ZeroGravity55

The "out to launch" sign is back on one of the construction cams and the other is being re-positioned away from the station. Lets see if they can try this whole testing thing again, or maybe mother nature will have other plans again. Edit: Now everything is normal again.

Because this newspaper as no credibility when it comes to obtaining memos from the park and reporting when they're building a new coaster and what type it is. (cough cough Gatekeeper cough). I bet that 16 million number is actually right for the coaster itself, but when they start factoring in labor and all work that has to be done, (station, theming, pathways, and ext) the price tag is going to be north of $20 million. Just because you can't rationalize in your head that anything good can be made out of Mean Streak, doesn't mean Alan Schilke can't. I would almost bet money that if he gets his hands on Mean Streak, he can make it the best ride in the park. Could he do more with an empty plot of land? Maybe, but my gut feeling is we would end up with something more like Goliath rather than something more like Texas Giant. Most designers do there best work when they're challenged and are forced to be creative.

^The train will be sitting in an inverted position and you would be sitting on a wing, so you'll be sitting at about the same level of the track. It seems just about right to me for loading and unloading.

Yes, because every park in the same situation would opt to remove the whole lift hill structure and build a new one so it would look more cohesive when they could just leave it as is and it would be completely safe. They would have to rebuild it from the ground up. That's what it would take to replace the old track. They can't gut the whole base of a 100 foot structure and and keep it stabilized. The track that was left goes through the structure diagonally with it's own structure. The beams for the lift go through that structure straight to the ground. Those beams that support lift hill need the structure of that old track to stabilize the the base of the lift. Normally, most coaster designers would just bridge that part of the lift hill structure, but the gap in the structure is so wide that it can't be done safely. Now could the park have just asked to have just the track removed, but leave the structure? Yes, but would you want RMC to take their torches near that lift hill again?

This is true. The track under the lift hill is a vital part of the structure of the lift hill. If they were to the remove the track, the structure would become very unstable. Idk about the track to the right of the first turnaround, but I would imagine it is the same thing.

If it was put online, it would have already been posted on this thread. That's what they were according to people who were at No Coaster Con. So I found this interesting. Of course, if they had gave the waterpark a Mardi Gras theme, I would have never learned all of the cool Swahili words.

^ Not to take away from anyone else at HW or anyone in the industry, but basically, Paula > everybody else.

It appears we weren't supposed to see that as they now have moved the camera over a few inches blocking any view of the launch track.

^ Wow they sure were testing! So much for it being too cold. It actually looked like they were launching at a decent speed. Of course, it was hard to tell with just that glance of it on the screen.

Definitely no testing this week. Chance of Snow late tonight and throughout the day tomorrow and it will be below freezing until at least Saturday.

^ Far from done. These RMC I-Box conversions take awhile to get completed. They have to get everything precise. This is being done by humans on sight and not by some robot in a factory. The final result will be spectacular and well worth the wait, so just be patient.

You're not just imagining it. https://web.archive.org/web/20141222153758/http://www.engineeringexcitement.com/product/polercoaster/ I would guess that Intamin probably had to be in on manufacturing of the coaster as their drop ride will probably be connected to the supports of the coaster at some points. Makes more sense for them to manufacture everything and all they have to do is piece everything together.

^ Somewhere in between there then lol. I would imagine that they want it to be half way warm outside for it's first couple of test runs as I imagine that the train will be very sluggish making it's way through the course.

They're not testing yet. Paula just confirmed my suspicion to someone on Facebook. It's been 30 or below in this area since Tuesday. For most B&M's, doesn't it have to be at least 50 degrees for them to even run? I remember reading that somewhere.

^ Goliath uses Polyurethane wheels, which results in it being a fairly quiet ride,plus a much more controlled ride as well. RMC just started using nylon wheels with Medusa Steel Coaster on their I-Box track and TC&WC will be using them as well.

Won't be like that after RMC is finished, those nylon wheels on that steel track is almost as loud as steel wheels running on the steel strips of a wooden coaster.

Sorry for the double post, but the construction cam had been turned off and ThunderbirdCam has had all it's views switched away from Thunderbird, so testing should be beginning anytime now.

^ Hence, that's what took them so long to get into the launched coaster market.

There are plenty of hotels in Dale, Huntingburg, Jasper, Ferdinand, Tell City and their is definitely plenty in Evansville. It's not like the park is located in a very populated area. Yeah it is more than a 5 mile drive from all but one of those locations, but it's not like traffic is bad (Evansville would be the only exception and if you consider that bad, you probably shouldn't be driving). While it would be nice for closer hotels, it's sort of hard when HW owns all the land around the park in which one could be built on. Anybody remember that trademark "Holiday World Hotel"? HW's long term goal is to develop into a place where people come and vacation for almost a week. For this to happen, eventually they'll probably want to build their own resort/hotel. Oh and I couldn't help but notice that it was going to be almost 60 degrees in the area this weekend and it's February. Maybe they'll start testing this weekend? They couldn't ask for better weather!

If I remember right, Schilke said topper track allows for urethane or steel wheels, and the i-box is only urethane (or the other way around) You're correct, just add nylon wheels to the I-Box, which is what they've used on Medusa and will be using on TC and WC.

Yes, but their last big major coaster built outside of China was Ravine Flyer II 6 years ago. That was the point I was trying to make.

Some new photos with different angles from Thunderbird's Micro-site

^ Exactly. The shape of all the elements on the wing coasters looks weird.

Even more pictures from HW's Facebook:

New photo from HW's Twiiter: