Iron Dragon valley

Apparently Iron Dragon stopped empty tonight in the pretzel, nearest the Corkscrew midway.

Yep,took a pic of it.

If they kept the height restriction at 46 inches this sort of thing would never have happened.

I took some pictures, too--but they were shot with my low quality phone camera.

I'd blame the winds, no doubt--they were howling last night. Waves looked to be 4-6 feet, at least, along the beach, and the water was above the bottom of the concrete ramps leading from the boardwalk to the beach. Sand was blowing in our ears and eyes as far in as the Blood on the Bayou exit and the Sky Ride West station. It did amaze me how close the ID ride vehicle bottoms get to the top of the water, though--impossible to see well when the ride is moving, but evident last night.

Credit the park, however...Maverick, Blue Streak, and I believe even Rougarou were still running. The place was surprising busy given the weather.

When the ride is moving, the train swings out, so it isn't nearly as close as it is right now.

Good thing it was empty, evacuation in that spot would be a major pain in the rear.

Why was it empty?

Because it was cycling before the park opened, like all the rides do.

Waves were actually 9 to 12 feet last night. Winds were howling as stated before, even some small sand piles on the midway by Windseeker that looked like small snow drifts.

How high were the trains above the lagoon? In the picture, it looks like they're pretty close to touching the water.

i know most rides closed today, but did maintenance get the train back in the station overnight? anyone know?

Take it for what it's worth, but I heard from somebody that maintenance isn't even going to touch the train until Monday. Not sure what the case is or why, considering I watched them winch a train that valleyed in 2013 a few hours after it happened.

Paisley said:

Good thing it was empty, evacuation in that spot would be a major pain in the rear.

If only they still had the paddlewheel boats...

TwistedWicker77 said:

Take it for what it's worth, but I heard from somebody that maintenance isn't even going to touch the train until Monday. Not sure what the case is or why, considering I watched them winch a train that valleyed in 2013 a few hours after it happened.

If the wind didn't die down today maybe there's no point. Why move it if you're not going to run it anyway maybe?

It's still valleyed by the lagoon, weather is just as bad today with a little less wind. Still, a miserable day.

This is the blessing and curse of extending the season through the end of October. Some years, it's a slam dunk, with massive revenue, other years, just awful weather. I suppose it all balances out.

I'm down at Kings Island this weekend and the weather isn't any better here. Windy with Temps around 50 and on/off rain and drizzle but crowds are very good. Everything has been running even in rain. Supposed to be in low 70's tomorrow so hoping for a good day at KI before heading back north

Paisley said:
Good thing it was empty, evacuation in that spot would be a major pain in the rear.

...but I'll bet the park has a plan for doing it. Best guess is that I know they have a boom lift that can reach the track in the pretzel from the midway. I'll bet it can reach the cars as well. Pull the lift up next to the train, hit the shoulder bar release pedal, riders climb out of the train and into the lift basket, return to midway.

The follow-up to the feature article on emergency stops talks about evacuation in more general terms...coming soon from PointBuzz. A photo like this one would be a great illustration of something that can happen to a ride that could require an evacuation.

For recovering the train, I wonder if the rope on the winch they use to drag the train up from the storage track under the station is long enough to reach back to this point...

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

According to CP Rundown, the train is being winched back to the station now.

Here's a little trivia for you;

What Arrow suspended coaster was actually supposed to feature a "splash-down" into the water near the end of the ride course (but never did)?