Steel Vengeance closed for minor accident
bigboy said:
Maybe you just saw train loads of enthusiasts who are incapable of having fun with their hobby?
Shut the thread down. It's over.
bigboy said:
Maybe you just saw train loads of enthusiasts who are incapable of having fun with their hobby?
Boom! Roasted!
Gaga Tatt Monster said:
I posted earlier about how trim or no trim, the trains were leaving the MCBR at the same speed...
I can now, however, confidently say that last night I rode twice and they actually grabbed pretty hard and we crawled out of the block at a much slower rate than any ride I’ve had before. (15) This time, it did affect the second half of the ride. Less ejector air and more hangtime in inversions. It didn’t blow my mind as much as other rides have & I noticed a change in people’s reactions while unloading.
Reactions were more tame or subtle, less chatter about how amazing it is, and more chatter about how is fun but not a favorite. This is a 180 degree change from previous experiences.
I think they are still experimenting with the braking on the ride,
Hangtime in the inversions would be fun, but if its really negatively affecting the ride, they could just turn it off completely. It may be a while before they get a third train on, and it obviously isn't needed for two train operation. Even with a third train, they could still benefit from a third train by having one train load, one train on the lift hill, and one train on the course, but the ride would still stack for about 30 seconds (difference between the length of the lift hill and the train, and you could delay the dispatch so it won't stack on the lift). So really, the MCBR isn't really that needed at all for efficient operations. I doubt that they'd be fast enough to run all three trains without stacking anyway.
Isn't there enough room on the brake run for 2 trains if 1 is still in the station? If the train in the station leaves, wouldn't it just go up the lift hill slower until the 3rd train locks in place just before the station? I just can't see them designing the brake run too short so that the MCBR would be routinely used due to stacking at the station. They could have eliminated the last 1 or 2 bunny hops at the end if they needed a longer brake run and we would have never known the difference. I, personally, believe it was a software glitch and if that's the case, it doesn't matter how many trains you have on the track, other than just 1, or how many brakes you add because if the software thinks it's ok to engage the motorized drive wheels when it isn't, it's still going to bump or crash into the train in front of it.
According to one of the more recent comments on this reddit thread (https://www.reddit.com/r/rollercoasters/comments/8iubkx/general_ste...ce_thread/), it would seem Cedar Point was testing the Blackjack train today.
I just rode for the first time last night. It was too crazy for me to even notice this braking that some of you speak of. All I know is the ride made me very happy and that's all that mattered.
Resurrecting for a question; not sure if there was ever a discussion on this specific topic or not. Is the MCBR on Steel Vengeance a thing? Meaning, has it ever been tested so that three-train operation could actually have an impact on capacity?
We made it up to Cedar Point for a quick day-trip while the kids were in school, and headed back to S.V.; saw a wait of about 45 minutes (only the first queue 3/4 full before the tunnel), and hopped in assuming it would be less...mainly because I noticed all three trains were running.
But then we quickly realized that the wait was going to be much longer; not because of Fast Lane (a complete non-factor today), but because it was one train at a time; no trains dispatched until the previous train had run the full course. 90 minutes later, we were finally on board.
The positives? 1) There was no trim at all on the straightaway into the second half, 2) The pouches were great to have. 3) It was our first coaster of the season, and what a way to start...
Perhaps it's still a work in progress, or has anyone observed operation when a train can dispatch before the running train completes the course?
Promoter of fog.
In my experience this past week, they won't be able to run three trains with any gain in capacity as long as the new loose article policy is in effect.
While the staff will become more efficient as the summer progresses, from what I saw the biggest holdup is the time it takes guests to put stuff into the pouches and remove them at the end of the ride. The pouches are small, and it took some work to fit my (admittedly big) phone and wallet into the bag.
On top of that, the metal detectors have a finite capacity as well, and this past week it seemed to be about the same as the two train operation, as there was rarely a backup on the steps nor a shortage of people waiting to board. If they managed to get guests to board faster I think the metal detectors would be the next capacity constraint in the chain.
I understand why they put the new policy in place -- guests can only get hit in the face with phones so many times before they have to take action -- but in its current form, they slow everything down while not actually preventing anyone from having loose articles. Because the bags aren't see-through and are difficult to see through the riders' legs, it basically becomes a matter of honesty: all the attendants can do is ask "are all your articles in the bag?" to every rider with a red stamp and hope they're being truthful. If someone purposely wanted to pull their phone out on the ride, they could still easily do so.
All second hand info here so take it with a grain of salt...
