Skycoastin Steve

^Yeah, I gotta say retrofitting those trains with magnetic brakes, while plausible, wouldn't be practical. That ride performs very, very differently from day to day depending on weather because of its location right on the lakefront. The trims are turned off on colder/windier days so it has enough speed to finish and keep the interval up, and turned on when it's warm/humid so it doesn't kill all 36 people on board. Magnetic brakes would probably throw a wrench in that equilibrium they have going with the trims. Not only that, I can't even imagine how strong the magnetic brakes would have to be on the final brake run because that thing FLIES into those brakes.

Caps up 3-1 on Montreal and looking to close it out at home on Friday!

I'm sticking with the one car theory. It's more entertaining.

I bet they tried to cycle it with one car and it valleyed. Just sayin'.

^They did a lot of track work on Hurler at Carowinds and it's running better than it used to, but that isn't saying much. The one at KD was always worse, but it seems as if they're doing a ton of work on it now, so we'll see how it turns out once it's back open.

Boy, one car trains will really kill capacity on the original capacity machine.

^It's more convenient to build a single rider line for a brand new coaster than it is to build one for an existing coaster. Plus, Volcano's queue would be very difficult to rearrange to fit in a single rider line.

Yeah I'm 6'5", and it might have been the first non-B&M coaster with OTSRs where I didn't feel even the slightest discomfort (yes, Maverick and I305 still cut my neck a bit).

^It wasn't really meant to make someone's wait any shorter, it was just meant to fill extra seats when odd numbers of people came through. Empty seats on a train are a long line's worst nightmare.

Both my rides during WCB were absolutely pain free. I think my height may have had something to do with it, since my head was well above the OTSRs and my neck was only slightly smacking them through those turns, but I really didn't experience any discomfort at all. I actually enjoyed the ride thoroughly.

Not on Grover! That's why it is the best! Well that's awesome. The website says you do. I can get a new credit when I go there later this year!

Wait, so you didn't need a kid with you to get on the kiddie coaster?

^It's really not a big deal about which ride I'm at, I just thought it was a bit ironic that it just happened to be one that I really don't enjoy riding. However, I loved operating the boomerang at AA last year, and boomerangs are just about my least favorite rides on Earth, so you don't necessarily have to like a ride to like working there.

Oh wise, beautiful, wonderful Title Fairy. I have a new job and a new location, meaning I must retire my Rampage custom title, even though I still love me some Rampage. Since I have been at several parks as an employee, could you please change my title now to "Park Hopper: The Employee"? I offer my most humble and sincere thanks for your gracious work on this lovely board.

So I got hired to be the supervisor at Nighthawk this year! Really excited about the opportunity, but it's kinda funny considering I hate the crap out of that coaster. Either way, I'm definitely going to enjoy it, I just won't do any test rides.

I had one today, and it was fantastic!

^^ Perfect! ^Thanks! And a smooth Rampage is certainly better. You're right about Carowinds, nothing to write home about with their wood selection, but Hurler at least has some decent air (as long as you can survive the insane roughness).

Well a little bit of professional news from the life of Steve. Just moved to Charlotte and will soon be interviewing for a supervisor position at Carowinds, so I'm super super super excited about that. Got to ride Rampage a few more times before I left, and for anyone who was lamenting that terrible pothole last year, I can report with 100% certainty that the pothole is FIXED. Along with some track work in a few other spots, it's running beautifully right now, with a little more track work to come before daily operation starts. So I'll get one last plug in, GO RIDE RAMPAGE THIS YEAR!!!!! Now for the really important issue at hand, to change the av or not to change the av?

12 year old claim. I guess the economy hit her hard and she needs a paycheck of some kind. I also understand that some people would get freaked out by someone chasing them with a chainsaw, real or not, but do they REALLY think that the park would let someone chase guests around with a chainsaw that could hurt or kill someone???

Well I stand corrected. Thanks!

^They may have only sent one train to Darien Lake. They still have two others if that's the case.

^That's just the framing, I'm sure when they get around to it there will be a roof.

That ride just looks like about 259 different ways of horrible.

That's all you have to say about Voyage. The one complaint I've always heard is the relative "roughness" of Voyage (which I think is borderline ludicrous, especially compared to about 90% of woodies out there), and this might solve that problem. Not to mention the boost in capacity, the lessening of maintenance costs (they've retracked almost the entire ride since '06), and added comfort, and these trains should be a huge plus for what's already in my opinion the best coaster on the planet. I'm even more excited as to what these trains might do for the industry, as now we have a train to compete with Millennium Flyers.

Does this sandwich have a gravy splashdown finale?