TEDodd

The left over MM track fits ok. Old abandoned mine with lots of "junk" around. I've read/heard many comments on how good WWG looks. I don't think it's that good but many do. As for BBM, I'm hoping for a lot around the station. Time will tell.

The new post on FB says

Since Vekoma shipped a 15500kg ride to them in March I suspect it's Vekoma.

I expect later this year. For sure when the park opens in the spring. This is the last week they are open all week until Thanksgiving, so they can move faster. They are finishing the front section along the Hwy. Behind the arcade is done. A lot of supports up for the run from corner to/over the arcade (maybe more that I haven't seen photos of yet). So start building the station later this month and possibly testing mid Sep, more likely late Sep. But I can see it open in Oct/Nov.

Raven Truss Dive taking shape. https://www.instagram.com/p/Cg1oZSwuymd/?hl=en

New ride announcement at 11 EDT, streaming on FB.

Wasn't sure if JJ would be alone or with others. And that only helps with LR. If it's busy and you want to ride others then the pass could be handy.

You can buy fast passes for one of the days. (I assume multiple days planned). Would help getting in many rides, particularly LR. But crowds can are difficult to predict.

The Saturday before was pretty busy in 2019. https://www.dollywoodwaittimes.com/?day=2019-08-31 But Friday wasn't bad. https://www.dollywoodwaittimes.com/?day=2019-08-30 No data for Sunday or Monday. Maybe they were closed? 2020 looked busy Sat, Sun and Mon. https://www.dollywoodwaittimes.com/?day=2020-09-05 Friday wasn't too bad though. Of course this year is anyone's guess. With inflation, travel is curtailed, but recent drops in gas price may increase that. Or Prices could shoot up again and the park be nearly dead. Oh LR. Had down time around noon Friday (maybe weather related), Then some short periods Sat and Sun. Also a longer period Sun evening (likely weather). https://www.dollywoodwaittimes.com/ride.php?ride=Lightning+Rod&day=2022-07-29

Matches with this.

Not at all the experience back around the 4th. No rows were out of service and it rode as smooth as it did the first day it was open the public (I just happened to be I the park that day) Have to think it was a bad part (wheel?) to be that different in just a few weeks.

I expect similar to Dragonflier.

VM uses DC supplied from a capacitor bank to drive the LSMs. That reduces the AC capacity needed. Others need much higher AC supply to power the system. And getting the needed power to the park/ride was an issue, that's why the VM system was chosen. Hard to find details, but it was discussed a good bit back when LR was being built. They did that years ago. Go to 0:30 in this video. https://youtu.be/6FDJBWQnrfs All that vapor/mist there is water sprayed for cooling. It helped but doesn't seem to be enough. Again, we don't really know where the issue is and only have vague comments and innuendo to go on. My comments on heat are based on a few comments from ride operators, when they cut back to single train, and other downtime observations. But nobody has outright said anything was getting hot let alone what was getting hot. I'm hoping when. It cools down in the fall we'll see better operation. That would only be anecdotal, but would add a data point to our attempts to understand the problems.

A joke? People have been calling for that sort of change since 2016.

What would that take though? Where to put the equipment, how to route the cable, etc. How fast can that run? It's certainly change the character of the ride. I just wish the companies involved were more open about the issues. When it rolls out of the station, hits the first LSMs, and does an E-stop, why? What triggered the stop? A sensor in a car? A track sensor? LSM issue?

It's the same people engineering in the same way with the same tools for all RMC coasters. So if one is poorly done they all are. Right? Or are you agreeing that something is different that lead to the usually great engineers to miss something? That's the point. Something is different. Doesn't mean it's poorly engineered, it means something new is affecting it. Something they have not had to account for in the past. And it seems they are still trying to figure it out. That's sort of how progress happens. The stuff discovered on LR will influence future coasters and make them better because of the lessons learned. As an example I'm sure with the data they have now they could build it with topper track and it be fine. But it was cheaper/easier/faster to switch to I-Box than to redo the structure. They will use that data on the next one though and not have to use I-Box. I'm just someone that understands engineering and how unknown effects can wreak havoc on an otherwise straight forward design. Where the new one looks virtually identical to previous work and something small and seemingly insignificant causes all sort of unforeseen effects. I don't condemn the effort because of that. And heaven forbid there are multiple issues, whether separate or connected (where item A works great, item B works great, together they don't work well). Fixing the track issues (and likely the wheel maintenance) doesn't resolve all the other issues. It doesn't change the cooling of the LSMs or make them work less hard in 95 degree heat. It doesn't resolve nuisance trips of the sensors causing ride shut downs. Engineering and problematic systems that take years to resolve (and related to my day job) And like LR they didn't just abandon the project because of those issues, they kept working on them despite calls from the public to give up.

