GigaG

GayCoasterGuy, maybe you've uncovered the true reason for Revolution's neutering. That makes sense. Still, the ride did operate 20 or so years without OTSRs. And as I said, I do love Revolution's dives, but the hills just seem slow... I just don't like airtime-less hills.

Screamscape says that full-on ride dismantlement is starting, and that it appears that "everything not bolted down" is being removed. http://www.screamscape.com/html/freestyle_music_park.htm

https://www.facebook.com/CpFansite/photos/pcb.713339975379055/713339965379056/?type=1&theater Skyhawk has re-opened with single-swing operation.

I was going to post that, but I decided not to finish off on such a happy note after just mentioning a deadly accident on the ride.

I know Revolution's focus was the loop, but as much as I enjoy Anton's coasters, and as much as I love the second drop on Revolution (plunging into the wilderness), I never got why Revolution was designed to go over its hills so slowly. I guess it was to provide an intimidating view of the rest of the layout, but I really think that the ride needs airtime. I just never got the third hill. I'd like to see a speed hill there, but I guess that would be too much to ask for. Or not - maybe a few changes in the ride's layout and pacing could convince the GP that it is a good ride and give a Revolution makeover a degree of marketability.

^I know. The OP wants to know whether RMC would do the same thing but with topper track.

I think what he means is rehab NTAG-style (all new layout) but with Topper Track, not retracking parts (or maybe even a whole) and keeping the shape.

I recently decided to look up the tragedy at SFOT which happened a bit more than a year ago. Let's see... what's wrong with the reporting and comments? -News organizations saying the bar "only clicked once" instead of "3 times" is unusual. I understand that most lap bars click, but somebody should have arrested the spread of this rumor. -Small animation companies depicting the bar flying up. -People calling the lady a "fat blob" and making jokes or insults. -Not just in the NTAG accident, but commenters who think coasters without seatbelts (or in the case of any video of a typical Schwarzkopf looper, coasters without OTSRs) are unsafe. Some of this reporting and commenting disgusts me.

^Good luck. You'll need it. Although there are worse coasters to marathon than Colossus. So does anybody think SFMM would ever restore or remodel Revolution? I'd hate to see such a classic be torn down for the next YOLO-machine. Seriously, the ride is trimmed to death and has shoulder bars that some people find uncomfortable (and, in any case, do not belong on a Schwarzkopf.) Imagine the ride without trim brakes. I'd like to see these modifications- -Restraints - Lap bars only, maybe seatbelts or newer, tighter bars if California insists. If there are new trains, I'd like to see the unusual shape of the trains that they have now stay. -Reprofiling would be like this-italicized parts have small modifications, bolded parts have large modifications Start - Keep this. I love the huge second drop right into the woods. -Second hill - I'd love to see a speed hill here. Lower it and give it some floater airtime right into the helix -Pre-loop trims - Reduce or remove. Did the ride even have these when it opened? They actually stop the train now, or they come very close to it. Keep the brakes as a possible block brake, but make them not work as trims.- -Loop drop and loop - Keep this drop as is along with the loop, it is a signature feature of the ride. -Turn after the loop - Modify this to have more of a hill-top to lead into the next feature -Drop after loop - I'd like to see this drop start quickly for some airtime. The lack of trimming before the loop would make this easier to accomplish. Carve this into the terrain a little for a surprise steep plunge. -Tunnel - Remove the trims. dang it! The straight section after the trims is boring, but it is another signature feature as it threads the loop and it should be kept, considering you can't do much with it. Again, did the ride open with trims? And also again, keep the brakes, but don't have them work as trims. -Hill before helix - As long as it doesn't crawl like it does now, and has a pop of airtime, I'd like this. The entry to the helix could be reprofiled a bit to make it more comfortable at high speed. -Helix - Keep this -Brakes - Make them magnetic (not necessary, but might make the ride a little less maintenance-heavy) and make sure you can accomodate 3 trains (in fact, didn't the ride used to be able to run more trains, possibly because the modern-day trims could act as block brakes? Also, did the ride use separate platforms a la Millenium Force at one point?) -Paint - Keep it white. The ride has always been that way. Repaint it if you must, but keep it white or mostly white. Control System - Maybe modernize, but still allow operation of at least 3 trains. -Trees - DO NOT give this ride the Ninja treatment. The bare hill is one thing that I DO NOT want restored. By the way, I did see one of Revolution's trains in the transfer track this June when I went. It had some OTSRs removed, but I assume this is for maintenance (maintenance of a part that shouldn't be there.) Question for people that know more than me- Revolution's unique "chain drive" system used to be one long chain, if I read some article correctly. As one train dispatched, the same chain would pull a train in like the "rolling block" systems used on modern B&Ms with drive tires. As far as I know, it was changed after an employee crossing the tracks was killed by a train pulling in as one left. Am I right?

