Lareson

Having worked on a wooden coaster, it's not a clean environment compared to a steel coaster. The trains can go from their original color to be coated in a brown dust in just a day after cleaning. Not sure how the RMC train wheels wear down the track steel compared to a PTC train, as Outlaw Run is currently the only coaster running the trains, but can imagine that they still cause wear with steel wheels on steel track. The track steel are the steel pieces that the wheels touch, so that's what I mean by track steel, don't mean the whole Toppler track. That's why I still consider the Toppler Track coasters as wooden coasters, since a majority of the coaster's track is still wood, just has the top 2 layers replaced by the steel/concrete beams.

I'm not quite sure why they're deciding to paint the track steel orange. It's going to be only orange for maybe the first week the coaster starts running. After that, it's going to get covered in steel dust and graphite, and it's going to be worse once it rains too.

Millennium is so far the only Intamin that I know was repainted and that was 2 years ago now. There is a lot of surface area compared to the other track styles, so it's just more time consuming than anything. It's probably on the list next considering that Silver Bullet is now done (or at least getting close to be.)

From what I heard, the concept Paramount approached Premier (might of been the other way around, not sure) was to have the back of the cars "drift" when it went around a corner, or basically the car part of the chassis would swing out to the side. The tech apparently wasn't ready so they decided to not include it in the final coaster. Premier did end up making a concept that was shown at IAAPA 2010. Apparently the coaster was sold to a park in Abu Dhabi, but have yet to see it appear. http://www.themeparkreview.com/parks/photo.php?pageid=189&linkid=9775&pageno=5

That was an idea Paramount had when they approached Premiere with the coaster, but never made it into the final design. Or it went something like that. I know the water effects have been disabled and the on-board audio stripped for Kings Island and Canada's Wonderland. Think Kings Dominion has the only Backlot Stunt Coaster that still has the water effects. That one was also built a year after the other 2 so that may have something to do with it.

It doesn't really matter where the rail is and is by no means, "out of date." I mean, that's all that wooden coasters use is inside rails, where the bogies are on the inside of the track. Just depends on the manufacturer. Arrow used it for their entire coaster lineup, going from Matterhorn all the way up to X/X2. Vekoma still uses it for a majority of their major coasters. Only time that Morgan used an outside rail was when they built Steel Dragon 2000, and that's now using B&M trains. Since Chance acquired Morgan in 2001, they had all of the steel designs for it, so why not use it. It doesn't make a difference in terms of ride experience, but as a design stand point, it does allow a narrower clearance around the track since it doesn't have to worry about clearance for the wheels. Also on an un-related note, didn't realized how many companies went under around 2001-2002. Arrow, Custom Coasters, and Morgan all went under around that time. Boy, that was a rough time for the industry, losing a few of the biggest manufacturers at the time.

These kinds of flats don't take long to install. Once the footers are ready, it could take only a week to get the steel put up, the car on the track and getting it ready for testing. We probably won't see too much activity until sometime in March, both at ValleyFair and CP, but these are fairly simple rides when compared to a gigantic roller coaster.

Because of how closely Cedar Fair follows manufacturer's recommendations, we will probably never see any of their racing coasters ever turned around backwards again. PTC even stated themselves that theirs trains are designed to run forward and not recommended to be turned around backwards. Of course since they're just recommendations, not actual requirements, companies can still turn them around backwards, i.e. Six Flags, and can run them fine, or they think they can. That would be why Colossus' Morgan trains can't be turned around and why they have to use those extremely heavy B&M trains when they run it backwards.

The backwards trains that were introduced at SFGrAm last year were brand new chassis that are made to go backwards. As far as I knew, it was only the chassis parts that were new, the seats were removed from the forward facing chassis and placed on the backwards chassis. I also heard that the park ran into a little snafu because when the "limited time" backwards trains ended, they just flipped them around, which B&M didn't really care for and forced them to put the normal forward facing trains back on. Coaster trains are not really meant to go backwards unless they were originally designed to do so. That's why Cedar Fair turned the racing Paramount coasters back to all facing forward when they took over as PTC even said themselves that their trains are only meant to travel in a recommended forward direction. B&M is probably more stringent on that sort of thing because of the "warranties" their coasters come with, although not exactly sure how Premier stands when SF turned the Mr. Freeze coasters around backwards. Probably not as much since their trains travel in both directions anyways on those shuttle coasters. Unless they've ordered another set of backwards chassis from B&M, Magic Mountain will be running Batman backwards this year. I don't see SFOT doing this until next year if their next in line to get the chassis.

