Steel Vengeance

^Yes, however, less roasting bugs = more flying bugs...
I'd rather have them roasting

Now if only we could get less flying bugs by MF that would be great.

Out of curiosity, is there some type of schedule when the characters (Chess, Digger, etc....) are in the park? I was hoping to see them for the kids' sake, but after 4 days in the park (6/4 - 6/7), no luck.

I was just about to ask the same thing. Those guys can make your day. I remember I was there on a school trip and I convinced my science teacher to ride steel vengeance. Of course they come on when my train is departing and chess is waving us goodbye and telling us to have fun.

It was awesome.

Kevinj said:
Out of curiosity, is there some type of schedule when the characters (Chess, Digger, etc....) are in the park? I was hoping to see them for the kids' sake, but after 4 days in the park (6/4 - 6/7), no luck.

Yeah, when They’re not working Buckaroo Burritos. ( sorry, from the dining thread)

Seriously though, they are part of live E, and will be working more than one character when the rest of the entertainment schedule starts winding up. So they will likely be around a lot less than they have been since dress rehearsals are probably ramping up now.

Kevinj said:
Out of curiosity, is there some type of schedule when the characters (Chess, Digger, etc....) are in the park? I was hoping to see them for the kids' sake, but after 4 days in the park (6/4 - 6/7), no luck.

Surprised nobody jumped on you yet and said "call the park"

Anyone else here? Just got in line for Steel Vengeance!

Edit: first time too!

Without giving a full review, because I am not capable of saying something that has not already been said about this ride, as well as the fact that I am thoroughly shaken, I can absolutely say that there is no ride better at this park, and it isn't close, not by a long shot.

Then, right after getting off, the floodgates opened up, and it is raining pretty heavily. Just glad we got on before it started.

I just hope the company that was contracted to program Steel Vengeance gets their asses sued, bigly. How is it that a ride that is controlled by motorized wheels is having issues. Doesn't every B&M or Intamin coaster allow or nearly allow trains to enter the station WHILE the other trains are still leaving the station without crashing? This isn't new technology. Raptor has been doing this for 24 years. Cedar Point should be having a serious s***fit over this since they paid for a coaster with 3 train operation. Not 2 trains for half a day before it crashed, 1 month of 1 train operations and now, only 2 train operation. Unless Black Jack is just a $1,000,000 spare parts bin.

Someone needs a Snickers bar.

It is very strange that three trains are not running and it sure seems like something was majorly screwed up. Other than Dragster, I can't remember a new ride at CP that didn't run at maximum capacity. I'm sure they will get it straightened out but it sure doesn't look good to pass by an idle train in storage after waiting in a 1.5 - 2 hr queue line.

^ The spare train isn't just sitting there, either...It's already missing parts...lol

I think you may be conflating two separate issues. I don't see why ride controls would have anything to do with the 3rd train being used for spare parts. For all we know, IOE may have the ride ready for 3 trains, but RMC doesn't have the 3rd train ready to roll.

The 3rd train is being used for spare parts because it's just sitting there due to what I'm pretty confident in saying are programming issues. If the programming issue wasn't there, we'd probably be dealing with a 3rd train being removed from service only if a mechanical issue arose like when MF trains were constantly being removed to replace the wheels that were quickly going bad. The fact that the 3rd train is being cannibalized is not a good sign of it being put in service, anytime soon. Hopefully by Halloweekends when the park is closed during the week and they can due major testing. Until I see the missing parts put back on Blackjack I'm not going to count on it being operational this summer.

That makes no sense. Why would they make extra work for themselves by taking a needed part from a train (thus necessitating re-installation of that removed part), if they have the needed part in their spare stock? If they're stealing parts from a train it is almost certainly because they don't have the needed part on hand as a spare.

It seems more plausible to me that they didn't have a spare part on hand, so took what was needed from a then-unneeded train. And it's possible that even though the ride is ready for three train operation, the third train is waiting on spare parts.

That seems like a reasonable assumption but if true, it shows pretty bad customer service on the part of RMC. You would think that when RMC is producing the trains they would also produce enough spare parts so that the customer can keep all trains running on a new ride without parts issues.

Pretty sure if were just a programming issue, they would not have had to reconfigure the magnetic brakes and add additional friction brakes to the end of the ride.

I'm in no position to say the programming was/is flawless, but there seems to be more going on here. The guy that did the programming has been doing it for 20 years and probably programmed some of the B&M rides you speak of himself while working for Consign. That's not to say a mistake couldn't have been made, but all the hardware replacement wouldn't have been happening if it were only programming.

As far as the third train, RMC might not be able to supply wheels fast enough for the rate the ride is burning through them which led to the state of Blackjack sitting there looking more and more bare by the day. Also, we've already heard that the grab handles were back ordered. The third train does not even have them yet. RMC might be suffering some growing pains in that they're working so much producing new rides that there isn't enough time/space/materials/etc to produce the parts needed for existing rides. I'm sure there will be solutions to this in time and in fact, I think CP usually sends their own wheels out for re-lining with a company called Uremet. Still though in order to do that, they need to have enough spares on hand to keep the rotation up. They also like to "cure" the wheels for a period on the shelf. RMC might not be permitting them to use a third party supplier (yet) for re-wrapping the wheels. I agree these supply issues do not paint RMC in a great light.

I don't think commissioning three train operation will take more than a couple nights if/when everything gets into place for it to happen. 100 cycles probably takes 5-6 hours with one train and about 7 hours with three trains. If it's 300 cycles, triple it.

Keep in mind TT and SV are basically new ride systems besides the physical track itself and perhaps lift components. Everything else is somewhat different than past RMC conversions.

Couple more laps this weekend. Weather and some downtime didn't cooperate but it was running great. Blackjack looks pathetic, though, as others have said. Not close to being in running order with all the stripped parts.

RMC had several new installations this year. Probably a record year for them. They may have bit off more than they could chew.