Busch Gardens Williamsburg (BGW BGE) Discussion Thread

[T-BONDIcoasterkid]

According to BGWfans.com, the drop track is now covered in tarp or something. BGWfans has the only pictures out there. Here is a picture from BGWfans!

the blueprint thingy.

A real picture.

[sammmmmy]

This is really exciting to see what Zerier will do with this! Too bad we can't see what the track looks like yet though!

[Swiftman]

Public drop track pictures: Link

 

There are also a few more ride drawings posted to the forums that we'd like to remain forum exclusives. They can be found here. Signing up takes maybe a minute or two and we don't send emails (aside from the initial confirmation email). If you chose not to sign up, that's fine- major content is almost always posted publicly on the main site.

[ernierocker]

^Thanks for sharing! Pretty cool seeing the drop track section before it gets hidden in the show building.

[SoCalCoasters]

The complexity of this drop section makes Th13teen's drop technology look like tinker toys

 

That is one seriously complex piece of hardware!

[coasterfreak101]

This looks really cool, primarily because those look like magnetic brakes, so I think we're looking at legitimate freefall here!! Looks to be about 10 feet judging by the guys sitting on the tracks. Can't wait to see more track go up - especially the finale!

[andyuk200523]

It certainly looks impressive, its nice to see some drop track in the daylight, as Altons was hidden and never seen outside, the only thing I would say is that it looks over engineered to the max!!!

 

I hope it is well covered over, as the beauty of Th13teens drop track is from a ride perspective, you cannot see any supports or structure at all, whereas on this, you will see everything apart from the mechanics underneath!

 

Verbolten looks incredible so far, very excited for this one!

[odene497]

This is really awesome to see out in the open, what's basically a drop tower for a coaster train. Very cool element, can't wait to see the finished product!

[Saldek]

Construction video #2 with Larry Giles.

 

[RollerCoasterSmi]

This is looking seriously awesome. Thi13teen's drop section was more like a frog hopper, this is going to be a proper drop... AWESOME! This is looking much better than I could have anticipated, after seeing the outlines for the layout I was a bit , but after it being announced and seeing this proper drop I am now . It seems that Verbolten corrects all the "not so great" elements of Thi13teen with what should be a better coaster part and a better drop.

[T-BONDIcoasterkid]

Thanks for the video Saldek! Yes! I was hoping for an Intamin looking track, and we got it! Cant wait to see the next update!

[A.J.]

You do realize what's going to happen now...

 

Much like Thorpe Park made a big hoohaw about Swarm's element, I bet Alton Towers is going to be doing the same thing comparing Verbolten's drop with Thirteen's drop...

[T-BONDIcoasterkid]

^As in a lawsuit? If so, Verbolten uses a freefall with magnetic brakes, which is almost entirely different from Th13teens drop system.

[deathbydinn]

^ No, he means like when Thorpe sent out the letter saying, "We wanted our wing rider drop to be unique and now SFGAM is using it, we could be bitter but we wish them the best of luck with the THORPE PARK inversion blah blah blah." Alton Towers could, and likely will send out a release wishing BGW the best of luck with the Alton Towers drop.

[jzoole]

Did Thorpe Park really do that? Where did you read it?

[RollerCoasterSmi]

@jzoole:

 

Thorpe Park have released a statement to Thorpe Park Mania, in regards to Six Flags GA's wing rider and it's first inversion:

 

 

''Hi THORPE PARK Mania fans.

 

We hope you're all excited about the arrival of THE SWARM. We're having great fun building up to its launch and we hope you are too!

 

We wanted to write a little message to you all following the news that Six Flags Great America will also be launching a winged rollercoaster next year very similar to THE SWARM. Some of you may have noticed that when we say it's going to be very similar, it really is going to be VERY similar. When we set about designing and developing our winged coaster we had to make sure it had the THORPE PARK stamp on it. One of the ways we achieved this was by developing the unique inverted dive at the start of the ride that will be sure to kick-off your awesome apocalyptic flight in adrenaline-fuelled style! As you can imagine then, we were quite surprised to see that the new ride at Six Flags will also adopt the 'THORPE PARK Inversion'!

 

While we could be bitter about this, we would actually like to wish Six Flags Great America the best of luck with the 'THORPE PARK Inversion' and we hope that this is a start of things to come, that one day the 'THORPE PARK Inversion' will become famous in the rollercoaster world! We aim high!

 

Thanks again for all your support and we'll see you all at Fright Nights.

 

The THORPE PARK Team''

 

http://themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=53056&start=270

 

I bet in some way or another Zierer will have to pay Intamin because they patented magnetic brakes on drop towers...

[jmicha]

^Except this isn't a drop tower. Depending on what the patent entails, there may or may not be any sort of infringement whatsoever.

 

This ride looks like it will be a good addition to the park. I visited for the first time this summer and loved everything about BGW. It seemed like one more coaster would be great though. I felt that would round off their collection very nicely and this seems like it will fit that spot. Hopefully I will be able to get back in the near future to try it out.

[braztaz]

I'm pretty sure Thorpe Park was joking.

[sammmmmy]

I really like what they're doing. I didn't realize the event building was so big!

[RollerCoasterSmi]

@ jmicha:

 

There has been an ongoing feud between Intamin and Magnetar Technologies, the original Intamin patent was for DROP TOWERS, but then Intamin tried to sue for a company (can't remember who) for using magnetic brakes on a roller coaster and they succeeded (seemingly for infringing the patent). This is both a drop tower and a coaster, so Intamin with their deep pockets will get money out of this somehow.

 

http://www.kmob.com/news.cfm?nid=4

[Tanks4me05]

This looks really cool, primarily because those look like magnetic brakes, so I think we're looking at legitimate freefall here!! Looks to be about 10 feet judging by the guys sitting on the tracks. Can't wait to see more track go up - especially the finale!

 

I'd say 15 feet. Take a look at the how big the guy standing (lower left hand corner of the picture.) I assumed that he is about six feet tall. I then took a look at the drawing, and the track is in the top position; the rails are about even with the joining section of the A-frame supports. I assume that the track is resting at the bottom position in the real photo. So I used my fingernails to "size up" the standing construction worker, and I got about 2.5 of those distances from the top of the rails to the top of where the track would stop. 6 * 2.5 = 15.

[coasterfreak101]

^^How lovely of them.

 

^Yeah, something like that! I just gave it a quick glance and eyed it up - I didn't whip out the fingernails!

[SoCalCoasters]

I really doubt Intamin will sue Zerier over the fact that they used magnetic brakes. Honestly, rides use magnetic brakes more than the conventional pinch brakes now a days.

 

As for that drop system. Intamin's system wasn't a true free fall. It used a system where it was "pulled" downward.

 

If I'm looking at this right, it looks like this will be like a conventional free fall on a coaster, and is probably going to be easier to maintain than Intamin's due to the more simplistic system.

 

I cannot wait to see this completed! It really is the attraction of 2012 that I am looking forward to the most with all of it's unique elements, theming and such.

[Swiftman]

I'd say 15 feet.

 

Looking at the plans, I'd say 18 feet. Very close guess though.

[coasterfreak101]

^Well nobody else can see those plans since we aren't members.