EthanCoaster
Mega Poster
This is a bit off topic but on the topic of comfort collars, I’m surprised Six Flags never installed more Sky Rocket II’s considering they’re cheap and compact, and they literally built the first one.
Six Flags Over Texas | Original Mr. Freeze is back
- Thread starter Kw6sTheater
- Start date
They are also quite fun roller coasters, though I'll never publicly admit it.
oriolat2
Giga Poster
Not necessarily. After all, SF was the one who purchased the prototype in Superman, and that one has operated with lapbars only just fine. Maybe SF won't ruin the ride with comfort collars unlike SeaWorld.
cookie
Giga Poster
They put comfort collars on West Coast Racers despite Full Throttle running without them at the same park, though, so I wouldn’t bet on it.
California (apparently, and part of the MonteZOOMa retro discussion) has a newer OTSR requirement for coasters with inversions. Haven't looked into it myself.
Ultimately, a train 'retrofit" would feel in-bounds if this plays out to be a broader TLC project. And I fear throwing comfort collars onto a new train to be too easy a move as part of "improvements."
TPoseOnTantrum
Giga Poster
SFOT reiterating again that Freeze isn’t completely done for;
Indy
Hyper Poster
Prototypes are double edged swords though. On one hand, you get a very unique product. On the other hand, there are usually a lot of teething issues that the park ultimately has to deal with. Depending on how things play out, a park might want to hold off on buying more in the immediate future. Prototypes are hard sells because few parks want to take the risk and they often get burned.
Also, you get a very unique product for a year or so if it's a good product worth iterating on, after which a lot of parks may build a more exciting version of what you've got. Alternatively, you get to be the first to find out why the product isn't worth iterating on. Either way, being the first to buy something often means you're stuck with the beta product.
I feel like Six Flags Magic Mountain got burned quite hard by this a number of times. Many of their biggest coasters ended up being among the last before a big paradigm shift happened, and made SFMM's coaster outclassed in some way.
rideguy70
Mega Poster
While I'm not an expert, I believe the California requirement is that any ride that has inversions must have a redundant device. A seat belt would also work... which is what they did for The New Revolution when they debuted those trains.
In my opinion, the reason why the parks prefer the comfort collars is that they are much, much faster for ops to check. One of the biggest ops issue with FT, which has seatbelts rather than comfort collars, is that the seatbelts are near impossible to see and check once the lap bar is down as it's so thick it basically covers the belt. They try to encourage guests to leave the lap bars up when boarding, but you can imagine how that goes. Accordingly, dispatch times for FT are pretty dismal.
I don't think it's as much of an issue with TNR, as the lap restraint there are much smaller, so seeing and checking the seat belt is much easier.
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TPoseOnTantrum
Giga Poster
Forwards Freeze is coming back;
Perhaps the most dramatic “My death has been greatly exaggerated” moment.
Perhaps the most dramatic “My death has been greatly exaggerated” moment.
Skyye
Mega Poster
If that's true then I wouldn't be surprised to see STL's freeze turned back forward too.
Lori Marie Loud
Giga Poster
Apologies for the bump....
But, in quick succession, they flipped one of the trains around so it goes backwards again,then disabled the forwards train. Nevermind it runs both but due to staffing issues they sometimes only run one.
LMAO
But, in quick succession, they flipped one of the trains around so it goes backwards again,
LMAO
oriolat2
Giga Poster
Have a Six Flags day xD