peteb

I think there are people that believe Intamin makes every part that goes into their rides. The're just like all engineering firms that outsource lots of parts and systems because you can't fabricate everything. Like making cables. I'm sure their engineers figured out what kind of cable they needed for the load requirements etc. and were even given some basic guidelines for wear and fatigue by a vendor. But you have to rememeber they're not like an automobile company that will build 100 of everything and test them to death before selling 1 to the public, they just can't. So they put in safety systems just in case failure occurs, you figure out the problems when they happen, make improvements and move on. It's the reason the coasters you ride today are better than the ones built 20 years ago. Smart people learn from problems because things are imperfect, make improvements and keep moving forward. No doubt there are good engineers at Intamin and I'm sure they don't take safety lightly. And I guarantee they put lots of enginneering time into that cable system. Remember, they're doing all the hard work. We're just along for the ride.

There is a lot of energy in that cable during launch. And what happens to cables that suddenly fail under tremendous forces is not pretty or very predictable. The cable is definitely the weak link in these systems, LSM and LIM launches definitely are the safer way to go. Let's just hope they can figure out the failure mechanism, maybe it's number of cycles, and come up with a solution. I'm thankful the riders did not get seriously injured.

Posting rule #4 4. Do NOT use "text message shorthand" - Use the proper English and complete spelling of words. Do not shorten "you" to "u", etc. You're not messaging on a cell phone, you're typing on a computer. You have a full sized keyboard in front of you - USE IT! (The most common uses like LOL, WTF, are ok....but none of this "l33tOMG111" whatever speak!)

Good to hear that the audio is set up well on the trains. My home park, SFGADV recently upgraded Medusa to Bizarro and the sound system just kills the ride; annoying music and so loud and shrill it makes your ears hurt. I'm still somewhat undecided whether I like music on coasters since I enjoy the roar of the coaster and the wind above any soundtrack, but I think if done well it could be okay. Is there a no music option you can select?

I keep hearing comments about how BBW was a maintenance nightmare, however either BGE has an excellent maintenance staff(which I believe it does), the ride was not as un-reliable as people say, or the park understood what a draw this this attraction was and decided it was worth the expense to keep it running for 25 years. I personally have been to BGE many times starting in 1984 when the ride opened and have never seen BBW down, or had a bad ride on it Typically real maintenance nightmares get torn down pretty early in their life. I would love to see a similar replacement. My local park, SFGADV, has suffered badly due to the removal of most of it's flat rides and fun family rides with no replacement except 3 coasters to the tune of 42+ million (Kingda Ka and El Toro, Dark Knight), two which were a waste of money IMO. I think BGE is smarter than that and is probably taking it's time to make some good decisions (we hope) to improve the entire park.

I agree completely. You would think we'd be getting smarter as a society, but as we become more advanced we seem to need more technology to keep us from doing stupid things.

Looks like a good addition to the park, but it's too bad it doesn't have traditional flume like vehicles with no restraints; the ride isn't that big.

I still can't believe they're taking out BBW. It's still running great after all these years and it's such a good ride I can't imagine any replacement would be better. This ride is so unique and works so perfectly with the terrain I just don't know how you can do better than maybe a modern replacement of the same ride (not a flyer, please !)

Is this using a new style track? It looks different than the typical Intamin lattice box type track. Looks like a simpler design with a backbone and track tie configuration.

I rode Hercules in it's second season; the first drop was incredible at the time. The train was really moving before it hit the drop and the speed was just incredible down the hill (no trims). The first drop of El Toro reminds me a lot of the first drop of Hercules. (only speed and acceleration, we won't talk about smoothness) Then came the banked turnaround and to this day I have no idea how such a large radius, banked turn can be so horribly rough. The train shuffled and banged it's way through so badly that your brain hurt. After that I remember not caring much about the rest of the layout since all you could think about is your head and back hurting from the shaking. It's the only coaster I've ever ridden that consistently gave me a headache every time I rode it. It was a huge ride for it's day but obviously the designers and no clue about how to build track properly. And it had nothing to do with the PTC trains; even the slow sections were rough and I've been on very smooth PTC equipped coasters.

I just love BBW; I can't believe they're removing it but I can only hope they might consider replacing it with a modern equivalent. The Arrow suspended coasters are just too unique to have them all disappear. Nothing compares to the final dive into the Rhine River at the end, especially at night.

This is a great smooth ride, but the pretzel loop just gives me a headache. I thought the same of Superman at SFGADV, a good ride but the pretzel loop makes me not want to ride it again, especially in the back where it can just be painful through the pretzel.

My first impression is that these things look light, not a lot of structure. But maybe they're onto something since GG is touting the lightweight balanced nature of the trains. The train appears to be flying over the tracks, so I think we're in for a completely new ride experience from existing coasters.

Here's a video of the prototype running at the S&S plant; they call the coaster Freefly. Looks like a great new concept, and it works ! Here is the link: http://www.thinkercreative.com/finalsite/coasters/freefly/freefly.php

If you view these rides as a system it makes sense for GG to have their own trains instead of being limited by an old outside design. GCI and Intamin really changed woodies by combining quality track fabrication with good train design. Wjat we really need to see is a new GG coaster designed around the new trains. I think PTC will survive for a while on refurb and parts sales, but I think it's pretty clear that the major woodie manufacturers don't think they have anything to offer for the future.