knaiwear

Kings Island has had ridiculously long lines on new-coaster-opening days as long as I can remember, back to 6+ hours for Outer Limits. I can't think of any other parks with a history of such absurd lines for new rides. I don't know what it is about KI but I guess locals just love their new stuff. I expect opening weekend for MT to be insane unless weather keeps people away.

I rode the one at SFFT, didn't like it, and won't ever ride one again... so yeah, on a personal level if I had to choose between another Free Spin and a coat of paint for something I'd pick the paint. But that's purely selfish and I recognize there are still plenty of good reasons a park will benefit from a FreeSpin.

1200 is pretty reasonable, a dispatch every 72 seconds. Since they'll be able to run three trains they should never have to wait for a train to finish the course, one will always be ready. Unfortunately this (like many GCIs) has a turn between the waiting block and the station which takes a big chunk out of the possible load time...

Same maint guy also said the launch was working beautifully. It's an awfully big stretch to say that the launch is working beautifully if the launch controls were the problem of a month-long downtime. I also don't see how a pothole on a ride that has topper track can be casually fixed cause maintenance has got a few extra hours and the weather is nice. I would think it would require some modification to the steel and/or structure itself but I am certainly no expert here. I don't know man, the whole thing just isn't adding up for me. Not that I expect it to add up on a coaster forum, we're just getting bits of info and who knows if any of it is real (except for the Irvine Ondrey guy), and it doesn't really matter anyway, so I'll excuse myself now.

I guess... but saying "down the road, but its far down our list" on 11/1 doesn't really translate into fixed on 11/10 to me. Or even earlier considering other recent reports of no pothole. Just seems odd.

So the maintenance guy who said they weren't planning on addressing the potholes was..... Mistaken? Confused?

Coasters don't go down for two weeks for "computer issues" especially with no signs of life - that's almost certainly a sign of larger problems (hardware, train, structure, etc.)

Iron Rattler's trains are by far the most comfortable of all the RMCs. The seats are nice and open and the restraints are snug without feeling restrictive, especially on the legs. Seatbelts are easy for the ride ops to check (not buried behind the bars) and the overall experience is just much better. Hard to say if they really ride better, but they certainly are butter smooth on IR and Texas Giant, and don't have all of the horrible noises that other RMCs make. I understand why RMC went to their own train design, but deep down I really wish they hadn't.

The seat belts on RMC trains do not have sensors and are not tied to the controls.

I can't think of any uphill launches other than Lightning rod, Hulk, and DLP Space mountain... all of which are very different methods of propulsion. I don't really consider maverick as a "launch" but it is technically similar to Lightning Rod. But then, California Screamin uses LIMs on the lift, just at a more normal speed...

Right there with you. I could ride SheiKra and Griffon all day, but I rode Valravn three times and don't care if I ever ride it again. I wasn't fully ready to place the blame on the vests, but the ride just doesn't have the same exciting feeling the others do.

^so, since TC took 9 months to complete in great weather, should we expect this to be finished in late June? July? August?

^Yeah there are probably a few internationally that are more, but I can't think of anything else in the US. Knotts is open 364 days a year, which is about 3x as many days some of the seasonal parks. I would guess Fun Spot doesn't need to run as many cycles. I don't think there are any other daily-op wood coasters now that Gwazi is gone.

^^I like it, it's backwards from what I was thinking but it makes pretty good sense and would be totally different than what's out there. The only thing I question is the wide radius of the turn between the "molten steel shed" and the "2nd lift" - it looks like it's wide enough for a medium-speed section, not a slow speed turn before a lift?

Good catch! My ride did not have "evacuation mode" so I didn't piece that together in my head. Again I am not an expert The report specifically commented that the control panel showed the location of all of the trains. Panels don't show exactly where they are on the track, because there aren't sensors everywhere. Maintenance would have seen five indicators but because they believed only four trains were on the track, the fifth one was presumed to be a "ghost" that was manually cleared at the base of the lift. This reminds me of how California Screamin's control booth has signs up indicating which trains are running - a manual solution to help keep everyone abreast of exactly what's going on.

Turnaround at the top of the lift seems most likely.

Appreciate your insight. However I will still default to the notion that if you were not involved in the investigation then you are not in a position where you can say that it has massive flaws. Or even ANY flaws that are relevant to the accident. I am confident that the investigation would have noted that if it was the case. I have only directly worked on one roller coaster's control system, so I am also not an expert. On that ride under normal operation, the clearing of blocks manually is not possible without a person out on the block pressing a button. However, in maintenance mode, you can do whatever you want as a solo operator, bypassing almost all restrictions. There's a valid need for this as maintenance often needs to do something, like move a train, that doesn't go through the normal motions of the ride. HOWEVER - you should never ever run in maintenance mode with people on trains. That's a safety standard that I thought was international. If you need to run it manually, you get everyone out. Period. It appears that this policy/procedure didn't exist on Smiler (among others) and that's why the park is at fault instead of the control system.

Are you a control system expert? Because, as the article states: "A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found no fault with the track, the cars, or the control system that keeps the cars apart from each other when the ride is running." The investigation concluded that the system did its job and the humans did not. I'm inclined to believe that they checked everything out and the system did not, in fact, have flaws - let alone "massive" ones.

I've had about 10 kidney stones of varying sizes and painfulness. From the article, it sounds like they made a model of the kidney and simulated the exit of the stone from the kidney. This is exactly what you DON'T want - a stone leaving the kidney and going into the ureter (on its way to the bladder). That's the point where it can cause extreme, debilitating pain. The key to passing a stone is getting it to fully exit the body, after navigating the ureter and finally leaving the bladder. Once it's in the bladder it's just annoying, but not generally painful. Personally, I would rather have had an experiment that causes the stones to actually leave the bladder, since (for me) that's where they hang out for a while inexplicably. That said, I one time had a stone in my bladder for a good week or so, and it finally decided to exit immediately after a couple back-to-back rides on Tower of Terror at DHS. That bathroom now holds a special place in my heart. (TMI?)

PART of the lift, and it was a small setback. The ride still started construction in August and wouldn't have opened before Memorial Day since that's when SF opens all its rides. It simply isn't reasonable to assume that Mean Streak would be able to magically get done by May at this point. No other RMC has been built that fast.

^Twisted Colossus took nine months to complete.

Didn't it open in October? aka after the 2015 Golden ticket awards? Seems reasonable that there would be a mid year cutoff point for a mid year awards event.

One of the coaster podcast owners (not sure if I'm allowed to name them here?) said they spotted Alan Shilke, Fred Grubb and some executives from KW walking around the Thunderbolt area today. Could this be the next Iron Horse conversion?