El Toro_Ryan

When I was at Over Georgia in December, I noticed the former Georgia Cyclone trains were on GASM's track with a few cars facing forward and a few cars facing backwards. I guess this all makes sense now. Happy to see the park jazzing up GASM for a bit. A few cars were facing forward and a few were backwards.

Random fun fact, that's Toro's theoretical capacity and max train count as well. And that's awesome you're the team leader of the ride! I'm actually looking into working at CP for Halloweekends. (Millennium would be my ride of choice.) I’ve heard that before actually! I’ve found it pretty interesting how Millennium operates three trains. The unload platform doesn’t actually increase capacity at all (contrary to popular belief), it just makes it easier to hit theoretical. So in a way it kind of makes sense El Toro and MF have the same theoretical with both having 36 seats. And I’d love to work with you, definitely keep me updated! Definitely will man!

double inline twist

Why would they add trim brakes? To honor Mean Streak #RIP Just kidding, Magic Mountain probably wants to either neuter the ride in an attempt to make it more comfortable (without inducing flips) or to reduce stress on the structure to lower maintenance costs. I rode GL in May of last year and I can see why so many people hate it. I personally thought it was so bad it was hilarious.

^I know the feeling. Goofy looking ride op (me) (I don't think I can post the actual video in here since it has a POV filmed with PivotHead Glasses... but just search El Toro Full Ride Experience on YouTube if anyone actually cares. lol It has some decent station footage)

There's quite a few of Millennium Force. I like watching all 3 trains move at the same time. It'd be pretty gnarly If more rides had rolling blocks like this. And here is a video of Mean Streak for the #memories.

Random fun fact, that's Toro's theoretical capacity and max train count as well. And that's awesome you're the team leader of the ride! I'm actually looking into working at CP for Halloweekends. (Millennium would be my ride of choice.)

I think the original plan was to make that remaining piece of Rolling Thunder a memorial. I heard PTC even repainted the red and green trains to place them on the track. Idk why it never came to life but the two Rolling Thunder trains have been sitting around since 2014 waiting for any potential action. You have to know the secret handshake. either that or a $10 bill should do nicely! Jk, but unfortunately I don't think I will be returning to work at the park next year.

Glad everyone enjoyed the video! The super slow runs are very common for Toro during the spring season and sometimes the fall season. There are a lot of reasons why Toro can run slowly. One is the grease used in the bearings of each wheel. The grease does not like cold weather and results in a slow running wheel which reduces the speed of the train heavily. During the first few test runs of the day on a cold morning, speeds are generally pretty slow compared to normal because the grease isn't warmed up yet. However once you get the grease nice and warm, the ride can hit the brake run as fast as 30+ mph. Another reason are the wheels themselves. The wheels are a very soft polyurethane which are better suited for warmer weather. These two factors are more so an issue at the beginning of the year when all the wheels/grease are new and not broken in. Additionally, the underside of 2nd generation Intamin prefab trains have a lot of empty space... so as soon as it gets extremely windy the bottom of the trains are essentially sails in the wind. (Toro and T Express use the 2nd gen) Depending on the direction of wind, certain hills on the ride will see a dramatically extra amount of speed worn off. Once the train clears the rolling thunder hill, the next highest hill is the hill into the brake run so if the train bleeds off too much speed during the S-turns.... get yourself a crane and get ready to tug.

Here's an off-ride video of Toro I put together. It has a lot of nerdy behind the scenes shots including super slow test runs, boosted test runs, and angles you don't really get to see as a guest. [youtu_be] [/youtu_be]

Magnum requires a certain amount of staff to run all 3 trains, I believe 5 attendants checking restraints are required. This year was pretty bad staffing wise so that 5th attendant was cut pretty often resulting in a lot of 2 train operations. Regarding speeding up dispatches, I've heard Magnum can send roughly 40 trains an hour at the max so even with shorter trains, there is still a time limitation with dispatches. So you go from a potential 1,440 rph to 960 rph. And while Magnum's ridership isn't as high as it used to, it still pulls some impressive numbers. On over crowded days, it can pull some of the highest numbers in the park. I heard there were a few days the crew did 18,000 riders in a single day.

