BDG

So...will you put that sensor bar on top or underneath your television ?

Hercules LCD ftw ! On the photo: Hercules 17" LCD, 320GB Toshiba external hard drive, Guillemot subwoofer ( ) and Logitech desktop stuff. The actual computer is underneath the desk...working hard. Like Chinese people in an Apple factory. You can see an Apple on the screen...Eric Wills On the left,you can see part of my Niki Lauda / Ferrari teddy bear and on the right there's a Ferrari Enzo scale model. Ferrari ftw! Hope they win the F1 championship at the end of the month. photo

The guy himself seems to have disappeared from these boards, but his site has newer screenshots...

Blackstone Group International, the company that recently bought the Legoland chain is close to expanding its theme park empire with the 500 million euro purchase of the largest theme park in Italy, Gardaland near Lake Garda. Although there are a few last-minute details to be sorted out, the acquisition is expected to be announced in the next few days. As well as the London Dungeon and Legoland, Merlin owns a chain of Sea Life aquariums, and the source suggested that it may open a new Sea Life at Gardaland in a bid to grow and refresh the venue. Il Sole 24 ORE & Times Online

Nothing wrong with kicking an old topic... Anyway, there clearly is a ride on the side of that tower in the renders: http://www.skyscrapernews.com/imagesall.php?idi=Birmingham%2BPinnacle&ref=4700&selfidi=4700BirminghamPinnacle_pic1.jpg&self=nse&no=1&x=87&y=71

Amen. This thread needs a photo too...

According to the opening post: architecture at USC. Anyway, Disneyland Paris has both the Molly Brown and the Mark Twain. They use both, but rarely (read: never) at the same time. The park seems to have used the Molly Brown much more than the Mark Twain in the past, but at the moment, it's being refurbished as it was damaged in a fire earlier this season.

Revenge of the Mummy

The thought of riding an SLC just once without any headbanging. Just once.

A few photos...various sources. And an onride video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rF9tRdK8n9w the station the view from the additional outdoor queue right left second part of the queue, the lamp store in reality entrance to a cinema/theatre, where the lamp store scene of Lethal Weapon (2 ?) is shown

It's a shame the park closes so early... The summer laser show is awesome. The park should do something with it for Halloween as well.

I said "one of the best". And I think most people will agree if they experienced the original during the Warner management. With a working preshow, both tracks operating and the burning car flying over your head. It's a shame Six Flags and especially Palamon let this ride fade away. It's just 10 years old and already FUBAR.

Rephrased: Lethal Weapon was the first coaster to have a regular track twisted into a heartline roll without additional supports.

Nice photos, altough I don't really like the effect of a slow shutter.

The first roller coaster to have a regular track featuring a heartline roll. rcdb entry: http://www.rcdb.com/id970.htm The ride already closed a few months ago, with much speculation regarding it's future. Was it damaged somewhere ? A big revision ? Would it reopen ? When the park started demolishing the queue and there was no sight of trains anymore, it became clear it was over for Lethal Weapon Pursuit, as the ride used to be called from it's opening in 1996 until Warner Bros. & Six Flags sold the park in 2005. It has now been confirmed by the park in a local newspaper that the ride will close for good. A sign has been put up announcing a new themed area, but no further details are known. Whether Cop Car Chase will go to another park or the scrap yard is still a mystery as well. It's sad to it go. It has been a guest's favorite ever since it's opening with the park. And in my opinion, it's one of the best roller coasters the world has ever seen. A new area...

