Goooose

The Goliath crew took a day off today. Not mad, just pointing it out! I would need a day off with the family if I worked 14-20 days in a row too! They were probably approaching illegal labor practices and had to take off.

That 3 am event is for club tpr riders. Ots an ERR. Media day is crom 9am until 1 pm may 29 with ribbon citting at 10am.

Here we go... Ive lived in both gurnee and chicago for 14 years. There is no such thing as day long/week long thunder storms. There might be a chance all day ling and some sudden downpours but nothing crazy. This could be a problem though..

Omg the exit of the zero g stall looks so sudden!

Almosr done!

I saw pictures from a few days ago with the chain on the ground and the zero g stall supports going back up. I am going to guess that it has been installed, only because I haven't seen a tall crane focused on the lift hill since Wednesday morning. Over the past two days or so, workers have been seen finishing the railing/catwalk along the lift. Perhaps they are doing other lift-related work as well?

I think it is because we are used to seeing a ride's track and supports finished about a month or more ahead of everything else, including electrical work, station construction, break installation, and testing, so we associate that whole month with the testing process. The ride is atypical by design, but traditional and reliable in that it is RMC's third six flags installation, 4th in the US, and runs a 2-train operation with no mid-course break run and a traditional lift. I don't anticipate there being any problems, unless a thunderstorm rolls through and hinders their ability to operate the ride on a scheduled testing day. The park is very confident it will be ready by Thursday so I'm no longer questioning it. I am not sure if Rob will be in attendance, but if there was any doubt about its opening date, by now we and members of the media who need to travel long distances (like Rob) would have needed to be informed.

The zero g stall went in in a day. The track work including grout will be finished by sunday. Everything else is done and they only ned to cycle each train 50 times before it can take riders. Thats what, a day? Media day is firmly scheduled for 9 am thursday and the exclusive ride times have been given to various coaster clubs and fans who have bought merchandise at the park over the past 2 weeks for the whole weekend leading up to a june1st or 2nd opening to the public.

Zero G stall track is totally finished! Except for the exit! You can tell when zooming on the webcam, but it is hard to see here. Two (or more) pieces of track were added in the stall, and the end of those new pieces is blurred within the first drop track.

To me, the color is just as jarring and different as the structure and the layout. Its another way in which the coaster looks completely unfamiliar and stands out. I dont mind!

Why do they need to re-machine the supports? Purely a guess -- they took those supports for the inversion down - so my guess is that something was wrong about them -- wondered if anyone had the real story. Hey! My uneducated guess is simply that the supports were in the way of lift construction and they were removed as a precaution. They were removed the morning that the highest points were being installed, when all tall cranes were crammed into the base of the lift/drop/stall area. There is probably nothing wrong with them and they will be reattached as soon as the lift work is finished.

Media day is in less than 10 days i dont care if they need to make new supports out of marshmellows, theyre going to do whatever is left this week.

Staircase thatll run alongside the lift, only on the right side of the tracks.

None of the area's school districts are on summer vacation yet, and with the late spring, i doubt anyone realizes its even open.

They are working sundays now, and they worked until 8:30 last night. I also read on sfgamworld that crews are getting there at 3:30 am now. I am not sure of the credibility of the claim but I have finally stopped worrying about the timeline for this attraction's opening. They have not pushed back media day and they are giving the general public exclusive ride time tickets with the purchase of any goliath merchandise. People are getting tickets with two hour windows of unlimited rides, like 12am-2am, for example, on June 1st. So the official opening is the second or third, depending on if they have a season passholder preview day or not. And since the ERT times are all night long, as we have known already because Club TPR members had the option to sign up for an event that starts at 3:30 am, they will be able and the certainly will be testing 24/7 once the ride is ready for testing. If they are willing to run the ride with screaming passengers in the middle of the night, they will certainly be able to run it with silent water dummies.

Oh. My. This coaster looks RIDICULOUS. Pictures two and three...

Tomorrow before the sun comes up I'm expecting a banner to be hung from the side of Goliath, facing the webcam, that reads "we dont have a clue how to install this lift hill."

I think theyre just trying to drive us nuts at this point

I think theyre working on the lift now. This whole day. Usually there is only one tall crane near the lift and the other is by the overbank. They have two pieces to lift and they hae to be careful and balanced and get it right the first time. Hopefully though the overbank is being worked on too.

I imagine that they removed them so that they could lift 1/2 of the top of the lift on that side without having to wiggle around it. I bet once they top off the lift they'll put those supports back on exactly how they were before. If they mount all those supports to the track on the ground, it'll be an awkward lift and it would put stress on the track I imagine.

RobSFGAm at sfgamworld.com's goliath thread shared some photos from inside the park yeaterday. The top of the lift is in two pieces, and one is balanced at the end of one crane ready to be lifted. http://sfgamworld.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=14450&start=1600#_thread

And to let us know that it WILL be finished on time. Myself included.

Theyre moving those boards up from where they attached the drop yesterday so that the crew up there will have somewhere to stand while the fasten the structure together. Should be any minute now. Certianly by 5 theyll top it off.

When the park set the may 29th date, Im sure they scheduled a visit for state inspectors on or around the 28th. Whether or not they are a few days behind schedule doesnt matter as long as that appointment is scheduled and they do tue necessary number or runs/hours of runs beforehand.