DorneyKid14 Posted January 28, 2016 Share Posted January 28, 2016 That track piece is kind of like my life: lonely and always being left out Nooooo, it just means that you're part of a really awesome bigger picture that just hasn't come together yet! Or it means you´ll be ridden by thousands this year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blakelemay23 Posted January 28, 2016 Share Posted January 28, 2016 Am i mistaken or is there a structure going up near Blue Streak? The Sandusky Register had an article recently about the station being castle themed but it looked very modern in the POV & Birdseye videos. Maybe there is something we are missing here? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DorneyKid14 Posted January 28, 2016 Share Posted January 28, 2016 Am i mistaken or is there a structure going up near Blue Streak? The Sandusky Register had an article recently about the station being castle themed but it looked very modern in the POV & Birdseye videos. Maybe there is something we are missing here? Valravn's station and merchandise shop are going to be castle theme. The building you see going up are the photo and merchandise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coaster Curt Posted January 28, 2016 Share Posted January 28, 2016 Several pages back I noticed someone said that they speculate that Mean Streak, and Corkskrew would be the next two coasters to go, but I personally would speculate Iron Dragon to go before Corkskrew. It does fill a role for a family ride, but there are several other family ride options to fill that void. But, I don't think any of CP coasters will be hitting the chopping block anytime soon. I don't see Iron Dragon going anywhere with according to Tony's blog got nearly 1.1 million riders last year. Back to Gemini for a second as well. A couple years ago we rode Gemini about 20 times over two days because it was so much fun with the dueling coasters, two years ago much the same, then last year we went again and the ride was terrible. Most transitions into the curves and especially the turn into the station were back breaking. We rode it twice and honestly going back this year we have no intention of riding it again because the last time was so bad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coasterbill Posted January 28, 2016 Share Posted January 28, 2016 Probably because you rode it in a wheel seat. It's an Arrow, don't do that lol. Ride it in the middle row of any car. It'll be a great ride. And yeah Iron Dragon is insanely popular. That ride crushes it every single year when the ridership numbers come out and it always has a full (though admittedly short) queue that's usually spilling out the entrance. I like it, I hope they never remove it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phillies2 Posted January 28, 2016 Share Posted January 28, 2016 I still don't understand why Iron Dragon went down to 2 trains instead of 3. When I was there last summer waiting for It in the station there where large periods of time without a trian in sight because the crews efficiency. I can only imagine how many would have rode then Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigDipper 80 Posted January 28, 2016 Share Posted January 28, 2016 ^From experience, I can tell you that operating ID with three trains was a nightmare. The dispatch time was something like 20 seconds during three-train operation, and if you missed interval you'd set up the ride. If that happened, a train would stop on the second lift, so a ride op would have to run from the platform down the spiral stairs, through the forest and out to the second lift. When you got out there, you had to pick up and hang up the phone so the person in controls knew you were there, and then you'd have to hold down the lift jog button to reset the lift. THEN you'd have to run back to the platform and hopefully make it back before the third train out on the block brake parked in the station or you'd set up the ride again and have to run back out to the second lift. I can't vouch for whether that's the reason they went back to two trains (I've heard alternately that it had something to do with "standardization across CF parks" because Bat and Vortex run two trains, never mind that they can ONLY run two trains), but it was not fun doing three train ops on ID. Even with instructing guests that there were no bins, they'd still invariably walk across the train looking for bins, or they'd fumble around looking for nonexistent seatbelts, or their kids would be fidgeting so it often ended up being hard to hit interval. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mossed Posted January 29, 2016 Share Posted January 29, 2016 Did they add any track pieces today? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
southpuddle Posted January 29, 2016 Share Posted January 29, 2016 Didn't Iron Dragon crash two trains together at one point (during testing) and it's gone without the third train ever since? I seem to remember something like that... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coasterbill Posted January 29, 2016 Share Posted January 29, 2016 No, that would be the other Arrow in your avatar. It's gone back to 3 trains though. I would think BigDipper 80 is probably right, and the appeal of using the other train as a parts train may have played a factor too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrachenfireOP Posted January 29, 2016 Share Posted January 29, 2016 ^From experience, I can tell you that operating ID with three trains was a nightmare. The dispatch time was something like 20 seconds during three-train operation, and if you missed interval you'd set up the ride. If that happened, a train would stop on the second lift, so a ride op would have to run from the platform down the spiral stairs, through the forest and out to the second lift. When you got out there, you had to pick up and hang up the phone so the person in controls knew you were there, and then you'd have to hold down the lift jog button to reset the lift. THEN you'd have to run back to the platform and hopefully make it back before the third train out on the block brake parked in the station or you'd set up the ride again and have to run back out to the second lift. I can't vouch for whether that's the reason they went back to two trains (I've heard alternately that it had something to do with "standardization across CF parks" because Bat and Vortex run two trains, never mind that they can ONLY run two trains), but it was not fun doing three train ops on ID. Even with instructing guests that there were no bins, they'd still invariably walk across the train looking for bins, or they'd fumble around looking for nonexistent seatbelts, or their kids would be fidgeting so it often ended up being hard to hit interval. Ugh, why did Arrow insist on short changing brake runs on so many of their rides? We had the identical problem at LNM when I used to work there. Our dispatch interval was around 30 seconds. We had a bit longer than ID before risking a setup (typically the next train needed to be out before the one in front left the first loop) but not by much. They still run LNM at 3 trains, but they tuned the 1st lift down to half speed to add about an extra minute of dispatch time to prevent setups (that's why it can't do the famous "double loopers" anymore sadly). Orient Express was the same problem, except that ride didn't have two lift hills, and they had it even worse because instead of a starter pannel for the lifts, those ops had to actually clime up to the C block brakes to reset the ride. I really don't understand that about Arrow. I'm glad BBW and DF had enough brake runs to fully stack. But ID is new enough that the lesson should have been learned already :/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