Well if Great Adventure can get Nitro to run when it's 20 degrees out, I think Kings Island could manage Diamondback in the cold. Simply swap all the running wheels with the harder nylon set and pray like crazy that the first few test runs of the day make it around the track... Great Adventure style. Regarding the splashdown, that's the tricky part because the pool most likely would freeze during Winterfest. Maybe a trim could be added in place of the splashdown? And then the trim could be removed during the regular operating season when the splashdown is utilized.

I made that original post on Reddit lol god bless the Internet for all the lightning quick sharing! There’s some more work going on at the bottom of the turnaround. The piece of track covered by the white tarp is also being worked on.

I visited Dollywood for my first time last Saturday! The weather was gorgeous and it wasn't too crowded. I tried filming a vlog for the first time ever so I'll let that explain the majority of my trip. (Warning: video is not serious at all ) [youtu_be] [/youtu_be]

Philadelphia is 80 miles away from Six Flags. No, you can't. Not even on the clearest day. Yes, yes you can. I couldn't believe it either (though as the crow flies, it's much closer than 80 miles). Obviously I've ridden Nitro a ton. I'm not dorky enough to keep track, but I'd bet good money that I've ridden Nitro far more than any other coaster. I've always loved the view from the lift, but last night it was even better than normal. Since it was winter and it was f*cking freezing, visibility was amazing last night and we got an insane view of the Philadelphia skyline from Nitro's lift hill (like you could pick out individual buildings). That was a first, but it was really cool. I've heard that you can see the Philadelphia and New York skyline from Kingda Ka (though I've never been able to) but I had no idea this was even a thing from Nitro's lift hill. That was definitively pretty awesome... Anyway, carry on. Lmaooo! Man I don't even remember making that post but that's a nice throwback. For whatever reason, several users and I used to clash all the time in this thread. I think someone even told me off and called me a cheerleader for Great Adventure Good times. But that's dope you got such a clear view of Philly! I've never gotten a view that good but I've seen it vaguely in the distance. And you can see NYC and Philadelphia from the top of Ka! (Just definitely not at the same time unless you have insane super powers or something.) ..... I've heard you can even see Los Angeles from the top of Ka.... (who will pick a fight with me over this one.)

Glad you enjoyed the event!! That Jersey woman sounded god awful To clarify this, two trains are ran on Nitro, Skull Mountain, and kinda sorta Batman for HITP. All the other rides run 1 train while the other train undergoes rehab (besides Joker and Dark Knight cause they have hella cars.) Nitro gets away with running two since it has 3 trains to begin with and the park actually owns a 3rd train for Skull Mountain so one train is always in rehab for that ride, like how Magic Mountain does things. As for Batman, last year its maintenance cycle was thrown off because of Namtab. The trains ran for Namtab were the trains from Six Flags Over Georgia and Six Flags Over Georgia ran GADV's trains on their Batman forwards. Usually the backwards chassis is passed around and each park has to place their own seats and restraints on it but each park wanted to run Namtab for as long as possible. Idk what happened when the forward trains returned but it wasn't necessary to pull one train off for rehab last season.

It was great seeing you man! I feel like we always run into each other at parks. I only work at GADV a few times a month so I guess it was good timing! (P.S. The boost we used on our ride was the last boost for the 2017 season, we ran out of boosts for the day after that one lol)

^You right. Steel Vengeance should easily eat through the same amount of rider's as Valravn. They both have the same theoretical capacity at 1,200 rph but Steel Vengeance does not have the floors to deal with. Valravn did 1.6 million riders last year and averages 1,000+ rph so I think Steel Vengeance will be fine. And when I rode Twisted Colossus earlier in the year, I raced on both laps on almost every ride I took. So if Magic Mountain can run their 3 train RMC nicely, I'm sure Cedar Point will handle Steel Vengeance even better.

The Nitro crew is killing it this year! I wouldn't be surprised if they do nearly 2 million riders with the help of Holiday in the Park. On top of that, a lot of the changes in operational procedures have helped a lot with operations this year.

