silver2005

I wish CF parks would have more info online for park dining like most other parks do. I have a digestive tract related medical condition, and being able to plan out meals and know what's available at a park is extremely helpful.

I wonder if the Skyline product placement was on purpose.

Sigh....I wish my NJ/PA trip pics didn't get screwed up.

The patch jobs it had from that early period in 2000 is what I was referring to. In the report (I did a college paper referring to it as part of the 2009 accident), it described that stuff the park (as part of the forensics investigator's argument that the ride should have never been opened at all) did to it early on and seeing the cranes in the video (which is dated June 24th, 2000), I just assume that's what they were there for. The video is kind of a snapshot of that early period of its history. I remember it being closed on and off its first few years. I remember it wasn't until around 2002 or 2003 that it started to operate somewhat regularly (I went a LOT from the mid 90s to the mid-2000s). Anyways, its cool seeing stuff from KI back in the day. You may continue with your regularly scheduled Orion discussion.

I was there, too. I first rode it on the Gold Pass holder ERT night. I was asking about the cranes in hindsight of its history. I assume they were there for the patch jobs I read about from the 2006 forensics report after the accident that year. I was 12 going on 13 when SOB opened, so I was a wee bit naive when it came to the bad parts of SOB at the time. Just me piecing the puzzle pieces together.

In that video, I noticed a crane sitting by SOB's Rose Bowl. Was that part of the whole thing they were doing early on with the frequent patch jobs they were doing to it when it first opened?

Alright coaster construction timeline aficionados, how long was it between DB and/or Banshee finishing track work and their first test runs?

Presumably cheaper? How about actually cheaper.

Now to wait on the first test runs.

The crane has moved off the last piece. Orion track work is finished.

^^And/or Best Buy.

Paging @Hawaiian Coasters 325

^1. WCPO is the only Cincy news outlet with a helicopter 2. Its a very WCPO-like thing for them to do with said helicopter

As someone with their favorite B&M being Nitro, I am digging all those hills that are banked and curved at the top. One of the big reasons I like Nitro so much is due to it having a few hills like that. They are outstanding on the outer seats with the airtime and laterals combo. I'm giddy with Orion now with it going to be taking those elements a wee bit faster than Nitro.

Jumping onto Shaggy's points- I have a theory that CF has certain projects in place for rides they deem to be on their waning years and are simply prepared to go with those plans once those times come. With SOB, it was pretty obvious, with Firehawk it made sense because it was a notorious maintenance nightmare, and with Vortex, it was about the ride's lifespan. I suspect they've had that plan regarding KD's Volcano as well, and probably for Anaconda, and Nighthawk and Vortex at Carowinds.

I just realized something- doesn't the new DB cam angle make the MT camera pointless now?

I'm guessing they don't want to keep showing the giant empty patch of land that Vortex once stood. It does help with scouting out Soak City to see if its crowded or not though.

On the whole viewing of Vortex's demo thing- lest we forget the primary focus of the camera was Diamondback. Let's be honest, the view of Vortex, sans the 2nd hill area, was pretty poor. Most GP (you know, the park's main demographic focus) only know it as the Diamondback cam and probably didn't think twice about it slightly having Vortex in frame. As for the whole 'CF is removing too much history' spiel based on them tearing down Vortex's station, parks saving ride parts for display are extremely rare and while there are a few examples of new rides using old stations (Vortex using original Bat's, El Toro using Viper's, Maverick's queue reusing the WWL station, KK reusing Greezed Lightning's station for Lightning Run), those are also quite rare. You can't blame the park for things that you didn't like the outcome of. That's just people not actually being prepared for other outcomes.

Holiwood Nights update- I can't do it. Memorial Day weekend is one of the weekends I can't ask off for at work. Blah. Might do Coasterstock now. Edit: Nevermind, Memorial Day is the weekend before.

I don't think they're going to do that with Vortex's corkscrews. Alton Towers' version had its corkscrews close to the ground. Vortex's are about 30 ft off the ground and it just seems impractical, especially due to how one of the corkscrews straddles the track between the loops. That would be incredibly difficult to remove without damage. CP's Corkscrew is also close to the ground and the paths are already in place to keep that as is. Also, where would you put the corkscews as a display like that?