texcoaster

^ Good point... should it even be called a Dinn/Summers coaster any more? It looks like the flying carpet and the MCBR might be the only parts of the entire ride that even remotely resemble what D/S originally designed.

Last set of pics from Saturday Looking good from the south side YES, the teal train was on track. The theming parts (horned nose and tail fins) were not on the trains. Maybe to make it easier to hoist the cars with cables (the cables are still attached to the lead car. Look closely) West side of Giant from Ballpark Avenue. You know that one hill on Expedition GeForce where you rise up tilted one way, then while you're having airtime the car tilts the other way? There's a similar element on SFA's S:ROS. It seems that Giant will be doing it, too. This might be the surprise favorite moment of the layout.

More pics from Saturday at SFOT Looking at the last pic, notice the empty footers around the flying carpet section. Is the new steel track strong enough to provide the support needed to remove the extra set of supports along the edge? Or could they get replaced before the trains make a run? The second big turn is still waiting for some love I've seen all the pics, but until you see this turn in "person" you just can't believe the insanity. I just sat and stared at it, thinking it was going to look less extreme eventually. It didn't. A bit of misalignment on the drop through the lift hill. I'm sure it will be straightened out by the time they put the bolt plates on it. The ending that must not be named is fully tracked and looking (dare I say it?) very "normal" and familiar.

Went to the park yesterday. Unbelievably crowded. Weather was perfect (50s and sunny) and the parking lot was full. I got there an hour after opening and had to park way back next to Titan! Titan was looking good against a nice blue sky There were some workers doing stuff to the first drop. Sounded like an air powered bolt tightener. The upper drop workers were happy to wave at folks taking pictures The workers on the lower portion of the drop were just busy

That's funny, I wish I could go back to 2000 and UN-ride it. Gave me a migraine for three days and completely ruined about half of that year's coaster trip.

Don't get me wrong, I *LOVE* the KD Grizzly. I like the setting, I like the layout, I like the intensity. What I don't like is making a trek out there once every few years and having the thing be fantastic on this trip and unridable on the next, then good again the next time. The topper track is supposed to keep all the things you like about a particular coaster, but give it the ability to have a consistently good ride experience year after year. Grizzly could sure use that, as could Ghost Rider and a host of other rides already mentioned in this thread. As for the post that mentioned changing Beast's layout, I don't think you'd need to. One of the charms of that ride is that it's so different than other coasters. Rather than rely on steep drops, airtime, and other standard fare for thrills, it feels like a train ride through the woods gone batshit crazy. If you were to replace those rails just like they were on opening day, remove all the brakes, and let that bad boy run full-tilt from start to finish, you'd have a top ten coaster on your hands. It would still "feel" like the Beast that put KI on the map but without the maintenance headaches. It could even run with the same trains. What nobody has really hit upon yet, though, are the classic rides that get rough sometimes: KW Thunderbolt, Coney Cyclone, Blackpool's Grand National, etc etc etc... I think that for the sake of preserving the traditional wood coaster experience, classic rides such as these should be kept in their original format - and well maintained.

If this project works out well, the entire industry will change almost overnight. While some parks might not be able to invest the time and money for a massive makeover like this, the "topper track" option could resurrect aging woodies better than Viagra. (sorry) Anyway, there are lots of wood coasters out there with layouts that are exciting already, and don't need a full-scale re-imagining, they just need to run consistently and well. Those are perfect candidates for topper track. Boardwalk Bullet comes to mind immediately, as well as KD's Grizzly and even KI's Beast. Can you imagine if they tracked Beast with steel top rails, thereby removing the high maintenance problem, and ran it trim-free again? Night rides would be unbelieeeeeeeeeeeeevable! Also, the extreme nature of the Giant layout could also result in some really interesting new coasters that are designed from the ground up with this kind of technology in mind. I don't see any reason that we won't see a 100% steel coaster with loops and other inversions built with this kind of track, offering a steelie type layout with woodie type trains. I'd LOVE to see a Magnum-style hyper or a S:KC style looper running killer trains like Giant is getting (OK, maybe without the horns)

I'm planning to go on Saturday. If I get there while there's still enough daylight, I'll get some pics.

