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Six Flags New England (SFNE) Discussion Thread


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I remember when they tried adding extra padding to the OTSRs on Flight of Fear--it didn't help.

 

So do I....

 

As a young and stupid man, I still had my earrings in- small and gold, they blended in well with my skintones- and being young and stupid, I didn't remove them...

 

I bled for an HOUR afterwards.

 

For those who think these new OTSRs from Premier aren't that bad... Just wait till you've had the pleasure(?) of riding with one of them... and beg for mercy with the pain afterwards.

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^We're talking about Premier going back to OTSR's again after having so much success with lap bar only. Premier OTSR's were terrible.
I don't think anyone would feel 100% safe going up that first lift secured by only a lap bar.

 

A realistic alternative would be the flexible restraints which Vekoma now uses on every new design. However those seats are much wider, so on this ride, you would only be able to use a 3-abreast train, reducing the maximum capacity by a whopping 25%... and didn't Six Flags want the new trains to improve capacity ?

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I remember when they tried adding extra padding to the OTSRs on Flight of Fear--it didn't help.

 

So do I....

 

As a young and stupid man, I still had my earrings in- small and gold, they blended in well with my skintones- and being young and stupid, I didn't remove them...

 

I bled for an HOUR afterwards.

 

For those who think these new OTSRs from Premier aren't that bad... Just wait till you've had the pleasure(?) of riding with one of them... and beg for mercy with the pain afterwards.

 

Despite my comment, based on the concept art, it does look like Premier has made some modifications to their OTSRs ala Vekoma. The ones on FoF were as hard as cinder blocks.

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*sarcasm ALERT* But but, its a ride that goes upside down, it can't have a lapbar. People will fall out! general public idiocy.

 

In serious though, Premier does alot more in the industry than just making launch coasters. As I recall they also provide companies with coaster lift chains, they've made some water coasters and more. This could be an opportunity for them to branch out and make even bigger league coasters.

 

 

OH and maybe this trains wheels WON'T HAVE A 1 inch gap between the wheel and track!.

Edited by DarkStitch626
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I'm kind of disappointed in all of our Jr. Engineers here saying how a lap bar only ride can't go up a vertical spike, or hold upside down, etc. You should all know better. Remember, all lap bars are not created equal.

 

This lap bar would keep me in the car if I was completely upside down and it was trying to shake me out:

Oh wait, it did that, and I still survived!

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I'm kind of disappointed in all of our Jr. Engineers here saying how a lap bar only ride can't go up a vertical spike, or hold upside down, etc. You should all know better. Remember, all lap bars are not created equal.

 

This lap bar would keep me in the car if I was completely upside down and it was trying to shake me out:

Oh wait, it did that, and I still survived!

 

 

Props to you Elissa, I mean dang it held "The Big Man" himself in and he's well...BIG!

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When I rode Deja Vu at SFMM, the worst part was the return up the first spike, because when the train caught I was thrown forward into my restraint. And I don't think it would be very pleasant to not have something to fall in to either.

 

Also, there's a difference between being held in by a lap bar while your body is upside down and when you're being held facing the ground for twenty seconds with nothing holding your chest back.

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I agree. While I'm sure it would be possible, it would also be very uncomfortable having to basically hold your upper body up for that long while ascending the spike. But then again, so is having your noggin mercilessly bashed between OTSR's. I guess it's a lose-lose lol. I wish they could have come up with a 4-across vest-style train. But I'm still keeping my fingers crossed that these trains won't be so bad!

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WARNING! NON-EXPERT ALERT!

 

Being held vertically upward is okay as long as you have a backrest and headrest. Being held up-side down is okay as long as you have a restraint that opens laterally or overhead. The Maurer trains have both of these (backrests, laterally-opening restraints).

 

Typical lap restraints only hold you at, well, your lap. You're still free to move your upper body around in any way you like, and when you're face-down, you have to keep yourself consistently pressed against the seatback or else your upper body will flop about.

 

Maurer's restraints (as well as Premier's, to an extent) are (probably) designed so that you're restrained at your lap and your hips. They're very tall (up to Elissa's chest, and almost up to Rich's and Mike's), so your upper body can't move very far forward.