More often than not, the park only runs one train. But they really only need to run one train most days due to short lines and the park's fast load times. Watching them run two trains is quite the site, it's like watching a coaster in Roller Coaster Tycoon set to 10 second load times lol I know GCI recently rebuilt Phoenix's transfer table and it is all automated now. But I believe in the past, the employees had to push the track as well just like with Twister.

For those of you who have been to Knoebels, you know that 2 train operations on Phoenix or Twister is pretty rare. During Phoenix Phall Phunfest, I got to see the Twister crew transfer on the second train. It turns out a transfer on is done by hand without the help of a computer. The attendants actually push the transfer track into place and then push the 2nd train off the storage track. In fact, the ride does not have a computer system at all (according to the ride attendants). It only features a basic safety system to keep the trains from colliding. Once both trains are on the track, the ride attendants begin cycling the ride empty to establish a consistent cycle time between the two trains. For proper timing, the train in the station is dispatched when the other train is halfway through the rose bowl.

Nice video man! It was great meeting you and rest of the Cedar Point crew. I personally thought Mantis was fine and found no difference after the conversion. I'm on your side. I actually preferred Mantis to Rougarou.

I had a feeling you would appreciate that trip report Yeah everyone their was so friendly, I was shocked when they said we could ride two closed rides. Usually when a park is closing, the staff's mentality is for everyone to get the f*ck out, mine included.

