texcoaster

I have a friend who had to hire a crane to remove the tree from his garage. The tree was almost 3ft diameter and about 40ft tall. It squashed the garage flat, ripped the garage from the rest of the house (nice big hole in one of the bedroom walls now) and totalled the three cars that were in the garage at the time. My mom lost the two big trees in her yard, but luckily they didn't hit the house. SOMETHING hit her storage shed in the back yard, though, but whatever it was tore up the door to the shed, then kept flying. All her fences are destroyed. Almightyfire, you're out in Missouri City, which was pretty far from the eye and on the "clean side" of the storm. Folks farther east got hit a lot harder.

My favorite part was where they are going to use wind and solar power, then give back to the community what they don't use. Whoooooo, they haven't got much idea how much power they're going to need, do they? I would think that this pretty much eliminates any thoughts of having a launched coaster, unless they plan to blackout the park every time it shoots the train.

It's only been a week since the hurricane, and I can't believe how much cleanup has been done on the Boardwalk. Streets are cleared, debris is piled up and waiting to be removed, workers are replacing siding and roofs... No rides just yet, other than the Bullet. It (at least structurally) seems to have come through the storm just fine. I'm sure that the motors and brakes and such are ruined, but those are easier to replace than structure. If they keep moving at this pace, I don't see any reason they couldn't have the Boardwalk up and running by Thanksgiving... and possibly even with rides by New Year's. THAT would be cool.... to bring in the new year with a ride on a coaster, plus a nice package of brand new flats.

^ The fact that those restaurant buildings are still standing at all shows that they were built with wind and water in mind. The Bullet is still standing, and was built to withstand winds of 130mph. Texas has building codes in place that require such things. What you can't really totally prepare for, however, is when an older structure that was built before those codes, or isn't in the best repair, breaks apart and comes slamming into your structure. In talking with one of the GG guys via email, that was the big concern... that pieces of some building would come crashing into the Bullet on some huge wave and just bulldoze it. I used to run a B&B on Crystal Beach. I had glass that was rated to withstand a 2X4 hitting it at 125mph without breaking. On top of that, I had steel shutters that covered every window as well as both doors. As far as I can tell from the arial footage I've seen, that house is GONE. I'm assuming that the older house on the beach blew apart, took out country singer Tracy Byrd's house (which was right in front of mine), and both of those pummeled "Out by the Sea" into matchsticks. Most of those houses in that neighborhood were build around the same time, so they were built to the same codes... and they're all gone now.

You know, for all its urban sprawl, concrete jungle, lack of trees, strip-mall takeover, no-zoning-eclectic areas, I really DO love my city. In spite of all the aforementioned stuff, this city has great people and fascinating architecture. Both of those things got hit hard this weekend. It's going to be a long, long recovery. I don't doubt that the KB will be back, as will the Bullet. KB was Texas' 6th most visited tourist site last year, thanks in great part to the Bullet. There's no way they won't rebuild, and now that they see how rides bring families down for a day of playing and eating, perhaps they'll focus even more on the rides when they decide what to put back down there.

that is on the opposite side of the Boardwalk, which is about 2ft higher than the Bullet. The water is rising about 1ft per hour, which will be way faster as the storm gets closer. It's still 9 hours from landfall

kemah boardwalk already flooded. Expecting 15ft of water (meaning 13ft of water for the Bullet). This isn't just flood water, but moving, churning water with possible 20ft waves on top of the surge. I'll be very surprised if the Bullet escapes major damage. I half expect it to be swept out to sea.

Doubtful. Even the video on their website has sounds of squealing wheels in need of grease.

According to the local newscaster (who was at the Boardwalk for his report), Kemah officials expect the entire Boardwalk to be "under massive water" by Friday evening. The Boardwalk is on Galveston Bay, which is expected to have a storm surge approaching 20ft (higher than the coastal surge, since the hurricane is pushing water into the bay, trapping it and not allowing it to flow back out). If there is a 20ft surge, there will be about 18ft of water over the Boardwalk. I've seen reports on local forums that the Bullet trains have been removed, but if the worst happens, the lift motor, brakes, transfer track, and much of the station trackage will be submerged in salt water. Think "Mega Zeph". On the bright side, it would allow Kemah to say "closed due to storm repairs" and leave it down long enough to debug it for good.... assuming it's still there. I seem to remember the Gravity Group guys telling me that it should withstand Cat 3 winds, so there shouldn't be any wind damage, unless some other structure (like that little house next door, or one of the boats in the adjacent marina) rips apart and collides with it.

