Holiday World (HW) Discussion Thread

[cfc]

More news from Holiday World:

 

VOYAGE ENGINEERS DESIGN NEW COASTER TRAINS

 

SANTA CLAUS, IND-----The #1 Wooden Roller Coaster in the World will feel faster and a lot smoother in 2010, thanks to a new set of trains, engineered by the same team who designed the record-breaking coaster.

 

“When the engineers at The Gravity Group told us they designed Timberliner trains with The Voyage in mind, they definitely got our attention” says Holiday World & Splashin' Safari president Will Koch. “The Voyage is extreme and we want to keep it that way season after season. These new trains will help a lot.”

 

Koch says the Timberliner’s wheels are engineered to steer through curves as they move along the coaster track, creating a smoother ride and less wear and tear on the track. The seats are ergonomically designed for greater comfort, including an exclusive seat-suspension design. The padded seats will also accommodate wider-hipped and longer-legged riders.

 

“Since the trains will ‘track’ better, riders will experience a much smoother

Voyage,” says Koch. “That also means there will be less ‘rolling friction,’ so the ride will quite possibly be even faster when it reopens in May.” The Gravity Group’s engineers tested a prototype Timberliner at Holiday World last spring.

 

The Voyage is 1.2 miles long and provides a record 24.2 seconds of “air time.” This steel-structure wooden coaster, ranked the #1 Wooden Coaster in the World by Amusement Today for three years running, includes a record five underground tunnels (some are double, creating eight “underground moments”), a series of dramatic drops (including a 66-degree angle of descent on the first drop), three 90-degree banked turns, and multiple track crossovers.

 

The Voyage’s two new trains, which will each seat 28 riders, will be assembled in Indianapolis. The Gravity Group is headquartered in Cincinnati.

 

Looks like something else for TPR's Mid-America Trippers to look forward to.

[ginzo]

^Wow, I think I'm almost as excited about that as I am about the new water coaster.

 

I really liked Voyage when it ran well. If they could make it run faster and smoother, it might find its way back into my top 10.

[spaceace12]

Faster on Voyage....WOW. Can't wait for opening day.

[MrX8991]

I was wondering when the Timberliners were ever going to debut.

[Moose]

I noticed (on RCDB) that The Voyage currently has three trains. Will only having two trains negatively impact the capacity? (IE did HW ever run all three, if they did, was stacking a problem?)

[ginzo]

^In my experience, they would run three trains, but there was a fair amount of stacking.

[jedimaster1227]

This just made my excitement for Holiday World increase exponentially! I've been looking forward to riding The Voyage for quite some time, and getting to ride it with Timberliner trains should be an even more exciting experience!

[Swimace]

Awesome! I got to do the Voyage for the first time last summer and thought it was awesome. Hopefully the new trains will make the ride even better, I can't wait to get back to Holiday World this summer!

[Homeboy23]

Those trains look awesome! Hopefully they live up to what they are saying.

[PKI Jizzman]

This is the best news I've ever heard. Maybe I'll get a Holiday World season pass!

 

Although, I think the trains look obsolutely ugly. Looks like and X-Car train extended. But seeing them in person will be a lot different.

 

 

Bye bye PTC! The gold on those trains is just beautiful! (Photo by me)

[Divv3k]

This is great news! As much as I loved The Voyage in 2007 it really wasn't very re-rideable. Hopefully these new trains change that!

[thrillerman1]

Major stoke-age!!!

[PKI Jizzman]

Hopefully being stapled in these new trains isn't as bad as the old trains

 

Wait, no seat belts on Timberliners? Capacity should increase by a LOT because HW spends WAY too much time pulling on those seat belts. What, are we riding a coaster or going into oncoming traffic?

[traincrossin]

That is totally awesome! I was wondering how long we would have to wait to see Timberliners on a coaster and i'm am very excited to ride The Voyage next year along with Wildabeest!

[Dragon Khan]

Wow... I was so excited to ride the coaster has been raving about for so long already, but some told me it had become a bit rough. This however is subjective. If those trains impak rove the ride, this is doubtlessly THE coaster i'm looking forward to for Middle America. I just hope those trains don't ruin the ride like Kumbak trains did on Stampida in Spain. Those are an abomination

[Ed]

They look, rather horrible. What's wrong with the normal wooden coaster trains?

[Wes]

What's with those weird things on the sides? Like some sort of side headrest? WTF?

I really wish they'd release renderings with a person in the seat so I could understand how exactly these things look with someone sitting in it. Right now it looks like some weird claustrophic steampunk machine.

[Electerik]

I love that Holiday World does stuff like this, and I'm really excited about articulated trains on The Voyage.

 

That crotch-poking seat-horn thing is probably going to be a deal-breaker for me, though.

[SharkTums]

In my opinion, I don't think the ride can get much rougher so hopefully these trains will at least help a bit. I'm guessing it will be like the difference in PTC vs Millennium Flyers on GCI Coasters. That being said, I'm a bit concerned with the metal bar that looks to be around head level on the side of each seat. There's a lot of lateral movement on this ride and my head does not want to bash into a bar.

[Not For Sale]

That crotch-poking seat-horn thing is probably going to be a deal-breaker for me, though.

You call your special area your "deal"?

[ebl]

28 riders, huh? That'll mean a 14-car train. Sounds rather long. What does Voyage run now? Six- or seven-car PTC trains, I'm guessing.

 

Obviously, I've never ridden Voyage. But it's definitely on my list.

 

Eric

[All Clear]

I think having no seatbelt will take up the capacity slack of dropping a train. As was said earlier, any time I was there with 3 train operation, it usually didn't make much difference in capacity due to stacking.

 

Not that the stacking was the fault of the crew...they were always hustling. Now that I think of it, I can't think of anywhere I've been that ran more than two trains without stacking a little unless the station had separate loading and unloading areas.

[spaceace12]

Current trains(or the PTC's) held 28 people. 7 trains with 4 people per train. just thinking, if this truely has no seat belts, this should speed up the loading/unloading process as one less thing to check.

[All Clear]

That back seat is gonna be dreamy.

 

 

 

Or deadly. Whatever.

[pianojohn]

The front seat looks amazing! Nothing in your way except the wind!