ZeroGravity55

^ Probably more near miss elements. Kudos to HW for not leaving good enough alone.

^ It definitely has some hype to live up too. Alan Schilke has said himself that he expects this one to be the best of all the iron horse conversions.

^ Edit: beat me to it. ^^ Did you not read the thread before you posted that?

^ Will one of the trains be arriving this month? I remember you saying something about getting the roof on the maintenance building so it could house one of the trains soon.

^ Judging on how they've pieced this thing together so far, I would guess that there is either two individual pieces left and they're going to bolt those together and bring them up to the site as one sort of big piece, or there is just one piece left. The crane is sitting right behind the last support, so they might get it done today.

^ With the amount of Blue Fire clones being built, I'm guessing it's one of them, but who knows.

I can not be confirmed nor denied that construction is on pace. I don't think anyone here has the construction schedule. It would make sense for Holiday World to be further along since that area of the country has harsher winter weather so Holiday World has to get ahead of the curve before the severe weather sets in. I'd go ahead and say that HW has also been helped out by the lack of bad weather. With that being said, B&M wants to start testing in February at HW, so that's why were seeing Thunderbird built at a much quicker pace. One thing I've noticed by following Thunderbird's construction and Banshee's construction last year, once the foundation work is completed, these steel coasters are pieced together pretty quick. My guess is they're right on schedule.

Construction took a break for Thanksgiving and so did the thread The last piece of track should go up today, weather permitting, of course. So keep an eye on the construction cam. Keep an eye on HW's Twitter as well. I'm sure there will be some updates there. If I was in charge of HW's Twitter, I would probably tweet at all the SF parks telling them this is how you get a project done on time, with nearly five months to spare.

I love how they're using the lift hill structure to support the entrance into the 200 degree stall.

I'm hoping the S-curve is as snappy as the animation makes it look!

I can assure you, we're full-steam ahead with Thunderbird. The original construction schedule showed the last piece of track going up before Christmas, but if we're working ahead of schedule we're certainly not slowing down! Oh okay, I just heard an interview with President Matt and he said you guys were aiming for about the week before Christmas, so I interrupted that wrong. I'll be sure to be watching the ThunderbirdCam on Monday! Oh and here are some new pictures from Thunderbird's micro-site:

I honestly don't understand how it doesn't make financial sense. All they have to do is look at the success of all the other conversions. Oh and I'm not for one minute buying that they're really trying to say that they don't want to sacrifice length, because the like how long the ride is. I'm sure the maintenance bill tells another story. The way I'm looking at it, why would he even tell anyone outside of his management team that the conversion is happening if it is happening? Either way, he's going to give you all the reason's it won't happen. All this talk of re-tracking and adding new trains, I'll believe it when I see it. I'd still bet my money on an RMC conversion, because I personally think he's bluffing. Actually the report called for normal re-tracking and Timberliners from the TGG. That doesn't make any sense, because the Timberliners are the lightest (in terms of weight) of all the wooden coaster trains out there. It's already been mentioned on here that the current trains need a certain amount of weight to run the course. I guess they could re-profile the drop, but honestly, if they're going to spend all that money for new trains, redoing the drop, and re-tracking, they might as well go ahead and give the RMC treatment. Turn it into something new and marketable. That's just my opinion.

^ I think they might be purposely holding out to put the last piece in the week before Christmas. At least that's vibe I got from some interviews at IAAPA.

Not that this should be a surprise to anyone, but more track has been put in place today! The "carousel" track is almost complete with just the inline twist remaining after that. It's been exactly four months since they announced Thunderbird and they're probably 5-10 track pieces from being full circuit.

^ If B&M reveals a coaster and it has a element called a merry-go-round because the helix is turning clockwise, I'm probably going to laugh. What happened to an overbank turn being called an overbank turn or a helix being called a helix? I'm honestly surprised the Immelmann, zero-G roll, or inline twist didn't have fancy names. I could honestly care less what the elements are called, I'm just looking forward to seeing what GP calls them. "(insert redneck voice)I thought I was going to lose my arms on the barn turn thingy. Is it safe for that barn to be there? "

This is a wild idea, but part me thinks they might be teaming up with S&S and introducing a wooden free fly 4D coaster. The regular free fly 4D coaster used the I-Box track and they've said multiple times that the I-Box track and topper track are same thing except one is wooden and the other is steel.

The S-Curve was put in place sometime this week:

^ lol when I read that tweet, I automatically thought of her being like the dude off the don't touch my Dodge Dart commercial. So after we mentioned that there were no pictures of the back Thunderbird's trains, this showed up on Twitter: There were also more shots of the back of the train uploaded to HW's Facebook page. There are going to be LED'S on the train. Thank you, Paula!

^ They are, you can see the tips of the wings. I've read that there might be LED's on the tips of the wings. As far as pictures are concerned of the back of the train, I can't find any, and you know there is none when I can't find any. I have a feeling this might be why, though. Paula tweeted this yesterday: Been HoliStalking our Thunderbird train like a new-car owner. #DoNotTouch #DoNotScratch #DoNotLean She's got'em all afraid to even get near the train

I don't know why I didn't think of this, but the spine of the train was clearly shown in the animation:

Honestly, I think all waterparks should have a Proslide Hydromagnetic ride of some sorts. They're some of the best rides anywhere.

They haven fully connected them all together yet. They just have them partially bolted down so they'll stay up there. I believe they laid the lift hill track down on the original ledgers of Colossus, then went through and replaced them with the metal ones, which is kind of odd, but RMC knows what they're doing.

^ He explained TGG, GCI, and PTC pretty well. The RMC trains have a completely different wheel assembly than anything in the industry. First off, let me start of by saying that each wheel assembly operates independently. They're not connected together like TGG or GCI trains and they move freely unlike the PTC or GCI trains, where the wheel assembly is in a fixed position. If you look closely you can see a shock connected to the wheel assembly. Each will assembly has one connected vertically and laterally (like the one shown in the picture). This is what makes them different from all the other trains, as the shocks keep the wheels in contact with the track at all times. This keeps the trains from bouncing around the track, which all other wooden coaster trains do. Yes, even Timberliners still bounce. They bounce, then the bogey system starts to turn. If TGG would come up with their own track design that would allow for turns that were manufactured with precision, unlike the traditional way of just eyeballing it, then it would eliminate the bouncing. RMC's style coupled with the pre-fabricated track that is cut with almost precise precision, allows them to have rides that are butter smooth and stay smooth for a long time.

^ I think that's pretty close to what it will be. This shot of The Legend in the snow, though. I'm biased, but I just love the look of The Legend's drop. Oh and I guess I can't neglect The Raven. From HW's FB:

^ It's not there, the piece I thought was part of the assembly was just part of the piece of track the train was sitting on. I'm gonna guess it will look similar to what we've seen before, since there is the same B&M friction brakes and wheels. I know it's pointless to speculate on this, but the coaster nerd in me is curious to see what it looks like.