texcoaster

ACE CoasterCon is at SFOT next year. SFOT is well-known for their hospitality and killer surprises during an enthusiast event (they had intended to let folks at this year's Lone Star Coasterthon climb the lift hill on the Giant, but weather didn't allow it). The last CoasterCon at SFOT was in 1990, the year that Giant was born. One of my favorite memories is during ERT one night on Runaway Mine Train, they turned off ALL the lights in that corner of the park and ran it in total darkness. That little ride is freaking INSANE if you can't see those turns coming. To be fair, David asked if TPR was doing a trip there. Pretty sure he'd enjoy a TPR Trip there about 10048395 times better than an ACE Event. And yes David, we will certainly be doing another short Texas Trip in the future. Most likely not next summer, but you never know! We could end up doing a 'Bay Area Bash' type short trip if the ride ends up being as awesome as it looks! To be fair, I assumed that he would ask about a TPR trip because it might offer reduced costs, ERT, special treats or other fun stuff from the park, and the ability to enjoy the experience with other enthusiasts. Since TPR hadn't announced anything at SFOT and since y'all just did Texas this year, I figured that I'd clue him in on how to get what he's looking for next year. If the last CoasterCon at SFOT is any indication, next year's is going to be awesome. Excuse me for trying to help.

ACE CoasterCon is at SFOT next year. SFOT is well-known for their hospitality and killer surprises during an enthusiast event (they had intended to let folks at this year's Lone Star Coasterthon climb the lift hill on the Giant, but weather didn't allow it). The last CoasterCon at SFOT was in 1990, the year that Giant was born. One of my favorite memories is during ERT one night on Runaway Mine Train, they turned off ALL the lights in that corner of the park and ran it in total darkness. That little ride is freaking INSANE if you can't see those turns coming.

Surprised nobody's mentioned that the logo on the seats is the original logo... not the "New Texas Giant" steel-looking one that surfaced briefly a few weeks ago. I'm glad that logo didn't catch on.

Get new friends. Yours clearly have no concept of awesomeness.

ARE there no seatbelts? I can't see any belt receptacles in any of the pics, but they might be inconspicuous.

Possible source of nausea: the liquid in your inner ear that deals with balance and equilibrium can be jostled around (like on a coaster) by forces pulling in lots of different directions for a short period of time. Spinning rides tend to create gravitational forces in a single direction for extended periods of time. Those are the rides that make me ill. Closing your eyes and taking deep breaths will help with the vertigo, but you'll need to sit down for a bit right after the ride is over until your inner ear is settled again. If you or a friend get nauseous from nervousness (like when waiting in line), make sure that you eat something bland and absorbent (like plain bread or saltines) before you go to the park. This will keep the stomach from being upset by the nervous churning. Avoid high fat-content foods as well as dairy. These will make things worse, not better.

This was from a press release from the park to an Arlington Tx newspaper: Headlights and taillights, huh? Wonder if they'll light up or just be for show. Holy crap, if they leave the ride in the dark at night and just have the train headlights to light the way, that would be awesome. Aqua, black, and red. I like it. Obviously, they trotted out the aqua train for the preview.

Ok, that's 25 reply posts and not a single "OMG, I hate these, they're awful" post. That might be a new TPR record. I'd say SFOT knocked it out of the park with these.

I was holding my breath and not letting myself get too excited about this project... I mean, YES the layout is looking sick, but all it takes to ruin a coaster is crappy trains. I was hoping that they wouldn't have shoulder restraints, I was hoping that there wouldn't be seat belts (both of which kill airtime), and I was "iffy" about the idea of a Caddie with horns on the front. I saw these pics and I'm awestruck. The Caddie front looks awesome, the horns aren't detracting from the coolness at all, the saddle-leather looking seats (with a saddlehorn!!!), and stadium seating too??? The chassis has dual wheel guidance AND roadies to reduce shuffle and jackhammering. T-bar restraints instead of the infamous Gerstlauer people staples. Seatbacks low enough to see over. The only drawback is those window guards, which will look like crap within a week... but I would rather have those than a shoulder-high side on the car any day. If those guards are really necessary, I'm thinking that there are going to be some wicked-close clearances on this thing, probably in the overbanks. Su-weet!

^ good call, I had forgotten about that. Let's hope that the Giant reno turns out a bit smoother than the Bobsled did!

I'm pretty sure those supports are for the first helix. At LCST, you could tell that the track will dive through the lift structure to a low-level turn, but then rise up dramatically in order to fly over the lift hill. I think that's what you're seeing in that picture. I looked as best I could for any evidence of a second helix looparound, but didn't see one. When one of the folks asked the maintenance guy if the layout would be different, he said, "Yes." When asked if the finale would remain as it was before, he said, "no comment." He also gave the NC response to questions about whether the track would be shorter than the original layout, what the trains looked like, and pretty much every other question he was asked. One of the few answers he gave was in response to "how much does that magnetic brake (that he had on display) cost?" to which he replied, "a LOT."