 

The reason that X-car style restraints or "vest" style restraints can't be put on the new Goliath train is because they take up a lot of horizontal room. B&M's new seats and Mack's new seats (even Intamin's, to an extent) are spaced pretty far apart, because the overhead restraint has to be anchored somewhere. Also, the only way to have four-across Maurer trains is to have the outboard seats staggered backward, because the restraints open laterally outward.

 

Premier most likely had to keep the width of the new trains the same as the old ones, or else the entire support structure would have to be modified to accommodate the new clearances. To keep everyone close together, the only thing they could do with that design was to introduce a shoulder harness.

 

EDIT: They can fit four-across and keep the same width of the train because the seat side bolsters are a lot less thick than the old Vekoma ones.

 

Of course, why they didn't keep the trains staggered and actually use laterally-opening restraints is anyone's guess.

 

END NON-EXPERT OPINION. Anyone for tea?

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Ok so obviously I'm not an expert or engineer, as evidenced by the fact that I made this crappy little thing in MS Paint, but I had an idea for how a lapbar restraint system could be fairly comfortable while ascending the vertical lift backwards for several second. So my thinking is that if the lap bar had handles that extended out and up to in front of the chest area, riders could use them to brace themselves so their upper-body wouldn't lean forward. Sort of like the handle that extends off the lapbar on Blue Fire. But as someone said before, it would probably be difficult to make a restraint system like this narrow enough for the GIB track. Anyway here's my little rendering of what I'm talking about.

1076827982_GoliathTrainDesign.png.1289cff35663fc3ac89509b0cce6d1c0.png

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I don't mean to turn the thread into a "redesign a train" contest. I just hate reading about Elissa's disappointment.

 

I just hope Six Flags New England can take better care of Goliath than Six Flags Magic Mountain did. I bet you that upkeep (or lack thereof) is one of the reasons why the Deja Vu coasters are so rough.

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^^You made that in MS Paint? Jeez, I can't even draw a puppy without screwing something up...

 

^As Jr. Engineers, our opinions are subject to scrutiny. See you in two years when we can graduate and have expert opinions?

 

Oddly enough, I didn't find anything on Deja Vu other than that vey last trip up the spike to be rough whatsoever...

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...I bet you that upkeep (or lack thereof) is one of the reasons why the Deja Vu coasters are so rough.

 

Vekoma is another reason for this. I bet when Deja Vu opened it was quite smooth, but still being a little jerky and rough at the same time. SFNE doesn't have as big as a handful of rides to keep up on, so maybe they can upkeep this a little bit better than SFMM did. Let's not forget about those new trains, they might make some magic and add a spark to the coaster.

Edited by -Edge of Beast-
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^^ Lol I don't think I could draw a puppy either haha. It was pretty easy, I just used shapes and lines.

 

^True, SFMM has a larger handful of rides to keep up with than SFNE does, but I'm sure they have a much larger team to work on them as well. I think it has more to do with it being Vekoma and the not-so-tight wheel assembly.

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One thing I'll mention that might lead to the reason there is a harness instead of a lap bar is (once again) that vertical spike. I've ridden all three several times, and the thing that scared the living shit out of me was the fact that my entire body weight was on that stupid harness!!!

 

I looked over those renderings a little more closely and it looks like it is a lap bar with an OTSR system to hold it in place. Think (oh god here it comes) Forbidden Journey as opposed to other Kuka arms. It holds you in JUST at your waist and is not as obtrusive:

 

 

vs

 

 

The point I'm getting at is it could be a "lap bar" mounted like an OTSR for the sole purpose that your upper body needs something to rest on. YES I agree that a vest design attached to this would have been a much better approach, and double yes I'm sad to see this with OTSR's, but I think that this harness will hold you in by the waist instead of allowing your body to basically "fall in" to the harness like the old trains did.

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I rode Chiller back in it's OTSR days, but with the gigantic extra padding there. It was bad, but I'm sure not FOF circa 1996 bad.

 

But I dunno, I've ridden the FOF rides and even with the lapbar, still got jerked around quite a bit. Same with Chiller. Part of me thinks it was premiers track engineering/design at the time that contributed to the roughness and the restraints just amplified it to the EXTREME!

 

Even if it were the trains themselves that sucked as well, that was all back in 1996-1999. It's now been nearly 15 YEARS since so I THINK they would have learned a few things and improved their design/engineering/technology since then.

