coasterphotos

That name has existed since January....it's nothing new. I think someone just changed the link on the kemah site a bit early. The coaster works...they are just getting it to run within the specifications it was designed for.

Nothing new to report. Looks like they took the day off.

I didn't make it out there today. I will see if I can get an update tomorrow.

Glad you got it okay. I bet no one else in San Antonio will be wearing one of those yet!

Considering that I don't think the construction and testing of any coaster has ever been followed so closely or so viewable by the public, what is to say problems like this aren't common? Testing issues like this could happen all the time but no one knows about them because no one sees the testing!

Thanks for all the birthday wishes.... The trouble spot is the same spot they've had problems with in the past, it is between the first drop and the first hill by the bay. It's pretty hard to see it unless you walk over by saltgrass and even then if there aren't people in there working you might not see it. Edit: Oops...must have missed texcoaster's post above somehow. Looks like he had already answered that question. There should be a train on the transfer track and the other (as of yesterday) was at the bottom of the lift.

Enjoy? That's putting it mildly. What a fantastic gift to those of us who remain "in waiting". A birthday you won't soon forget, eh? BTW, Happy Birthday Jason. Thanks. Definitely made having to work on my birthday not nearly as bad

It's a secret

It should still open this year...if not within the next couple weeks. This should be the last problem spot on the ride that needs to be corrected. Here are the rest of the photos from today: http://www.coasterphotos.com/maingallery/v/Kemah/2006/082007/

Here are a couple teaser photos...unedited other than resized. I don't have any editing software here at work. Speaking of work...I hope you enjoy...I had to take 2 hours of personal time off to get these photos!

I was down there around 1pm, didn't see anything going on and it appeared the crew wasn't there.

Looks like the crew took a day off today. Didn't see anyone down there when I drove through earlier. I think this is the first day off they've had since July! I tried to edit some video together...I think I got it in the right order. http://www.coasterphotos.com/Videos/movies/BB_Test_081807.wmv Thanks to GuruGuys for getting a good portion of that video while we were in the station...allowing me to concentrate on still photos.

Thanks. Some of them came out better than I thought. It was more of a challenge than I thought it would be to get photos. Between the changing light (clouds, sun, clouds, cun) and all the structure messing up my autofocus...it was interesting

Okay...here's a few photos. Visit http://www.coasterphotos.com/maingallery/v/Kemah/2006/081807/ For these and 63 more. Looking through the track in the station Train coming out from under the station. Train making the turn by the bay. Train turing the corner after the first drop to head back towards the bay. Lots and lots of wood.

Nice shots...I bet I have some almost exactly like that! Had fun hanging out today...not the way I had planned on spending my Saturday but well worth it for the photos and video we got. I've renamed my 177 photos and will be working on getting some ready for upload. Will post a few here with a link to the rest a little later.

They didn't know where Rita was going until about 12 hours before it hit. 3 million people evacauted the Houston area but no one evacuated to the east of here...and guess where they had to hurry up and evacuate when they realized the storm was going further to the east? While you can see a hurricane coming days and even weeks in advance...predicting where it will hit certainly isn't an exact science. Anyways...hope the current models are correct and the storm stays to the south of here. I want them to finish Bullet so I can finally ride it after watching them build it for 9 months!

I don't think small showers here and there would hurt anything but that isn't what is happening today. It is pouring down rain and there is flooding all over the area. I doubt they are working at all today.

If it stays on the current projected path, we will still probably get a lot of rain from it starting tonight through tomorrow. They are guessing anywhere from 2-5 inches right now.

I added the links to my site. Please excuse the mess as I haven't really done anything with my site in a few years and have been trying to change things around. http://www.coasterphotos.com/Videos/downloads.htm

Because of the way I have my site configured, clicking a video link from another site will result in that message, you will have to save the file to your PC to view it. At one time I had an issue with bandwidth because a lot of people were linking or embedding my videos in their web pages. I don't have a bandwidth issue any more and need to change that... I don't have the video linked on my site yet.

Was nice to meet you too. Wish I could have gotten out there earlier but work has to come first. I'm glad I hung around as long as I did this evening though, I was about ready to go home when I caught Jim out of the corner of my eye and walked up to you guys. Can't wait to see your photos and video on a slighly bigger screen spaceace12 - Just drop me a message when you are ready for a shirt and we'll work out the details. I'd be more than happy to get one to you. Jason

I haven't modified the videos in any way other than going from AVI to WMV and adding some text. I've compared both videos and really can't tell much difference in speed myself.

They were added after the train vallied on the very first test and had to be removed with a crane. It ended up getting caught in the rollbacks on the next 2 tests over the past week before finally making it earlier today.

Kemah is located to the south of Houston along Galveston Bay. Here is some video of a test run I saw this evening. GuruGuys should have some video from other angles later as he saw more test runs than I did and had the chance to check it out from a few different spots. http://www.coasterphotos.com/Videos/movies/BB_Test_081307.wmv Right-click the link and save the file. They still have more work to do on the ride before they just do nothing but cycle it over and over, but they are definitely getting closer!

It appeared all sections of the ride had steel on it. They were putting steel on the section of track that was completely removed a few days ago while I was down there. I wouldn't think they'd have an extra car as there were only 12 in the lot before they got put on the ride (6 per train).