I think the idea here was to get a RANGE of opinions of these coasters. I'm sure that there will be fans and detractors for each ride, each with valid (for them) reasons. I thought Silver Star was meh, but I know others who rave about it. Do you ever decide what movie to see based on just ONE review?

Of the list, the ones I've been on (before this thread undoubtedly gets locked) Silver Star - meh. Colossos - felt like a steel coaster. Fun, lotsa airtime, but not very woodie-like. Tonerre de Zeus - got really good rides on it, but I hear that it isn't aging well Goudurix - least favorite steel coaster of all time. Slow, rough, and spectacularly painful with those weird headrests. Sure is pretty, though.

On a train with single person ratcheting lapbars, the seat dividers are there to insure that the rider doesn't come out from under the bar to the side. On a train with a single lapbar across a single bench seat (buzzbars) the seat divider is there to allow for single riders. Most insurance policies will not allow single riders on a bench seat without a seat divider because it's a simple act to swing your legs around and sit sideways on the seat like a couch, completely out from under the lapbar. It wasn't always that way, of course, but until the courts start saying "it's your fault you fell out, dumbass" instead of "awww, they should've done more to prevent your stupidity, here's a boatload of money" then we will continue to be over-restrained on rides.

Looking at this shot on Screamscape today http://www.screamscape.com/html/sfot_3.htm It appears that the additional support for the overbanked turns might not be buttresses on the outside of the turn, but rather ties back into the center of the turn. This is the same technique used on the Boardwalk Bullet to be able to push the track right to the edge of the lot without having structure go out into the bay or into the road (or the Starbucks!) Looking at the steel supports for the overbanked portion, it looks like the track could end up being enclosed inside the structure kinda like the flying carpet used to be. That would be beyond awesome.

And you're thinking it's going to corrode any more than a typical steel coaster because...? The track is painted (rust protection there). And the ledgers appear to be galvanized or have some kind of anti-corrosion coating (rust protection there). The ledgers are galvanized according to SFOT management, mentioned at Coasterthon last weekend. They were waiting for the last batch of them to be delivered after being galvanized, but "nearly all" the track was on site.

One of the locals at the park Saturday said that the creek levels have been much higher after a rain ever since they built the Cowboy's stadium just upstream. It seems that a lot of land that used to help soak up the water is now parking lot. That's probably true, since the flooding Saturday seemed quite abnormally high for the amount of rain that day. I've been at SFOT on rainy days before, but never saw the creek flood as quickly as it did this weekend.

^^ looking at the 3rd and 4th pics, everyone notices the bunny hills at the end and the double-up after the first drop... but OMG look at the bunny hill next to the double-up! What used to be a long, curving rise into the midcourse is now a short and steep bunny hop with an insanely steep curving pullup. I can only imagine how fast the train will have to slam that bunny hill to make it all the way up to the midcourse brake. I'm starting to get a bit nervous about this now. When they get all this track in place and run the first trains full of dummies with accelerometers, I'm wondering how accurate their calculations of G-forces are on a train and track system that are completely new and untested. This layout seems to be REALLY pushing the envelope with little margin for error. I would hate to see this thing riddled with trims all over it -- or worse, having to reprofile several of those extreme bunny hops to reduce the ejector air forces. Got my fingers crossed and hoping for good engineering data, but if this thing opens with the park on March 5, I'm going to be really surprised. I'm fully expecting reprofiling delays (though I hope I'm wrong).

Interesting tribute to Mr Rodriguez and his marathon records. I was at the park during his EGF stint and rode it several times on the same train as him. He seemed like a nice guy. Oddly enough, the year before that I also happened to be at SFStL when he was doing a marathon on Boss. He probably thinks I'm stalking him or something.

