# of trains on STE?

I was reading the 1999 Guiness World Records book, and it said that Superman The Escape has 15 trains/cars, is that right?

If so, why isn't it open, lol. Does anyone know why it's been down for so long, lsm problems, train problems?

Thanks

Sorry, S:TE has two cars, one on each track.

S:TE has 15-SEAT "trains"..."cars"...whatever, LOL. It's basically a 1-car train, with seating configued 3-4-4-4 for a total of 15 passengers.

The launch mechanism has *always* been a problem, from way before the "coaster" (hehe) opened. The latest rehab is supposed to make the ride functional again, but I don't expect that it will EVER again: 1) race, or 2) reach 100mph.

Maybe others know better, I'm drawing conclusions based on what I've read about it...

I did see both sides run during pre-opening testing last March. Although, they weren't racing, they were both running.

If S:TE had 15 trains, there would be problems. It'd be fun to watch, though.

Yeah, duh, it's not a coaster. It's the world's tallest Newton's Cradle (seemingly the only dual tracked one too). Just SFMM, to make it fit in with every other ride there, took all but one car/train/mobile off the track.

Why haven't they been able to get the thing to work? Australia's works perfectly year-round (daily misfires and whatnot are common, but that's the same on most launch rides). Given that they both have the same components, I can only assume that the problem is with the system running the ride, so why couldn't/haven't they burnt a copy down here and FedExed it up?

Then again, there's probably nothing wrong with the ride. It's cheaper to leave it sitting there doing nothing... and to SFMM it still counts as a coaster.

....and that's different from the monorail, the sky tower, and Flashback HOW exactly...;)

SFMM's policy is that it's cheaper to leave SBNO rides *as is* (AND count them) than to fix and/or remove, LOL...

Just wondering...did SFMM ever have ALL their coasters operating at one time, because their Guinness claim should require that much, no?

Well I got lucky on Scream! media day... rode X, Deja Vu, Flashback, Superman, Riddler, Psyclone, Viper, Ninja, Batman, Goliath, Revolution, Gold Rusher, Canyon Blaster and of course Scream! in one day. Only thing down was Colosuss- it was being re-tracked that day LOL. It was worth it though, because Colosuss has since moved into my top 10 woodies. :)

*** Edited 3/23/2004 1:24:10 AM UTC by GoliathKills***

I live in PA, and have wanted to go to SFMM for a very long time. It has been a dream of mine.

If you would have asked me a few years ago, "What far away park do you most want to visit?", I would have easily said SFMM. Nowadays I would not say that because I wouldn't want to take a chance. The park has had some very bad ride closure and capacity issues lately, and it just seems to be getting worse and worse.

Don't they see how all of the bad opinions of the park are affecting them? What's wrong with them anyway? Why don't they fix problems and try harder? It seems that they are just letting the place rot. I'll wait until they get their act together until I consider them as a dream park again, IF that ever happens.

It seems like they WANT the park to end up like SFWoA. Wouldn't it be great if CF bought MM? Hmmm...

Boo...Hiss, MM.

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rollergator said:

but I don't expect that it will EVER again: 1) race, or 2) reach 100mph.

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Bill,

One year ago this month I went to the park with some friends and had never seen the place so dead. We ended up riding Superman 12 times or so. During one of our rides, there were only 5 of us in the car. Because we had a light load, we went faster down the launch track and made it up to the brakes at the top.

I have ridden Superman probably 30 times since it opened and have only gotten that close to the top one time, but, it still can happen if the load is light. I believe that's the key.

As for racing, I have never seen it race in person.

-Sean

The ride rarely, if ever, raced and I don't believe it was designed with that in mind. It was designed with two sides merely for capacity reasons. In all the years I've seen both sides operating they've always been operated independantly. If they raced, it was by accident, not design.

mOOSH

TAER IT DOWN.