 

In my experience on the GIB's though, and yes even with them being Vekoma, I always had a decently smooth ride on them and never had to brace myself, so for Premier to design a new train and then to have it all of a sudden become unrideable and horrificly rough simply because of the restraint system that they're implementing when the 1st gen Vekoma GIB had an even bulkier OTSR with next to no soft padding seems a little drastic, mellow dramatic, and unrealistic to me.

 

I didn't find FOF's OTSR to be anywhere near as bad as JJ's even with all that extra "padding" you still got bashed around to no end but FOF's(at least at KD) weren't as big around on the top as JJ's were....I'm kinda not liking premier's lap bar all that much either as it's getting to be a tight fit on both FOF & BLSC these days & having that oversized bar shoved into your gut isn't the most comfortable thing during a ride on either coaster.

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I rode Chiller back in it's OTSR days, but with the gigantic extra padding there. It was bad, but I'm sure not FOF circa 1996 bad.

 

But I dunno, I've ridden the FOF rides and even with the lapbar, still got jerked around quite a bit. Same with Chiller. Part of me thinks it was premiers track engineering/design at the time that contributed to the roughness and the restraints just amplified it to the EXTREME!

 

Even if it were the trains themselves that sucked as well, that was all back in 1996-1999. It's now been nearly 15 YEARS since so I THINK they would have learned a few things and improved their design/engineering/technology since then.

 

In my experience on the GIB's though, and yes even with them being Vekoma, I always had a decently smooth ride on them and never had to brace myself, so for Premier to design a new train and then to have it all of a sudden become unrideable and horrificly rough simply because of the restraint system that they're implementing when the 1st gen Vekoma GIB had an even bulkier OTSR with next to no soft padding seems a little drastic, mellow dramatic, and unrealistic to me.

 

I didn't find FOF's OTSR to be anywhere near as bad as JJ's even with all that extra "padding" you still got bashed around to no end but FOF's(at least at KD) weren't as big around on the top as JJ's were....I'm kinda not liking premier's lap bar all that much either as it's getting to be a tight fit on both FOF & BLSC these days & having that oversized bar shoved into your gut isn't the most comfortable thing during a ride on either coaster.

 

Was there something special about Speed the Ride I don't understand, it seems like all of the Premier rides with OTSR's were unbearable to the point that they were replaced with lap bars with the exception of that one coaster

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I don't know...maybe it's because I haven't had much experience with Premier's shoulder harnesses (only Speed-The Ride), but I don't think these new restraints look that bad. Unless you used a vest, I doubt there's any other way to do the restraints on a GIB. The end of the ride (where it latches back onto the catch car while facing straight down) would be extremely uncomfortable and possibly unsafe without some kind of upper body support. While I think something like Intamin's newer soft harnesses (I305 style) would be ideal, these should work out fine.

 

Also, Deja Vu never seemed that rough, so I don't think headbanging will be too much of an issue. I'm guessing it was more the really quick transitions than the roughness that caused Flight of Fear to be horrible with the original restraints (I've rode it with lapbars and you do get thrown around a lot). This is probably also the reason Speed-The Ride isn't that bad. Since Deja Vu doesn't have any of those, and is significantly smoother than the average Boomerang or SLC, I'm guessing it will be successful.

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I honestly doubt that the head banging would be worse than Mind Eraser. If you can ride that coaster and walk off it feeling fine, then Goliath should be fine.

 

I'm 6'0 and fairly heavily built, which allows me to go on it and get off not much worse for wear. But yeah, it did beat the hell out of me when I was younger.

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Does anyone know what SFNE is planning on doing with the old Ship Wreck Falls station? During the land clearing and footer pouring, they've just been moving it around. Now it's sitting on a concrete slab that looks to be poured for the station's size. Does anyone know if they're using at the new station for Goliath? Or as a queue house? Or maybe even something different? Here are some pictures:

 

The newly poured concrete slab with footers sitting below it. Old station in the background

 

 

And the station moved across the site and on top if the slab. Does anyone else think this could actually be used for the station? Or at least a queue house?

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I wish they would just keep it as Deja Vu. First off because the name is very appropriate for that ride and it isn't " the giant among coasters" It will be the second largest coaster at the park.

 

 

And to answer your question^ They will be using the old SWF station as the new goliath station. It was confirmed by the park to SFNE online.

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