Millennium Force

^ - but look at it from the view of Cedar Point giving them a goal and asking how much it would cost.

Intamin said 25 million, so everywhere that they can cut corners is an extra $ in their pocket. There are some things, like safety systems, where they can't cut corners because it would put them out of business if something went wrong. But if they can put in these switches at 1.50 each rather than the proxies at 5.00 each (just throwing numbers, don't quote me), then they putting cash in their own pocket while fulfilling the need for a sensor.

These may be less reliable, but that also depends on what kind of reliability threshold the park gave Intamin in the RFP. I'm just glad that now we are complaining about little things like what kind of sensor was used rather than when they'll fix that $#%#!@# motor.

My take, short version:

B&M over-engineers the forces out of their rides.
Intamin over-engineers the reliability our of theirs.

I already said it was MY take... ;)

I'll toss in my version:

A good enginer can design some thing complicated to fix a problem, but a GREAT one can find the simplest solution.

I was at CP on Aug 6th and 7th and every coaster in the park was working 100% and I had the best ride I ever had on Max Air

Yeah, I guess it was just bad luck, I just noticed it because it had never been a problem for us in the past. I was still really happy with the ride and the park in general, don't get me wrong, I was just wondering if there was anything behind it.

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rollergator said:

B&M over-engineers the forces out of their rides.

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I take it you have not been on Behemoth. :)

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rollergator said:
My take, short version:

B&M over-engineers the forces out of their rides.
Intamin over-engineers the reliability our of theirs.

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The only problem with your idea there is that the mechanical and physical layout of most rides by both companies are done by the same 2 firms.

^ & ^^ - I've ridden SFoG's Goliath, so I recognize that those "guidelines" aren't hard and fast. I also recognize the part played by Stengel and others in terms of the actual force calculations, etc. Further, I get that PARKS ask the firms to design and construct according to the buyer's specs...

It was more of a generalized version of "how to tell who likes what"... Lord I need to get out of FL more often...LOL! ;)

I think part of the problem with El Toro, Titan (Scremscape said something about that being down.), Superman, and now MF is that the trains going up the lifthill are super heavy with 36 people which is a lot weight. These trains aren't like B&Ms which are smaller. For a ride like Voodoo, it's the technology that I see as a problem (LIM's). *** Edited 8/19/2008 6:01:11 PM UTC by Spinout***

B&M hyper trains hold 36 people (9 rows of 4). And IIRC their trains are heavier than Intamin's.

EDIT to fix typo...thanks Gator.

*** Edited 8/19/2008 9:31:55 PM UTC by Mamoosh***

^LOL, some have 9 rows of 4, which does total 36. You probably typo'd, since I know you can do your multiplication tables... ;)

I've been to SFoT a number of times in the past few weeks and never expereinced significant downtime on Titan

Yes Gator...it was a typo. Thanks...fixed.

Just an update...

Millennium Force has been running two trains (120 second dispatch time per train) lately. Maintenance has requested running only two trains. During the breakdowns the mechanics have been working on the lift hill/computer system.