SOB's missing train

I went down to PKI today to enjoy the few days I am having off work. When I arrived at 3 I noticed on the closed rides board SOB. I thought that was pretty weird and had to check it out for myself. At the entrance it said the ride was closed and there wasn't anyone that operated the ride in sight. The only thing I did notice was one of the trains is now missing and we are back to a one car operation. What a nightmare that line gets to be.

It did open about 6 and I got in line 10 minutes before it closed and waited 40 minutes starting at the bottom of the ramp. It was running extremely well and seemed very fast tonight. I was just wondering what happened to the other train. I had heard a while ago in someones TR that there has been some modifications in the ride. I cant see any thing other than the lap bars which have been around a while now. If they dont add the other train by friday I wouldnt be suprised to see 4 hour lines for bring a friend free day.

They tweak that ride year-round. It's an ongoing process.

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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com - Sillynonsense.com
DELETED! What time does the water show start?

Train needed some work it will be back for friday. The TR may have been mine. It was giving great rides about 2 weekends ago. It hasn't lasted from what I heard

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Hi.....whats your name again?

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*** This post was edited by PKIEMPSOB 8/7/2003 1:01:25 AM ***

No...last Sunday it was running like crap. But then, so were Racer and The Beast. I never thought I would see the day that Son of Beast was running better than The Beast. But all the big woodies were running pretty much like crap last weekend. Very much not what I expected; Kings Island's wood coasters are usually in excellent working order.

I'm guessing Kings Island's woodies aren't happy with all the rain...

--Dave Althoff, Jr.
Who also isn't happy with all the rain...

The trains on SOB must take a real beating. Keeping them maintained is sure to be a nightmare.

Which is interesting too because they have a spare. Aside from a little rust on the wheels I don't know why they can't just lube it and drop it on the track.

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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com - Sillynonsense.com
DELETED! What time does the water show start?

Its just slightly harder than that to "drop" a coaster train on the track, especially one that hasnt ran since last year.

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SOB crew in 2002
TRTR crew in 2003
.....Yeah, I think that smoke is supposed to be there.....

People in the know, won't say. People who don't know, say.

Charlie Weingartner - person who knows this one

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www.coasterinsomniacs.com

Givent that Sonny has three storage tracks, I'm surprised that they don't stick the third train on the storage track and throw a tarp over it. If they're worried someone will notice that they're not running all available trains, substitute some 2x4's and barn siding for the tarp. Then they could rotate between the three trains when running the ride.

Unless that rumor about what happened to the third train waaaaay back just before the ride opened is actually true, and they don't really have a third train anymore...

(and if it IS true, how do we get them to do the same thing with the other two trains? :) )

--Dave Althoff, Jr.
*** This post was edited by RideMan 8/7/2003 11:30:34 PM ***

Come on Dave, you can't do that to us ;)

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If given the choice I'd choose a hamburger over a hotdog anyday of the week.

SOB only has two storage tracks though...

what was the rumor?

/ --------------------------------------
http://www.eightdotthree.net

I thought sure there were three storage tracks. Even so, you only need n-1 storage tracks on a coaster anyway, where n is the number of operating trains...

It's only a RUMOR. But consider this: The ride's transfer table is positioned about 50' in the air. I have seen NO evidence to indicate that the rumor could be true, apart from the conspicuous absence of the third train.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Two storage tracks on Sonny, The Rumor is true but they rebuilt it.

Chuck, who agrees PKI's woodies are running very rough, Expecially Papa

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Charles Nungester.
It's official Lesourdsville Lake is closed for 2003

Son of Beast was closed Monday and Tuesday. It reopened Wednesday afternoon with one train. The second train was added yesterday around 4. There was a pretty good reason for all of this. I wish I could share. ;)

-Danny
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Coaster Insomniacs- Coastin' the Night Away

What "rumor" do you speak of? The third train is sitting behind Beastie. Siebert showed it to us at BeastBuzz, and presumably others have seen it at other enthusiast events. The official reason they don't use three trains is that changes in the layout prevent them from blocking it correctly. That actually makes sense to me, because a returning train doesn't have a lot of room to stop. What they should've done at that point is square off the turn between the transfer and station and put a stand by there. Then you can safely stack three trains. Although, they could arguably do that now, you'd just have to not miss interval because you'd end up with a train at the midcourse stopped, something I'm sure they don't want.

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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com - Sillynonsense.com
DELETED! What time does the water show start?

Sounds like Koaster King is alluding to some type of "incident" that may have damaged a train.

The reason they don't run three is that it will be necessary at times to stop it on the midcourse. They do not want to do this leaving a sitting train with guest unsupervised is not wise and they know it. Hence the blocking reason is valid.

The rumor is that one of the trains for SOB was dammaged upon delivery. That train was refurbished by Premier and even had the nose car at IAAPA Nov. 2000 while the other two that ran in 2000 underwent their yearly inspections and overhaul.

I was told that a SOB train vallied last week but went last thursday and both trains were running.

They have gone to a rotation basis with the trains having one ready for next year before this season ends. It's a full time job over the winter to overhaul and inspect all their coaster trains. This is why one train on ADV EX is removed in Sept and Racer ususally looses a train in the fall prior to end of post season weekends. So they can get a head start.

Chuck

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Charles Nungester.
It's official Lesourdsville Lake is closed for 2003

Jeff:

What kind of changes where made to the layout of Son of Beast? I always thought the problem with running three trains was the "Millennium Force-syndrome" that RideMan has mentioned, where the trains run faster than what the original design had called for.

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Intelligence is a God given gift: Know how to use it.

Didn't they misplant footers and have to move the track? I forget what we were told at BeastBuzz...

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