One Year Since Orion

Vater said:

Vater said:

Keeping it simple

Oh well...

What's the fun in that? :P

SteveWoA said:

Wear and tear on what parts? If it's fixed magnetics, there is no wear/tear. Regardless of speed.

Weird, because they do appear to replace brake fins periodically. My understanding is that the alloy they're using can warp if subjected to enough heat. I'm sure it's not like the beating friction brakes endure, but it makes sense. I also trust that B&M probably knows what they're doing. Their system design has always been pretty simple, but we've seen countless refinements over the years.

Jeff said:

SteveWoA said:

Wear and tear on what parts? If it's fixed magnetics, there is no wear/tear. Regardless of speed.

Weird, because they do appear to replace brake fins periodically. My understanding is that the alloy they're using can warp if subjected to enough heat. I'm sure it's not like the beating friction brakes endure, but it makes sense. I also trust that B&M probably knows what they're doing. Their system design has always been pretty simple, but we've seen countless refinements over the years.

I was thinking in terms of wear/tear of direct mechanical friction-based components, I should have clarified a bit better.

But yes, makes sense there would still be the replacement of those fins as required, simply due to the stresses of the ride itself (vibration, g-loading, etc...), compounded with the thermal cycling caused by the magnetic braking itself.

With thermal creep, the cycling of materials to elevated temperatures reduce the mechanical properties of the material over time. Tensile/shear strengths reduce below the yield point and materials can begin to 'sag'. I assume once they (maintenance) begin to see signs of visual indications of creep, or stress cracking at the mounting location, they swap them out. For Aluminum, thermally around 300F mechanical properties begin to alter when mechanical stresses are applied (according to NASA for three different alloys). Aluminum melts at 1,260F, but it already lost half it's strength by 600F. But certainly, B&M has done their homework and designed accordingly. No question. If it was Intamin, I'd be a bit more weary on that ;)

I rode Orion on Saturday.

My initial take was that it was a really great ride...and it is.

But upon further reflection, the best way to describe it is "truncated." It certainly feels like it's missing 2 or 3 more airtime hills at the end. It just kind of quits.

The air is big. It's still B&M air and not Intamin air, but it's big B&M air.

The trim bites hard, but I'm not one to whine about trims and I don't think it kills things - but I don't generally think that way about trims anyway. It plays a lot like Diamondback's trim where it grabs as you peak over a hill and give a weird feel to the float over that hill.

I'm also not one to say, "but they have another similar coaster in their lineup!" But man, they have another similar coaster in their lineup...and the best way I can put it into words is that Diamondback already did pretty much what Orion does, but in a more complete way.

I hadn't really paid much attention, but in the Diamondback/Orion lame enthusiast comparison face-off, the track length is only 40 feet more, the height only 50 feet more and the speed only 10 mph faster. They're much more similar than I had realized and while everything on Orion (the drop, the hills, the air, the brake run) is "bigger, faster, more!" like I said, I think you get a more 'complete' ride from Diamondback.

That's almost exactly how I felt about Leviathan as compared to Behemoth. Other than the psychological factor of being 70' higher, there wasn't much that Leviathan was doing that Behemoth wasn't...and Behemoth was doing it better and more.

It's funny how these B&M rides cause such a divide among enthusiasts. I love Leviathan and have it in my top ten and find Behemoth to be pretty average. I feel the same about Diamondback. Maybe it's the train design?

Lord Gonchar said:

I think you get a more 'complete' ride from Diamondback.

So Orion needs a splashdown effect at it's 45 foot tall brakerun finale? Or better yet, per Steve's engineering: flames shooting out from under the train when it hits the trims.

Kstr 737 said:

Or better yet, per Steve's engineering: flames shooting out from under the train when it hits the trims.

Now that's the best idea for "plussing" a coaster I've heard in a long time!

Kstr 737 said:

Or better yet, per Steve's engineering: flames shooting out from under the train when it hits the trims.

Has been done:

I recognized one word in there from watching Hogan's Heroes.

Kings Island appears to be still working on finishing Orion's lighting package. This was a webcam capture posted over on another forum from this week.

Did it have anything last year? The sparse B&M supports are not as dramatic as the "electrical towers" on Millennium Force. On the flip side, the architectural stuff also seems better focused and more color saturated these days.

Racer got a dose of that as well?
Count me amongst a minority I guess but I’ve gotten tired of the LED changing spectrum lights. Not only at amusement parks but for features in cityscapes as well. I just think it’s a worn out trend.

I noticed that on Racer as well. I have not seen it in person but that lighting does not seem right for Racer.

I wanna say that last year the lights on the lift hill were color-changing, but not the lights on the other elements of the ride. Also, what is not turned on in the video is the bright blue LED strip up the lift similar to Fury.

In the recent KI book it was mentioned that the lights are connected to the all the rest of the Kings Island lighting capabilities. So I would expect that Orion will be programmed to sync with the International Street light show and fireworks at the end of every night.

C’mon man - give me a spoiler alert!

It’s a nice ride. Surprising it rattles even brand new. It’s too short and really not a destination coaster. They could have done something over the hillside at the end and made an amazing finale. It’s definitely not worth waiting more than 20 minutes.

It was unfortunately built too close to the Beast and messed up its isolation The famous Beast night rides now include Orion’s fabulous lighting package

The best part of the whole project was the new themed area. It’s a great atmosphere at night

Spot-on assessment. That's pretty much exactly how I feel about it as well. My first time I thought maybe the roughness (for a brand-new B&M at least) was due to the particular set of wheels on our train but multiple rides have been just as rattly.

I agree that the theming and vibe around the ride is probably the best thing about Orion, which isn't something I might have said about a Cedar Fair attraction in the past. The music really sets the tone.

I really agree with the above assessments too. The ruination of the Beast's isolation wasn't really worth the sub-par hyper coaster that is Orion. The airtime is good, the seats are comfy as always on this style, but it ultimately is too short to be a memorable destination coaster, especially with the heavy and unnecessary trim.

B&M proved that they can do "unleashed" coasters when they built Fury, so it was odd that KI's followup is very much leashed.

The only coaster I can think of that feels as half-length as Orion is Goliath at SFGAM, but at least that has the RMC intensity for that short length.