Just got back from Lone Star Coasterthon. I had hoped to post lots of pics and info from a Q&A session, but all of that was rained out. Johnson creek flooded again and the entire site was unsafe for folks to go tromping about in. Sharon, the SFOT public relations queen, was really bummed about it since they had planned to let us climb the lift hill (!) Anyway, I'm not sure what we'd have learned in the Q&A anyway, since the one guy they had on hand to talk to us was VERY tight-lipped about pretty much everything, especially about specifics of the layout, the trains, etc. Lots of "you'll have to wait and see" and "I'm not going to lose my job by telling y'all that" kind of answers. Steve Martindale (SFOT pres) did confirm that they have a train onsite and it's "not like anything we've ever seen before". He didn't confirm nor deny any specifics about the looks of them. We did get to walk up the exit ramp (still raining heavily, so I didn't get pics) and get a closer look than what you can see from the park. The pics don't do this thing justice. It is amazing looking. I had my doubts about this project, though I was hoping for the best. Now I'm completely stoked and even bought a SFOT season pass for 2011 yesterday. (We got to get them at the price for a ticket upgrade of $39.95) Some tidbits: The first drop is insane. The double-up doesn't look as violent as it does in the pics, but the turn after it looks SICK. The second drop is a lot steeper than before and goes about 20ft or so further down than the original. The overbanked turn that lines back up with the first drop still looks impossible. There HAS to be more structure going up on that. Period. After the midcourse, the ride used to do a twisting drop into the structure. That part looks pretty much like before. After a curving hilltop, the original layout dipped slightly and then rose into a high turn to enter the lift hill helix. The new layout does the drop off the midcourse, a curving hilltop, and then a STEEP drop through the structure into a wicked ground-level turn right at the edge of the station, then shoots all the way back up to a highly-banked turn that should then cross over the lift like before. Whether or not it will circle around again before the finale remains to be seen. There was no way to tell from the supports that currently exist. As for the finale, only the final bunny hop is installed. I looked as best I could and even rode the antique car ride for a different angle, but I couldn't see ANY new ledgers or wood anywhere on that section of the ride. Clearly, the final bunny hop is going to have to come from track that is inside the structure, so the lack (so far) of new track ledgers might indicate that if there are changes to be made on that section, they probably won't be major - at least not major enough to alter the structure for it.

Wood: Son of Beast with the loop and the bad trains. Three-day migraine after riding, ruined a big chunk of my trip. Steel: Goudurix at Parc Asterix. Seriously, only a coaster a masochist could love. Slow, rough, horrible transitions, ear-boxing OTSRs, and odd headrests with two vertical strips of hard rubber in the center that make your skull want to fold in half when you hit them... and you hit them A LOT.

I couldn't disagree more. One thing I really liked about the old layout was that little slowdown right before the finale - it was kinda like Giant was saying, "ok, take a deep breath, here... we..... go!" To barrel down a spiral and right into the finale would take away the contrast you get from that little lull in the action then the maelstrom of intensity that followed.

going back in time..... Wood Rattler, opening season. Oh. My. God. Texas Cyclone, post turn. Sideways airtime with simultaneous headchopper. Wicked. Jack Rabbit, double down. 'nuff said. Steel PepsiMax. Too bad the rest of the ride blows. Expedition GeForce. Perfection. Excalibur (formerly Dexter Frebish's Electric Roller Ride) at SFAW in the back seat. Fixed lapbars, not expecting much from the ride, flat track leading to the drop, constant acceleration and then the car just got yanked out from under your butt. Was always fun to watch the braggers pull their raised hands back down to the bar in panic on that one. Very few coasters consistently made me feel that I was literally going to be thrown from the car, but that one did.

I've read in a couple of places that roughly 15% of Giant's layout will be modified. So... lift hill is higher, drop is steeper, double-up into first turn, first turn modified, second turn modified, third turn modified, double-up into midcourse. That seems like pretty close to 15%, wouldn't you think? Maybe they're going to get the first part radically new, then leave the stuff after the midcourse pretty much like it was? If so, I'm loving that idea. I'm hoping to be at Lone Star Coasterthon next weekend and one of the perks is supposed to be a tour of the construction site. I'll take lots of pics and ask as many questions as I can.

Back in college, I had an apartment across the street from Astroworld, a season pass, and no money. I also had a part-time job with a graveyard shift, so I had all day to kill with no cash. I ended up spending about three summers walking to SFAW every day and riding TxCyclone. Occasionally, I'd hit a water ride to cool down, but mostly it was just the Cyclone. Back then, they couldn't dispatch the train with single riders, so they'd have to wait until they could find a way to pair up the single. It was a PITA. The ride crews got to know me really well and would tell me to just wait at the exit and hop in whenever there was a single rider. I was often on nearly every train that went out. Made me happy, made them happy. No need to scream, "Is anyone riding alone?" at the queues. It wasn't uncommon to get 75+ rides in during the day. It's also where I really learned to appreciate the nuances of a wood coaster and the subtleties of changes due to temperature, train weight, time of day, etc. Every ride was different and I met some really interesting people on the way up the lift hill. Total rides on TxCyclone in the nearly 3 decades it ran: 10,000+ Other noteworthy marathons: Viper, SFAW: 89 rides in one day on 7/10/89 Voyage: 34 rides in the dark during ERT (plus numerous rides before that during the day). I was SORE! Boardwalk Bullet: 88 rides in one day. Not bad, considering it's only open noon-10pm! Screechin' Eagle: lost count after 30, rode for at least three more hours after that. Never got off the train and it was pouring rain most of the day. One of my best-ever coaster memories... loved the way the water sloshed in the floor of the car when we'd round a turn or hit the brakes. LOTS of other coasters with 20+ in a row during ERT or when crowds are light.