Voyage is spectacular at night, but due to their operating hours you almost have to experience that during some sort of special event. Beast actually becomes a good coaster at night, even with all the damn brakes. The surprise hit, though, came during an ACE CoasterCon at SFOT one year. During the nighttime ERT session, we got Runaway Mine Train and the ride ops turned off all of the lights for us. Holy crap. The only way to prepare for those turns was to sit near the back of the train and listen for the yelps of the riders in front of you. I tried to memorize the layout, but always got caught by surprise turns anyway. I'm surprised nobody had to be hospitalized, either from the ride or from laughter.

I'm not going to bemoan the loss of Tony Hawk. While I agree that theming can really enhance a ride (Space Mountain, BTMRR, pretty much anything at IOA), I saw Tony Hawk Big Spin as less theming and more of a ride-on commercial for Tony and his branded stuff. One ride with a topic that doesn't fit any of the other things around it is not theming, it's just branding. Might as well rename Shock Wave to "The Froot Loops Coaster".

^ Good answer, and welcome to TPR

News, though not surprising: Park planned to be developed in stages. Theme park will be stage one. http://www.hcnonline.com/articles/2010/11/15/east_montgomery/news/46emcemcid.txt Money holds up EarthQuest; investors want re-phased project Posted: Monday, November 15, 2010 12:00 am | Updated: 9:12 am, Wed Nov 17, 2010. By TIM WILLERT It’s back to the drawing board for the proposed EarthQuest Adventures project. Literally. The developer told East Montgomery County Investment District board members Nov. 10 the 550-acre mixed-use project, which features a 150-acre dinosaur theme park and museum, must be re-packaged and built in phases in order to secure investors. “We don’t know if we can raise $500 million for a green field project in this market,” Marlin Atlantis CEO John Marlin told the board. Which is why Marlin proposed a redesign that is going to require about $200 million less to get started but will make two potential investors happy. One, Guggenheim Partners, a financial services firm based in New York, would be willing to invest between $200 million and $300 million if the project is re-phased, while a second investor, an unidentified Houston group, is close to committing $85 million to the project, Marlin said. “I feel real good about where we are going,” he said. “I am just as confident today that we can get EarthQuest done.” The first phase of the re-design — the dinosaur theme park and museum - will cost approximately $307 million to build, but will begin generating income and attracting other investors, EMCID President and CEO Frank McCrady said. “This is a model that has worked in other theme park developments,” McCrady said. “As an investor, I think it’s more of a wise decision to take the main development and do it first and then add ancillary development.” The EarthQuest Adventures project will be located at Roman Forest Boulevard and U.S. Highway 59. The second phase of development presented to the board, known as Earth Walk, would include a retail development portion. Additional phasing will include a water park, entertainment center component and hotel component as funding becomes available. “The most important thing is the cost of funds for additional development goes down once construction starts,” McCrady said. “If you have a proven project, you abate some of the risk.” That goes for tenants, too, Marlin told the board. “My guess is that by the time the them park is half done, hotels and retailers will show interest,” he said. As for a new timetable, Marlin told the board it likely would be the end of January before a new package can be presented to investors, and another six months beyond that before construction starts. “That’s a reasonable expectation,” McCrady said. “You can pick a date and we’ll be wrong three times.” Contour Entertainment President Christopher Brown, the project’s master planner and lead designer, presented a preliminary re-phase to board members, letting them know that a $500 million vision and a $300 million reality “is a very different thing.” “We’re trying to make the strongest showing we can,” Brown said, “but it won’t all be there on opening day.” And that’s OK with McCrady. “We’d rather break ground on a theme park than wait for everything to get funded at once,” he said. “Our main interest is ensuring that they get the right partner, the right investor, instead of rushing in and going with the wrong investor.”

