Beast track at KI

[sparky2u]

I rode this fantastic coaster back in 2000 when I embarked on visiting Cedar Point as well, amazing ride esp at night, shame it's so far away..

I noticed a bad point of the "Beast's" track / layout, It's that covered brake run after the 1st drop & before you dive into the 180 degree tunnel. Why is it there & why is it so long and straight with block / trims. I know brakes are added to slightly slow the trains down to reduce wear n tear of the track n wheels, but that's too much in my view.

I wondered if Kings Island have thoughts about re-profiling this section of the coaster so instead of a silly long straight you get a couple of mini camel hills to make it more fun & have more "airtime".

If KI lost the title of the "longest" coaster in the world I wonder if they would extend the "Beast" from the turn at the start of the 2nd lift hill so it goes straight ahead into the woods more with a few turns n hills then come back n hit the 2nd lift hill.

 

[Hixee]

I'm no KI expert, but here's my thoughts in general about the Beast.

I noticed a bad point of the "Beast's" track / layout, It's that covered brake run after the 1st drop & before you dive into the 180 degree tunnel. Why is it there & why is it so long and straight with block / trims.

I couldn't find the answer after a quick (ie RCDB, Wiki) search, but there are two reasons why the long brake tunnel is there. Either it was put on as part of the original design (my guess), or it was a straight-away that was later converted to a brake run. Whatever the case, the reason to use big long skid brakes can, in some circumstances, make more sense than the short pneumatic brakes we're used to today. Principally, they're simple. Really simple. There's no need for complicated sensors (they could have them, but they don't have to) and mechanisms, it's just a simple 'always slow the train down by this much' sort of affair. The nature of friction is very simple, it's proportional to the force between the two surfaces (this isn't quite true, but for something like a coaster skid brake it's near enough) and so it makes the sums very easy to do. I would imagine that it's a lot easier to just have a big skid brake stuck out in the forest than it would be to have a modern system with the potential for breakdowns and stuff.

Why so long and straight? It gives your more length and room for the rest of the coaster, it's a lot easier to have them on a straight than a curve, you can have different sets of them in series allowing you better control over the train's speed, it's a simpler device to make etc.

I wondered if Kings Island have thoughts about re-profiling this section of the coaster so instead of a silly long straight you get a couple of mini camel hills to make it more fun & have more "airtime".

If KI lost the title of the "longest" coaster in the world I wonder if they would extend the "Beast" from the turn at the start of the 2nd lift hill so it goes straight ahead into the woods more with a few turns n hills then come back n hit the 2nd lift hill.

I'm willing to bet they've thought of many alterations to the ride, but I couldn't even begin to guess all of the reasons why we haven't seen any of them come to light (yet).

 

[Hyde]

Here is a POV of the original iteration of Beast.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQRzv_K3jT4[/youtube]

The main changes the coaster has seen through the years is:

1. Addition of tunnel to the Rose Bowl double helix finale.
2. Linking of the second and third tunnels, following the brake run.
3. Replacement of friction brakes in some areas with magnetic brakes.

The brake shed straight run is simply how the roller coaster was designed. Kings Island famously designed and constructed this coaster internally, with advice and equations scribbled on the back of a napkin from John C. Allen. Kings Island wanted to make the roller coaster as minimally invasive as possible, so as to preserve the heavily wooded area. That is why we find such drawn out turns and elements, as Kings Island literally set to the design to go around trees they wanted to keep.

There has yet to be any word on Kings Island planning to reprofile the brake shed. If anything serves as an indicator, the addition of magnetic brakes to this brake run indicates that Kings Island plans to maintain the element. And for good reason - Beast experiences a 300 ft. height difference from the top of the first drop to the bottom of the second lift hill. That means the train would reach high speeds untrimmed, which is why we see so many trims on the ride in the first place.

 

[rollermonkey]

Pretty sure that's also a block brake. Until a train clears it, the following train can't leave the first lift. (If I'm thinking of the right one.) If so, it has to be long enough to stop the train in case the previous train hasn't cleared the next block.