Raging Bull Question

Got a Six Flags technical question for anyone who might be in the know. As I was visiting the park yesterday, I was paying more attention to the transfer / storage track setup for Raging Bull. In looking at the setup, it almost looks like there is space for 4 trains, one on the main track and 3 in the storage areas (2 on the right storage track and 1 on the left). I don't think there is the capability of 4 trains on Raging Bull given the track layout, but I'm a bit confused as to why there would be so much storage space on the ride then.

Any clues as to something I'm missing, as I'm not sure of the history of the ride 20+ years ago when it was built, and I don't think any other B&M runs 4 trains.

A lot of the B&Ms at year round parks (Montu, Kumba, Hulk, #ripdragons) have four trains despite only being blocked to run three. This allows one train to be in annual refurbishment at a time without taking the ride down to two train ops, and in theory also allows there to be a spare available during peak seasons.

That said, it's a miracle when BGT even runs two on Montu or Kumba these days. But there's a chance Raging Bull originally had a fourth and/or the storage area was simply built to accomodate the possibility.

Walt, Raging Bull has only had 3 trains. It is standard design for B&M coasters to have enough maintenance storage track to remove all trains from the main course.

^This. Just about every modern coaster I can think of has enough space on the transfer track for every train. Storage areas are better configured for maintenance than the main circuit. Also, in the case of B&M and some other manufacturers, the storage areas are set up so that the trains rest on secondary wheels, allowing for easy access to the main wheels and bogies.

One thing I still have never seen is a train being lowered into or raised out from the storage track seen on older Arrows like the CP Corkscrew, Iron Dragon, the old Geauga Lake Double Loop, etc.

Saw that on Nessie once, it was wenched up, nothing too special. Seen it on Magnum too, to park two trains off the circuit one needs to be wenched back.

I've seen it on Magnum too, but Magnum doesn't have the under the station storage area.

Nessie does.

I thought you meant “winched” but you used the word twice so I don’t think it was a typo…

You know, there were all those out-of-work wenches from Pirates of the Caribbean - they had to go somewhere.

Well done, thanks for stepping in while I was away.

Guess I had not paid attention to the B&M setups, but it makes sense. Most of the other coasters I can think of (aka Arrow and wooden coasters, excepting the older wooden ones such as Jack Rabbit or Thunderbolt) have enough space on the storage track for exactly one train and that's about it. There are exceptions, but not quite to this level.

hambone:

You know, there were all those out-of-work wenches from Pirates of the Caribbean - they had to go somewhere.

They grew up, became whores, and were recruited by the more mature park down the road.

wenches > whores > RRR