According to the interview on the IAAPA thread, they want the new Giant to still feel like a wood coaster, only with far less maintenance issues and a consistent ride feel from year to year. So there will still be some "wiggle room" (or "shuffle space", if you prefer) in the interaction between train and track. This is going to be veeeeeeeeeery interesting. ONE MONTH till train testing???? Holy crap! I will head up there on New Year's weekend and try to get some pics. How much excitement would be generated by SFOT if, on the last operating day before winter break, they had YouTube blowing up with videos of testing trains taken by excited park guests? One of the things I was most excited about in the interview, though, was the "topper track". A much less inexpensive solution for problem wood coasters. Hello, Kemah? If Giant turns out as well as they hope, I'm going to be really excited to see what kind of mayhem can be created when designers like Gravity Group or GCI start cranking out designs from scratch with this track system in mind.

^My post was in response to a comment about "real wooden coasters" and that's why I brought up the Boardwalk Bullet. It's also a coaster that I know jakizle is familiar with. As for steel coasters and movement on the rails, the pipe rail system and the trains that run on them are very different than this steel boxbeam system and the wooden coaster-style trains. I see no reason that they couldn't engineer a bit of jitter into the ride to make it feel more like a wood coaster. Otherwise, why not just go with a proven steel system and make it like Gemini?

^ It got ignored because it would've squashed the potential for controversy, speculation, and drama. This is TPR, after all.

I think where the disappointment comes in is that we've all been hyped up over the prospect of "world's fastest coaster" for quite some time now and then we find out that you're at the record-breaking speed for a very, very, short time before hitting a slew of trims. I think that there would be widespread disappointment to find that any new coaster is trimmed to death before it even opens, but to hype it as the world's fastest and then slow it WAY down right after it gets up speed is beyond disappointing, it's sacrilege. Also, those huge sweeping turns make it look like the thing is designed to run at full speed. Too bad it doesn't.

It would also be smoother than riding the 2009 version of the Giant.

Boardwalk Bullet has at least one place in the layout where the wheels are partially on and partially off the edge of the steel rail. Granted, it's between the final brake and the station, but it's there.

Shocker to see Walter Bolliger clean-shaven... doesn't he know it's Movember?

Well, that surely means that any worries that they won't correct the bowing-out on some sections of track is unfounded. If the bolts stay, that car has got to be PRECISELY in the right spot on the rails at all times with very little side-to-side variance.

Nor do they have lots of hills or seriously banked turns. Clearly, they also wanted a rollercoaster experience or they would've called it the "worlds fastest F1 simulator". As a coaster, I just can't get excited about this.

Video of two guys riding. Cool: right side guy's cheeks rippling on the launch Not cool: zero airtime. I mean ZERO airtime. They even look kinda bored toward the end.

Why do you think it won't open on time? The track work is nearly done, and I suspect it'll be complete within the next few weeks. That gives them more than three months for testing and tweaking before the park opens in March. Unless something is severely wrong, I don't see why it would be delayed until June. Go back a ways and you'll see posts (some from me) saying that I'm betting that the accelerometer tests are going to show that massive reprofiling will need to be done OR that the ride will have to be trim braked to death before it opens. I'm also still not sold on those minimal supports holding up the overbanked turns. Don't get me wrong... I sincerely HOPE that it opens with the park on March 5, I'm just not betting on it.

^ If you look carefully at the pics taken from other angles, you can still see the warp. Keep in mind, though, that the other end of that piece of track hadn't been connected to anything, so it could've been fixed by the time they attached it to the next segment. ^^ That's why they run a gage meter around the entire layout before sending out the first train. That's why the ride goes through extensive accelerometer testing before the first people get on board. That's why they have to cycle the trains for however many hours with consistent results before the public is allowed on. I'm sure there is some tweaking that will be done in between (and possibly before) all of those steps. I still imagine that the ride will open late, probably just barely in time for CoasterCon in June. I can't imagine, with the amount of money, advertising, and hype they've given this ride, that SFOT will allow it to open until it's what they're expecting it to be: smoother, faster, and better than the original in its heyday.

It's not touching. http://www.coastercon.com/html/giant_c_7.html and http://www.coastercon.com/html/giant_c_14.html Oh, and check the site for pics of the rear of the train, too. Fins, baby!