CoastersRZ

Ah, good all DAAP server! I wish my review for studio was tomorrow! Instead, I have to wait until Thursday, which means many sleepless nights ahead for me and countless hours on models and drawings! Nicely done Brad! It shows that you put forth a lot of effort into that.

While their may be more air resistance on a train that is moving faster, the result causing the train to slow will be minimal compared to the increased speed and momentum of the train. Because heavier trains have more force and momentum, friction is less of an issue for heavier trains and slowing them down. Just look at the mass of a semi compared to that of a compact car. Obviously, a semi has more mass and needs a greater amount of friction to slow it down compared to the compact car. (Which is why the semis always seem to "win" in accidents). So, to answer your question, no heavier trains will not increase the friction experienced by the trains. In fact, there would need to be more friction added to realize the same frictional force of the lighter train, ie compact car.

Lighter trains will result in the trains having LESS speed and, theoretically, less stress on the structure of the ride. That is the real reason why they are switching trains. It goes back to the old theory momentum. Momentum equals mass times velocity. A heavier train will naturally induce more forces on the structure than a lighter or empty train.

When I heard about this last night, I wondered the same thing. Will Kings Island follow the lead set by the Cincinnati Zoo and outright ban smoking entirely, instead of simply restricting it to the designated smoking areas? Only time will tell.

I really wish that the `Tiques would have shown back up at KI as a ride. It was a classic ride that was able to be enjoyed by almost everyone, from small kids to the grandparents.

No, just like when they disassembled the ride, they will put track up before all the supports are done. They will essentially work on various areas of the ride until they complete the entire ride. As has been stated before, once steel starts going up, things tend to move rather quickly.

I don`t recall any magnetic brakes being installed on Son of Beast. Granted, I only rode it once this past season (and that was the first day it was open for the year).

I think the issue with Kings Island, is likely the magnetic trim brakes the park installed on The Beast when they redid its braking system a few years back from the old sled brakes. Still, I find it kind of a weak point to be suing the parks, as opposed to the manufacturer of said devices. Granted, ride like IJST that have magnetic brakes might be involved too, but I would imagine Premier rides got clearance or else they should also be named in the suit. If the company was just suing parks that have rides with these brakes, then I think they are misguided. Why not go after the manufacturer?

Like it has been said before, a lot of time is spent on preparing the infrastructure and foundations. Once those are in place, that actual erection of the steel will go rather quickly. I`d imagine, that most of the ride will be assembled by opening day, with only electrical work, painting and testing to be done over the one month or so between opening day and Memorial day weekend.

This happened this past Saturday. It was an awesome event! Kudos to KI, Maureen and all the presenters for making it a fun evening at the park!

Those pictures were taken this past Saturday at about 5:30 in the evening. They probably had been working earlier in the day. But I`m fairly certain that Maureen said there were crews working on Firehawk seven days a week.

A couple of things. First, as others have said, that paint is likely the primer coat. It is also a tinted primer (as opposed to the off white color they used when they repainted Vortex). The reason they tinted it, is so that they likely won`t have to spray two coats of the finish paint. Otherwise, some of the green existing paint might have bled through. Additionally, I believe Maureen said at Winter Soar that they had crews working on Firehawk seven days a week.

Not to mention the fact that any of the G trains would more than likely have to be heavily modified to conform to Son of Beast`s unusually large track gauge. Either that or they would have to retrack the ENTIRE ride with the standard track gauge, and Maureen hinted that they are not going to retrack the entire ride.

Unfortunately, those days were well before my time. It would have been nice to experience Coney in its heyday.

While it means nothing as far as the future of Coke at Kings Island, Maureen did mention that Coke is sprucing up the Coca-Cola Cool Zone for this season. Just an interesting tidbit to throw into the arena on whether or not Coke will stay after this season. I for one am glad that Coke is staying for at least one more year!

Well she did mention a train manufacturer. One that begins with a G. She did say that they will have to modify the trains from said manufacturer to fit the Son of Beast track gauge. It was either that, or retrack the entire ride.

That "swoosh" was the technical term that Maureen used. While it may be like the "S" turn in RCT, it will likely be banked.

fan of beast, that is just an optical illusion in that picture. They had completed the structure for the turn out of the first tunnel and under the lift. But they had not completed the structure connecting the helix finale to the track to the station. Thus in that picture it appears as if the structure heading to the station joins with the outbound portion of structure that heads to the second hill of the ride.

Thanks for the kind comments on the site updates. Dane has worked really hard to get the site programmed the way it is! By the way, welcome to KIC WadeJ!

That is what I thought. If this is a permanent change, it will be a nice touch for the winter months. Especially if they start using the lighting package so that the tower changes colors. The tower looks so majestic when it changes color with those new lights.

Well, seeing as how that is approximately next to The Vortex station, I`d say that they are likely getting ready to put The Vortex trains back on the track. Keep in mind that the park has a month and a half to get all the trains back on the tracks, have the rides tested and then inspected by the state before guests can step on board.

Before Paramount bought the parks in 1992, did they used to illuminate the tower at night in the off season?

In a way, it kind of makes sense to have the tower illuminated in the off season. It gives the park a presence at night along I-71, as opposed to the park appearing as a vast expanse of blackness. After all, the Eiffel Tower is a signature landmark of Kings Island.

I`d like to personally say that the history section now has an expanded listing of shows that were held at the park in the `80`s and early `90`s. The new site looks great, and as Dane said, has been in development for quite some time now. Dane put a lot of hard work into programming this update.

Yep. He certainly had Viacom (actually CBS since they were the owners of the park at the beginning of 2006) pegged right in making a huge mistake in selling the park. They would rather get an easy nickel then a hard earned quarter. It will be interesting to see how many of the licensing agreements that Cedar Fair maintains. I think that they will maintain the Nickelodeon license, they would be naive to drop that brand.