Supposedly a train stopped on the midcourse during Ohio State Day and had to be evacuated from there because of whatever the issue was. Rumor has it, when they later released the empty, it valleyed somewhere along its return to the station. There was a picture of where it was stopped on the midcourse and it was all the way at the "front" of the midcourse right before it drops. Maybe if they could move the stopping point back a bit (say 1/3rd or 1/2 way) so it gets a bit of a rolling start, that would be enough. I said it last year that it seems hard to imagine so much perfect engineering going into a ride to get so many things right and then to mess up something so basic. Granted it was a pretty cold/windy day last Friday so I'm sure that played into it. Given the second half experience of the ride, I'm not sure how much more speed would really be practical anyway. Maybe RMC's trains are just so light that the extra weight of dummies or humans makes a more significant impact.
I'd say if you don't see them routinely stopping a train up there during morning testing, they've probably reverted to last year's state which was "it's not a block at all" so therefore no train can crest the lift until the first set of brakes at the end of the ride is clear. Last year, they seemed to be often times waiting 20 seconds or so to send a train. My guess is the pouches eat up most/all of that. Wondering if they're even going to bother attempting to modify the blocking any more at this point given the introduction of these new human bottlenecks.
-Matt
Given RMC is so good at retrofits (hehe), they should perhaps fix the MCBR to a higher elevation to reduce the chance of it not finishing the course. Not the easiest solution, but the best one. Cedar Point can’t be happy with that design flaw, if a real issue.
The metal detectors and stamps just felt...well...silly, but they certainly didn't seem to slow anything down at all. They're just simply part of the line. There was not a bottleneck in the line because of the metal detector at all. In fact, metal detector guy was outpacing the basic operation of the ride.
I'm no "pouch expert", but that also didn't add any time. You can't touch the orange lap bar when you sit down anyway, and there is no reason you can't have your phone or whatever tucked away by the time crew-person comes around to secure you in. It's no different than someone stuffing their cargo pockets before they sit down. At the top of the stairs they remind you (in case you somehow forgot while walking up the stairs) to have all your pouch-ready stuff out and ready to pack away. Plus, the more used to this procedure people get, the smoother it will go...and it was going pretty smoothly.
I've never lost anything on a ride, but I really loved having the pouch; I wish it would get added to more rides. Not that I don't trust a cargo-short pocket, but it takes away even the slightest bit of worry about something flying off.
Three-trains with an MCBR dispatch would make such a huge difference. There is just something agonizingly slow about the pace of the wait...it was almost enough to make me want to buy a Fast Lane. Oh wait...now I get it....
Promoter of fog.
OhioStater said:
I've never lost anything on a ride, but I really loved having the pouch; I wish it would get added to more rides. Not that I don't trust a cargo-short pocket, but it takes away even the slightest bit of worry about something flying off.
I haven't lost anything either, also thanks to cargo short pockets, but more important to me is that these pouches should reduce the chance of something breaking. My friend shattered the screen of his digital camera on El Toro while it was secured in his pocket.
Yes. In fact, I was slightly worried about my wife's phone in my pocket yesterday on Magnum as it got wedged against the lap-bar. Instead of totally enjoying the ride, I was concentrating on keeping that safe.
TANGENT: By the way, the new padding on Magnum's lap-bars is wonderful. The wild hops at the end are exponentially more bearable on the thighs. Plus, fog...
Promoter of fog.
Last week Sunday, (May 12) Steel Vengeance was running slower than I have ever seen it run before. The trims were off, and yet the bunny hops at the end of the ride were strong floater air rather than forceful ejector air. It was one of the few times I enjoyed riding a roller coaster when it was running a bit slow. I don’t know if it was related to the weather, or different wheels or something else. Based on how slow it was running, I would not be at all surprised if an empty cold train couldn’t make it back from the mid-course .
I think this is probably the first time they tried to send an empty train from a stop at the mid- course in cold weather. Last year, the mid- course course se was never used as a block, so they probably didn’t run many cycles from there. And the ones they did likely would have had the water dummies. Its just a learning experience, and they’ll get better at it next time.
As far as where the train stopped, only the brakes at the very end of the mid course are friction brakes. All the rest are magnetic brakes. The only option for where they can stop the train is at the end. The start and end of the mid-course aren’t much different in height, so I doubt it would have gained much speed had it stopped at the other end.
I can’t imagine they wouldn’t have tested every single possible scenario several\many times before they opened last year.
RCMAC- And yet two trains still bumped uglies in the station on Opening Day last year...
But then again, what do I know?
RCMAC,
I have no doubt the tested stopping the train at the mid course many times. I just wonder if they tested it empty or loaded with water dummies. And if the did test the train empty, what was the weather like. If it was warm, the train is much more likely to make it back than if its cold and windy.
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