Houston Thrills

After looking at my picture again, I think it's likely that it's only gonna be a single helix. I think the ledgers are just oddly placed because they're trying to use the old structure as much as possible (don't think they've put in any new footers at all, as far as I can tell). The picture in question:

Though the video does appear to have come from Six Flags, it is highly inaccurate with regards to the helix. In fact, every part of the helix in that video is wrong, judging by what is currently visible.

Most of the finale has ledgers up, but judging by the position of some of them, I'm kind of wondering if they might have to go through and re-work that entire section. Also, I believe that the helix will be going around twice, not once.

The ride's looking pretty wicked right now, and there's still not enough evidence to say either way if it's going around once or twice.The pass of the lift that is currently in place is a low, ground-level turn, though, which should be really exciting. The lead-in to the finale is slightly changed, as they got rid of the banked hill lead-in and now you dive into a turn, the first hill immediately follows, and then dives off of the bridge into a higher hill than was there before. It looks like it may be pretty crazy.

The MCBR is significantly lower than the old one, though, so if there's any sort of braking up there, and it's not just a pass through like SKC, it's gonna end up about the same speed, I'd imagine.

That video's not even consistent with the parts of the ride that are currently known...

2 comments... From what I could see, it looked very likely that there would be 2 loops around the lift. It just kinda seemed like it the dive/turn wouldn't line up with the structure that was already there. Of course, judging angles from afar can be very misleading, so I wouldn't put too much weight on this. Another thing I noticed, though, was that on the single piece of structure they left up from the old double helix, they didn't cut down the handrail posts on either track, so I thought maybe there would still be 2 passing by that particular spot. The ledgers were sitting on the ground unassembled going all the way around the last turn, you could see them from the train.

That joint never had the plates because the rails didn't fit properly when they installed them I'm guessing the grinding/welding was done to fix whatever was wrong with the rails, and not to join them together. Here's how that joint looked on April 30:

But doesn't it make more sense that they're just bolting things together until they can weld the track together? They wouldn't weld the track together to adjust it. I dunno, it just seems strange to have a relatively narrow path for the guide wheels to run throughout without traversing over bolts. I suppose it all depends on the train though. I don't think the track's gonna be welded together at all.

The bolts/plates are still there as of this past Sunday. I think the joints that don't have them are joints that never had them to begin with, or at least they weren't properly installed.

What he said. That seems like mighty precise engineering as coaster trains tend to shuffle a little, but I'm no engineer. There's more room there than appears in pictures. There's nearly enough room between those bolts to mount one of the traditional steel running rails if they wanted to.

Went out to the park today and took a couple of pictures... The chain guide is almost finished Starting to look pretty wicked there on that turn. See what I mean? Rails in place at the bottom of the 3rd drop. Maybe a matter of perspective, but that pullout into the 1st turn looks kinda tight/intense.

Not to be a dick or anything, but Master Blaster wasn't the first, just the most famous. Dragon Blaster opened next door 2 years earlier.

When the thread was started, the article just said that someone fell. it didn't say where or how far. that information was added later.

Snyder/Shapiro wasn't half bad, actually. They obviously could stop the landslide that Story, Burke & Co. started, but I think they did a decent job of improving the parks. Weber wasn't doing anything differently, aside from cutting showtimes, from what I hear.

Can't wait to get back up to Arlington in a couple weeks so I can see this thing in person again.

If you don't consider any of those other rides groundbreaking, then why exactly do you consider Dragster groundbreaking? It just took existing technology and made it taller/faster...

Montu is a larger ride than raptor is.It is longer, and there is one more inversion than raptor. Again, just because a ride is taller, it does not make it better. I am not saying that raptor is a bad ride...because it's not. I am saying that just because there is a version of a ride already built, it does not mean that cedarpoint will not build there own version of it just because someone else already has one. If that was the case, corkscrew, mantis, maverick, gemini, wicked twister, raptor, disaster transport, mean streak, wildcat, blue streak, iron dragon, millennium force, mine ride, woodstock express, jr gemini, would never had been built. The only exception that you can make was with dragster. Cedarpoint was just taking a ride that already exsists, and making it a little taller. And that takes me back to my point of just because it is taller, it does not mean it's better. Raptor's older than Montu. Corkscrew was one of the first looping coasters, Mantis was much larger than anything before it, along with having twice as many inversions. Gemini was the tallest coaster when it opened (edging out Colossus at SFMM, which opened the same year by a claimed 6", I believe), Wicked Twister was/is the tallest and only impulse with double twisting spikes, Raptor was bigger/had more inversions than anything before it. Mean Streak was the biggest and baddest wooden coaster, Millennium Force was by far the tallest/fastest. These coasters may not be much now, but when they opened, they were all groundbreaking coasters.

Thankfully, SFOT only has a 2 month off-season (3 if you count November). Park is open March-December, but they close throughout much of November for private events. Usually close after Halloween and reopen at Thanksgiving.

It's also entire possible that this is just SFA vs KD and not SF vs CF, maintenance-wise. I'll be riding Poltergeist and Flight of Fear (KI) on back to back days Sunday and Monday, and from everything I've heard, I'm expecting Poltergeist to be the far superior ride.

I was under the impression that both SF spaghetti bowls launch ~5 mph faster than their Paramount (now CF) counterparts?

Ugh...I'm still upset that they built that building around the Saturn V...and that was like 5 years ago.

I don't buy the excuse that its for faster loading for a second. I just visited Dorney Park where they have cubbies for all the coasters, and there was barely any stacking at all. This is in strong contrast to the Six Flags parks where I see unbearably slow loading and unloading and stacked trains constantly. I worked on Wild One the last year it was fluffy, fluffy bunny filled with medicine and goo free; and when it was me, a manager operating, and another fast moving attendant we could move the trains extremely fast whether or not there were guests setting items to the side. I see the crews moving just as fast, or even slower than they ever did before fluffy, fluffy bunnies filled with medicine and goo were put in at SFA. I've ridden BTR at SFOT multiple times this year where I sat in the brakes for 3 seconds or less with only 2 people checking restraints. I have a hard time believing this would be possible if the ride still hat the cubbies.

Not sure SFOT should be included in that list...

Looking at pictures, Shockwave's loops appear to have been identical to GASM's.