You love their rides then claim they are poorly engineered. The speed and weight of the trains exceeded the stresses modeled. Hence the change from topper track to I-Box in the higher stress areas. And they have changed the wheels several times (different materials) due to them wearing differently than in other uses. Something about the ride is (was?) causing it to perform a lot different than expected and different than other coasters RMC designed/built. I'm an Electrical Engineer, not Mechanical, so I have very limited understanding of the forces and modeling done. But what I do understand and see with their rides says something is vastly different with LR and they have struggled to figure it out. Not sure they have solved or not, but the track change was a big change to deal with it. So every jet the US military flies is faulty. From the F16 to to F35. Seriously, go look at the issues the F16 had initially and how much was spent improving it. They all have high maintenance requirements and generally poor availability rates.

Seems the forces in some areas were higher than modeling showed. Don't think anyone has ever called RMC a company with poor engineering. This was new territory, and lots of lessons learned. I wouldn't call the system faulty, just not reliable in the environment. Like a sports car. Again, new territory. Pushing a system well beyond previous limits. This was the first, and so far only VM launched coaster. LR's issues are minor compared to some military projects I've been involved with.

As I recall it was Velocity Magnetics, and their first coaster launch system. https://www.velocitymagnetics.com/no-brakes-on-growth-at-velocity-magnetics/ Their Projects page list 4 coasters. 3 of them are braking systems. LR is the only launch. https://projects.velocitymagnetics.com/ There was something else about the system too. I think it was using a storage system because getting enough power to directly drive the launch in to the park was problematic. The description for their LR video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FDJBWQnrfs mentions it. [quote]This launch draws approximately 2.5 megawatts over a 5 second period of time from our ION-Vault system which re-charges every 100 seconds, and does this approximately 40,000 times per year with no maintenance to the ION-Vault system over the past four (4) years of operation.[/quote] Interestingly (or is it telling?) there is no link to info on the ION-Vault or the Ion Energy™ Launch System on their site. The ION Energy site https://www.ionenergyinc.com/ doesn't mention it either.

Fixed a different issue. Track not handling the forces and excessive wear/maintenance on the trains.

You said a B&M Hyprer by 2025. That would mean starting now, probably start clearing next year. They need to fix Lightning Rod to better handle the heat. I can't get https://www.dollywoodwaittimes.com/ to load very fast, but I recall March - May was pretty good, then things started getting hot.

Oh I'm sure you will. A lot of country/bluegrass/gospel music. If you like that you'll have no issues. If that's not your thing, then a bit harder. Lots of tribute/impersonator type shows. https://www.bransonshows.com/showByDate.cfm?month=8&day=24&year=2022&lengthOfVisit=4&sortOrder=title&x=23&y=7 (I just picked a late August date) You didn't say how far along she will be. I know my wife at 7+ months in summer heat was miserable. No way she'd have wanted to climb hills in a theme park.

Lots like it or they wouldn't keep doing it and adding more. Maybe your tastes are just different.

Based on a conversation with some operators the other day, heat is an issue. They run 2 trains until it gets hot and then pull one to slow the cycle time so stuff has more time to cool down. Thursday it had a stop during launch (stopped at the bottom of the hill again) while was I line that I think was heat related. That was around 5:30 pm I think. It was back and fine until lighting shut everything down. it was also 1hr late opening Friday. Couldn't get any indication why. After ~30 min they started test trains. Did about 5 before they let us on. It was running 2 trains then. Then the weather went to crap for most of the day.

No problem. Simple search on the site. Sure, charity. And it includes a room in the resort, and more. But even if that was for a month that's too rich for my blood. That's a year of mortgage payments.