Steel Vengeance

^^ I don't think very many enthusiasts seriously thought it would be a racing RMC. And the 2017 theory wasn't too far fetched around the time of MS' funerary proceedings considering that taking 2 years to build an RMC was and still is the exception to the rule.

Ah, the good ol' days of Tony teasing us about the leftover Mean Streak supports on the outer-banked hill and everyone claiming it to be a racing RMC. Good times. Goooooood times.

I miss people insisting it was a launched lift hill. :)

LightDark18 said:
Ah, the good ol' days of Tony teasing us about the leftover Mean Streak supports on the outer-banked hill and everyone claiming it to be a racing RMC. Good times. Goooooood times.

Yeah, looking at the "supports" for the "dueling" aspect of the ride, that never would have held up based on physics.

I still think it will be a launched, dueling coaster that will open in 2017, and until I get my first ride you can't tell me otherwise!

This is so surreal, standing in line to ride Steel Vengeance!

Well what a lot of people said, especially that you feel you are constantly out of your seat, truly is the ride with the most airtime (probably especially helped I sat in the back row).

I just got home from the hoedown, and let me tell you, you guys were right about the ride. It was AWESOME.

I have a nagging question in my head regarding the MCBR. Has anyone gotten a ride where it stopped completely on the MCBR? I'm curious what that does to the pacing of the second half.

Haven’t seen it, not even during testing. But it stands to reason that it would be slower, even though the block brake is very high on that ride. If you’ve ever seen Raptor do a slow roll from a dead stop to the station there would be your best example.

You may have noticed that the brake up there doesn’t seem very long. So after the brake there’s some space, the turn and the drop (seriously, one of the best “surprise” moments on the ride) so it may have some extra oomph to finish the course, but not much.

So long as none of the trains valleys or has other issues, shouldn't the MCBR not slow down the trains at all? You have one train climbing the lift hill whilst the second is already coasting the first half of the ride. Watching the POV and timing it, the first train would be cresting the lift just as the second drops off the end of the MCBR. Meanwhile the third train is loading in the station, and it enters the lift hill as the second one, held on the end brake, enters the station behind it.

So long as dispatches are timely, the MCBR seems like an emergency brake only. I might have no idea what I'm talking about though :-p

Maybe that's the question I should have asked - how many blocks are there, uptrack including the station, after the MCBR?

I think including the final brake and the station, two trains can be held there. So if the third train reaches the MCBR before the station train has moved onto the lift, it'll indeed be stopped. It's weird but I actually look forward to seeing a video of that.

Edit: including the lift, there'd be three blocks here; end brake, station, lift.

I count 4 assuming only 1 train can occupy the main block (end brake) outside of the station >>> Lift, Block brake block (MCBR), Main (end brake), Station.

I’m pretty sure the blocks go Station, transfer, lift, MCBR, final brakes, holding brakes. So the ride should be able to hold 3 trains at the end.

I think all three can be stacked right at the station - the one in the station and then two behind it. If not, then stopping at the midcourse would probably happen quite frequently - not every time, but I bet several or maybe even dozens of times throughout the course of the day (if it takes longer than about 1:30-1:45 to send a train from previous dispatch). I just don't think they'd design it to stop out there at the midcourse during regular operation - only if a train fails to move forward from the first set of brakes at the end of the ride.

Modern coasters are designed to normalize stacking. Not like Magnum where stacking is clearly not considered normal, or Gemini where stacking would happen on the MCBR if they ran all the trains, or Iron Dragon and CCMR would stack on the lift.

Rather, we design to avoid "rushed" guests, and to take into account airgates, extra seatbelts and procedures and design the coaster to normalize stacking every train on the final brakes. If an MCBR is present, it is used to allow the next train to drop off the lift earlier, so it still has a purpose.

Pretty funny to look back to those NoLimits 2 concept videos people were putting out when all we knew about were the first two hills. I think the ride ended up much better than pretty much everyone's realistic expectations.

I remember watching those early concepts and thinking if it was even half as good as that I'd be happy. We got everything we wanted and more.

There definitely looks to be 2 sets of blocks on the run leading into the station, albeit they are close together. The first block off the last hop up would not be very long, and I'm sure it would be a slam stop in the event of a triple stack. Right now with 2 trains the first block is acting as a trim into the next, which provides a smooth stop.

Since they are so close, I can't see them even thinking of running 3 in any kind of rain (even with the magnetics).