coasterkid124

Most coasters in general use sensors only around block areas (Near lifts, brakes, etc.). It is a rare occurrence for sensors to be used midway through a ride (cost is a big factor, and they aren't really necessary). There probably was not a sensor in that area, so the train wasn't detected. So unless maintenance overrode the error, there is a good chance that they overlooked the train and switched the train dial thinking an operator accidentally touched it.

No, Cuda Falls will never return. The water line was a public works project, and not for the slide complex.

Block issues are common among break-downs with rides. It is also something that once it happens, it can be a recurring issue throughout the day. If maintenance resetted the system, and overlooked the stalled train, they may have turned the train dial to one less train thinking that nothing was wrong and possibly the dial caused the original block issue. Then the stalled train would not be sensed at all and the ride would restart like normal.

Why waste that golden expansion space to restore a ride that was a mechanical nightmare and can cause health problems to guests? One reason for the Splashtown expansion was to build a new river ride that would be consistently functional, which they accomplished. The space will be used for a much needed larger expansion, which may come in the form of a new coaster. The land itself is about 2.89 acres, maybe more if they expand a little into the parking lot. In comparison, Kentucky Kingdom's Lightning Run doesn't even take up 2 acres, and it is an amazing ride. So, a new plaza or area could be created and possibly more than one attraction could be built. The land still hasn't been touched at all, besides a small project done by maintenance a couple of weeks ago. They were digging into the hill to get to an old water line that needed repairs.

I would have to say as well, that all trains should have been accounted for before restarting the ride. How hard is it to take a quick count of all blocks and make sure that all trains are ready? When the ride reopens, a safety camera or more sensors should be installed so the operators or technicians can monitor this area.

If it is human error, an accident like this is understandable. A technician could have very well pulled his key out of the panel without realizing the ride was still in maintenance mode. However, hopefully the ride was not in auto mode. Then this would have been a computer error, and these are very unpredictable when they happen. The investigation could go on for a year without finding out any new info. However, if all safety systems were working properly, the system would have counted the number of trains, and not dispatched if one was missing. This is unless an operator or technician switched the "number of trains" dial while in maintenance mode. Then, the missing train would have went un-sensed and the system would have worked as normal.

Two train ops are never a problem early in the season, but once the summer comes, they definitely are needed.

1) Unfortunately, I cannot with certainty answer that question. With uncertainty I can say, I think so! I'll ask those who would know tomorrow. 2) Splashtown opens for the Season this Saturday, May 16th. It will be open 11am-7pm (or park close, whichever is first) the rest of the season. So it will be open for physics day. If your friend has any questions he can always call his group sales rep Thanks Doug! You are very helpful and I appreciate the updates. I may be out this weekend if the weather holds up to try out Brain Drain. I am very excited for this addition.

Doug, two quick questions. First, is the water on Brain Drain heated? Second, my brother teaches physics at a high school. He would like to know if the water park is open will be open this Monday for physics day, as he is planning to do a lab with water slides.

On opening day alone, waits for coasters did exceed 30 minutes. When the park used to run two trains, they would be built on the transfers by the end of June, and put on when needed. Mid-summer, waits for RoS could get up to over an hour, and same goes for Viper and Predator. Most ride ops at the park tend to mope around and not care about throughput. Some rides (mainly Twister), have ops that will talk for 3 minutes after the ride ends before even loading more. I get that safety comes first, but ops could definitely kick it up a notch.

I'm pretty sure that the three coaster I listed have both trains working. RoS's trains went under a refurb under 5 years ago, and they alternate every year. (Last year was blue, and this year is red). Both of Viper's trains were refurbbed over the past two seasons. Predator runs two trains from the Voyage, and they are only 5 years old. Plus they alternate as well.

RoS, Viper, and Predator all have two working trains. For some reason they've only been using one and alternating them over the past few years. There is no reason why maintenance cannot use them this year. Mind Eraser and Motocoaster did, however they broke a few years ago, and parts were never ordered to repair them.

