Solipsisto Posted September 12, 2012 Share Posted September 12, 2012 Obviously, a lot of it depends on the ride operators, trains/cars and station(s). But, in general, which varieties of coaster have good or bad capacities? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thestripedtaco Posted September 12, 2012 Share Posted September 12, 2012 Well in General B&M's have good capacity. There stand-ups and flyers can be a bit slow at loading but still get good capacity compared to most other attractions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Voxelmatic Posted September 12, 2012 Share Posted September 12, 2012 Well, Wild Mice and Eurofighters tend to have low capacity, and if operations are bad, then the lines would just drag on coughFahrenheitcough. Higher capacity rides tend to be ones with longer vehicles, such as (almost) all B&M rides and Intamin coasters with longer trains (I-305, Superman, Bizzaro, ect.). All in all, it just comes down to how the blocking systems are set up and how good the ride ops are. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thestripedtaco Posted September 12, 2012 Share Posted September 12, 2012 Yah rides with small vehicles can still get a decent capacity if the ride ops are trying hard at their job. Sadly this is usually not the case. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alpengeistfan1 Posted September 12, 2012 Share Posted September 12, 2012 People have been saying Verbolten gets extremely good capacity right? Is this due to the train type or is it the ops? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thestripedtaco Posted September 12, 2012 Share Posted September 12, 2012 People have been saying Verbolten gets extremely good capacity right? Is this due to the train type or is it the ops? From what I can tell it is due to ops moving at the fastest speeds they can. Don't they load two trains at a time also though? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
triggernel Posted September 12, 2012 Share Posted September 12, 2012 For being a normal, one train loading at a time coaster, Expedition Everest will blow your mind. I believe really bad things (curses and zombies) happen if they aren't sending trains out at extremely quick intervals. You will not see a Vekoma run that well anywhere else. Disney really does have their operations down to a science. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thestripedtaco Posted September 12, 2012 Share Posted September 12, 2012 ^ It really is insane. I felt like I was never stopped for more than a few seconds on that ride. Plus I think they run something like 5 or 6 trains at once. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KBrylczyk Posted September 12, 2012 Share Posted September 12, 2012 Best - Any Disney coaster. Worst - X2 and Bizzaro (SFGAdv). X2 because of absolutely atrocious station/train design. Bizzaro because of the worst ride crew ever. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smallish Posted September 12, 2012 Share Posted September 12, 2012 The capacity of a ride is directly proportional to the number of people per vehicle, and inversely related to the amount of time between dispatches. The amount of time between dispatches is limited by whichever of these two actions takes longer: loading a train (and dispatching it and bringing the next train into the station), and waiting for the last train to clear the block section. At a Six Flags park, usually the loading time is the limiting factor. We can see this true of Goliath, for example, by watching it during operation and noting there is a long gap between one train clearing the mid-course brake run and the next train beginning its climb up the lift hill. At Disney parks, the limiting factor is amount of time it takes the train to clear the block section. Space Mountain has a very simple loading system, but it is incredibly effective, with only 20 seconds between each dispatch. Even if they found a way to load it even faster, they probably wouldn't be able to dispatch that quickly because of they have to keep a brake section between every train to ensure they don't collide. On Disney coasters where the amount of time it takes to load a train is higher than the amount of time it takes to clear a block section, like California Screamin' and Thunder Mountain, a dual loading station is employed so dispatch times can be twice as fact as load times. So to answer your question about which coasters have the best capacity, I would conclude that in practice, Disney coasters like Thunder Mountain, California Screamin, and Expedition Everest probably have the highest capacities of any coasters. However, there are many coasters at other parks, such as B&Ms that, if operated with the right number of trains and properly motivated employees, could theoretically match or even exceed Disney's operations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DougMJr Posted September 12, 2012 Share Posted September 12, 2012 People have been saying Verbolten gets extremely good capacity right? Is this due to the train type or is it the ops? From what I can tell it is due to ops moving at the fastest speeds they can. Don't they load two trains at a time also though? This is correct. Verbolten unloads/loads/dispatches two trains at once. The first train when dispatched doesn't stop and continues right into the launch into the event building, the second train waits at a block right outside the station until the first train clears its block. Other rides that dispatch two trains at once include Cheetah Hunt and Top Thrill Dragster just to name a couple. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sammy* Posted September 12, 2012 Share Posted September 12, 2012 I would like to see Intimain use the Sky Rush 4 row trains, on future projects plus it would be interesting to see a launch with 4 across trains other than The Hulk. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DougMJr Posted September 12, 2012 Share Posted September 12, 2012 ^Bullet Coaster at happy Valley is a launch coaster with four across. www.rcdb.com/9442.htm?p=35912 It would be cool to see more 4 across Intamin trains though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sammy* Posted September 12, 2012 Share Posted September 12, 2012 ^Bullet Coaster at happy Valley is a launch coaster with four across.http://www.rcdb.com/9442.htm?p=35912 It would be cool to see more 4 across Intamin trains though. Thats what Full Throttle should have been like. I was not aware that S&S was still building launch coasters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
