Stacking: how much time is too much, IYO?

So I've got a ride that's really right on the border as for whether or not it should be running two or three trains. It has enough blocks for more than three, actually, but that would be excessive and cause too much stacking. Obviously, in real life there are lots of occasions where a train or even two is/are stuck outside the station for a pretty good while even in normal operation, but this is equally obviously not ideal.

How much time do you feel is too much time to be waiting outside the station in NL2? I have a feeling I'll keep the three trains on this track since 90% of the time the wait before the station is only about 20 seconds, but I remain curious as to what everyone thinks is the answer here.

20 seconds in real-life standards is just fine for stacking. It depends on where you are. If you're at a Six Flags park, they'll be running three trains and double stack behind the one in the station every time; the last one being on the brake run(s) for multiple minutes. If you're at a Cedar Fair park, they'll be running two or three trains depending on what's appropriate and stack for anywhere from 0 to 15 to 30 seconds. If you're at a smaller park, they'll probably run one train on a coaster that can handle two or three for no reason.

I believe the smaller parks only run one train because they want to keep a line in the queue.

[mkingy]

plantoris wrote:

I believe the smaller parks only run one train because they want to keep a line in the queue.

Indeed no point sending round empty trains!

It costs more money to run more trains. More wear and tear on parts and the track, more power (especially for launched coasters), more chances of accidents, and a lot of times more staff. Smaller parks usually run less trains because the wait times don't warrant these extra headaches. I feel that entering the train to exit should not take any longer than 3 full ride cycles. After that, you are waiting longer than the train is operating and therefore inefficient. That's with three trains at the absolute most and two stacked

^ Smaller parks usually have short queues too. Knoebles is a good example of this where the queues for all 3 major coasters are only from the entrance to the station, no cutbacks at all. A full queue for phoenix running only 1 train was still only 20 minutes, and flying turns running 3 trains of 3 to 4 peoples a train was only 30 minutes

This all makes sense. In my specific case, it's a "Hollywood Dream Sized" B&M hyper, so I think it's reasonable that it could be in a park that has a crowd requiring three trains. That said, I'm not sure how many trains Hollywood Dream tends to run (anyone know?) but regardless, I'm thinking I'm going to do two with an optional third in storage.

I'll have to do some tests with only two trains first and see how it goes. With all three trains running, stack times average at 23 seconds so if we are again using real-world standards, that's not too bad except for the one train that was stuck waiting 40 seconds... still not horrible. So it can definitely handle all three trains with minimum wait times outside the station, but the question is whether or not it really should.

NL aside, I've also noticed that in smaller parks re: shorter physical queues. The truth is that it's been a really long time since I've gone to park on a crowded day and thus waited in a "full-sized" queue so I have a bit of a warped image of what to expect, or perhaps maybe I've just come to expect what is typical for me. My go-to image when I think of amusement and theme parks is lots of empty cutbacks, so I have to remind myself that they are there because there are days when they do fill up. Probably less days like that at the moment (I went to Great Adventure on a Friday afternoon in July and it was pretty dead) but still...

[Turbo]

In NL, I usually build my rides and set them to the optimal load times and station exits. For showcasing your rides this does wonders, however if you really wish to create a real theme park experience then stacking will absolutely be needed. It really depends on what kind of park you have, how many trains, if you're going to consider handicapped loading or fast passes. There's a lot of things to consider. I would say (in seconds) 0-20 is fine, 21-30 is pushing it but believable, 31-40 is getting excessive and 41+ is too much.

NOW THEN, if you want to fail miserably at life then have 70 second stacking like SFMM does on Full Throttle.

[TTD03]

Full Throttle is really bad, but I'd almost say Bizarro at SFGADV is worse. All 3 trains stack for at least 30 seconds every time. You are sitting there stacked for longer than the actual ride, it's terrible. So if I get asked if I want to stay on and re-ride, my answer is always no, because it's not worth waiting in the stacked train line again

[Turbo]

sure, there's that, but keep in mind that Full Throttle only runs 2 trains. and they still stack for more than a minute each time.

[TTD03]

^ I think that's clearly because the ride is so short, but still, it's bad.
It really needs 2 stations, load and unload, just like Volcano used to be, capacity wise, it would work well for this ride.

[Turbo]

the ride is a minute long, they take a good 3 minutes to load each train. It has absolutely nothing to do with the rides shortness.

[Coasterkidmwm]

I say this as an actual park employee:

I think you should base your decision on the type of restraints used. "Easy to check" rides like a woodie or a B&M sitdown/floorless could probably run 3 trains, but something more complex like an intamin or a B&M standup/invert would take more time. I know inverts can stack sometimes because everyone feels they need to stand in front of the bins for 20 minutes straight and stare at it with their mouths open before they put their stuff in the bins. Intamins have problems with people not bothering to buckle their seatbelt and can take longer as a result, and I think standups are the worst because people are too stupid to understand the concept in general.

[Turbo]

agreed

Makes sense... I continue to waffle between two trains with one in storage and all three on the track at once. Like I said, it's an (older style, single row) B&M hyper so based on what you said, Coaster, it can probably run all three trains. It's also not a full-sized hyper, though, which is why I can't really make up my mind. It's honestly probably a six/half-dozen decision in this particular case. Neither option really seems wrong, although that also means that neither really seems right.

[TTD03]

Coasterkidmwm wrote:

I say this as an actual park employee:

I think you should base your decision on the type of restraints used. "Easy to check" rides like a woodie or a B&M sitdown/floorless could probably run 3 trains, but something more complex like an intamin or a B&M standup/invert would take more time. I know inverts can stack sometimes because everyone feels they need to stand in front of the bins for 20 minutes straight and stare at it with their mouths open before they put their stuff in the bins. Intamins have problems with people not bothering to buckle their seatbelt and can take longer as a result, and I think standups are the worst because people are too stupid to understand the concept in general.

Agreed.

^ Same, his real story is worthy!