JT325

Those are beautiful posters! Thanks for sharing, miss this place. I'll never forget how beautiful and intimidating Texas Cyclone was... and how dang tight those curves and drops were.

It looks great... I asked about the length b/c it definitely looks longer than the one at Dollywood. Waldameer can't go wrong, love the place. A rare class act, top notch everything. I'm a huge fan of Comet... that special smart AND classic station.

Wow, that's gonna be a huge hit for them. Looks nice and long, does anyone know the lengths of the longest water coasters and where this lies? I seem to remember the Dollywood one was on the short side (after riding those at Holiday World especially).

I've learned not to trust the posted hours the day of... for years they started closing the park at a drop of rain during the week. They would say the weather wasn't safe, but really its "oh well, we ain't gonna make enough money today so shut down and send everyone home." Not to trust pretty much anything about a SF, sadly. They have so many good people, they just don't know how to train them correctly.

^Those are fun! From Americana in Ohio I presume?

But, when it does open... I bet it will run close to the projected capacity. The crew will know what to do in any common guest situation; the station and queue will be clean. The communication in the station will be clear and the walkway into and from the ride will be relatively close to the midway/main walk way. There will be good accomidations for ADA folks, and minimum crowding in station, and station exit (the turnstyle will be at the entrance of the staion where it belongs). In that respect, it will be totally different than Six Flags. Let it open late, let it open in 2025. At least it will be operable and user-friendly. Cedar Fair has higher standards, so what if it's late

I just tried out GG's work at Kings Island last week. Since the layers are on their side, it's a stiffer track.. and it feels as such. It's not like brand new wood coaster track, it's got a hardness to it. Not sure how that will go over on already steel-framed rides ... too much stiffness leads to worse rougness later. But hey, maybe GG has that all figured out.

Rumor is Cornball and Hurricane (in dire need) are slated for Gravity Group work. Long overdo, hope it happens. The current owners inherited a mess, they're working on getting everything together. Let's give em props.

Great pictures! The park looks fantastic and clean.

^Noted. Bummer. Anytime we get a lot of high up hijinks (hello Gerstlauer and your shaky one-car rides) we get lots of vibration. No ball joints or hinge points, it's gotta shake. Like an Arrow.

The S&S coasters have operational/sensitivity issues... as with Maxx Force at Great America. But here's a couple AWESOME things I also noticed: 1 - the seats are the most comfortable *new* coaster seats from anyone in a LONG time. They don't cut off circulation, and they don't rack my boy parts. You have room to move, opposite, say rmc, and it doesn't constrain my shoulders like Mack. They don't ratchet down tighter either, all an important enjoyment factor for me. 2 - Maxx Force, at least, is a VERY smooth ride. It doesn't have the Intamin GRIND found on rides such as Millenium Force, has no shaking or heavy vibration found on Hang Time at Knott's, and no noticeable rattling. To pull of the relative smoothness of a Schwarzkopf, oh yeah... Way to go S&S. So many have tried. Maxx Force only runs one train now, they put the other one away (in the Dark Knight building). Lemon chilld kid said it just sets up too much with 2 trains. But look at your clearance coming out of a huge inversion into brakes and the immediate station - of course it will be sensitive. Gotta stay in the SF budget I guess.

The CP Blue Streak original trains (when I worked on it 92-93 before all the "gear" on them now) was said to be "6 tons empty" by the maintenance guys. That seems about right ... on the 2 bench buzz bars on Hoosier Hurricane at Indiana Beach, the fact plate on the train says 1,900 lbs per car, all this seems about right. Throw on ratchet bars and their heavy associated under-train-gear, a few 40lb steel core headrests (seat dividers are only like 5 lbs) and you have a train that is too heavy to run on the standard wood coaster track that was used into the 90s, and it's structure. Rumor was those changes added 200lbs to each car. Putting in those heavy steel brake fin brackets didn't help... most woodies had smooth skid brakes. Surely, skid brakes aren't great in the rain, but new mag brakes are so much nicer than the metal clamp/fin brakes. (NOTE: Waldameer did the smartest thing ever by adding mag brakes - in a curved station no less - to a classic woodie. It's a super smooth and reliable stop, and the trains can stack in the station one right behind the other, so smart. It would be nice to see more conversions like this.) The 90s brought an onslaught of those PTC changes (the parks as for it; PTC gives them what they ask for), and so many great wooden coasters dropped off the community radar. They got bumpy and rough; they ALL had to have extra "mini-bents" built between standard bents on all the pull-out and steep slopes. Add to that the awkwardness of those ratchet bars againts the legs, no fun. I believe some states (Maryland) have a rule against head rests on wooden coasters as they cause more injuries. I'll never forget how those wood coasters sailed over speed bumps with the trains as they were meant to run; effortlessly flying airborne over the hills and down the drops. Now, it's all a fight with lots of slamming and grinding. These rides ran virtually perfectly for years and decades in some cases. It was a case of liability... due to people doing stupid things, getting hurt and the park getting sued; it was big at the corporate parks, naturally. Ironically, I think there have been more injuries with ratchet bars. I've gotten away from myself a bit, but had to run with it. Damn those rides were good. So many awesome woodies in top 20s didn't mean anything anymore.

One guess I heard is the CP might take this chance to "take back the record" from Kingda Ka. Really? Why bother. Cedar Point cares about a quality experience. I *LOVE* TTD. Rode Ka once in 2006 and I'll be fine never riding it again. It was enlightening to see how much different such similar coasters can be. Presentation, station, operation, maintenace (and restraints!) mean a lot with this sort of ride.

They're hard at work, it's looking great!

I'll piggy back on what bert425 and Pedrinho said; it's good stuff, you're gonna need time. I went there for like 8 PPPs in a row, and I would always get there Thursday (Covered Bridge festival + some rides + carousel!), stay Friday (not sure if coasters are usually open, but most everything is), and then Saturday and all day Sunday. Still go home wanting more! Of course, we do have variation in opinion, a good thing!