Runaway Mine Train Storage/Staging Area?

[buck1108]

Here are some more great (earlier) Runaway Mine Train photos.
Image three's caption states that section two was changed due to being "too wild." The gear house is also absent. Other photos show that the sheds covering the storage track were still under construction when the ride was in operation.

http://www.rcreride.com/html/MineTrain.html

[buck1108]

Here's a first season photo of the '2nd section' of Runaway Mine Train with it's more 'violent' section. I've marked in red the course that it currently takes...does this look right?

Tim from ReRide said:
"The Mine Train got changed fairly quickly. I've heard after its first season, or a couple, but once you went through the waterfall (now gone), it then turned left, went along the fence line and had a couple of wild speed bumps and then turned right to go under the second lift. Now, it is just a sloped ramp directly to duck under the second lift. Thus you miss both 90 degree turns and speed bumps. (The early maps might have it drawn that way.)"

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[thecloak]

I just don't see how this section could have been considered too wild. It looks pretty calm to me from here.

[buck1108]

Originally Posted by thecloak

I just don't see how this section could have been considered too wild. It looks pretty calm to me from here.

Yeah, since the descent after the second lift hill's is pretty gradual anyway...

I wonder if the turns were a little more 'banked' in that section, or if it was the jerking around (tight turns) in such a short space that made it that way.

Or, maybe it was too close to the fence?

[buck1108]

Also, I noticed that the 1960s maps, as well as at least one 1970s map shows a figure 8 track layout after the second lift hill. The track is shown going right (as it currently does) just after the second lift. Then it gets interesting , as the track keeps going right and ducks under itself (in the space seemingly where the track currently goes through on its way in the other direction to the third lift). After going between the trestles, it went out, and looped around where the waterfall used to be, and then came back, completed the figure 8 and went to that 'violent' section of track near the fence, before finally ducking under the second lift hill/mine shack, on the way to the third lift....
Now, the question is...was the track ever really this way, was this just a concept drawing, or was the track indeed altered after the first season photo (below) to incorporate that figure 8 run? If so, then it was all changed again at some point. I wonder if there are any concrete supports still (a la Big Bend) in the area from the run we know existed from this first season photo?
It definitely would've been interesting, had this been the case!




Below: First season photo - there is no figure 8 in this photo, but the 'violent' run to the fence is there. The white mark indicates where the turn and figure 8 would be, according to the map. The gap under the track, between the trestles, in which the train would've made the run toward the 'waterfall area' seems to be the same gap in which the track returns to the third lift area today.

[thecloak]

If the map, and your second pic with the white pen overlay was correct back then, I can see how this phase would be a little crazy for some folks.

[Twisted]

The map was just an approximation. I wouldn't really call it accurate.

[buck1108]

Originally Posted by Twistedmister

The map was just an approximation. I wouldn't really call it accurate.

That's what I thought until....I started looking at all of the route layouts on the maps, and they're very, very accurate with this exception (and it may have been accurate at one time, in some form or another).

The Big Bend depiction on the maps, the Log Ride, Shock Wave...all of those from the 60s/70s era maps seem to be taken from either aerial or blueprint guides, in that they follow the ride layout closely.

What used to convince me that the maps weren't that accurate was the varying sense of scale given in the artists' interpretations. (That, and the cartoon-like interpretations of the map, plus the 'twisty' 3D simulation in some parts). Also, direction is a little bit tricky when looking at some (or all) of the maps - the orientation of the park (and rides therein) has changed over the years on the maps.

Now, in retracing through photos and comparing to maps, it seems that they (the artists) strove for accuracy in depiction at this time, and that leads me to think that, in the design or planning stage at least, there existed this layout, from which the map artists worked. The idea wasn't to give blueprint accuracy, of course, but to have an accurate representation of the park and rides for both directions around the park and park promotion.

Of course, maybe a figure 8 looked more exciting and that was why it was drawn that way... will we ever know? LOL

[Twisted]

Originally Posted by buck1108

That's what I thought until....I started looking at all of the route layouts on the maps, and they're very, very accurate with this exception (and it may have been accurate at one time, in some form or another).

The Big Bend depiction on the maps, the Log Ride, Shock Wave...all of those from the 60s/70s era maps seem to be taken from either aerial or blueprint guides, in that they follow the ride layout closely.

What used to convince me that the maps weren't that accurate was the varying sense of scale given in the artists' interpretations. (That, and the cartoon-like interpretations of the map, plus the 'twisty' 3D simulation in some parts). Also, direction is a little bit tricky when looking at some (or all) of the maps - the orientation of the park (and rides therein) has changed over the years on the maps.

Now, in retracing through photos and comparing to maps, it seems that they (the artists) strove for accuracy in depiction at this time, and that leads me to think that, in the design or planning stage at least, there existed this layout, from which the map artists worked. The idea wasn't to give blueprint accuracy, of course, but to have an accurate representation of the park and rides for both directions around the park and park promotion.

Of course, maybe a figure 8 looked more exciting and that was why it was drawn that way... will we ever know? LOL

Come to think of it, I was specifically thinking of a non-existent helix on the ride, but I suddenly found it elsewhere on the map -- right next door on the Mini-Mine Train. I think the artists may have taken a bit of creative liberty to make the "Mini" version seem a bit wilder by adding a helix (the ride has none). Old age blurs the details.

[Parktimes]

The earlier the map, the more accurate it is.
The earlier ones even have all of the animinations on the river and fiesta train in the right place.
I would imagine that the first map set, 62-65, which was just modified each year, was made from some type of documents such as blue prints or surveys.