mudvayneimn

It's going up, don't think it's done though. It'll probably be complete in a day or two.

LR seems to have a fetish with the ground; it's erected track can't seem to stay off it..... The ride is looking good though, just the lift hill and brakes/station. Wonder if they'll get it done in the next 5 days?

By the end of yesterday the track was up to the crest of the bunny hop following the overbank; the pace is really picking up now! Besides the the lift hill and the turn following the hill they are currently working on, the rest of the ride is quite low to the ground; this ride is going to be finished very soon. I was going to do an updated graphic later but the ride will probably be fully constructed!

The most pronounced visual design difference is after the double inline twist and final turn. The final stretch on T2 is completely straight. All of the other SLCs in existence have that funky curve thing going on.

^ T2 wasn't the world's first, that title goes to El Condor. It was America's first SLC however. One thing I've never understood about those two is El Condor's layout is more akin to the current SLC layout whereas T2's layout is very clearly protoype-ish. The fact that they also had to shorten the length of the train on T2 makes the story even more perplexing. Maybe T2 was designed first but El Condor was the first to open?

Few more pictures of Lightning Run on Facebook...not stuff we haven't seen before besides a few new angles, but who doesn't love more photos of coaster construction? Source Source Source A bit older but still awesome pictures!

Well I for one am glad this is not a B&M like what Ed originally planned for. I will gladly take a 100 ft tall "prototype" over a 150ft mini-dive machine or wing coaster. I do wish Chang was still residing at it's original home though....I actually loved that ride, never had any of the issues people have with the other stand ups. Sucks the park lost one of the last intense B&Ms before the floaty revolution happened.

Nice tool. Banshee had one, so why not LR. I'll be headed back up to town this weekend, so I guess I'll get another look at the coaster. If I-264 WB wasn't such a nightmare on weekdays around the time I'm headed to work, I'd swing by a snap a couple. I don't hate my life enough to warrant that kind of aggravation though. Maybe I'm not seeing things right, but I'm having a hard time matching this up with the rendering. To me, it looks like a curved drop into an airtime bunny hill. On the rendering, it looks like that curved drop is actually the ascent up the 2nd hill, and the bunny hill is a completely separate chunk at the end of the ride. GL's old stumps creating the illusion the bunny hill and the second hill are connected....They are separate like the rendering. It's a wicked visual trick though. That'd be an insane, possibly life-ending (worth the risk) finale. DAT optical illusion though!

I've experienced more airtime just looking at that picture than what's in Diamondback's second half....haha I kidd, I kidd. Got bored, decided to do a crappy progress visualization using the rendering found in Chance's hyper lite pdf. If the weather holds out, the structure of this coaster should fly up in no time.

Thanks for the update Midgetman82! Holy crap! Those surf curve track segments are so close to the ground it look like they're just lying there. And If the ride maintains it's speed throughout the course, those bunny hops are going to be insane! Besides the updates on their FB page and the occasional local news story, there really doesn't seem to be a whole lot going on from a marketing standpoint. If it were me, there'd be 50 pictures of that pointy airtime hill.

On my way to work saw four flatbeds delivering some more goodies. Also there is now a crane in the skyline.

That would be the amphitheatre that will house the sea lion show. I loved the Zeppelins when I was younger, glad to see the ride refurbed! It is interesting that the decision was made to relocate it to another area of the park. At first I was thinking they might have relocated it to help with the almost certain congestion that area of the park is going to have with LR, but that doesn't really make a lot of sense considering the ride is not a major thrill attraction. Perhaps they need a little extra room for the merging of Twisted Twins and Thunder Run that article mentioned a while back...

You're gonna have a nice cuddle fest with all 2,500 feet of that outdated inside-wheel track.

If it isn't broke, don't fix it lol. We will see how that track design works out (hopefully) opening day. I have to say I wasn't really sure if that color combination was going to work at first; man do those colors look nice and rich in reality! Even if the Banshee and Lightning Run turn out to be just "fun" coasters, KI and KK both have very pretty new coasters opening this year!

It's so purdy in person! I'm so glad this is not Magic Spring's Skyloop.

Darn work internet blocking facebook. BTW, T2 is it's same ashy self, it looks like that it was just shadow in those pictures.

Neither; that's T2's faded black scheme. I imagine work on T2 won't begin until after the park is open for business. Edit: I looked at the pictures again; are you referring to the lift hill? The first drop and inversions are definitely just the faded black. On first and second glance I interpreted the darkness of the lift hill as shadow and not paint; if that is actual paint then I'm so glad it's not that original RRRRREEEEEDDDDD! Doubt that would be primer though; what colors would use black as a primer? Serious question if anyone knows as painting is most certainly not my cup o' tea.

I think he wants to connect the two sides of the Twisted Twins together into only one coaster That would only come out to 6,000ft total if that were the case. If there is any stock in that rumor, Thunder Run and both sides of Twisted Twins would all have to be combined to make it longer than the Beast; there's no way you could get an extra 3,000ft in TEDs spot....and has any park announced a launched wooden roller coaster yet? Man, I hope the weather cooperates the rest of this winter. Even though LR is a small coaster, it doesn't seem "fully constructed/tested/approved in 3 1/2 months" small. Either way, I've got my pass and I think I might actually spend some time at HB; seeing a waterslide taller than the highest roller coaster in the park is going to be intimidating.

