Bad and Good Stations - layout wise

Does anyone else hate those stations that start as one line and then split for a front and back ride. Take the Beast for example. You start out as one line but once you get to the ramp to go into the station it splits and it says - This line for front, This line for rear. I always get screwed over. If I go to the front the line for the front seat overflows and holds up the line. If I go for the back the line for the front moves well and I don't move at all. One thing I think they should do is cut into the que that they almost never use in the station for a bigger front line. One thing that would solve this whole problem would be making one line all the way to the station like SOB. SOB your in one line all the way and there is an extremely large spot for the front and back seats. This is a well designed station. On the Racer the line is always held up because people wait for the first couple seats and there is empty ones in the back. I wish they would have in like Rebel Yell at dominion becasue you enter on the outside and exit the inside. I guess what i am asking is what do you think are the best and worst stations layout wise. To sum up mine I like anything with lots of room, one line all the way, and extra large que for the front and back seat.

The Timber Wolf Station at WOF issn't designed for PTC trains to line up with the rows but rather Arrow 6 Car Corkscrew trains. So the line don't align right also the entrance to The Timber Wolf station is on the front end of the house making lines back up becasue of people wanting the front seat.

The best station I saw is Wildfire at SDC which has good long line waits for front and back. A side door for a single rider line. Also its Air Conditioned in the summer and Heated in the winter. Much of your wait is inside this building so its worth with 5-120 min waits on Wildfire

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Chris Knight
All Your Base are belong to us
That's not roughness that intensity

The worst I have seen is for Viper at SFGAm which just knd of throws everyone together like a huge cattleyard and you never know which car you are really waiting for until you get closer to the train, that is if you are aggressive enough to get there. If you are too timid you will never get up there.

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Bob Hansen

A proud CoasterBuzz Member
"We are not responsible for anything the Demon takes or breaks"

As much as I love the look of Magnum's station, I hate standing in it ona crowded day. They let way to many poeple in there at once. The lines for the first three rows are just a big group of poeple acusing eachother of cutting for the front.

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With great power, comes great responsibility-Spiderman

My basic ideas for "the ideal coaster station"

1) The queue should enter the station at about the center of the train. If the line comes into a station at the front or reat you have clogging problems with people who want those desireable seats.

2) The queue lanes should accomodate 2-3 trains worth of riders and be well laid out. None of this jazz where one line serves the entire front car (or back car) Also anything remotely resembling a free-for-all at the gates is bad. (I.e. having a huge mob in a station, and having queue lanes that can handle one rides worh of riders.)

3) For a racing coaster, riders should enter the coaster at the middle, and have full choice of seats on both trains.

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David Bowers
Mayor, Coasterville

Scorcher has one of these "awful" station. It's so annoying to see it get backed up and the whole station empty. If only they could do something about it. Oh well, ill live.

To add on to that, I think it would be nice for guests if there was a number like 1-2/5-1 labeled in front of the mini-queues for the seats.

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Snoopy Rocks! On Ice opens on June 22nd

Think they'll let me drive the Zamboni machine?

Viper at SFMM is split in two for some reason...really annoying because people always switch to the other side when they realize what is happening. Revolution's station is just way too small. Those are the only two that stick out in my mind.

Nitro can get pretty bad with a huge line for the front that often extends like 50 feet out of the station and down the steps. The best one i have seen so far was Batman:Dark Knight at SFNE. It has a sepearation in the loading section and it was pretty small, so it could not really get clogged up. I also noticed that they had a gate on the exiting side of the train, just like the loading side, that shut when the ride left the station and after people exited the train, so you couldnt get back on and cheat the line. Any other rides have that type of station?

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Ride It said:
I also noticed that they had a gate on the exiting side of the train, just like the loading side, that shut when the ride left the station and after people exited the train, so you couldnt get back on and cheat the line. Any other rides have that type of station?

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Wildfire has that Type of station.

