Got a couple of nice (albeit unoriginal) angles of lochness and the others around 5pm Saturday eveningLoch Ness Monster
- Thread starter Zachary
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Got a couple of nice (albeit unoriginal) angles of lochness and the others around 5pm Saturday evening
I also noticed that they have both trains back on the track- hopefully it will open up this weekend or next.
I did one of those BGW tours a few years back and the guy giving the tour said the new lift motor made it impossible to have both trains in the loops at the same time (he said it was faster). Not sure if that's true but it would explain why. Regardless I do miss those days.
I've seen everything saying that the blocking has been changed, to it being a clearance or loose article problem, to people claiming that it only works like that with three trains (what???). based on recent povs, the First train is cresting the top of the lift at the interval needed to atain the desired loop sync. This would seem to indicate that the lift is slower than it used to be and old footage(although hard to find as we're talking pre ~2000) seems to indicate the same.
The trains can still absolutely loop together. Nothing has been changed with the block system. Everywhere a train can stop is still a block for Nessie. The station, lift 1, block brake, lift 2, and transfer track. Looping the trains together entirely depends on the timing of dispatch and how soft or hard the sets of trims hit. Ops is not allowed to, however, they are certainly capable.
I'm not sure this equates to that.
The whole thing is timing - if the block zones haven't been changed, then it's simply a matter of control points (blocks, station dispatches, etc) and speed limiters (lift speeds, trims, weather conditions) working in conjunction with the momentum of the trains to get the train timings in sync.
If @AIR is correct, then the issue is ops aren't allowed to make the necessary adjustments to get the timing right, not that they can't.
As an anecdote, I remember early 2000's it was still common for both trains to shoot the loops but many times they could off by small increments - sometimes the back car is coming out of loop 2 while the front is going into loop 1, sometimes they wouldn't be synced, sometimes it was perfect. And that was 2 train ops.
I was always told that it was mostly because Busch didn't hold ops to that standard and now the teams simply cannot do it anymore.
I remember when I did the coaster insider tour they said the ride is still capable of doing so- but they’re not allowed during normal operations. However we saw from the top of Griffon maintenance doing their testing and saw it go through the loops during those test runs.
Most of those are changes that can't be made on the fly and are controlled by programming. I've watched way too many pov's and over the last couple decades the timing is very consistent. The only way I can think to do it now would be to stop a train on the mcbr(or even the 2nd lift), then launch the second train, wait a few seconds, and send the second train at the right moment. This isn't something that would ever happen in normal operation.
So by my count, there are about 50 seconds between loops. With train 1 going through loop 1 at 48 seconds, train 2 would have to be rolling out as train 1 was finishing the loop. With roughly 10 seconds for train 1 to roll out and 15 seconds for train 2 to roll in after train 1 leaves, that is only 25 seconds to load and dispatch train 2. Without auto raising harnesses and 4 person station ops, it would be nearly impossible to do that with guests onboard. Best chance would be to somehow time it so train 2 was just hitting the final brake run as train 1 was just rolling out, allowing train 2 to enter at a higher speed and give more time for loading. Best way to make it work as is would be to speed up lift 1 and slow down lift 2.
EDIT: I did look up an old POV (sometime in the 90's, no Alpie, but DF present) and it took 55 seconds between loops
EDIT: I did look up an old POV (sometime in the 90's, no Alpie, but DF present) and it took 55 seconds between loops
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The modern coaster force pov is roughly a minute between loops. I haven't seen anything longer than this but I might have missed one. Even with a minute, dispatch has to be on it. Without 5-6 ops it would be very hard. From what I can tell the block sensor is at the bottom of the pre drop. The last car normally clears that with the current lift speed at about 1:10.
Looks like Loch Ness is listed as active under rides and attractions for this weekend!
I never thought I'd be so excited to ride Loch Ness when I go to BGW.
Had to open something that could run in crappy conditions!
If anyone else was at the park today, and rode Nessie, did y’all notice anything different about the ride experience? It seemed like the lifthill was faster from the ground. I also, and I heard it was doing this off and on today, had a ride where the trims into the first loop did not activate. I don’t think I’ve ever been so violently ejected airtime wise before, though that could be because of the restraints making it seem more painful.
I rode the first train out of the station and it felt like regular Nessie to me.