^ FIFTY MILES PER HOUR Rain guard gutters work because the water is fairly slow and because there's not that much of it. Take a LOT of water and run it down a ramp at a good speed, and you'll get trickles that hug the track, but 99% of it is going straight down.

Won't be able to make it in the morning, but will try to get down there by mid-afternoon. Will miss the ERT, but I'll get over it.

OK, let's put down the bong and think for a minute... In order to go past 90deg, the vehicle must be attached to a track like a coaster. OK, no problem. But the WATER would have to be attached to the track too... otherwise, it would get to the 90deg point, then just fall straight down, regardless of whether or not the track kept curving inward. That would be pretty lame, actually.

Sounds like my kind of ride! They could call it "Hypocrisy: the Ride"

I just can't imagine them building any sort of religious-themed park without having something in there that totally offends someone enough for them to never come back. Christianity? Which version would be represented? Catholic? Protestant? Could a group of Irish people all visit it without half of them getting upset? Will they have a dark ride that lets you ride through the inquisition and see people being tortured, maimed, and killed all in the name of the Prince of Peace? Would games of skill offer Get Out of Hell Free cards as prizes?

Both suffer from maximum suckage, to be true, but I hated them both. If I read the topic correctly, these are rides that are death machines, but you like them anyway. If we include death machines that we also hate, my list is too long to type... but Goudurix would be near the top of it.

Agreed. I freaking LOVE the Ultimate. I didn't ever ride it with the OTSRs (thank God), but that thing kicked my butt from start to finish.... and the only thing I could think afterward was OMG, AGAIN!

Oh, this can be fun or this can be tragically bad.... On the fun side, I love the idea of strolling, cartoon-like biblical characters like Noah, Jesus, maybe the whale that swallowed Jonah... OOOO, and Jezebel! Let's not forget her, with her "Biblical Ho" costume! I think one of the restaurants should have all-you-can-eat loaves and fishes. Coaster about heaven and hell? Yeah, sounds like a dive machine to me! Maybe they will call it the Holy Roller. Hey, if they do the water trough like on Shiekra, they could say it was the Parting of the Red Sea... The great flood coaster could be a Mack water coaster/ flume ride or something. Ark-shaped cars would climb to the top of Mt Ararat before making the plunge. Back to the heaven and hell coaster.... it could be a twin-track coaster. Put two LIM "spaghetti bowl" coasters side by side. The heaven side has lap bars, the hell side has OTSRs. There should be a petting zoo around the Noah's ark replica, with two of everything. A shop that sells crucifixes could be called "My Cross to Bear". Communion Cookie snacks could be Nilla Wafers with a little cup of purple grape juice for dipping. There could be a rotor with flames painted along the walls, and called "The Fiery Furnace". Jesus would appear as a hologram amongst the riders just before the ride ends. Most important: every ride should have a thrill factor high enough to get all the riders to constantly scream Oh, My God! I got a million of em, folks! I'm here till Tuesday. Try the veal.

I think that there haven't been any replies because you had the audacity to rank Voyage over El Toro. Don't you know that around here, the only people who do that are "fanboys" and emos? You're likely to get a bad reputation by saying you rank Voyage ahead of ET, let alone ranking it #1 overall!!! I'm glad you liked it. It's my #1 coaster, too, but then my reputation was shot on here long ago. OH, and you can't like the Boardwalk Bullet, either, since you live nearby. It's a lousy coaster, you just have "local bias" or something if you like it.

Guru beat me to it, but I will agree with him and state that my post was not a retaliation in any way. He asked how BB would compare to RFII and I gave reasons why I don't think a comparison of two very different rides should be a basis for hopping a plane down to ride the Bullet. "Is it possible to just judge which is better?" No, it's not. Unlike many other TPR posters, I refrain from telling someone else which ride they should like better, especially when I've not ridden one of them. Everyone likes different things, so my criteria for "better" might not equal his.... and that's OK. How do I rate rides? I think about two coasters sitting next to each other and ask myself this question: "If you only had time to ride ONE of the two coasters right now, which one would you ride?" Whatever coaster is the answer is the one that gets ranked higher. Simple as that. I don't break it down into "more airtime, smoother, better laterals" and all that. I just think, "of the two, which one would I ride?" and let it go at that. Between Voyage and Bullet, it would be Voyage. No question. Between Voyage and any other coaster I've ridden, same answer. Bullet would come in at #4 if I combine my wood and steel list... behind Voyage, ExpeditionGeForce, and SROS at SFNE.