What up!? My friends Dan, Peter, and I hit up Canada’s Wonderland over the weekend and it was a super fun time! It our first time at the park and man did the park deliver! We arrived at the front gate right around 9:45 and saw Leviathan testing with water dummies. It was pretty cold and windy out but man, that thing was still flying over the tops of the hills. We had bought fast lanes online but were told we could only use them either during the day or during Haunt. For those of you who don’t know, Canada’s Wonderland actually closes the park at 5 and reopens at 7 for their haunt event. We figured the park would be much more crowded for Haunt then during the day so we saved our fast lanes for later. We made our way inside the park and lined up for the rope drop. First we took a ride on Wonder Mountain's Guardian Galaxy Zombie Shooter since that line moves pretty slow. We made it inside the mountain and after just a few trains were sent, the ride broke down. Sweet! Our day was already off to a good start. It turns out a screen on the ride had stopped working so a maintenance worker quickly ran through the mountain to fix it. After a short delay, the ride was operational again with all screens working. We should have bought him some Tim Hortons because he practically ran into the mountain to fix the screen. Moving on, the ride itself was pretty mediocre and isn’t nearly as good as the Justice League Clones. That surprise Next up, we took a ride on the park's powered coaster, Thunder Run! We waited about 15 minutes and hopped on in the best seats we could, The middle of the train! The ejector airtime was out of this world! Jk, this ride has no airtime to speak of but it was definitely more enjoyable than I was anticipating. Spiraling around through Toronto’s only mountain was surprisingly fun, at least I thought so. After our lovely ride on the powered coaster, it was time for The Bat. The line looked pretty long so we all hopped into the single rider line and were on the ride within 2 or 3 cycles. We rode The Bat purely for the credit because my buddy Dan wanted the next ride to be his 300th coaster credit, Leviathan! But before Dan was allowed his 300th credit, we desperately need to drain our bladders. We asked a worker where the closest bathroom was and were told it was by the games stand with the giant gorillas. But we could not find any giant gorillas so we asked a second worker. This employee told us it was by the games stand with the giant Pokemon. This was the hint we needed. #problemsolved So if you’re trying to find the bathroom by Leviathan, whip out Pokemon Go and you should be able to find it really quick!! We finally made our way in line for Leviathan where the q-line was about half full. We figured it would only take 20 minutes max since it was a high capacity B&M but we encountered a hefty amount of double stacking and the line took a little over 30 minutes instead. The crew here definitely was not as fast as the Fury 325 crew. There were probably 6 to 8 employees up on the platform but they still managed to double stack almost every cycle. Having run El Toro for years and being a throughput addict, it had me shaking my head. Anyways, the ride itself reminded me a lot Fury 325. The drop was amazing and I really loved the speed hill after the first overbank and the massive camelback had some killer airtime! I definitely prefer Fury but Leviathan is a top-notch ride as well! It’s easily the best ride in Canada! Next, we made our way over to Dragon Mountain and took a spin in the last car of the train. Fun Fact, this is the only Arrow looper with corkscrews that flip counter clockwise rather than clockwise. Overall, I've been on better Arrow loopers but nerding out about the corkscrews was fun. After Dragon Mountain, we made our way over to Wild Beast and were prepared for PAIN. Our friend Logan who had ridden it years ago gave the ride a 0/10 because it was too rough. Keep in mind that Logan oddly loved Son of Beast and said it wasn't rough at all. So, we were a little nervous going in but it honestly wasn't bad. The only sections I found rough was the turnaround near the station and the last turnaround. It's not as good as its companion Grizzly at Kings Dominion but it wasn't bad. Had a few good pops of airtime and the first turnaround is just as slow as Grizzly’s. Next up was Vortex where we encountered a full q-line. Now is it just me or are the q-lines at Canada's Wonderland really small? Like compared to the massive seas of switchbacks at Kings Island or Cedar Point, most of the q-lines at Canada's Wonderland are tiny. This was very odd to me considering Canada's Wonderland see's more visitors a year than Kings Island or Cedar Point. Even with the q-line being full, it was only a 20 minute wait thanks to its size and good dispatch times. The ride itself was awesome and packed a punch! Even though its layout is identical to The Bat at Kings Island, I liked Vortex a lot more. After riding most of the credits on the right side of the park, we made our way over to the left side of the park and started with the Mighty Canadian Mine Buster. We rode in the back car and overall, the ride was pretty decent. It didn’t have a lot of airtime but there were a few pops. We all loved the ending helix and thought the ride was pretty smooth! Now it was time for Behemoth. The first switchback was filled but the line was moving decently quick here. The crew wasn’t double stacking like they were at Leviathan. We took a ride in car 8 and I think I have a new favorite B&M hyper! Diamondback was previously my favorite B&M hyper but I had always found the section after the MCBR much weaker than the first half. Well with Behemoth, I loved the section after the MCBR! The helix coming off the MCBR actually had some nice positive G’s towards the bottom and the airtime hills following were superb! After Behemoth, we took a look at Backlot’s line and it was nearly a full q-line, so we decided we would ride later during Haunt with our fast lanes. We still needed to ride the best two rides in the park, Flight Deck and Time Warp. We decided to start with the better of the two, Time Warp. I just don’t understand why a major park that sees 3.7 million visitors a year has this ride. Does anyone know more? It’s pretty funny seeing it here. After a pretty shitty ride on Time Warp, we took a spin on Flight Deck to polish off our day time rides. We all know what’s good with SLC’s, moving on. By now it was about 4:30 and we hadn’t eaten yet. We had