Great American Scream Machine celebration

As many of you know, the Great American Scream Machine is Celebrating its 30th year of operation this year at Six Flags over Georgia. The trains have new logos on them, and the park is planning many special events for the ride, mostly centering around the week of the 4th of July. Also, for many of you out there, id like to tell you that during the offseason, the bottom of the first drop was retracked and the infamous "pothole" is now gone. Now you will be able to ride easily without worrying about your spine compressing on the first drop from the uneven track.

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Acrophobia-"So who up there is scared(everybody screams)? I want everyone who is scared to hold their hands out..."DROP
*** This post was edited by Chris the Coaster Freak 3/14/2003 10:35:38 PM ***

Any chance of the trains running backwards? I highly doubt they will, but heard it was awesome when they did this back in the day.

-Matt

Sadly, they won't be running Backwards this year. The trains were modified at some point in time, and now they can't be ran backwards without major changes made in the Coaster's brakes.
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"Grit Your Teeth, Bare The Load, Enjoy your ride, on Thunder Road"

They can run backwards easily, but the upstops have to be removed, the cars flipped around, and then have the upstops reinstalled. Apparently the park thinks that's not worth the effort.

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Is that a Q-bot in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?

What about those brakes at the end? I love them personally, but many complain about them. For those who don't know, the brakes on this ride get you to a screeching halt almost as soon as you hit them. ;)

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Track Record: 164
Favorite Wood: Phoenix at Knoebels
Favorite Steel: Millennium Force at Cedar Point

GASM @ SFG is really a classic... mabye not John Allen's best, but surely one that stands out.... a great paint job, plenty of hills, a sizeable first drop, and a dramatic location all make Great American Scream Machine truly a great American scream machine. I do think the placement of the Skycoaster is a bit tacky, but that's another story..... I think that it's a great idea (revamping the ride) and I think that along with new logos on the trains that both trains could really use an extra car for a greater rider capacity.....

I think they need to get the same type of trains Cyclone at SFNE has. Those are truly American trains.

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Track Record: 164
Favorite Wood: Phoenix at Knoebels
Favorite Steel: Millennium Force at Cedar Point

MarimbaGuy87 said:
What about those brakes at the end? I love them personally, but many complain about them. For those who don't know, the brakes on this ride get you to a screeching halt almost as soon as you hit them. ;)

It depends on how fast the other train gets out of the station. GASM has 5 blocks--in order:

Station--self explanatory. Two brake sets.

Transfer--between the station and the lift--but the controller does not use this block during normal operations, it is only used in transfer mode. Thus, when you're on board, the ride functions as though it only has 4 blocks. There is one holding brake located here.

Lift--from the bottom to top of the lift.

Main Brake--from the crest of the lift until the last of 5 brake sets (the main brakes). These are the brakes that really slam you, or sometimes don't (I'll get to that).

Ready Brake--from the end of the main brakes to the beginning of the station. There are 2 brake sets in it. Trains automatically advance from the main brake to ready brake. Once a train is in ready brake, the operator must advance the train into the station. as a side note, this was the old transfer area.

Ok, here's the deal with those insane stops! If an inbound train enters the main brakes BEFORE the other train has cleared the station block, it will stop VERY fast in main brake. However, is the train in the station is on its way to or on the lift, the inbound train will be slowed, but not stopped, in the main brake. If the crew is going fast, then you won't get slammed in 'em.

The ride wasn't set up for another car or another type of train, so the controller program would likely need a lot of rewriting. But I happen to like single position lap bars. :)

Wow. Thanks, thats a really good explanation. I happen to like getting slammed into those single position lapbars at the end, it adds to the fun of the ride. :)

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Track Record: 164
Favorite Wood: Phoenix at Knoebels
Favorite Steel: Millennium Force at Cedar Point

If....they turned the entrance and exit around, so that riders entered the station near the Skycoaster, they could build a ramp off that little observation platform and build another station on the other side, then give the option of riding the forward train or the backward train....double your pleasure...:):)

Daydreams....
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Dr. Thrill IS my family practitioner
Would you LOOK at what you've done to CoasterBuzz - you're going to clean it up...;)
*** This post was edited by rollergator 3/15/2003 5:11:00 PM ***

There you go thinking like a Roller Coaster Tycoon again... ;)

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Track Record: 164
Favorite Wood: Phoenix at Knoebels
Favorite Steel: Millennium Force at Cedar Point

I know this has nothing to do with GASM, but I just got back from work today, and I had my first run in with trimless Georgia Cyclone. To put it lightly, I was pleading for god to let me land back in the seat on the 3rd hill. Unfortunately, I landed over on the seat divider and halfway over my other friend. If only the camera had been on for the 4th hill...

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Acrophobia-"So who up there is scared(everybody screams)? I want everyone who is scared to hold their hands out..."DROP

Can we look forward to this trimless GC @ the Spring Fling? Every time I ride the Cyclone in the back I end up standing up on all the drops, and can't even imagine what no trims would do!

-Matt

It's usually only got the trim brakes turned off for the first few runs each morning (the controller is programmed to not use the trims for a few runs to avoid rollbacks). Similarly, GASM's chain won't slow down at the top for the first few runs each morning, too.

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Is that a Q-bot in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?

General Public said:
It's usually only got the trim brakes turned off for the first few runs each morning (the controller is programmed to not use the trims for a few runs to avoid rollbacks). Similarly, GASM's chain won't slow down at the top for the first few runs each morning, too.
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Is that a Q-bot in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?

Hmmm, opening day Cyclone was running trimless all day. Needless to say, it was amazing. The ride was so smooth as well compared to last year! That drop after where the 2nd trim is was unsafe yesterday. The airtime was so explosive it was incredible. With the work done on the track during the offseason this ride was riding insanely well. To quote someone in "the group" yesterday, "If they continue running this ride like this the rest of the season, something bad is going to happen."

I personally long for no trims the rest of the season, but I doubt it. Everyone get to SFoG before they cut them back on! lol

Rode GASM on opening day (sure wasn't many people there yesterday - I think due to the weather). I really liked the new logo on the front of the trains. The overall ride was pretty smooth, however MiG staff thought that they probably should have painted the ride if they are going to "broadcast" the fact the coaster is celebrating a milestone. Also interesting that I have been to my second park with a Deja Vu and have YET to ride one. :( I know I am not missing much, but still - hard to add to a coaster count when they are closed. It's getting especially hard to add coasters to the count after you have ridden so many. AND OT: but does anyone else find Ninja boring? I was so bored by that coaster. One last thing, SUF's crew better become more efficient or it's going to be long waits all summer for you guys in Hotlanta.

L8R
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SWOOSH
MIG-The Midwest Information Guide http://sfne.com/~swoosh

They're new and so incredibly slow. Give it time for the park to realize this and put all the old people back up there ;).

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Acrophobia-"So who up there is scared(everybody screams)? I want everyone who is scared to hold their hands out..."DROP

Ninja is more on the painful side than boring.

DDrok11, they're always on. If the train is going slow, you still come out of your seat in the back, and the trims don't hit as hard. You don't feel them sometimes.

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Is that a Q-bot in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?

I rode twice and NEVER felt nor heard the trims...

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Acrophobia-"So who up there is scared(everybody screams)? I want everyone who is scared to hold their hands out..."DROP