Seriously, if there's any coaster (or "coaster") in the world today that is outdated almost beyond ridability, it's S:TE. The energy expended and the amount of space this ride takes up is hilarious.

Dexter, I agree with everything you just said. I've always wanted to go to Magic Mountain too, because they seem to have so many great rides, but I'm afraid I'd get there and get to experience hardly any of them becuase they can't/won't keep them running. I used to say the same thing, that after Cedar Point the next part I wanted to visit was Magic Mountain, but these days, I tell people the park I most want to go to is Holiday World or Islands Of Adventure.

Things may be improving over at the Mountain. A trip report on another site reported ALL flat rides open...something that hasn't happened in YEARS! Now if they can only get their coasters operatring at full capacity....

mOOSH

Dexter, you make a very valid point. As someone who had his dream come true to go to SFMM, I came away very disappointed. The trip I took included Knotts, SFMM, both Disney's, Belmont, and Pacific Park. Of those I was looking forward to SFMM the most. Instead I ended up disliking SFMM the most of all the parks I visited. Yes that includes my 15 minute trip to Pacific Park and abbreviated ride on West Coaster (which had better ops than SFMM)

The park had 11 of their 16 coasters running that day. I managed to hit 10 of those. It was a busy summer day and many of the rides were run with one train when they were capable of running far more. The customer service in general was horrible with a notable exception in merchandising and in customer relations where I spent a half hour writing up a complaint to the park. It was a thoroughly miserable day where I spent most of the day pissed off at the service and was unable to enjoy the rides that I did manage to get on.

To many here in the enthusiast community you don't really give a crap about customer service and are just happy if you get your rides on your coasters. To me a bad customer service experience will taint my entire day and will make it likely to not visit the park again. That is likely to be the result with SFMM unless they change things remarkably.

Is SFMM's guest service (or do they consider it customer service?) anything like SFWoA's? In 2000 at SFWoA I waited in line for about 30 minuts as well to complain that a lot of rides were closed and at low capacity. The park was very busy and all the lady at the window said was, "Okay, bie bie now." I haven't returned since (a lot of people have had similar occurences at WoA). I've told that story way too many times.

Is SFMM starting to have the same kinds of problems?

Starting? SFMM has had those problems for years now.

I went to SFMM knowing full well that it's got a pretty hefty reputation. I went and tried my hardest to like the place. In the two days I was there, we managed to ride 12 of the coasters - no Deja Vu, Flashback, S:TE or Goliath Jr (for us, anyway).

The rides are generally pretty good. X is pretty overrated and Revolution is underrated. The steel coasters to the right are all great rides. Colossus, thanks to its steel-ness, is a very smooth ride. Psyclone is not unbearable. Viper's typical Arrow looper, which I don't think is a bad thing. Ninja was my first and only ever suspended, which I think is a nifty ride, even if it's a bit chuggy.

The problems for me weren't with the rides. It's with the lack of capacity and some very very questionable operations in that sense. Why the hell do they not have the budget to keep two trains running on X, with a 3+ hour queue, yet they have three trains running on the queueless Revolution? Why do they have a single train on Goliath with 90 minute queues, but two trains on the walk-on Scream!?

The park's also pretty depressing to walk around. If it ain't a coaster it ain't running. Most of the shops are empty shells. The stunt show is dead and falling apart. Footpaths are cracked and old concrete that collects puddles of water in the rain and there's piles of dead leaves everywhere.

There's a bit of a lack of other rides. I understand they've got some of them up and running, but what's that make? I count maybe half a dozen non-coaster adult rides in the park.

i remember when i was there this summer, the track for STE was insanely long, and annoying loud. it took forever to find it.

I like the sound! It's all like -rrrrrruuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhmmm- and then -mmmmmmmmmmmhhhhhhhhhhrrrrrr-.

Exactly like that, too. But yeah, the station is kinda off in the middle of NOWHERE. I couldn't really see many people wandering back there on the days that Ninja's closed.