The trim brake is actually being removed, if you're talking about the one at the bottom of the 1st drop. GCI re-profiled that entire turn and the trim brake is no longer needed. You can see the new bottom of the 1st drop in the image below. Photo from GCI's Facebook page Whether or not this will actually change the rest of the course will be seen. Hoping that more re-tracking is coming soon.

I figure they're going to be using the new Vekoma trains too, since I have a feeling they'll be working with them anyways getting the whole coaster back into a decent shape. The Kumbak trains look nice, but I've heard they were quite pricey, even without the on-board audio and theming, they also had to install a new magnetic braking system as well. I've also seen some strange modifications done to their trains from what's seen on their promotional images. For some reason on the SLC trains, there's a new strap that attaches to the restraint arm and the strap closet to it, like it's almost there to prevent you from raising the outside arms. Rather strange looking. Was trying to see if I could find a picture of it, but couldn't find one.

That's pretty cool that Phoenix and Twister are electronic manual braking, with skid brakes too! Phoenix control panel looks bare with the lift start/stop buttons on a separate panel. Really wish I can make it to Knoebels someday. If there are big plans coming for 2015, that might be my year! Heh, yeah, I wish Wildcat could get a second train, but it would need an upgraded PLC. A newer one was installed last year, but it would require a much bigger one to have a second train and all of the sensors and switches for a proper 2-train block system. Maybe with the recent work IOE has done and them being in Michigan, if the upgrade ever happens, I hope the park calls you guys.

Yep, there's maroon colored track sticking out of the concrete tunnel on the right side. The brown box structure is actually part of the support structure, so it looks like the support color is going to be that brown color. Very interesting as it looks like a rather large opening. Whatever they have planned, it looks to be a monster!

That's great to hear Brian! As a Michigander myself, makes me happy seeing this kind of stuff being done here, especially when you can source it locally! That's interesting. Never seen an E-stop like that before. That must be one of those super-emergency stop buttons that cuts all power to everything on the ride, like in the event of a fire or something to that extreme. Or it could be one of those that if it gets used, it can actually cause damage to the ride to safely stop it. Was seeing if I had any pictures of control panels floating around, but guess I don't. May have to change this summer. My favorite to operate would be Wolverine Wildcat since it's still electronic manual braking. Used to have the lever and skid brake system (had a bit of a tight budget in 1988!) with buzz bars until around 2000-ish when it was updated to fin brakes and a new PTC train. Something about stopping a 3-ton PTC train coming in at about 35mph, it's just something that many modern coasters have lost with automation.

Fun looking at some of these control panels, some of them are familiar, some makes me really wish to operate them. Think my least favorite are the Custom Coaster control panels. Not exactly sure why they did that, but they put the E-stop at the bottom of the control panel, meaning you have to reach over it to use the rest of the controls. I've seen it on a couple of their coasters, including Twisted Twins, Shivering Timbers, and Rampage. When I went to Indiana Beach this past year, noticed they actually moved theirs from that awkward position. I can tell you the Thunderhawk control panel doesn't even look like that anymore. When they moved it to MiAd, they installed a new PLC with a brand new control panel. The old Geauga Lake control panel had seen better days. Also did not know that IOE was based in Ann Arbor, MI! There are not that many, if any, companies in Michigan that deal with amusement parks, so seeing you guys here makes me happy to know that the "brains" of some of these new coasters have been built up here!

Cedar Fair is fixing quite a few of the KECO/Paramount-built wooden coasters with GCI. Good to see that they're willing to put work into wooden coasters that haven't exactly been in great shape the past few years. I know with what they're doing with Hurler at Carowinds, the trim brake at the bottom of the 1st drop is being removed since GCI re-profiled the turn after the drop. Now all we need is new trains. If Six Flags is willing to spend the money on replacing Morgan trains (even if Le Monstre had a crap job of the PTC trains being installed) then I can't imagine why CF wouldn't since that's the only wooden coaster in the chain that has those Morgan trains. Unless they're planning on bringing the Gerstlauer trains from Son of Beast out west, I can't see why they wouldn't buy a new set of PTC trains, especially with the weird seat belt config going on with it now.

I've mentioned this before, but I don't think we'll see these new trains on previous inverts because of clearance issues. They're about a foot or two wider than the old design and even that much can cause a lot of issues. I know lifts would be the big clearance issue, would basically require a rebuild of the whole catwalk to make it wide enough to make the clearance. It would be nice to have these trains on inverts, but don't think we'll be seeing them added anytime soon.