Arrive at noon and beat the crowds. If you can go an a weekday, even better. From noon till mid-afternoon, you should be able to get lots of rides. The queue backs up around 5pm and lasts till closing. As for best seats, the front is smooth and fun, the back is a bit rougher with killer ejector air. First drop in the back seat is unreal, but the front is wicked in the zig-zag. I'm not crazy about any of the middle seats, but rows 10&11 are good. Rows 2-4 are rough.

That's like trying to compare Batman to Scream. Built by the same folks, sure, but that's pretty much where the similarity ends. RFII is spread out with lots of hills and airtime. BB is a tightly wound tempest of direction changes, quick pops of air, and non-stop intensity.... well, at least it is NOW! Anyway, the focus of the two rides couldn't be more different. BB, because of the insanely small plot of land, is not like any other coaster layout. I'm looking forward to riding RFII and Hades. Right now, Voyage and Bullet are my #1 and #2 woodies!

One of the ride ops told me that one ride on Saturday came in at 60 seconds. It was running 64s on Sunday when I was there, but that was with a completely dry track. I remember the old days when a dry track would cause it to run at 75-78! I'm trying to coincide my 1000th ride with the one-year birthday on Aug 31. Only 418 more rides to go!

Yeah, that's why unique steel coasters like Magic Mountain's Flashback, Kings Island's Bat, and Knott's Windjammer had such a long and happy life, while woodies like the Coney Cyclone, Kennywood Thunderbolt, and Kings Island Beast never have anyone in line for them. A GOOD wood coaster will often be the longest line in the park, no matter how old the coaster is.

OK, I know that I've gone on and on ad nauseum about those infamous "rain rides" on opening day when the lift-to-brake time was in the 64 second range... After work today, it was running in the 62s with an occasional tap into the 61s. It's not the same ride it used to be. Not even close. Toward the end of the night, some of the ride ops got a chance to ride for the first time since it was fixed. Reaction was unanimous: OMFG. I had placed Bullet at #2 on my woodie list with a note that said "on good days". When it ran in the 68-second range, it was a good ride. Anything over 70 seconds and it was pretty lame. On those days, it barely cracks my top 20 woodie list. Tonight, though, with every ride pulling 62s or faster, it was some of the most intense coastering I've done in ages. The drop and zig-zag opening are still insane, but they're SMOOTH. The whole rest of the ride is affected by this, since there's no shimmy, shuffle, or slamming to slow down the train. The double-up into the second big hill gave me airtime.... in the back seat. No, really. The second big drop (that it used to crawl over) is barely slowing down now and the whole back half of the train gets ejector air. The bunny hop between that drop and the lower bay turn is floater-city. The hop over the queue line next to Saltgrass has some wicked lateral action with air, "the pop" is back in a big way (love the sound of upstops slamming the rails like a machine gun!), and even the drop into the under-the-station turn is giving most of the train some nice floater air. If there is any roughness to complain about, it's between the station fly-under and the brake run. That section has NEVER been fast, and so the track has broken in differently than what the train is hitting now. Once that section gets worn a bit, it should smooth out a little, but I can imagine that the next trackwork is likely to be near the end of the ride. Speaking of the end of the ride... remember how it used to struggle to get to the brake run, then take nearly two minutes to haul its ass through the magnets? No longer. Now the front car gets airtime coming into the brakes, the magnets barely affect the train (it is still doing around 20mph after going through the magnets), and the train screams into the station for a rather abrupt stop. Word has it that another mag-brake is arriving tonight and will be installed tomorrow. That might slow it down enough for two-train operation, which they will need for the holiday weekend. As it is now, the brakes they have won't stop the train before the station brakes! Bottom line: if you haven't ridden the Bullet since it opened today, you haven't ridden the Bullet. The old Bullet is no more. Long live the new Bullet! (fingers crossed that it actually will run for awhile like this without needing more trackwork)

Please do. If it's running in the low-60's range, then it is rivaling those infamous opening-day rain rides. Hell, even Rastus thought those rides were awesome and he hates everything. My best recollection from those rain rides were that they were some of the most intense coaster experiences I've ever had. It's also MUCH smoother at those speeds, when the train isn't falling back down on the banked corners. As for March, yeah, I can understand that. I think March was the last time I rode it, and I just wasn't inspired to go back down there and ride again any time soon. I'll be out there Saturday at opening to get in some rides before the crowds hit.