Jim S.

That's my video. I can't remember if I posted it here or not. There's an unofficial copy (not mine) of an official POV at http://rollercoasterfreak.com/2008_ACE_Events/CoasterBash/IMGP8637.MOV The latest news is that the front wheels of the train tend to come off of the surface when it makes a rapid transition from one side to the other. I'm not sure why this is a problem because it's only the front wheels and it doesn't have anywhere to go but back down, but they're trying to figure out what to do about it.

You would think they would've made it easier on themselves by doing the building last, but still, as coasters go, wild mouse track and supports aren't very bulky. It just looks like a thicker version of a kiddy coaster. (Some of them are even portable, in theory.) They probably haven't done much with the interior of the building yet so there will be room to maneuver the pieces after they get them inside.

So another park has decided that stapling is better than airtime? Were that many people complaining about the way it was before? On a brighter note, if Backseat Bill has come out of hibernation, it must be six weeks til Knoebels opens

The latest word from Coastin' Steve on RRC is that, although he hasn't been there lately, from what he's heard they're still tinkering with the train so much that they haven't ordered the additional trains, so they probably won't get them before the end of the season. But they still think they'll be able to open early in the season with one train.

The Pennsylvania economy is in the crapper, at least in the part of Pennsylvania where Knoebels is.

I think trying to ride the Flying Turns on a wristband day would be a bad move financially, considering how long the line is likely to be. Elsewhere I already mentioned that I think the wristband prices are getting too high at Knoebels in any case, but a lot of people disagreed with me. Mostly people who don't actually live in Pennsylvania though, which rather diminishes the validity of their opinion as far as I'm concerned.

I've really been looking forward to the Flying Turns, but at $2.50 for a ride that's 25 seconds from the second lift to the main brakes, I doubt I'll ride it too often when it does open I wonder what the problem is now? The last I heard, they had torn out a section of trough where it switches back to side-friction track because the guide rails they put in weren't making the train turn smoothly enough, but I don't know how side-friction track is supposed to solve that problem.

Well didn't it have standard PTC trains before? (I have no idea, I've never been there.) Assuming that the track is being maintained, the shaking problem with PTC trains is pretty much limited to twister coasters, in my opinion. (Other people say there's no such thing as a smooth wood coaster other than an Intamin. I say they just don't appreciate good coasters.)

Phoenix and Twister are both getting some track replaced. Neither of them were particularly bad last season (Phoenix is never bad, and Twister had had some track work the previous winter), but Knoebels likes to stay ahead.

You've paid to get in the park, you shouldn't have to pay to stow your stuff before you get on a ride, period. Not debatable. But on a mouse it takes it to a whole new absurd level.

They're worried about loose items on a mouse?

If it rides as good as it looks, Morey's probably has "best new coaster of 2010" already.

So what's the difference between Halloweekends and a Haunt? Dorney Park's official blog says they're upgrading to a Haunt this year but the official announcement isn't ready yet, and since I don't live near any other Cedar Fair parks I have no idea what that means.

It's Kingda Ka and Noah's Ark. It's in HD if you have the HD version of the channel.

I'm having a flashback to last winter when I put together an HO-scale model of that exact same mouse Here's what the full-size version looks like with the stock cat-and-mouse theming:

I would've thought if it was primer they would've stripped more of the old red paint, but I don't do metalwork so I don't know.

Some people thought Wildcat was too rough with the old trains. The new trains have only been there for one year. They're smoother, but I think the smoothness makes it feel too slow. RCDB has it listed as 50mph. With the old trains, it was MUCH more intense than the other local wooden twister, Twister at Knoebels, which is only 1.5mph faster and doesn't have curving drops.

If you haven't been to Kennywood, you should see if you can find time to visit. They have a running Turtle, several historic wood coasters (although they're plagued with brakes and/or seatbelts now), a dark ride made out of a coaster, and a very nice steel coaster. I plan on getting all the new credits in Pennsylvania (I don't have all the old ones yet, because I missed Conneaut, I'm waiting til RF2 is done to go to Waldameer, and I still don't have a good excuse to go to Idlewild), and going to Cedar Point for the first time.

The ride looks like something made out of one of the new K'nex sets with the mini pieces. I'm surprised they're advertising it as a family coaster, because I would think the inversion would scare kids away.

I'm not sure whether that's an improvement. I'm voting for Idlewild's "Rollo Coaster", as the only thing worse than "Roller Coaster".

There's nothing especially wrong with Hydra, people are just comparing it to bigger B&Ms I guess. But it's the only floorless in the state, in fact it's the only non-inverted B&M in the state, so unless you're a habitual Great Adventure-goer, it's a good ride for where it is. Similarly, I've seen people knock Steel Force. So what if it doesn't have violent ejector airtime? It has almost continuous floater airtime, which is more than you can say about anything else in the area. And compared to other rides in the park, and other parks in the area, operations on Hydra and Steel Force don't suck.

Doctor of Doom was better than Screamworks, but only because it was darker. Screamworks would've been better if they hadn't had so many UV lights that you could see perfectly by the blue leakage -- they might as well have had white lights. Either they need to lose at least half the lights or find a source of better tubes.

The coffin wasn't working when I was there, and I didn't notice a noisy trashcan either. The most interesting thing I saw at Twister was the coins glued to the exit ramp, and hardly anybody even stopped to try to pick them up anyway.

Here's the latest revision of the car body. It's still probably not final, but it's a lot more finished than the previous one: And here's Dick Knoebel showing off how it fits: They weren't letting people sign anything this year, but if you signed last year your name was on display: Also on display was a plaque from opening day this year: I shot some video of one of the test runs. Today I checked the time it took for the car to go from the start of the main section of trough to the start of the brake run. It was only 25 seconds. It's going to be a very strange 25 seconds, but I still wish it was a little longer.

I was disappointed that they hardly made any effort to decorate Twister for PPP this year.