Track Lighting

Everyone knows that on most coasters the lift hill supports light up. Wouldn't it be cool if a coaster had special lights on the track. Like on MF, there could be blue or white lights for the whole entire 6595 ft long ride. I know it would be expensive, but it would be very cool to see on the ride and off.

Or, wouldn't glow in the dark paint work for the entire track...It would be cheaper. LOL

I like the idea of lights on the track! That would be awesome!

Yeah, the copper for the wire alone to run those would be astronomical.

Then I'd have to listen to people on Pointbuzz whine 'OMG A LIGHT BURNED OUT ON MF!!1111oneoneoneone'

I like the way most of the rides are lit now; from underneath.

bholcomb said:

Then I'd have to listen to people on Pointbuzz whine 'OMG A LIGHT BURNED OUT ON MF!!1111oneoneoneone'

Absolutely hysterical. :):) *** Edited 5/26/2006 8:27:50 PM UTC by Ryan L*** *** Edited 5/26/2006 8:28:18 PM UTC by Ryan L***

^^ That is pretty funny. It would cost a lot to build it, and it would take a ton of work to keep them looking good throughout the years.

Having a theater background, lighting would truly add that extra "kick" to a LOT of things throughout the park to help carry through a specific theme or idea.

Imagine the things that they could do with different rides and/or sections of the park to enhance the experience!!

Gobos, fresnels, etc. Chat it up to the Live Shows folks.

Let's be realistic though... the price would be quite high and so would the upkeep... not to mention that it'd become a full time job for someone to maintain them. If they can't do it with the few they have now, how are they gonna do it with hundreds of fixtures all over the park?

Does anyone else love riding in the dark? My last ride on Dragster last year was after sunset, and the darkness added to the thrill/terror of the ride.

Lights on the track can be quite hard to maintain...take MF for example...6,595 feet x 12 bulbs per foot x 2 rails = 158,280 bulbs! What if one burns out? That's a lot of bulbs to check!

I'm with CPGuru. Some UV reactive paint and some strategically placed black lights would be cool and fairly cost effective.

The problem is for most of the season it doesn't get dark soon enough to enjoy many night rides. At least we'll get a bunch in at Coastermania!

Track lighting? I perfer table lamps.

Adding in lighting schemes to rides sounds like a great way to boost the excitement of a nighttime attraction. The history the park has with this seems like things are hard to maintain for the long term. The changing wash fixtures on Power Tower have had their share of problems, goodness knows the color scrollers at the games were never right on. I'm not even going to get into Disaster Transport. I always enjoyed the Strobes in the Cobra Roll of Raptor, but never much cared for the Mantis lift hill lighting. MF Rocks! Back in the day, I thought the Magnum lift hill strobes were awesome too!

It seems like most attractions have some kind of special lighting element installed, but how well it is kept up with seems hit or miss. The better the fixture, the more experienced people are needed to fix them, and the more expensive parts get. If fixtues are in unusual positions, it takes that much more time. I can't count the number of times I visit Islands of Adventure and find many types of lighting problems. It just gets so tricky justifying these things in the budget because it is really hard to truly value the impact it has on guests.

All that said, this all goes back to how the park is presented. If they want an impressive skyline presented in a certain context, lighting can really help define what that is. They just can't complain about it when a one-time capital expense turns into a yearly bugeting issue.

CPGuru said:
Or, wouldn't glow in the dark paint work for the entire track...It would be cheaper. LOL

Is it just me or does it seem like PR at KW glow in the dark? I do know it sure does look like it at night. Maybe it's just the lighting from the park making it look that way? Either way i love the paint job...especially the track color.

I always enjoyed the Strobes in the Cobra Roll of Raptor

I have no memory of this. Wow...that would be cool...

Adding more lights would just have the same fate as the strobes on Magnum's lift hill.

Ive always laughed at the "audiospiels" on the lift hills. There is no way you could ever actually hear the whole message, or even decipher half of what they were saying...talk about a waste of $.

The strobes on the cobra roll of Raptor are still there... at least as of last season... Many people never notice it though...

As the train approaches the lights dim, and a strobe starts... When the train exits the cobra roll element, the lights go back to normal...

I think it looks cool, but its sometimes hard to notice...

They actually did some work on Raptor's strobes last season and they were running pretty well.

And word is that they did some work on Millennium's lights this week while the ride was down.

*** Edited 5/28/2006 12:02:44 AM UTC by DBCP***