a bunch of food and beers waiting for us in the car so we figured we should hit the parking lot early and be ready for the park to reopen at 7. On the way out, we decided to grab our Fast Lanes where the worker told us we could have used our fast lanes all day. We were so confused because each one of us had called the park prior to our visit to ask what the deal was with Fast Lane and each time, we were told we could only use Fast Lane either during the day or haunt, but not both. We were slightly bummed but the beers we drank in the parking lot changed that. Peter and Dan went straight to the car to start drinking but I strolled around Leviathan until the park closed capturing some off-ride footage. I have the video linked below. After filming, I joined them in the car where we chugged down several craft beers and ate some cheap food. We drank beer after beer until 6:30 and by then, we were really feeling ourselves. We stumbled over to the front gate and made our way inside. Earlier in the day, our group had focus! We knew what order we wanted to ride the rides in and were very strategic. But now that we were drunk, things were different. We did accomplish some of our goals though. We started off with The Fly because we were missing the Wonderland wild mouse credit. After this, my memory of things is pretty clouded. I know we rode Backlot at some point. In fact, Dan and Peter completely forgot we rode it. I know we rode Behemoth right after Backlot and going up the lift hill, Peter turned to me and asked if we had ridden Backlot. I kid you not, we had just ridden Backlot 5 minutes before he asked me and it was hysterical. Being drunk, we were having a Behemoth fever and rode about 5 or 6 times in a row. We also took about 3 more rides on Vortex and another 5 on Leviathan. Surprisingly the park was not crowded at all and was actually more crowded during the daytime. If we weren’t drunk, we probably would have been mad that we hadn’t used our Fast Lanes earlier, but we didn’t really care. At some point, me and Peter went to do a few terror trails while Dan continued riding Leviathan. We made our way back over to Cornstalkers to find a pretty long line. We were still pretty buzzed and started trolling all the workers and scare actors. We asked several workers what the park WiFi password was (Wonderland has free WiFi), where we could buy some corn, and asking where the Tim Hortons was. At the end of the trail, we passed the entrance attendant and jokingly complained that we never found the Tim Hortons we were told was on the trial. We made that attendant laugh so hard, fun times. Next we continued trolling over at the Sci-Fi House under Leviathan. After our trolling session, we took several more rides on Leviathan. Around 11:30, we were in line for the front row and a train got stopped at the bottom of the lift hill. I’m not sure if it was a mechanical delay or if the train was lift stopped due to a rider with a phone. The operators were acting as if the ride had gone down mechanically but security showed up as well. The train was restarted and security talked to one of the rider’s on that train afterwards. Anyway, my friend Dan dropped his water bottle as we were boarding the train and it fell below the station track but on top of some metal. The attendants were nice enough to get an extremely long picker and were able to get Dan’s water bottle out for him. This was the first of many nice things that would happen to us. After our amazing ride in the front row, we ran down the exit to try and get in line one last time. It was around 11:55 at this point. However, we found the entrance had already been closed and we talked briefly with the entrance attendant. He felt bad since we had come from New Jersey and to our luck, a supervisor came down and said we could go up the exit and get on the last train of the night! He saw us waiting during the brief delay the ride had earlier and said it was fine. Before we went up the exit, he also asked if we had ridden Zombies 4D yet. Zombies 4D is the Haunt edition of Wonder Mountain’s Guardians. We told him we had ridden Wonder Mountain Guardian’s earlier in the day but not the Zombies version of it. Next thing you know, he called the ride and asked if they were still cycling trains. He hung up the phone and said we were good to go up the exit of Zombies after Leviathan! We were astonished at how nice he was! It was like VIP treatment! I forgot to get his name but I just want to give a shout out to that supervisor! Seriously an awesome dude! Having worked at Great Adventure for years and having been to several other parks in the United States, no employees usually care if you walk up to a closed ride at the end of the night. They are typically happy to turn you away but not at Canada’s Wonderland! We went up Leviathan’s exit and got on the last train of the night in the back row! Next we booked it over to Zombies 4D, ran up the exit, and also got on the last train of the night! The Zombies version is much better than the normal version played on Wonder Mountain’s Guardian. That concluded our night and we began heading out of the park. At this point, I realized in our drunken madness that we had forgotten to ride basically all the flats we had wanted to before. Luckily, we had rode SkyHawk at some point during the night and it was seriously fun. The cycle was a little short but flipping in the air was awesome! I got 11 flips in a row! Overall, we had an amazing day at Canada’s Wonderland and I seriously cannot thank that supervisor enough! That was some of the best hospitality I have ever gotten at a park! We will definitely be returning to Canada’s Wonderland as often as we can! (Especially since we missed almost all of the amazing flat rides the park has to offer.)

Nitro is the single worst line in the park at night on a Fright Fest Saturday (other than MAYBE Ka) because of the absurd amount of exit passes. The Flash Pass line is always all the way down the stairs, the queue is generally spilling out the entrance and a large portion of every train is filled with people using exit passes (and the exit pass line also creates a bottleneck that makes it hard to exit the train and slows down dispatches). It's miserable. The park actually changed the policy with several types of exit passes so that they now go up the flash pass line. This way there is less bottlenecking. But don't worry, with the crazy Fright Fest crowds GADV gets, there will still be plenty of bottlenecking! #trainstackinggalore