The Stengel work includes: - layouts - track calculations - support calculations - statics - dynamics - train calculations - design of new elements - design of new building techniques etc. They (the Stengel company today consists of about a dozen engineers, lead by Andreas Wild, the son-in-law of Werner Stengel) didn't do all of that for every ride they have worked on ! Most rides only have another calculation, with some minor improvements. Or only the support-placement for example. For B&M however, they usually did do everything. They even gave B&M the coördinates to manufacture the box track. But as of 2002 (Air was the first non-Stengel B&M) B&M is more independent. Silver Bullet, Black Mamba, Hydra -> all pure B&M coasters. To my opinion, the newer rides are less intense, yet sometimes a little more rough.. Not much, as the B&M track production and rolling stock is world class, but you can feel it's not as perfectly calculated as by Stengel. Fun fact, for Vekoma, they reduced the G-forces of their prototype corkscrew (back in the eighties) from 2.5G to 0.6G !! As Stengel commented "It's like the ride was moved to another planet." They also worked on Rock'n'RollerCoaster and the Paris' Big Thunder Mountain trains. Vekoma however never really worked with Stengel in the design and full-calculation department. As you probably all felt. Some famous non-B&M rides where Stengel pretty much did everything: Super 8, Wild Cat, Bobbahn, Jet Star, Marienkäferbahn (the famous 88-like layout beetle coasters), Revolution (SFMM), Shock Wave (SFOT), Looping Star, Zweifach Looping, Dreier Looping, Thriller, Olympia Looping, Mindbender (Edmonton), Euro Star, Wilde Maus (Mack mice), Monte Makaya, Stratosphere High Roller, Mister Freeze, Batman & Robin, Millennium Force, Speed, Top Thrill Dragster, Colossos, Expedition GeForce, El Toro, etc. Doctor Stengel himself also invented tons of stuff...such as: - bobsled-inspired banked curves resulted in the Schwarzkopf Jet Star - heartline to design coasters - the space curve (Raumkurve), first used in Z-Force (Giovanola-Intamin wanted a ride where riders drop in a tight space from level to level...but using norma track-twisting or even heartlines, this would no be possible...the space curve was invented where the car moved like a motorcyclist in a curve...sideways, forwards and towards the outside of the curve) - boxtrack (1000 points coordinates) (was needed for the space curve) - launch systems (weight drop, flywheel, magnets) - the first clothoid (aka drop shaped) looping - the first decent corkscrew - dive loop - Immelman - zero-g-roll - recently the prefabricated wooden track What many people don't know is that doctor Stengel also "worked" on hundreds of other rides: - caroussels (90 types, 600 built, over 50 improved: Bayernkurve, Calypso, Monster, Zeppelin, Wave Swinger, Walzerfahrt, Round-Up, Ski-Lift, Buggy Swing, Twister, Apollo, All-Round, Alpenblitz, Raupe, Enterprise, Hollywood-Star, Katapult, Helios, Musikexpress, Wikingerschiff, Kettenflieger, Shuttle-Boat, Condor, Galaxy, Zugspitzbahn, Polyp, Taumler, Doppel-Tagada, Horse Caroussel, Water Caroussel, Spinne, Moonraker, Magic Carpet, Tokaido, Dschunke, Columbia, Fliegende Untertasse, Canyon Trip, Matterhorn, Joker, Mistral, Doppeldecker, Metroliner, Drachenflug, Super Flip, Super Wellenflier, Krinoline, etc.) - bumper cars (6 types, over 30 built) - ghost trains (14 types built, 2 improved) - ferris wheels (22 types, 33 built, 15 improved) - water rides (8 types, 9 built, 6 improved) - monorails (7 types, 7 built, 7 additional designs) etc.

The elevator doors open and you see the following: Great decoration.

I'm about to receive a 2.6 million US dollar bonus next year.

1992 eh...could've been something for Disneyland Paris, where Storybook Land is now located, which didn't open until 1993, but did feature something véry similar:

I'll give it a try. The track of a normal wooden coaster consists of layers of regular planks nailed in place on-site. This takes quite some time, is often very dangerous and/or difficult and you can't really guarantee 100% quality, stability, safety and ofcourse smoothness. With a prefabricated Stengel track, the track segments are laser-cut beams/blocks of "Laminated Veneer Lumber", who are then fitted with a running strip (or whatever you want to call the steel layer where the wheels actually touch the track), steel connectors at both ends and all the other nuts and bolts needed. The only thing left for the construction team on-site is to take those pieces and put them in place. The connectors make sure all segments correctly fit to each other and to the supports. Hence the nick name "plug'n'play". The result:

Great episode. Long live the internet. (but internet providers in this country suck ! (internet-only: 60 dollars for 10GB/month))

I haven't seen any Vekoma with spring-loaded guide wheels before. They've used rubber blocks on some newer models though, but springs ? Not that I know of.

So, he could earn up to 2.9 million ? (1.3 million salary, 2.6 million bonus) The average operator has to work 120 years for that money.

The company unveiled a new type of inverted train this week, featuring the following chassis: And lapbars ! Next year, the first roller coaster will be equiped with the new trains. The seats itself - suitable for both small children and large adults - could be used on regular trains as well. And for inverting (aka looping) rides, an additional "vest-like" shoulder restraint is in development. I suppose this will be similar to their Flying Dutchman restraints. More pics at rides.nl