I like the name combo although I really wished it was "Lightnin' Run"..... I miss GL. I'm going to avoid ranking predictions, but I will say I'm extremely happy that the park has managed to order a roller coaster that will offer a ride experience that is more that just a steep drop or gimmicky inversion. Even if the ride doesn't contain the "pop" those bunny hills give in the animation, you definitely will get a nice rush in the back seat of the first drop. I really hope those final bunny hills do produce that pop though; that would pretty awesome. There was one thing I've been reading and hearing about is how the dry side of the park is really going to hold up this first year with only two actual adult coasters, especially one with only one train, and another with 800 rph. I thought I'd mention one thing I noticed about the 2014 season. It is obvious that the season is quite short; noticeable exception of September; I believe that issue is the reason for 2014's shorter operating season. When KK opens next year the water and dry park will be open together from day one and stay that way until the KSF. Then there's the complete omission of October from the season... and this is where I'm going to start flying off the rails with ridiculous assumptions and theories based on something I probably just dreamed of; and never even actually heard or read anywhere. Be prepared to say "wtf?" I can't remember where I read it and if it was just rumor or confirmed, but I believe it was mentioned that the Halloween event that is obviously not happening in 2014 would be introduced in 2015. That would make a little more sense; you can expand the operating days into October as you'd have another big coaster in the mix (one with inversions for better/worse that is sure to draw it's own GP crowd being the only one in the park that loops) to help ease some of the congestion at LR and TR. 2016 would see an actual full season with an early spring opening, reintroducing the pre-SF teen dance party nights, and Halloween events. Twisted Twins will receive some type of very significant RMC treatment with inverting elements to help thin the T2/T3 congestion. If TT stays as two separate tracks, they might open one side season 2016, and the other side 2017; they'd have to be significantly different from each other though (one launched, one lift). Then KK could go for the marketing gimmick of "first launched woodie" if one isn't built by 2015. I also think the 2015/16 seasons will see some type of notable additions to Hurricane Bay to help even out the park over all. If the park makes it through these first 3 seasons, I think we'll see the next two seasons go to heavier investments with the water park (due to the smaller new ride investment numbers from the proposals). Holiday World will probably add their first major steel coaster during one of those seasons; and if the water park additions are first of their type or World Record rides, that would still give people a reason to visit both parks. The dry side of the park would receive unique flats to keep things a bit interesting to hold over until the next big endeavor blah blah blah... Hope that was an exhaustingly fantastical read that manages to be utterly fanboyish, childlishy unrealistic, and makes you think "yeah cool, but let's get through Season 2014 first".

I don't know if you'd really be able to see too much from the road, maybe the lift hill footers but the terrain rises slightly as you get further away from the road. You'd probably see a whole lot of dirt though. By the way, drove past the back side of the park, there is a ridiculous amount of slide pieces on site. But the biggest discovery I've uncovered has to do with LR. I guess since the conclusion of IAAPA, the Chance website has been updated, with more details on the actual KK ride itself.... Would someone like to see the full LR animation including a full animated POV? Here you go! [youtu_be] [/youtu_be]

Can you compare the negative Gs to other small-but-powerful coasters (Mega-Lite, Maverick, etc.) I imagine he's said just about as much as he can as of right now. We'll all find out in May when the ride opens; besides, those computer calculations don't always translate in real life (son of beast). I'm just glad the ride actually has more than 1,000 ft of track lol. I can't wait till tomorrow, it's payday and there is a Season Pass with my name on it!

Meant to get around to this earlier but hi! It's always refreshing to have someone in the industry participate in the forums. About sharing pictures; when you post a reply, look for the options menu box right under the open draft/save_draft/preview/submit buttons. Made a little picture too. Hope that helps. Back to LR, I got to see the pictures on your page and that lead car has really grown on me. At first I thought it was too long but the physical result really looks stunning; those colors really are phenomenal! This is going to be a solid addition to KK. On one of the pictures of the lead car you mentioned "some serious g-forces", I was wondering if you were able to elaborate?

That plot of land has been under-utilized by the KEC because of possible KK expansion (going back to the pre Six Flags years). The actual parking lot in that section is closed down and used for the Thrill-way during the Fair anyway; those spaces are not a huge loss for the time being. There is a ton of undeveloped land on the KEC campus that could easily be turned into more surface parking. The expansion zone without area overlay.

There are 30 acres the park has yet to expand into on the front side of the park. If the park lives long enough you can expect this area to be utilized. I imagine this is why expanding the WP into Chang's old spot isn't much of a big deal; the front of the park has the highest height tolerances anyway. This is the expandable area. Currently a section of it is used for the Ky State Fair Thrillway.

^^^Each park has their own unique qualities that you won't find in the others so I think if we do see a dip in attendance at HW it won't be very dramatic; I have a feeling their figures will bounce right back in a year. In the case of my family we visit HW and KI twice a year. When KK closed we changed the number of visits to 3-4. Most of my friends/co-workers are the same, the people that could afford the trip to either of those parks in the first place won't abandon them. I hope just hope Beech Bend isn't affected too much... Bright side, at least this will give us a little more competition in the region which hopefully result in even more unique experiences at all of the parks!