Magnum policy change?

So, I finally rode Magnum last night with the new control system. They were running 3 trains, but we stacked in the safety brakes - and that is a hell of a hard stop.

Given the way the new system operates, and the amount of time it takes to bring the train in and park it, etc... I can see why they took the bins away. There is absolutely no margin for error anymore.

It was odd the way it stopped on the transfer table, too. It stops, releases, stops, releases, and comes to a final stop what seems to be a lot farther forward than it used to. I could be wrong, but it definitely seems different to me.

That's the parking. With the old system, the brakes on the transfer table were closed and the train simply plowed into them, coming to a stop wherever it landed, holding there until the station was clear. Once the station was clear those brakes were opened and the train rolled into the station, and the station brakes were used to check the speed.

Now, the train stops on the transfer table, then moves up to a parking position where it would need to be to operate the transfer table. When the station clears, I think the brakes are not opened, but the pressure is reduced so that they will limit the speed as the train comes around the corner. So the train doesn't have as far to go but it hits the curve at a slower speed.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

I remember Magnum parking a train at the top of hill when it wasn't in operation; what was the impetus to ending that practice?

My knowledge only goes back to 2001 so it might have been different before that, but at least since then, at closing, a train is transferred off and parked on the storage track, a second train is parked in the ready brake next to the storage track, and the third train is parked in the safety brakes. The station and lift are not occupied. Maintenance inspects the train in the readies and rolls it into the station and then brings the one around from the safeties and inspects that one. So when the crew comes in, they have one in the station, one on the readies, and one on the storage track to be transferred on.

Now in order to transfer a train on or off, it is typical to have one at the top of the lift for a few minutes while the transfer track is moved. We also parked one on the lift sometimes for a mechanical shutdown or a weather shutdown.

The new station parking does need to be improved. They lose at least 5 seconds of time just when the train stops one car short and then has to roll the rest of the way in. If it would just park with all six cars in the station as it does prematurely with five, it would be pretty workable. I also noticed that the ready brakes are trimming speed off the train as it tries to get rolling and come around the corner. This seems to be unnecessary as you're never going to get going that fast with such limited distance, but they probably had some sort of design constraint to keep the train below a certain speed.

They have all sorts of probably unnecessary complications with the new system. The "parking" in the ready brakes rather than stopping back farther is a questionable design choice. Also, the lift speed is now starting really slow, speeding up when the entire train is on the lift, and then speeding up yet again when the previous train clears the safeties. The net result of all of this is that the train is taking a good 10 seconds longer to get to the top of the lift. It appeared to me that on a few occasions, when they were ready to do so, they tried to send the train as soon as the previous one had dropped off the lift which makes sense since the lift is now slower, they should be able to shift the dispatch point back accordingly. BUT it seemed like the computer was not letting them send it until the previous one was pretty close to the top of the 2nd hill. It's either that or the simultaneous pushing of buttons in controls and at the enable position weren't being pressed so I heard "reset dispatch." Saw this twice so I'm thinking it probably wasn't the crew's fault both times. There is probably something preventing them from sending a train a soon as they should be able to.

Overall, I only saw a couple setups over the weekend which is a big improvement to how it was with the bins. Overall, the platform was just more orderly and seemed less chaotic. They didn't hit the designed interval every time, but in most cases, they weren't far off. It wasn't terribly busy so they might not have been hustling as much as they could have been. I am wondering though what the heck the deal is with chaining off two or three cars of the train to the point where you are producing a line back down the stairs and into the queues. I can't think of a good reason why they would have been doing that and it was kind of annoying to see. They had a load side position checking three empty cars at one point. I get it if there aren't enough people to fill all of the cars or if it's windy or something and you want to have people shifted to the front, but if you're producing a line more than a train or two deep by chaining off cars, you probably shouldn't be doing it.

I think the speed trimming on the readies accounts for most of the parking delay in the station. Remember the old system also stopped short, just not quite as far back.

The other thing that occurred to me on Friday was the elevator. Why in heck didn't they rotate that 90 degrees and have it connect to the exit ramp (which is level) instead of the station platform (which is not)? That would have made for a much simpler installation.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Guessing the swinging door going out towards the ramp, but I never thought of that fix myself with the elevator there, seems more reasonable IMO as well.

I was at the park today and really like the new system. I'm glad the bins are gone, it speeds everything up. I also like how they no longer (atleast today) leave the station completely crowded with guests. It was nice to see order in the station like you see on most rides. I also had one of my best rides on Magnum ever. I'd like to hope they fixed those trains/lap bars but I was probably just in the right row on the right train.

Why does Magnum have an elavator? The exit ramp is just that, a ramp. No stairs. Is it because people in wheelchairs trying to go up the ramp would get trampled by 20-30 riders walking down?

Yeah, having people climb over wheel chairs on the exit ramp would not be so great.