ZeroGravity55

Just an update. Right now it's just minor changes to the roll points on the track. I hope to get more work done on this project once I get through my finals next week. Really tightened the rotation on the last inversion up. Just look at the front axle lol I tightened the rotation on this one as well. One of my favorite elements. Roll out of the inversion into a drop filled with airtime. You really can't tell what changed on this one, but I lowered the banking to really make that last turn has strong laterals.

Thunderbird's launch. After starring at the numbers all off-season last year, I wasn't expecting much. I've since learned that it takes a lot of force to move a 10,000 pound train from 0-60 in 3.5 seconds.

The most fun I has this summer on a coaster was Thunderbird at HW. It's not the best coaster by any means, but it's super fun.

This is awesome. One of the reasons I love this park so much. The story behind the naming of the gift shop in Thunderbird plaza: http://www.holidayworld.com/holiblog/2015/12/08/oh-heavens-what-a-cookbook/

^ 2015 was pretty damn good for new roller coasters in it's own right. I will say though, any year where there are 4 RMC's and several Intamin's being built, it's going to be pretty hard to top that.

It looks like more things will be happening in Sparkler's old spot it. We'll find out next year..

I'm starting to think the new element thing might have been a bit of a red herring of some type. I mean it's not like the park has done this before..... http://www.holidayworld.com/66days/

We knew someone would ask! Actually, it's an ACE calendar. James has been a member since he was 10. I'm not even embarrassed to be that person lol So I was looking at the webcams and I think I've figured out the whole tunnel thing. While switching views I caught a glimpse of what looked like brand new wood on the tunnel at the bottom of The Legend's first drop. So that would seem to solve that clue.

^ ehh I'm thinking either where the track crosses over before the lift into the tunnel or where the track crosses over the break run right after that tunnel. I'm thinking it's the latter as the banking coming out of that turn is already really high. Plus, they just completely re-tracked that section you're talking about and I believe Paula said at one time they discussed an inversion on The Voyage and that's not where it would go.

Paula, is that a B&M calendar on VP James's office wall?

See this is kind of interesting. Remember that The Legend closed in September. With that said, any new element would require the use of the old trains (which is the one pictured receiving TLC), which would leave inversions out of the question. Now the Voyage is going to be 10 years old this upcoming season. I wouldn't rule out two sets of PTC's new trains and an inversion since they can do one. As for the tunnel, I honestly wouldn't be surprised if they were going to put one on Thunderbird somewhere after it crosses over The Voyage.

At Holiday World, if you look at the roof on the gift shop next to where the ride dives into the tunnel under the station, there is always a ton of hair bands on that roof. Based on my experience on Thunderbird, I'm going to assume any B&M coaster that has an inline twist is also a pocket emptier. I watched 3 quarters fall out of a guys pocket in front of us and 1 of them came back and hit my friend right in the chest where there is no protection from the vest. George Washington's face was permanently planted on his chest for awhile.

^ The Legend has received quite a bit of lateral bracing but that's about it. If the GCI refurbishment of Ghostrider turns out to be successful, I wouldn't be against them coming and doing a similar refurbishment of The Boss with new Millennium Flyers. They would be able to redo the structure to run the trains while giving the ride a complete re-track. This would give the park a second chance to make The Boss the ride it should have been when it opened in 2000. Of course, the park could always bring in RMC to put in their I-Box track and steel ledgers. If that happens, this talk about not having enough bracing on the structure/redoing the structure would become irrelevant. Oh.. and it would also instantly become a kick ass ride

^ It might "flow" like a B&M, but trust me when I say this, it wouldn't "feel" like a B&M. On a serious note, it has to do with how spaced out the ride is. Every other coaster RMC has done is pretty compact in the space it uses. So certainly, all the elements on those coasters seem to hit all at once. This one is kinda all over the place and not as compact.

I've been working on what I think The Boss at SFStL would look like if it were to ever receive an RMC I-Box Conversion. Starting out, I only did the ride design, terrain work, sceney and The I-Box track. I posted a POV video my Youtube Channel: I wasn't going to do anything else after that, but I got the motivation to start working on some custom supports. Right now it's a work in progress, but I plan to have it done sometime this month. I've also just upgraded to the Pro version of No Limits, and I'm experimenting with producing higher quality videos right now, as I'm not sure what the limits are for my laptop. So hopefully when I finish this project, I'll have a much better quality video to show off my work when it's completed! This is what I have completed so far:

Thanks! Yeah I like the straight drop better. The airtime in the back on this thing is insane. That's probably the best compliment someone could have gave me. Thanks!

They don't care. They don't care at all? Weird. Out of all people being over protective of their ground, I'd think Disney would be the first. I think this explains it pretty well. Because people don't come to Orlando to go to Universal, to go to SeaWorld, to go to Skyplex. They come to Orlando go to to Disney, and then they do those OTHER things as well on their extra days. Disney is the tentpole in this market, always has and always will be. Disney does not even concern themselves with what Universal does (as many people would argue against that) because Disney knows that one of their parks alone gets more attendance than both of Universal's parks combined. Skyplex wouldn't be potentially taking away customers from Disney, they'd be taking it away from Universal. And that's why Disney doesn't care and Universal does.

They don't care.

I know we're beating a dead horse when it comes to the topic of Iron Boss, but I saw that horrible attempt someone took at trying to imagine what it would look like a few pages back, so I decided to post mine. I know this isn't 100% accurate. It's hard to nail the exact layout of the ride using google maps and Youtube POV's, but I think I got it pretty close.

Here's an intresting listen with a couple of people from PGAV who've been helping the park with theming over the past couple of years: http://seasonpasspodcast.libsyn.com/tspp-317-thunderbird-of-holiday-world-w-pgavs-april-neil-mike-linenbroker-112515

There is probably more that will be added to the support. It'll look similar to supports on TC with another metal beam connected to the actual ledger itself.

^ It's hard to tell, but if you look closely at the where the guide wheels will run on some of the track in this pic (more specifically the far right green rail) there is a paintless strip on Joker's track as well.

^ It's not a black strip, it's basically no paint at all. It's where the wheels will be running. If you look, there is also no paint where the guide wheels will be running. I'm sure there is no paint where the upstop wheels will be running as well. They've had problems with the rides breaking in the last couple of years with the nylon wheels they've been using. The rides don't start running at full speed until the wheels essentially rip all the paint off the track where they will be running. What Wicked Cyclone looked like under construction: Medusa looked the same way when it was built. Here is what it looked like after nearly 10 months of operation:

I know Intamin is doing the manufacturing, but are the guys at ride centerline still doing the design for the coaster? Sorry if this has already been addressed.

^ I'm on the fence about it. While I'm sure they might reduce maintenance costs, I'm not confident that they'll deliver a smoother ride experience unless the ride is completely re-tracked. These two-seater cars seem to pick up more of the bumps/potholes along the track than the 4 seaters.