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Six Flags Over Texas (SFOT) Discussion Thread


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  • 2 weeks later...

What do you guys think.....I'm excited for Skyscreamer and I think it will be a great addition to the park. However I would love to see a new coaster come soon. Do you guys think the park may add a coaster in 2014 where the closed mini mall is and Flashbacks old spot, or market new shows for 2014 since they are spending a bunch for Skyscreamer in 2013?

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What do you guys think.....I'm excited for Skyscreamer and I think it will be a great addition to the park. However I would love to see a new coaster come soon. Do you guys think the park may add a coaster in 2014 where the closed mini mall is and Flashbacks old spot, or market new shows for 2014 since they are spending a bunch for Skyscreamer in 2013?

 

That's what the park staff keeps telling me. The park is supposedly getting a new coaster within the next couple of years.

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There were some parts in the parking lot. I assume it's skyscreamer? Not sure.

 

New Texas Giant was trying out some weird loading scheme. The gates were blocked off and seats were being assigned one row at a time with the train loading while moving similar to Rockit at Universal except without a moving platform obviously. It was very strange.

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New Texas Giant was trying out some weird loading scheme. The gates were blocked off and seats were being assigned one row at a time with the train loading while moving similar to Rockit at Universal except without a moving platform obviously. It was very strange.

 

^ could you please explain this a little more? That doesn't make sense to me.

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The train itself would move down the station while loading. The first row would unlock and the riders would exit, incoming riders would then take their seats simultaneously. And this would go on for each row of the train until the entire train had been loaded. This would take place at the back of the station and once the train was completely loaded it would stop at the front of the station until the ride ops pressed the dispatch button.

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The train itself would move down the station while loading. The first row would unlock and the riders would exit, incoming riders would then take their seats simultaneously. And this would go on for each row of the train until the entire train had been loaded. This would take place at the back of the station and once the train was completely loaded it would stop at the front of the station until the ride ops pressed the dispatch button.

 

Did it seem to speed things up at all?

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That would explain why the control panel had individual buttons for each car to unlock the lap bars. Must of been planning on it from the beginning but couldn't decide when to start implementing it yet.

 

This to me just sounds like an ops nightmare. Sure it may seem slightly more efficient, but the part that's going to be the issue is the assigning of seats. Personally not a fan of that on large capacity coasters, of course there are those exceptions like Maverick that should do it to help move things along on that ride. Mainly is going to be those stubborn people that are going to purposely hold up the line so they can get the seat they want.

 

The train is basically crawling as it comes into the station, believe it's less than 1 MPH, so it's not like it's flying through it. I'd have to see how it's done to get a more thorough explanation on what they're doing. I guess it does make the line seem like it's moving faster as it's moving at a steady pace vs stopping and moving by 24 people each train dispatch.

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That is STUPID! But, I could see them doing it like this on a busy day, and then like normal on a slower day with preferred seating. But then this could take forever too. You have to wait for each individual person to go and put their stuff in the cubby, then get back in, then pull down the harness. Then the ops have to check the harness, and repeat another 11 times. Sounds like a nightmare...

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The ops could stand in the same place and check the seat belts as the seated riders roll by...I think the biggest issue here is with loose articles, though. If people still have to walk across a moving train to get to a bin, that could be a problem. Now if they enforce a policy similar to Rock It in which guests must use lockers prior to entering the queue, that would solve many problems. When I rode NTAG in August, they had a running count of lost loose articles and cell phones (maybe just for the year) up in the two thousands.

 

**Wow, I didn't know actual word filters existed

 

That would explain why the control panel had individual buttons for each car to unlock the lap bars.

 

I think that would be convenient with any coaster in loading situations. I feel like most B&M coasters have buttons to unlock specific rows. I've seen many times on different B&M coasters in which a rider was too big to fit in the seat they chose, so the restraints in that row were unlocked so the rider could board in a different row the next time.

 

Yet I don't see what was wrong with the loading system when I visited the park, so I don't see the need to implement this procedure.

Edited by The Yeti
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I guess I'm used to wooden coasters or some older steel coasters where the only options on a control panel are either the whole train is locked or unlocked, or a seat had to be manually unlocked, either by a pedal or pull-up device. Never saw a B&M panel close-up but I guess now that I think about it, I've always heard them unlocking one car instead of the whole train.

 

Cell phones and other small articles are probably the most common lost article on a coaster. Ever seen Diamonback's cell phone casket? I think they stopped putting devices in there in 2010 cause it filled up pretty quick.

 

The only issue I see this kind of system having is Flash Pass. Having them go in single-file onto the train means that they're literally cutting in front of people, which could cause issues. At least with allowing a couple trains of people stand in the station, that at least isn't as bad.

 

I guess having experience working on a coaster, this kind of things run around in my head. Doing this on a coaster that has a 24 person capacity train, vs 12 people per train on Rip, Ride, Rockit just seems weird to me. I know this kind of system works well for small capacity coasters like many mouse coasters and such, but never on this large of scale.

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The only issue I see this kind of system having is Flash Pass. Having them go in single-file onto the train means that they're literally cutting in front of people, which could cause issues. At least with allowing a couple trains of people stand in the station, that at least isn't as bad.

 

And why couldn't they just have a merge point back a little ways in line? Seems to work fine on almost all of the Flash Pass rides at Great America.

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All I know it I stood in line for Giant about 15 minutes before leaving yesterday. One train operation on the most popular ride in the park on a weekend? Are you kidding me? And to top it off this new loading scheme must have been slowing things down even further, as there was consistently at LEAST a 5 minute delay between the train arriving at the station and it leaving again.

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