Garret

I'm a fan of the Intamin coasters myself. Unfortunately, I don't see much chance of KI getting their version of Millenium Force or the TTD anytime soon.

I never really cared for Phantom Theatre. But I wouldn't mind seeing the original Enchanted Voyage restored. Even the Smurfs were better than the Buzz Lightyear knockoff occupying the building now.

I'm trying to find some pictures of the King Cobra when it derailed. They were in the Enquirer at the time so I know they're out there somewhere. As far as anyone being injured or killed on the KC. I know of no on-ride accidents other than the aforementioned derailing in the helix, but I do recall a ride employee being hit in the head by the train while sweeping underneath the station. I don't recall the extent of the injury, but due to the way the TOGO design has the guide wheels riding along the outside of the track, I can see how somebody too close could be struck.

They can indeed paint trains, but in this case they didn't. The original trains were 4 row per car, 5 car per train configuration. They had a slightly wider undercarriage along the sides to be used along with the feed motors in the brake shed to start a blocked train. Beast was designed to run 4 trains, the brake shed was never designed to be trims, but to setup when necessary and restart a train when clear. When the 4th train was removed the trains were replaced with the current 3 row per car/6 car per train configuration and have been in use ever since. Here's another fun fact. Operators used to be able to use feed motors to reverse a train in the station when they overshot the queues. With the current set of trains however, the motors did not grip the trains as well and used to slip causing a nasty odor in the station. This feature has since been removed as it's no longer possible to blow the station brakes.

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The Vortex corkscrew track separated from its supports in 1988? (and Beast does a loop?!? Maybe you mean helix.) Minor issue, a weld at the top of the support for the corkscrew cracked. By loop I meant complete the circuit.

And there is a reason for that. Magnum has a computer that determines how long the trims are to be engaged based upon the previous train's weight. The test trains of the day are empty or close to being empty, perhaps two or three employees. If the trims were 100% on with an empty train, the train could valley coming out of the pretzel given the right temperatures and wind off the lake. And as Gordon has previously mentioned, with skid brakes or mag brakes, there is no way to turn them off without removal. Magnum's trims (before the pretzel) are set by the Mechanics and are not within the control of the ride operator. They were never intended to be there by Arrow and installed after the section of track was raised and bent into a flatter configuration while the ride was closed for the lift chain break in it's innaugural 1989 season. Ride operators manually time trains to alert maintenance of the need to raise or reduce the air pressure in these brakes. The ride safety system is unaware of these brakes and they have no speed detection means to auto-adjust like the safety brakes do. The Magnum's computer is oblivious to train weight, trim level at the safety's and ready's are determined by the trains speed using proximity sensors (the square green boxes you see at the entrance and exit of both brake sections and the light blue boxes in between each air brake). In recent years, the use of these brakes has diminished quite a bit as the rides popularity has waned and less than full trains become common. Last year, they weren't in use at all when Maggie blew through the safety brakes and bumped into the ready's.

The brake before the corkscrew on Vortex is not a trim brake. It is a Mid Course Brake Run, which is very handy in keeping two trains from entering the same block and possibly colliding. The MCBR could make the train come to a complete stop, but it ususally only slows you down because KI is pretty good at dispatching trains. Not to mention, the MCBR on Vortex has always been there. While not originally designed to be trims, the C block brakes on The Vortex have been used as such since the tracks first separated from their supports in the corkscrew in 1988. I'm also kind of surprised to hear your remarks on the dispatch intervals. Compared to the times we used to run, today's times stink. I know the stupid additions of the 2nd operator dispatch and the exit gate that needs to be locked after each train unload kills times, but it's still pretty bad aside from those things. Normal operation for Vortex was to not even use the ready brakes to hold trains. Using the safety brakes was at most a once or twice a day occurance and had to be because the darn things got stuck out there half the time and had to be pushed. As far as The Beast, it's almost made me sick to my stomach watching how far this ride has fallen from greatness. I agree with the others who say it practically gets worse every year. The seat belts and waist bars dumbed the ride down enough. The speed at which it makes the loop today is an embarassment to its former self. Anyone saying the ride is as fast today as it was in years past never rode it in it's original 4 train/4 row per car configuration. Those trains were heavy, and they were fast. As in The Vortex C brakes, the brake shed on The Beast was never put there to trim speed. They were there to stop a train and start one aided by feed motors. This block division was necessary when running with 4 trains. Keep in mind, before the days of seat belts and waist bars, exit gates, entrance gates, 2 man dispatch, physically checking bars, etc., a 20-25 second load time was the norm. Today the ride is sad, it's almost depressing riding Beast anymore.