The station is going up!

Looking at this picture: http://www.sanduskyregister.com/media-gallery/detail/3418596/157856 it seems that basically the entire former employee parking lot has been removed. Do we think that they will actually have any parking spaces available in this area for the upcoming season?

I think that this whole area is prime real estate to expand the park in the upcoming seasons, as long as care is taken to hide the backstage areas. I know that there is the large games warehouse building there, but if it were to be relocated, that's a pretty big chunk of land to work with. It just seems odd to have such a large backstage area in what is essentiially the middle of the park (the middle of the park if you count GateKeeper as the new park boundary). The midway could connect somewhere over by Ocean Motion. A new flat ride and even a small coaster could fill the space. Food for thought!

If you look at this picture, there seems to be lots of room there.

http://www.sanduskyregister.com/media-gallery/detail/3418596/157851

They definitely added a bunch of dirt/sand to the edge of the beach as well as into the lake today. I watched them do it. Not sure why, but there are two piles, one in the water and one on the waters edge. Some kind of barrier.

I was wondering about the loading/unloading after looking at some of the pictures today of the station. Will they do a separate unload like on Dragster and Millennium Force? Just curious because seems like the walkway extends quite a ways leading into the station. any thoughts?

It's loading and unloading in the same station.

Gil Ramirez Jr said:
Just curious because seems like the walkway extends quite a ways leading into the station. any thoughts?

It'll be in the same station, but the final brake run is really long it seems

GK's brake run doesn't appear to be significantly longer than Raptor's

It's long enough that one would think it's a separate unload ride. I'm not questioning the design, just visually it looks long

I agree that GK's does appear rather long. That's why I took a look at Raptor's, and found that it's brake run is about as long as its lift hill footprint. And that appears to be the case with GK as well.

Maybe it's a B&M thing because Diamondback has a long final brake run.

For the people who know much more than me, are the length of these brake runs laid out for timing purposes?

I don't think it's any longer than Leviathan's either.

They made it long probably because the park wants to be extra safe and needs plenty of room for the trains to slow down and stop before coming into the station. I guess they don't want to pull off another magnum incident :)

There are also usually additional blocks in the brake run. That way you have less of a chance of needing to hold a train in the MCBR or on the lift in the case of a slow dispatch.

Didn't want to start a new thread. In case you Haven't seen it yet check it out!!! First Point cast with tony back!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oh6KlsNdZrw

I dont know about you but this just makes me crazy excited for opening day. Everything is looking great and I'm glad that they're on time!
Also the point cast has had a real boost in quality!

You know it's safe to start a new thread if what you're posting has absolutely nothing to do with the thread you're posting it in.

Well the point cast was mostly about the station.

Sause said:
Maybe it's a B&M thing because Diamondback has a long final brake run.

For the people who know much more than me, are the length of these brake runs laid out for timing purposes?

Mantis isn't like that.

It may not be quite as long as Raptor's or GK's, but Mantis' is quite long - don't let the abnormal space between the brake run and block fool you.

I think it's just a B&M thing. Most likely it's for blocking purposes but I think I also read somewhere that B&M trains can be pretty heavy and need a longer area in order to slow down. Maybe it's also the brakes B&M uses, and they don't slow trains down as fast.

Well dragster is an intamin and has the longest brake run of all ;)