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Chris Knight
All Your Base are belong to us
That's not roughness that intensity

Ride It, Kumba and Montu are the same way. However, when I was there, no lines, so I slipped through before they closed, ride ops didn't care. On Montu, I just saw some buy push (or maybe it was pull) one open really easily after he chickened out. What a wuss!

Anyways, SFGAm has 2 examples of the worst kinds of stations. Too big without enough gate-railing. Viper has this. Kick The Sky described it quite well. Then there is too small. B:TR is this was, a dark narrow staircase into a station that always has a long (usually out of the station) line for front car results in people waiting for front car and not knowing it. This makes empty rows appear, and the ops don't dispatch with empty rows when they know there is a huge line, so they have to tell people to move to the right if they are waiting for front row, and go ahead if they aren't.

A good station would be Cyclops. The op doesn't let you in until the train is back, and they only allow 1 trainload of people in the station (usually, there are ways you can stand in the station when the train is on the course, but I don't think they like that.)

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When did American Eagle get more airtime than Viper?

X's is station I think has a nice layout to it, there are two sides, left and right, and two parts unloading and loading.

*** This post was edited by Neiller919 on 5/11/2002. ***

The problem with the Nitro line is not the parks fault, but the Fault of the GP. Despite numerous amounts of signs stating "Guests waiting on the front row please use the left side of the stairs, all other rows please use the right side", the line for the front will often times go all the way down the stairs and people not waiting for the front seem as if they are afraid to "cut in front of" this group.

It is the worst feeling to wait in line for this ride and watch empty rows coming out of the station because of this. Perhaps it is time to make a seperate stairway for the front row to alleviate this problem, or cheaper yet, have an attendant at the bottom of the steps for those who are unable to read and hold up the line for everyone else.

Viper at SFMM is a station I didn't like at all, the way you branch off into so many different lines that branch off into even more different lines from there, it gets very confusing. A good station would be one like Millennium Force, which I like because it's so controlled, or Iron Wolf at SFGAm where they actually have the rail up in the middle of the stairs so people will know that they have to go to one side if they want the front, so that there's no confusion.

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"You can't kill what's stronger than death" - Zakk Wylde

TrBiggar, has kumba always had that type of station? the last time i was there was a while ago, i didnt really pay attention to it. heh, all station should be like boomerang stations, that way noone can get back on with those metals doors locking for each ride.

I can't believe no-one mentioned this...but Gemini's station is terrible. You are all crowded in there and you can't move at all until some people clear out.

I think X-Flight has a very nice station.

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"Villain-Once You Drop, The Fun Don't Stop!"~My No Limits Designs...http://coastergames.net/author.php?author=BKF%20Master

I dont think Gemini's station is really a problem because they get so many people through it. I have to agree with Joey Isch on Magnum's station though. What a mess! I can forsee Wicked Twister's station getting bad if they decide to put in those auto swinging gates and let the people get in the seating rows while the train is in motion. I think that X-Flight's station is decent, but they really need another set of queue bars to seperate the front row seating from the rest.

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You're free cheezy bread! Go! Go!

On Giant Dipper at Santa Cruz, you don't get to even pick your seat. They just let the people in single file, one train at a time. The first few people in always snatch the front and back, and the attendants won't let you wait for the next round, so you are pretty much stuck with the middle seats.

The station itself is awesome though. It looks all old and dilapidated, and the whole place shakes when the other train traverses the overhead track. The tunnel right out of the station has got to be the coolest station to lifthill route ever!

I always thought Gemini had a bad station because if you took the back line it got clogged up in the back and the same with the front. Then the middle would be empty half the time. MFs station is good just becasue there is a ride op there letting poeple in when it clears out. You almost never see an empty seat on that. Magnum station is sometimes controlled but the person controlling it lets too many people in. They also have those poles that get in you way and its a weird shape.

Wicked Twsister only lets one trainload in at a time, the station is huge anyway though so it's not really bad.

Every station has its problems where people just stand at the entrance to afraid to go one way or the other. and that happens in every station.

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The Beast and Night, They go together like Peanut Butter and Jelly