Sorry to double-post, but this is a different topic - the side that didn't break on Skyhawk is testing-

And now it is aimed away from Windseeker, further to the right.

I think these 3D site plans make it pretty obvious that BGW is getting a Superman clone- https://twitter.com/BGWFans/status/494628502243901440/photo/1

The "cut here" marks that I've heard of do make it seem like RMC will be redoing this. By the way, Robb, they could easily tear down coasters, considering that they ARE, after all, a construction company at heart, even if they are not known for it. You must be new at this whole Six Flags thing. Hopefully this opens on time and doesn't have a ludicrously late opening date... I might be asking too much of Six Flags... You also must be new at this whole Six Flags thing. Or maybe I'm just thinking of SFMM.

It wouldn't be the first time I've heard SFMM and its location not considered to be in Southern California. Sadly a lot of geographically-challenged people think SoCal ends north of the valley. It's pretty obvious that SFMM is in Southern California. Farther north than the other parks, but still. What Valley do you mean? I'm Ohioan, so I'm not familiar and I don't really know a boundary. All I know is LA area is in the south and SF is in the north, I don't know the demarcation line between them.

Speaking of Skyhawk, here is a video of the aftermath, showing the ride swinging to a stop. It appears that the broken fence was not caused by a vehicle, so it was probably the cable. Warning - NSFW language-

Congrats to the guy. Hopefully he'll never have a walk of shame again! I'm happy for him.

Well, "normal woodies" like Hades 360 have been designed with 65 degree drops and steep turns. Hades 360 is a piece of crap, I know, but I guess it could be something great. Even Cedar Fair, who has issues with taking care of normal large wooden coasters, could probably manage Mt. O's woodies better. Which reminds me... I'd love to see CF buy out Mount Olympus. Somewhere else to go with my Platinum Pass! Although they do have Valleyfair not super far away, and what would Mt. O do with their precious hotels?

Yeah. I'm no doctor, but I imagine that if it fell on somebody right after the snap, that would be permananent debilitating injury or even death. If it dragged at somebody after the cable used up the "snap energy", depending on how they were hit and how high and fast the swing was, I would expect anywhere from severe bruising, large lacerations, and broken bones to severe injury or death.

One of the cars on one of Magnum's trains has been stripped to just the chassis and lap bars- Apparently the same car on other trains has been roped off. I have heard from ride ops that the shorter belts this year would be lengthened, but I highly doubt that they would need to strip down the vehicle for this...

How does anybody file that claim? They weren't stuck upside down, they could not be bruised or anything... what... the... F... if this was true, it would have been on the news... being stuck in a brake run is not "being hung upside down" and damaging your nervous system, bruises, contusions, etc... The park shouldn't have to deal with this.

I hope this was just a one-off thing. This is sad. I think parks shouldn't use pipe measuring sticks - not the kind with a bent top, and definitely not the straight kind. The pipe adds too much error. I'd rather see "flat-top" measuring sticks, sort of like the metal ones at Cedar Point. Also, the wristband should be the final word if it is obtained at park operations after an "official" measurement.

Mack sorta has gone into the business of cloning things, and not just their own. The original Blue Fire is similar to Intamin LSM coasters, and Mack also built a Mega-Lite near-clone (Alpina Blitz.) However, if they can prove to build nearly as good or as good as Intamin for a lesser price and higher reliability, they have a very nicely working business model going. Mack isn't exactly your average Chinese knockoff Loop-Screw company - when they "borrow" an idea, they seem to start with a ride that was already good and make a similar ride of comparable quality. On the other hand, most of your knockoff companies will take an already not-so-good coaster (SLC/Loop Screw) and clone it and make a piece of crap - or, sometimes, make an original layout that is also a piece of crap. I also notice that Zierer and Zamperla have began making variations of Intamin and Gerstlauer coasters ideas (Zierer - Verbolten, Wicked, Knoebels Impulse, and Zamperla - Thunderbolt.) Most rides that they make are not shameless knock-offs - they usually add something original to the idea. They do what the parks want, and I guess that these companies are marketing themselves as cheaper alternatives to Intamin and other "heavy-hitters"

Who owns Olympia Looping anyways?

Or maybe bring some more Anton coasters to the US!

The rain was clearly the cause of this accident. From now on I think Cedar Point needs to close every flat ride when it rains even though pretty much everyone would agree that it had nothing to do with the actual accident. It worked for them once before. Exactly. Did they ever come up with a real reason why Magnum collided besides rain?