pkiridesmaint

It’s still used for tech services in the basement, other than that the theater is used for climates controlled storage

You can see fresh dirt in the circled area next to the transfer table

It appears that they have removed the concrete wall outside of Vortex’s station at the transfer table

The Bat isn’t getting slower and slower because of age, The Bat has a VFD motor or variable frequency drive and can be sped up or slowed down in the programming of its PLC. I adjusted some of its ladders logic back in 2002 and I’m sure by now it’s been modified many times since. There is multiple position sensors along the entire lift and I programmed the PLC to start slow up the lift until hitting the first sensor to reduce wear on the lift chain from the start then it was programmed to speed up and would maintain its full lift speed as long as the other train wasn’t occupying the block brakes before the station, if it was then the PLC would slow the VFD to allow time for the block brakes to clear and if by the time it reached the last sensor at the crest and the block wasn’t clear it was programmed to stop, again that was done to reduce wear on the lift motor.

There’s a website called web archive that saves full websites periodically... Kings Island’s website has been saved 2,234 2,234 different times since 2007... you can even go visit the old paramount site pki.com

This was back in 2001 when there were no camera phones yet, this was what I had lol

I’ve been on top of Drop Tower to mount a camera back when I was in tech services before I went to the electric shop. there’s actually a small man basket lift inside to get to the motor house at the top. When I was sitting up there along with a co-worker you can feel the tower swaying with even the slightest breeze, talk about a gut wrenching feeling...

I explained earlier, rumor has it that anaconda was set to be retired this season but because of the unexpected removal of Volcano that would’ve left King’s Dominion with 2 less coasters, by retiring Vortex first that leaves both parks balanced with a net loss of 1, volcano will receive its replacement next then Anaconda will be retired around the time Vortex will be seeing its replacement. It’s all about shifting capital investments to each of the parks, you hardly ever see multiple substantial capital expenditures the same year...

While my theory on donor parts is not likely, I do stick by my theory that anaconda was spared over Vortex because of volcano

It was for sale for much more than 10k, they had it listed on Ital international for 1.1 million

I’m fairly certain that if this conversation took place that he didn’t tell you the whole story, from working in the engineering department at King’s Island I can tell you that more than likely the determination was made around the off season that the time had come to either rehab at costly expense, example: DH Morgan treatment of Steel phantom at Kennywood or to tear down. if I was a betting man I would place my bet that the final nail in the coffin for Vortex could be blamed on Volcano at King’s Dominion... rumor has it that anaconda was on the chopping block until Volcano had its demise, since KI was already receiving Orion we would only be at a net loss of 1 coaster versus a loss of 2 at KD since no replacement has been announced for Volcano. parks don’t just pick up the phone and order a major coaster for the next season, these are planned many years in advance and KD would have had a major void for years... I wouldn’t doubt it that if the same company that is erecting Orion is being used to dismantle Vortex will be taking their time add will be saving some sections of good track to possibly be a donor to Anaconda if needed to extend its life in the short term.

It’s heading for the scrap yard, there’s no chance of relocation. You’ll soon see Vortex on the razor blade aisle...

33 seasons, 32 years. 87 was the first season so that begins on day one not like an anniversary... by the time it’s 1 year anniversary rolls around it’s season 2...

Vortex has an SLC500 AB PLC and has removable I/o logic cards, if anything were to happen to them any of the cards could be simply replaced and be readdressed, also if the main controller card were to fail there is backup after backup of the complete ladder logic for the ride so I can bet the farm the control system has NOTHING to do with the retirement of the ride

False, only the support structure was built by CSF, track was fabricated at Arrow Dynamic’s Utah facility

It’s great seeing some of my construction photos shared

Incorrect, wicked twister opened in 2002 at Cedar Point and exactly one year later top thrill dragster opened.

Now they use flange plates, their tolerances are much tighter now than when they used the ball joints, the ball joints allowed them to “flex” the supports if the footing wasn’t in the exact place it needed to be

The first incarnation of hulk had ball joints, Kumba at Busch gardens, rougarou/mantis at Cedar Point to name a few

There certainly was when B&M used ball joints on the supports for their older coasters

Counter weight

That was in 2002 and proper lockout protocol wasn’t used, the car that was ripped from the tracks was covered with a tarp that day until investigators from the state had inspected it.

All of the rollercoaster in the park use inductive proximity sensors, pepperl & fuchs to be exact and you’re correct no power and they can’t tell. The major coasters are ran by SLC500 PLC controller from Allen Bradley.

What FOF96 was trying to explain to you is that B&M is a design firm and not a fabricator, they contract out the fabrication to Clermont Steel Fabricators.

Already been discussed a few pages back. They’re building what they call a tension fabric structure