The Tornado is a wood double O&B sit down roller coaster.It was built by Ralph Stricker in 1993. It is 55' tall, it is 2,080' long. It is fast, fun, rerideable, it has a large capacity, and a long duration.

I wasn't really expecting much from this little heard of woodie, but I was pleasantly surprised. It's really more of a family ride than a thriller, but there is some decent air during the ride, especially one hill in particular.

Great amount of airtime for a woodie of this size. It doesnt really look like much but it certainly is fun. For years I wanted to make it to Strickers for one of their two days when it is open to the public. Im glad I finally got to try this throwback.

A good, well maintained, smaller woodie. APPEARANCE-8 A very nice traditional look, with pretty fresh paint. Nice old style station. CAPACITY-5 I am going to grade this on operations, not on the fact that it would rarely have a line based on the nature of the park. The op loads quick, but it had four broke seats and one train. RIDE QUALITY-7 As stated earlier with a little more speed this would really be something. As it is it was still a very nice smooth ride with a MASSIVE pop of air in the back. FUN-8 A homemade ride in a traditional amusement park, how can it not be fun. RERIDE-5 This is a park grade. Since it is only open twice a year and rarely gets new rides there is not a strong desire to come back. That being said if I was in the area on one of those days for 10.00 with free soda I would stop back into yesteryear. OVERALL 33- AVG-6.6 I wil go with the 7, because as a family woodie it packs quite a punch.

This ride is roughly the size of the Beastie (Fairly Odd Coaster), maybe a touch smaller. It has a lot little airtime hops, but the ride never goes fast enough to get much out of them. The front seat offers a forceless and boring ride, while the back seat is far more enjoyable and not rough.

I suppose this ride is good for what it is. The lay out is interesting, but I couldnt get that into it. The lift hill needs to be like 20 feet taller so that the ride can go fast enough to utilize its abundant airtime bunny hills.

Also, they need to lose the center dividers and seat belts in the train. A coaster this size doesnt need all that.

Update: I rode this sucker again today in the front seat. It tracks fairly well, but again never gets up enough speed to do anything. I did notice one pretty good spot of airtime, but there should have been many more considering how many hills are present. Overall, Id say that Ralph Stricker did a pretty impressive job building this backyard coaster, but its nothing world class. I think Ralph was once quoted as saying that he doesnt ride coasters, just builds them. This shows in the ride experience.

A mid sized woodie with good pacing. It also has one very violent airtime moment that will surpirse you. Good ride.