B&M's New Japanese Coaster Trains

Steel Dragon 2000 - apparently now known as the New Steel Dragon - at Japan's Nagashima Spa Land has opened with some sweet looking new trains manufactured by B&M.  I'm no expert, but I believe that in the past B&M only created trains for rides built by other designers a handful of times, if that.  For instance, they created the trains for Six Flags Magic Mountain's Psyclone, the only time they ventured into the wooden coaster field.

But back on track - the new trains replace those that opened on the 300+ foot tall Morgan Hypercoaster in 2000, trains that were pretty much universally regarded as above-average ugly.

The new trains have the look of B&M's mega coaster rolling stock, but still use similar mechanics as the Morgan's 'under the hood' if you will.  It's an interesting look indeed - but I'm sure the coaster is already giving riders a much better experience as a result.

It will be interesting to see if this is a one time thing, or if B&M is putting themselves out there as train designers as a new revenue stream.  I'd love to see several North American coasters have their trains replaced with a B&M design!

For more shots of the trains, check out this post from Vertical Horizons.