The website developer must of copied that from Green Lantern, or thought X2 did the same exact thing as Green Lantern. That's pretty funny though. That would be terrifying! Would be an uncontrolled spin, much less control than what we've seen in the new 4th Dimension prototype!

It was Dalton township to the east that was given the park trouble. Fruitland gave them no trouble at all, hence why all of the additions for the past few years have been on that side of the park. I know they decided at the last minute to put a beer garden in the water park underneath the body slides last year, so if anything, I can see them installing permanent structures over there like what they've done with the one over by Lakeside Gliders. The one behind Grand Rapids though, I can see them not only adding a beer garden but a new food establishment. The park is kind of lacking for food on that side of the park. As of what's coming up for the park, your guess is as good as mine. All I know is that 2014 is going to be an "off season" in terms of major additions, just mainly a couple ride refurbs and the POS install. I know Cedar Fair has a few of the dark rides like Guardian coming down the pipeline for a few of the parks that don't have one, like Cedar Point, but I do have a feeling MiAd is a candidate for it as well. It would of been nice to have a good sized tower ride, although a Windseeker is more than likely out of the question due to the troubles the past couple years. I'd imagine any flat ride from Zamperla or Larson would come to the park in the next couple years with the recent purchases Cedar Fair has done, or a Camp Snoopy expansion.

With what Cedar Fair is doing with Knott's and Camp Snoopy, I think a Camp Snoopy would fit better here than Planet Snoopy. The wilderness theme would go perfect with the area the park is in. The fact that CF is redoing both Camp Snoopy at Cedar Point and Knott's could lead to MiAd getting a Camp Snoopy instead since it's the only one that doesn't have a Peanuts themed area.

Its probably an upgrade if they are doing something with it. Nope, there was actually nothing in place in a majority of the park. Only spots that actually had a modern POS was Coasters and the front gate. They were still using simple cash registers in a lot of locations. There was little to no infrastructure inside of the park, hence why it's the last one to get the POS upgrade as a brand new fiber line has to be installed around the park. I believe Ouimet was the one to mention this in a conference call last year when the POS upgrade was brought up. In terms of rides, it's currently a "wait and see" situation. They had Lakeside Gliders installed last year, which seemed to have went over well with the GP, along with the introduction of the Lakeside Beer Garden as well. The water park is still recovering from having installed Beach Party in 2011, so probably a few more years before something is added there. The last installation in the water park before Beach Party was Funnel of Fear in 2005, so if that gives you any indication. The issue why nothing has been expanded on the east side of the park since 2006 when Grand Rapids was installed was because the park sits on 2 townships: Dalton to the east and Fruitland to the west. There was a person who was on Dalton's township board that was against the park from expanding that way, but that could change now as that person is now gone. There's been rumors flying all around the park, but so far, nothing solid has turned up. All I know is that something is coming in the next year or two, but at this point, it could be anything from a dark ride to a new coaster. Also for those that don't like to walk around the lake, there's Timbertown Railway, a perfectly capable train to take you from Thunderhawk to Shivering Timbers. The wait is usually only a maximum of 10-15 minutes, but that might be changing next year if they can finally get the 2nd train up and running. That I know has been in the works for a couple years now.

Nothing yet, but I'm expecting it to be an "off year" because of the massive point-of-service installation going on this off season. It's the last Cedar Fair park to do so since they didn't really have a system to build upon, it all has to be all installed from scratch. There were a few rumors here and there, but so far, nothing has been confirmed by the park.

I think B&M manufactures the trains overseas at their home plant in Switzerland, if I remember correctly from previous builds, but I'm not sure about that either. They're still one of the most secretive manufacturers in the industry, as there are no pictures of their train assembly facilities anywhere. I still think it was amazing that they let people see the track building for Gatekeeper at the steel plant. Only other time I can remember they allowed that was when National Geographic filmed that roller coaster special a few years ago.

I wonder if they'll be sending the wheel over to Chance for the refurb. I know that Cedar Fair has done this in the past with Giant Gondola Wheel at Michigan's Adventure, giving the hub a full rebuild, repaint and new light package. This was probably one of the best paint jobs I've seen done on a wheel before, better than the standard white. http://www.chancerides.com/news/images/press_releases/michigan_adventure_6_14_05.pdf

Sooner they can get vertical construction done, the sooner they can get the electrical and mechanical system ready to go for the many, many hours of testing. But yes, since the park opens in April, it'd be rather poor time management to not do anything until March. Mind you they have 3 months before opening, which thinking about that really shows how soon the 2014 season will be upon us!