texcoaster Posted September 12, 2012 Share Posted September 12, 2012 I've got to give mad props to the ride crew at the Galveston Pleasure Pier's Iron Shark. It's a Eurofighter with a top of lift - to - brake ride time of just twenty seconds and they run THREE CARS and almost never have two cars stacked behind the station loader. They announce in the station that the person heading for the right seat should collect all the loose items from everyone in their row, so only one person heads to the cubbies (usually a ride op collects them from that person so they don't even have to go). When the car comes into the station, the lap bars pop up and the main op says "exit quickly please" and then "step into the car quickly, please" as the other ops collect the loose articles from the right seat riders. "Pull down your lap bars" is said while loose article collection is happening and each seat has an indicator light to let the ops know if the bar is down far enough and locked. A quick visual check of the lights, plus seeing that the bars are touching laps, a call of "visual scan" (the accompanying ridiculous left-right-left head twist) and the car is gone. It's a slick, efficient system and even on a Saturday afternoon with perfect weather, I've never waited more than three cars for that ride... while the flat rides were posting 20-30 minute waits each. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oriolat Posted September 12, 2012 Share Posted September 12, 2012 I believe that outside Disney, B&M hypercoasters running 3 trains have the highest capacity on any coaster. According to RCDB, Silver Star can send 1,750 pph and so can blueFire (although that one is a Mack megacoaster). I really love seeing trains being dispatched and coming back to the station every few seconds. Oriol "Capacity dork" Monroig Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caffeine_demon Posted September 12, 2012 Share Posted September 12, 2012 Europa park certainly have efficient ride ops! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrlittle Posted September 12, 2012 Share Posted September 12, 2012 Just put buzz bars on all trains. Who needs seat belts and individual lap bars. Then you could run lots of capacity. Nah, like most of have said, I think B&M hypers have the best capacity. Also someone mention the dual loading. I do remember Cheetah Hunt actually moving very quickly when I went during the summer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Milo1188 Posted September 12, 2012 Share Posted September 12, 2012 People have been saying Verbolten gets extremely good capacity right? Is this due to the train type or is it the ops? From what I can tell it is due to ops moving at the fastest speeds they can. Don't they load two trains at a time also though? They load two at a time and each train has two crew members checking restraints. I feel like Verbolten is such a high capacity coaster due to this plus the fact that the restraint is a simple lap bar. Once you start adding more components to that it takes much longer to check. Like where there's a seat belt and some idiot sits down and doesn't realize it. Ride ops get there and have to unlock the train so they can put the seatbelt on and then have to start checking the train all over. I feel that guests being observant is also a factor in capacity on coasters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bbusic Posted September 12, 2012 Share Posted September 12, 2012 I remember Wild Eagle having bad dispatch times, but this was because people had to do the walk of shame nearly every other dispatch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CorkscrewFoley Posted September 12, 2012 Share Posted September 12, 2012 Yeah, B&M's are pretty quick for capacity. Even with Raptor, once you're seated, the ops are usually right on top of the situation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spinning man Posted September 12, 2012 Share Posted September 12, 2012 Everytime I go to ride the swarm, it eats up the queue line. This ride is a B&M wingrider to anybody who doesn't know what the swarm is. The longest I have seen the queue become is 1 hour and that's on a busy day. The short layout probably helps out abit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TXman308 Posted September 12, 2012 Share Posted September 12, 2012 I have another question to add on to the previous one. What number is considered good capacity? I.e. 1000pph, 1200pph, 1400pph? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rai Fox Posted September 12, 2012 Share Posted September 12, 2012 Leviathan was running more efficiently than I've ever seen any coaster when I got on it a few weeks ago. It's a high capacity B&M to start with, and the staff was running dispatches more efficiently than I've seen out of most crews at Disney or Knoebels. They had someone starting a steady countdown from 10 the moment the last person from the previous ride left the station, and the train -left- the station on zero. It may have been a bit slower than actually ten seconds...but not by much, and the train left on time every single run. Very impressive, CW. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rcdude Posted September 12, 2012 Share Posted September 12, 2012 Based on what I've seen, here's how I'd rate rides in terms of capacity: Very Low: kiddie coasters Low: family coasters with one train, shuttle coasters, woodies with one train, wild mice, spinners, anything operating with only one train, most coasters with single cars, and anything with an overly complex restraint system Medium: B&Ms with two trains, shuttle coasters with two trains, most Intamin coasters, family coasters with two trains, Disney spinners, Disney mice, woodies with two trains, and Arrows with two trains High: woodies with three trains, family coasters with three trains, B&Ms with three trains, mine trains, mega coasters, Arrows with three trains, coasters with dual loading stations, coasters with separate load and unload points, and major coasters with simple restraint systems Very High: major coasters at Disney parks and multi-tracked coasters As for what I consider the capacity for each of these categories... Very Low: 400 riders per hour or less Low: 400-700 riders per hour Medium: 700-1200 riders per hour...this is the minimum capacity I feel a coaster should have at a major park High: 1200-1800 riders per hour Very High: over 1800 riders per hour Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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