level go-karts were added in 2008, and Mad Raft Water Coaster, a water coaster that was the park's first water ride, opened in 2011.

In late 2014, ZDT's unveiled plans to build Switchback, a wooden shuttle roller coaster that features a 104-degree overbanked turn and a record-breaking, 87-degree incline.[1] Manufactured by The Gravity Group, the 63-foot-tall (19 m) ride drops riders 58 feet (18 m) and reaches speeds of up to 40 mph (64 km/h).[2] The custom-designed roller coaster opened to the public on October 17, 2015.[2] It navigates through and around various buildings and structures ending in a culminating finale element called the Grand Spike, which sends riders upward an 87-degree incline.[1] Switchback is the first and only wooden shuttle coaster of its kind and derives its name from the 1884 Switchback Railway, considered to have been the first coaster in United States.[3][4]

The theme of the ride also celebrates the history of the property on which the park is built with its locomotive-themed train cars. The park grounds were once an agricultural and grocery center containing within the block of land everything from grain silos to meat processing. All of the buildings in the park were remodeled from their original purposes instead of being torn down and rebuilt. The Silo Climb, for example, is a climbing wall built on the facade of the silos that once stored the grain of local farmers. The indoor section of the GoKarts runs through the warehouses in which that grain was processed, where one can see hanging above some of the original equipment used for this process. The main building of the park was once a grocery center that would have stored and readied the finished product for sale. The walkway to the water park is built atop the old train tracks which were used to transport that product to other areas, and an original Santa Fe executive train car still sits along this walkway in part to commemorate this history.

Rides and attractions

Switchback
ZDT's Amusement Park
Location	ZDT's Amusement Park
Coordinates	29.5802°N 97.9663°W / 29.5802; -97.9663
Status	Operating
Opening date	October 17, 2015 (2015-10-17)
General statistics
Type	Wood
Manufacturer	The Gravity Group
Lift/launch system	Chain lift hill
Height	65 ft (20 m)
Drop	58 ft (18 m)
Speed	65 km/h (40 mph)
Inversions	0
Max vertical angle	87°
Capacity	700 riders per hour
Trains	2 trains with 4 cars. Riders are arranged 2 across in a single row for a total of 8 riders per train.
Switchback at RCDB Pictures of Switchback at RCDB

Switchback

Switchback is a roller coaster which goes both forwards and backwards during the course of the ride. The ride first opened on October 17, 2015 at ZDT's Amusement Park in Seguin, Texas. The ride is currently the record holder for steepest wooden roller coaster at 87 degrees, as well as the first wooden shuttle coaster.[5]

Golden Ticket Awards: Best New Ride for 2016
Ranking	5[6]

Golden Ticket Awards: Top wood Roller Coasters

Year	2017	2018	2019
Ranking	33[7]	36[8]	49[9]

Other attractions

Ride name	Manufacturer	Ride-type
Family Thrill Rides
Dizzy Toucan
Maxflight Simulator	Max Flight[10]
Parachute Drop
ThunderVolt Speedway GoKarts		Multi-level Track
Water Attractions
Mad Raft		Water Coaster
Viper		Launched Water Slide
Viper's Tail		Matt Racer
Active Attractions
Jungle Playground
Rock Wall
Silo Climb
Trampoline Thing

[11][12][13]

References

1. "Switchback Rollercoaster". ZDT's Amusement Park. Retrieved May 7, 2017.
2. Marden, Duane. "Switchback  (ZDT's Amusement Park)". Roller Coaster DataBase. Retrieved May 7, 2017.
3. Kuhn, Jessica. "ZDT's new wooden roller coaster to set world record". Seguin Gazette. Retrieved May 7, 2017.
4. "History of Roller Coasters: The Switchback Railway, America's First Roller Coaster". EntertainmentDesigner.com. October 16, 2011. Retrieved May 7, 2017.
5. Kuhn, Jessica. "ZDT's new wooden roller coaster to set world record". Seguin Gazette. Retrieved 11 December 2015.
6. "Amusement Today – Golden Ticket Awards 2016" (PDF). Amusement Today. 20 (6.2): 8. September 2016. Retrieved July 16, 2017.
7. "2017 Top 50 Wooden Coasters". Golden Ticket Awards. Amusement Today. September 2017. Retrieved September 10, 2019.
8. "2018 Top 50 Wooden Coasters". Golden Ticket Awards. Amusement Today. September 2018. Retrieved September 10, 2019.
9. "2019 Top Wood". Golden Ticket Awards. Amusement Today. September 2019. Retrieved September 10, 2019.
10. http://maxflight.com/products/vr2000/
11. https://www.zdtamusement.com/#family-thrill-rides
12. https://www.zdtamusement.com/#water-rides
13. https://www.zdtamusement.com/#active-attractions