christianscoasters Posted January 29, 2016 Share Posted January 29, 2016 ^Not exactly. Industry operations have drastically changed since then. There was no need for additional brakes to stack because stacking was rare. They could efficiently run 3-train coasters without setting up. Then came air gates, seatbelts, physical checks of safety restraints instead of visual checks, loose article bins... Arrow didn't design many of their coasters with extra brakes because it just wasn't necessary. You could get a train out in 20 seconds easily. Gemini was made to run 6 trains total with an astronomically high capacity of over 3,000 an hour (rumored to be 4,000, however. It hasn't ran 6 in a long time), but it could do it without setting up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidW Posted January 29, 2016 Share Posted January 29, 2016 Did they add any track pieces today? Nope. Mainly worked on prepping the MCBR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
comet Posted January 29, 2016 Share Posted January 29, 2016 Very nice trip report! Thanks for braving the cold and getting some great behind the scene shots. Valravn looks awesome coming down the midway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigDipper 80 Posted January 29, 2016 Share Posted January 29, 2016 ^^^ Interestingly (perhaps) is that Magnum is also designed to set up if a train stops on the block outside the last tunnel. Before they put in the new controls, you also had to run over to that block brake to release the train, and you'd have to call the office and report it. Arrows live in their own little world. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coasterbill Posted January 29, 2016 Share Posted January 29, 2016 Luckily that's rare because when Magnum comes to a stop on those brakes it comes to a ridiculously abrupt screeching halt. With the new locker policy and the great ops though it's rarely a problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boldikus Posted January 29, 2016 Share Posted January 29, 2016 ^ Out of my only 2 (awesome) rides on Magnum it did stop there on one of them and yes it was sudden and slightly painful. We were in row two and in front of us were a couple of regulars that were shocked it happened. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prozach626 Posted January 29, 2016 Share Posted January 29, 2016 That track piece is kind of like my life: lonely and always being left out Nooooo, it just means that you're part of a really awesome bigger picture that just hasn't come together yet! Wrong. That's not always true. He could suck forever. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrachenfireOP Posted January 29, 2016 Share Posted January 29, 2016 ^Not exactly. Industry operations have drastically changed since then. There was no need for additional brakes to stack because stacking was rare. They could efficiently run 3-train coasters without setting up. Then came air gates, seatbelts, physical checks of safety restraints instead of visual checks, loose article bins... Arrow didn't design many of their coasters with extra brakes because it just wasn't necessary. You could get a train out in 20 seconds easily. Gemini was made to run 6 trains total with an astronomically high capacity of over 3,000 an hour (rumored to be 4,000, however. It hasn't ran 6 in a long time), but it could do it without setting up. Everything you said is true, but setups were always possible. They've become more frequent, but saying "nothing could ever happen to delay boarding for a moment" is a huge oversight. There's much and more about Arrow designs that assumed a constant stream of best case scenarios which is just bad engineering. There's many Arrow brake runs that are perfectly level (such as the MCBR on LNM) that use a small winch mechanism to slowly restart a stopped train there. Why would you build the station and ready brakes at a slope but not the block brakes? The answer is "well its only supposed to stop there in emergencies..." but restarting is a pain and it's a total non issue to angle the brakes 3 degrees to prevent the issue so why they ever did it level is beyond me. I love Arrow but they really did some things that made things unnecessarily more complicated. Even after parks started asking for stacking ability (which started in the early 80s, long before policy changes) they didn't do it with consistency. BBW had 3 train stacking but I'D doesn't, and that to me is silly and unnecessary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigDipper 80 Posted January 29, 2016 Share Posted January 29, 2016 ^I don't know if it's because of the design or because of how it's operated, but I've always found it bizarre that The Bat doesn't have enough time to clear the block brake without causing the train on the lift to slow to a crawl. It takes so long for the second train to get around the turn into the station that the other train practically parks itself on the lift hill. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DorneyKid14 Posted January 29, 2016 Share Posted January 29, 2016 That track piece is kind of like my life: lonely and always being left out Nooooo, it just means that you're part of a really awesome bigger picture that just hasn't come together yet! Wrong. That's not always true. He could suck forever. Im gonna go with what prozach626 said... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neil009 Posted January 29, 2016 Share Posted January 29, 2016 That track piece is kind of like my life: lonely and always being left out Nooooo, it just means that you're part of a really awesome bigger picture that just hasn't come together yet! Wrong. That's not always true. He could suck forever. Im gonna go with what prozach626 said... It's true, your life could end up slightly redundant, with one big exciting moment followed by a short, unfulfilling experience. At least you won't have to wait in line long. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoasterDirected Posted January 29, 2016 Share Posted January 29, 2016 ^This thread just became rather depressing... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CP Maverick Posted January 29, 2016 Share Posted January 29, 2016 ^This thread just became rather depressing... The bottom of Valravn's 2nd vertical drop is being installed right now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonskinny12 Posted January 29, 2016 Share Posted January 29, 2016 ^I don't know if it's because of the design or because of how it's operated, but I've always found it bizarre that The Bat doesn't have enough time to clear the block brake without causing the train on the lift to slow to a crawl. It takes so long for the second train to get around the turn into the station that the other train practically parks itself on the lift hill. I noticed this on my trip to KI last year and thought it was pretty strange and annoying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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