ZeroGravity55

This is sounds like it would be a mess, but if they were to expand significantly into the parking lot, maybe parking garage's might be a solution to make up for lost parking space?

Looks like somebody left their mark From HW's Twitter:

^ The original design was back sometime around 2009 or so probably. Kings Island built a record breaking invert last season, so it makes sense to go with something different.

I believe it was showed through a video presentation. This is from Visit Indiana's Twitter. Looks like the fly-through barn is now complete:

I was thinking the exact same thing. From reports from No Coaster Con, it was the original steel coaster Will Koch had designed(I'm assuming this is the B&M invert HW told TPR about over the summer) to go over and around The Voyage. Also, I came across a picture of the 2015 park brochure with a park map in it on Facebook. Pilgrims Plunge's station is still on the map with a body of water surrounding it. The part where the water park and dry park boundaries intersect by Hyena Falls shows that there is a bridge that goes over the water park pathway and that Hyena Falls new pathway starts where the entrance to PP from the water park used to be and goes underneath the pathway leading to Thunderbird. I know this is just a drawing, but I don't think they would have had drawn it up like that if that's not what the pathway situation was going to be like. Edit: Btw, the new park map is not the the parks website yet.

^ Yeah, Gatekeeper is where I remember hearing that from. Might be able to find out more on that when B&M starts testing Thunderbird in February.

Don't they always start using softer wheels, which absorb up a lot of the energy as well?

The way RMC deconstructs these coasters and builds them into these hybrids is a very interesting process to follow.

^ I'm guessing it might be the B&M invert design that B&M proposed to the park back in 2009.

^ I'm assuming that they were checking clearances with the LSM's and such. Paula, are those two cars pictured in the station part of the second train or just two cars from the 1st train?

Look what was pushed out onto the launch track today:

Paula is killing it with the photos today. From HW's Twitter:

Hello Keyholes. From the Holiblog:

Some new photos from Holiday World's Twitter:

Testing starts sometime next month, so not much longer until we get to see it in action, unless HW shuts down the webcams

New picture from HW's twitter. Thunderbird opens in 100 days:

^ They just connected it to the pathway leading up to Hyena Falls. It's just a brief moment where the waterpark and dry park sidewalks intersect.

This same newspaper reported the news of Gatekeeper way before the it was ever announced, so I be willing to bet that this is going to happen.

I'm amazed at how creative TGG is when working with just a flat piece of ground. Most designers will tell you they do their best and most creative work when they're challenged with space limitations and changes in the terrain, ext. I'll also jump on the boat of saying that the wooden coasters with wooden supports looks so much better than those that use the steel supports.

Two hours of ERT on Mammoth and Wildebeest is worth making trip out there that weekend just for that. The park really seems to out do themselves with these events.

This makes me think that there is going to be a good sustained moment of weightlessness going over that hill.

This is the back of this years Holiwood Nights T-Shirt.

I just can't get over how great this element looks.

^ I think you also have to factor in overall maintenance as well. More trains would obviously add to the maintenance cost, plus you would probably need to have more maintenance people on staff to take care of the trains. If you go to HW in May or weekdays in early June, you'll find that they have one train operation on all their coasters. Why? One, it is not needed as there is not enough people in the park to justify it. Two, the park spends a ton of money on re-tracking their coasters every year and it makes no sense to ruin all that work early on in the season by running a train they don't need. I would imagine that it's the same thing with steel coasters, expect this time it's the wheels. I would imagine the wheels for the trains are very expensive and running trains you don't need would cause them to wear down faster. At the end of the day, it's simple business; you don't spend money on things you don't need. Especially if it won't really improve your customer experience that much.

Here's a video of the first full Thunderbird Train being assembled in the the maintenance building. According to the Holiblog, there will be "big boy" seats in the middle row of each train.