TombRaiderFTW

^ That, and a cable lift system is much lighter than a chain. The weight of Magnum's chain is why Cedar Point went with the cable for Millennium Force, as I understand it.

When I was little, the Antique Cars and the Flying Eagles were pretty much the only things I would ride, even though I was clearly tall enough to get on things like The Racer, Vortex, etc. Because of that, I've got a ton of memories of riding them both with my parents, so it's really cool seeing the comparison... even though I'm not much of a fan of the "now" shot. Oh well, life moves on. EDIT: You kinda have to wonder why Paramount got rid of the lower-left pond in your photos... It doesn't really get in the way of BLSC, and it would be nice to have now.

Nah, you definitely shouldn't have saved this for later in the off-season. Very interesting! Thanks for sharing, standbyme.

This is too cool, standbyme. Can't wait to see what's next.

Really? I didn't think opening day 2009 or 2010 went too poorly. OD 2011 was a little crazy, though... Rides were down all over the place.

^ At least in Coney Mall, they did have hot chocolate. I'm not sure if it was offered during Haunt, but there was a sign for it on closing day. EDIT: Dang, UnrealNightmare beat me to it!

^^ I honestly have no guesses. There are several things that KI's doing (or, more specifically, not doing) related to Son of Beast that I don't understand. ^ Good point, Boddah. Then again, you have to consider the context in which they bought the trains. Their choices were: 1. Run Voyage with one 7-car train, leading to longer waits and frustrated guests, both of which they strive to avoid, 2. Put the Raven train back on the track, which cuts down on The Raven's capacity (thus causing the same issues as #1) and causes them to spend more money repairing the Raven train each off-season, or 3. Buy more PTC cars to keep all HW's rides running at top capacity and to potentially be used for donor parts for the other rides' trains if the Timberliners ever get running. Since HW tries to keep customer satisfaction exceptionally high, it seems like #3 would be their obvious choice. After all, the only reason they went with #2 last year, according to one of the HoliBlogger YouTube videos, was because they only anticipated the Raven train being on The Voyage for a matter of weeks. (Hmm... Just realized how frequently I've been replying to this thread. I'm not actually this much of a Holiday World fanboy, guys. I'm just really interested in the Timberliner situation!)

This season saw several song clips being used on multiple rides. For instance, Beast's lift music switched from part of the Armageddon score to part of the Saw score, Invertigo's station played "Vertigo" by U2, and The Crypt's queue and ride both gained portions of the Inception score. Some of them were really cool, but some, like BLSC's Flight of the Valkyries in the helicopter scene, were a bit... odd, in my opinion. (Not to say that I didn't appreciate them nonetheless!) I kinda found myself wondering what song(s) I'd pick for the rides on multiple occasions, so I'm curious what you guys think. If you could pick any song to be used in any way for KI's rides (be it the clips in the station from this year, onboard audio a la Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit, or even something new), what would you pick? For me, even though I love the Inception score on The Crypt, I'd love to hear this song in the line. I heard it during my music class this quarter, and it instantly made me think of the ride, for some reason. A la Tomb Raider, it'd be cooler if the music got more intense the closer you get to the ride, but I don't think getting the TR:TR score back is an option right now, haha. <iframe width="560" height="315" src=" http://www.youtube.com/embed/iLdbHl3U3pg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>On that note, I'm still a sucker for the Inception score... and like I said this spring, I'd still really love to hear "Mombasa" by Hans Zimmer featured during the ride. It doesn't have the same theatrical effect that the current song, "Dream is Collapsing" has with the fast-paced violins and the deep "bummm bummmmm," but then again, what's the point of being theatrical when there's nothing going on? <iframe width="560" height="315" src=" http://www.youtube.com/embed/RwIo_VadeFU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>Finally, even though it's not at KI, I haven't been able to stop associating Muse's "Knights of Cydonia" with Maverick at Cedar Point. I feel like it'd make a really cool onride audio if it was edited just right... Can you imagine the second repetition of "you and I must fight for our rights, you and I must fight to survive" being timed with the second launch so that the dragging surviiiiiiiiive matches up right with the launch? Then the guitar solo right after that fits the rest of the ride perfectly, in my mind... Ahhhh. It's nice to dream. <iframe width="420" height="315" src=" http://www.youtube.com/embed/1mkIrvuU_zE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>I'm curious to hear what songs you guys suggest.

^ Yeah, I'd imagine Holiday World's gonna take care of the ride's worst spots this off-season. I know at the very least that they took care of the worst parts of Raven between 2010 and 2011. (That ride had a nasty jackhammering tendency in 2010 on the hill leading to the run over the lake that disappeared this year, for instance.) If I had to guess--bearing in mind that this is entirely conjecture--I'd say the Timberliners would work with topper track. Why? Because topper track wouldn't wear nearly as much with age, thus allowing a smaller range in the track gauge. A smaller range in the track gauge allows for smaller necessary tolerances in the train gauge, which means there isn't as much room for the train to shuffle between the rails. In other words: As it stands now, wooden roller coaster trains colliding with the track to go around the turns deforms the track. (Which, by design, is what happens with PTC trains. The front wheels are fixed to the chassis and do not turn unless they're being pushed sideways by the outer rail of a turn.*) Thus, while the track may be x centimeters wide in the station, the track may be x+5 centimeters leading into the spaghetti bowl. By widening with wear, there's more room for the train to bounce between the rails, which it usually does. That's sometimes how wooden coasters become rough. Since PTC trains, which collide with the outer rail in order to turn, are compatible with topper track, it makes sense that Timberliners, with their steering capabilities, would in fact work even better with the topper track. TLs would have less room to wiggle and would presumably wear less on the track since they don't collide with it to turn. Of course, the thing to bear in mind is that RMC has yet to entirely replace a coaster's track with topper track. I assume that Holiday World would have only replaced the high-wear areas of the track with topper track. But again, I really don't know. *An interesting side note: When they do, they rake the road wheel across the laminated steel on top of the track, giving rides in need of grease that lovely SCREEEEEECH sound. I've heard Beast make the sound this year in the turn out of the station, Tornado at Stricker's Grove positively scream in the turn out of the station, and The Legend screech both this year and last in the turn between the lift and the first drop. It's unnerving the first time you hear it. (I'm not sure how much sense any of this made... I'm having a hard time writing what's going on in my head today.) EDIT: This darn post just gave me the biggest hankering to visit Holiday World. Curse you, off-season!

^ You're welcome! On that note, as much as I would love to see what topper track's like, I'm kinda glad Holiday World isn't doing both topper track and Timberliners next year. I'm more curious about how Timberliners will change The Voyage, which wouldn't be as easy to tell if part of the ride had steel track. Can't wait for opening day next year!

^ Haha, sure thing. Here's a better explanation of what topper track is. (It requires Flash to view it.) The differences are kinda hard to explain... Normal wooden coaster track is made up of (approximately) seven layers of wood laid on top of each other. The top three (or so) are wider than the rest and are what the train makes contact with throughout the ride. Topper track replaces those three layers with steel but leaves the rest of the layers intact. Thus, even though the track is essentially still wooden, the ride is significantly smoother. The Texas Giant redo uses RMC's Iron Horse track, which replaces all of the layers with steel. There isn't any part of the track that's wood; thus, the ride is drastically smoother. SFOT apparently decided to take advantage of this new smoothness (as well as a few other advantages the IH track has over wooden track) by also changing the ride's profile, thus creating the crazy overbanked turns the ride has now. Does that (hopefully) make any more sense?

^ It's from Rocky Mountain Construction, who recently became known for the track renovation on SFOT's Texas Giant. It basically replaces the portion of the track in a wooden coaster that the train runs on with steel, which cuts down on maintenance, makes the ride smoother, etc. See also SFNE's Cyclone and Silverwood's Tremors, among others, including SFOG's Georgia Cyclone, next year. Apparently RMC announced at an ACE event this summer that the ride would be receiving the topper track, which Paula later denied.

Paula's mentioned on Facebook that Timberliner testing on The Voyage will continue in the spring. EDIT: Correction. Turns out it's not getting topper track. I misread a source.

The only plans I've heard that were decided against were to retheme Flight of Fear to MTV Soundwave... which, if I'm not mistaken, very nearly happened to Kings Dominion's Flight of Fear.

I want to say I remember them doing that same thing last year on closing day, but I'm not sure... I do know for sure that KI was getting a head start on shutting down on closing day this year. Halfway through the day, they were already stockpiling trashcans in The Crypt's and Drop Tower's lines. Could just be a part of that.

Welp, guess we know now: KIC Offseason Brawl, '11-'12: "Is AZ Kinda Guy a holier-than-thou elitist, or just a misunderstood expert?" Just teasin', guys. Does it really matter at all what order they do maintenance in?

If I were to guess, I'd say the advantage with the Knott's dampers is that their strength is based on the position of the seats relative to one another, not on the position of each seat relative to the red carriage. In other words, the force each damper exerts increases as the seats near each other, which is something the KI, CP, and CW models don't address. They just dampen all movement in any direction, which . I'd be willing to bet, too, that KBF's model has had fewer issues with operating in high winds.It wouldn't surprise me if both the 2012 WindSeekers and KI's, CP's, and CW's models have these dampers come next spring, either. EDIT: Just realized that jcgoble posted the same thing as the second half of my post... whoops! Great minds think alike, I guess.

^ He's like Santa Claus, except his presents are usually less exciting than toys. Or so I "think, REALLY think".

^^ As sad as it is to say it, that word's having its 15 minutes of fame right now.

Touche, but you've got to admit that, around the hammerhead, it does feel a bit like you're off in the woods. It's not immersive by any means, but I think it's kinda cool, anyway. Yeah, I noticed that when I walked the construction area in 2008. If they did it, I mean they could do a supported wooden boardwalk-type of path. (Sort of like a pier, only not over water... The comparison that comes to mind is the path to the Thanksgiving section at Holiday World, only made out of wood instead of the hard plastic-ish boards and surrounded by trees.)

^ That's what you get for bringing your bear to KI! How'd you manage sneaking that in, anyway?!

If they're removing The Crypt (and the TR:TR fanboy in me still hopes they don't), I really hope something fitting the western theme Rivertown's getting would go there. Given Cedar Fair's recent exploits in theming, the closest theme we'd get would be Dale Earnhardt or an animal. Woo. Still, I'd really like it if KI had (a) 300' S&S launch tower(s). Especially if they used the existing ride chamber as the loading station. That'd be cool. Or if the park added a path back into the woods beyond Diamondback's turnaround and put pretty much any kind of terrain coaster back there, as long as it's not so big that it ruins Beast's or Diamondback's atmospheres.

And here I thought I was about to read an article on Lindsay Lohan. In all seriousness, it's always cool to see KI's winter maintenance at work. (It'd be even cooler to see it in person... *nudges Boddah* )

We've all kinda suspected it, but Screamscape is now reporting: Thoughts? (I'm currently trying to restrain my own. Mainly because they sound like .)On that note the lava was not turned on yesterday... Related?

And I thought this horse had been sent to the glue factory long ago. Some of us didn't even know this was a horse.