I was really surprised how packed the park was today. I don't know if it was the weather, or the new rides, but this is a good sign of things to come. I noticed too now with the new pass format, the entrances don't have scanners anymore, it is done with cell phones now. Overall, I would say things ran smoothly. Ride ops could've been a little quicker, but it is opening day and a lot of them I didn't recognize from last year. Again, I'm actually impressed with how good Rolling Thunder looks. UFO took up a lot of space, and that gave the park an opportunity to expand seating for Subway, pour more concrete (instead of blacktop), and replace an aging attraction. One more little thing I noticed was that Corn Popper's cars were actually reaching maximum height this year. It must have gotten a tune-up.

They were nowhere to be found. But don't expect to see them until the end of June if they decide to use 2.

I went today for opening day, and will give a little bit of an update. Sorry, but I did not take any pictures. Nothing really was standing out besides the new stuff. The season pass situation is very confusing this year. Instead of mailing them out like they used to, this year everyone has to go the the pass processing building. Upon arrival, the new (well actually returning) GM Chris Thorpe was greeting people. Although it was a nice touch actually seeing the guy in charge, the park was highly unorganized today. I suggest for anyone getting a pass to get a voucher from Tops first, as it makes the procedure quicker and easier. The line can get very long. Many people today were disappointed that the water park wasn't open. Apparently one of the news stations reported that it was open, so it is not really the park's fault there. Brain Drain may not be open for next week, as there were still cherry pickers working on the queue and the drop pods. As expected, operations today were sluggish, and only one train was running on all coasters. Most operators spent a lot of time talking and moping around on the job, especially at Twister and Rolling Thunder. I did not get on too many rides today because of the heat and the slow ops. I have to say that I am impressed with Rolling Thunder. The plaza looks really nice, and the ride itself is a little more intense than expected. It is also a capacity monster, as long as the operators speed up loading. This ride probably will send Ranger to the grave yard, which BTW was not running all day. RoS was running a little sluggish as well but the kinks should work out. I did not get on the Predator or Viper due to long lines. It is crucial this year for two trains, as it was packed today, and it is only opening weekend. Boomerang and Twister are still in need of repair like at the end of last year. Boomerang still crawls up the lifts, and Twister needs brake pads. Thunder Rapids was also closed today, however it might open tomorrow as it was testing. Overall, there are still gaping issues that need to be resolved, but I'm giving the park a break. It is day number one. Hopefully this time Thorpe can get things more organized.

Were there ever anchor nuts on that support or were they recently taken off?

That's probably not it. In normal deconstruction, normally the highest points of the coaster are taken apart first (usually track). Not only that, but the support wouldn't be cut like that. It would just be unfastened from the footer.

^Woah... That doesn't look good at all. It doesn't seem like the support was torch cut by hand. Sometimes when coasters get older, in high stress sections the fasteners get a little bit loose and need tightening. It might be possible that one sheared off and the weight of the support caused it to collapse like that. They will probably need to get a new one and inspect the rest of the bolts.

Lol Six Flags. It takes them weeks to dig a single hole, when Darien Lake had its Super Loop set up in three days. It is already testing and the park is still a month away from opening. We're in the same boat as you guys, because as you have Hammerhead, we have a Huss Ranger which is always breaking anyways, so we have two rides that basically do the same thing.

I don't think that the new restraints are just "plug and play", so new trains would need to be purchased either way. If that's the case, it could cost a good 25-50 thousand per train, maybe more. SLC's are usually cheaper than other models because of their high frequency in parks. So lets say new trains cost up to $150,000. Pair that with a paint job, and the coaster could be completely refurbbed for $250,000.

I took a trip with a few friends to Morey's last year. The new trains made the ride 100x better. Although the layout of SLC's make the ride rough anyways, the headbanging was virtually gone. Considering that one of ME's trains are broken anyways (still after about 3-4 years), it would be a smart investment for the park. It's good to see that the park has begun construction. The weather has been a little iffy, but it will give the park better rep if Rolling Thunder opens with the park. Blast Off was supposed to in 2013, but because the ride was used, a lot of bugs had to be worked out. This should be a good year for the park as long as the weather doesn't cause as many problems.

