CoastersRZ

Read the article here: http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/news/2014/02/10/coney-island-names-new-vp-general.html I have worked with Mike Howard through my years at Coney. He is a great guy. Glad to see him get promoted.

I wouldn`t say those that know speak quite a lot. I know that some people`s jobs depend on keeping things like trade secrets private and not for public consumption. Do things occasionally leak out? Of course they do. But it often is a little bit of the telephone game. I have heard that Ralph is no longer with The Beach. I also have heard that a new slide is indeed coming to The Beach in 2014.

That is the old photo booth area for Son of Beast, in the old exit. It is not on top of the station roof.

Wonderful photos TG 1993! I even spied the Eli Bridge Ferris Wheel that once operated at Kings Island. Action Zone sure looked a lot different in 1993 when both the wild animal habitat and Top Gun were there. I think of all the areas of the park, Action Zone/Adventure Village/Animal Habitat area have seen the most amount of changes over the years.

Well the train storage area on Banshee has a roof over it. So they will likely be loaded onto the storage tracks pretty soon after their arrival in order to keep them out of the elements and away from other construction activities.

Back in the early days, the main area of the park had far fewer mature trees. It looked much different back then, compared to how it looks now. Not just in terms of the rides but the landscaping.

Excellent photo TG1993! Too bad there aren`t many stats on those coasters other than the designer.

On April 18th, the park will be open 12pm to 10pm. The park has posted the operating calendar for 2014. The park is closed for private events on Friday, April 25th, and Sunday April 27th. Daily operation begins on May 9th. See the calendar on KI`s website here:https://www.visitkingsisland.com/hours-directions/kings-island

With this frigid cold weather, I bet not much painting is being done on The Bat either. Hard to do an adequate paint job when your paint is freezing as opposed to drying.

Nice find! Some of those post cards are from Chester Park, which was a competitor to Coney in the early 1900s. It was located over off of Spring Grove Avenue. I believe that the Cincinnati Water Works now has a building on the site of what was the park.

Check out the Kings Island logo and Eiffel Tower stenciled on the trash can! Nice photo TG1993! Its amazing how many things have changed at the park over the years!

The reason it looks dug into, is that they are removing the concrete paving. That is typically 4-5" in thickness. They may also be removing the subsurface that the concrete sat on (typically gravel), in order to prepare for the new pavement, whatever that may be. And the webcam is so far away, that one cannot tell how deep they are digging anyway.

Keep in mind that what was depicted in the rendering may not actually be what gets built. Often the renderings are done prior to the finalized design taking place. So what I`m saying is that there maybe a wall built by the stairs, and there might not, if things necessitated the change in the design from the time the rendering was completed. How is that for a cryptic answer.

Very nice find! Those are some very nice renderings.

Its too bad that they couldn`t find the talent to fill out the clown band or the other band that you spoke of. I think they would really add to the experience of the park and the "best day of the summer" philosophy that Matt Ouimet is big on. Hopefully they can get something like this in place this year or in future seasons.

Kings Dominion is bringing back the clown band for this season. Once can hope that Kings Island eventually follows suit. The energy they brought to the park was electric, as they roamed the midways with their zany antics. I have found memories of the Clown band from when I was a younger.

Raining down broken parts on riders certainly isn`t good! I know that I have personally seen grease fall off of rides and land on riders.

I don`t know where you are getting that nobody likes Adventure Express from. And, they are not just covering the station with plywood. They are covering it with structurally insulated panels, or SIPs. Those are commonly used in heavy timber construction, which is what the station is constructed of.

Track pieces are bolted together. They then come back and grind smooth where the actual tracks pieces joing together, in case there were slight tolerance differences.

You can see it when track work is done. In April when the park opens. https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BeBjRMYCYAAtmcW.jpg The above image was posted to KI`s Twitter. Last pieces of track leaving the manufacturing plant in Batavia.

That sign for Adventure Express was freshly painted for last season. It appears that they are working on the little dock area next to the lake that used to have the remote control boats on them. I wonder if they are going to be replacing the pavement and curbs in Action Zone and generally doing a sprucing up, much like they did with Rivertown in 2009.

It looks like it might be burlap or some sort of fabric. I imagine the covering is being caused by the wind, and is nothing intentional.

But you cannot separate the two. If it were not for the terrain, the ride would not be laid out the way that it is. And it is saying something that it has been the longest wooden roller coaster in the country, for 35 years now. It is still the longest roller coaster (wood or steel) in North America. The second longest coaster in North America is up north at Cedar Point with Millennium Force.

It still looks very vomit inducing to me.

That brings up a whole other question. At Diamondback, shoes are required to ride. Will shoes be required to ride Banshee? If not, where will guests store their shoes (especially all the open toe shoes that are so prevalent these days in the warmer months.