The whole harness thing is really a positive thing. From a park operator standpoint, the coasters have held up very well. They were extremely busy when they opened, and have still remained popular.
By refitting the coasters with the Vekoma trains, new life has arrived. A park now has virtually new coaster to market. Imagine coming to Cedar Point and people in your party don't like to go upside down, or are intimidated by Raptor. Well, the Iron Dragon has similar motions, but is not a looping job. You would increase ridership across the board. And the pure thought of riding the Big Bad Wolf without the car under you is , well, you figure it out.
This is a great way for Arrow to keep rides in place for parts, and for Vekoma to sell trains. They have always worked well together. From a park standpoint, this is a winner.
Shaggy: Adding a conventional lap bar mignt be a problem with clearances at the station, but it should be possible to deal with this. Adding weight down low would not restrict the swinging of the train, In fact if anything proved to be a problem it might be that the swinging would increase in some cases. Once the extra mass starts to swing, it will take longer to stop.
For those of you who missed it, the Schwarzkopf trains are really strange with 7 rows in a single car that makes up the whole train.
*** This post was edited by Jim Fisher on 3/1/2002. ***
2Hostyl said:
I do not think that any one here would refer to them as OTSRs. In fact, looking at them in there locked positions most of us would indeed call them "lapbars".
OTHL's? (Over-the-head-lapbars...)
They're definitely a cool design, and I'd like to see something similar on other suspendeds.
-----------------
--Greg
"The collective women in your life have more baggage than a Samsonite factory..."
My page
You must be logged in to post