Not sure if this is completely true. Yes, the ride is tire driven, but the tires are enclosed in a compartment under the ride. The track of the ride is protected from the outer structure, so it would be pretty hard for water to seep in. Maybe under a torrential downpour hydroplane would become a problem. This ride is unlike the ferris wheel because the rim on that is exposed to the elements, and the tires cannot pull through that.

Darien Lake is very mediocre. It's current coaster lineup consists of two standard Vekomas, two family/kiddie coasters, a rough wooden coaster, a rough Arrow, and one Intamin Hyper. Only one of those coasters would ever really attract enthusiasts and or normal guests. While any coaster would attract more guests initially, good ones keep them coming back. The way that the park was built is preventing it from expanding even more. All of the coasters were pretty much built around the perimeter of the park. Due to the flats and lakes in the middle, there is not much room for a major coaster. The park has a lot of land, but the majority of it is water covered, across the street, or used for parking/campground. There are only a couple of immediate places that a major attraction like that could be built.

It wasn't Astroworld's decision to send any rides anywhere. Six Flags decided to salvage whatever they could before demolition. Many rides were moved to other parks, while others (XLR8, Viper, etc.) were just scrapped because they were old and nearing the end of their lives anyways. Batman was kind of caught in limbo. SF saw it as a working coaster still and sent it to a park that could store it like DL. It wasn't anyones decision to let it rot either. SF likely had some sort of plans for it, even if it was scrapping the track and using the trains for parts. The park was just sold before any actions were taken, and the coaster became property of CNL and not SF.

Not sure why this topic continues to be brought up here. The park announces two new attractions, and people are talking about a roller coaster that's been rotting away for nearly ten years. Here's exactly why the coaster hasn't been set up. This story will take a while, but it will address the major questions...... When Astroworld closed in 2005, Six Flags had to make decisions as to where all of the rides would go. Some automatically went to new parks, some went to the scrap yard, and some went into storage. The rumors that Batman was damaged during removal are not true. Some torch cutting was used to remove sticky bolts, but for the most part demolition was normal. The Big Kahuna went up at Darien Lake because it was fairly new and the park had only 4 water park attractions at the time. Batman went into storage at DL because there wasn't a pressing need for a new coaster, and it was close to other Six Flags parks. Then the park was sold, and the coaster was no longer SF property. When Parc stepped in, they had no idea what to do with the coaster. The trains and controls would be in need of refurbishment, new footers would need to be poured, and a spot would need to be found. Seeing the coaster was a first-gen stand up, Intamin would have given the park a hard time for supplying parts for an older model train, much like Huss with UFOs or Rangers. The coaster was in the plot across the street and not bothering anything so they just left it there. When they finally built a new coaster, they used the pool plot for Motocoaster. Batman may have been able to fit there, but the park went with a new model for a few reasons. One, it was geared towards families, which the park lacked, it was new meaning no refurb was needed, and it would last a lot longer because of maintenance and popularity. Remember that Batman was consistently one of the world's lowest ranked coasters year after year. Time went on, and there were actually plans to remove the Grizzly Run due to maintenance problems. Either Batman or a new coaster would have replaced it. Grizzly Run was kept and refurbed due to its popularity in the summer months. More time passed, and the elements began to eat away at the unprotected track. Corrosion and rust have likely ruined it by now because the rails and spines are exposed. Had it been set up, it would not be as much as an issue. The coaster itself is nearing thirty years old, Viper is 33 this year. Viper has lasted because it has always been set up, and annual maintenance has been preformed. To end this explanation, I will state that it is 99 percent impossible to ever see Batman running again. Just too much would need to be done to get it running again, and any park would be better off buying a new coaster. Even if it were in good condition, ask yourself this. Would you want your park to set up a thirty year old, horrible riding stand up coaster that is at the bottom of ratings charts?