Dollywood Discussion Thread

[anonymouscactus]

Bill... ever think of becoming a meteorologist? lol. Your calculations and weather research is impressive!

 

Is there really that big a difference between 39.9 degrees and 40.0 degrees?

 

.1! Also, never become a ride op... you'd be letting the parents with their 36" kids on the 48" height requirement rides because the parents said they were close enough.

 

You keep comparing all the parks to Great Adventure which is the weather anomaly of the coaster world, but even they got von rolled in 60mph gusts. If you ever open your own park let me know... you'd keep the skyride running in a hurricane and you know it... just to show Six Flags who's boss.

[coasterbill]

I am admittedly a bit of a weather dork. It's one of my many talents.

 

Also, we're on the way to Pigeon Forge now. We don't have high hopes for Lightning Rod but it would be a nice early Chriatmas present.

[RAWKIN_coaster38]

Late post, but I wanted to share some of our pics from last Saturday.

 

Overall, we had a very pleasant time at the park. The park was beautiful, not *too* cold that day, not very crowded, longest we waited was about 20 minutes for FCE and MM, nothing was down except the obvious, and we enjoyed the Christmas decorations and lights.

 

Oh...I told D we needed to get cinnamon bread, that TPR told us to. He was like, "I like cinnamon rolls." I said you can get some of those too, but we have to get cinnamon BREAD. I talked him into it, we waited in a hella long line with me saying, "Trust TPR, this will be worth it." And oh... it was WELL worth the wait, and Darien thought so too! I know I'll be getting more every time we visit the park, and we have a season pass now, so hopefully that'll be plenty more times next year!

Butterflies!

Heading to go check the status of you know what, and view the decorations on the way!

"Come here often?"

So many things to see!

Cold, but content

I decided to take pictures of every wheel I saw

Another wheel!

Wheel in a tree!

Wheel?? This coaster was one of the best Arrow's I've ever been on! I was pleasantly surprised with how forceful this was!

CAW CAW!!

I am a wild eagle, so majestic!

Charlie needs to get his s**t together!

Look at that eagle, so majestic!

Turned out it was a pretty boring ride, at least in the 2nd half!

Does D look ready to blaze with fury?

WHAT IS SANTA DOING??

Lady, I hate to break it to you, but that fireman might have ulterior motives for helping you down the ladder...

OOOOO so mysterious!

My first real Euro-Fighter, and we both really enjoyed this coaster! The theming and indoor portion really added to the effect, and riding at night in the back row was awesome! You can't see the second drop at all!

Rawkin likes to eat some good wood!

Obligatory tree selfie

Thunderhead blew us away!

Our favorite coaster since we couldn't ride....you know what. Probably my new favorite GCI!

Move along people, there's nothing to see here!

We're here waiting for one of the best food experiences of our lives and all I can focus on is that red tree! Seriously, who strings lights on every branch and every twig of a tree?

Every light is perfectly strung

Seriously, these lights were impressively straight! Unlike your mom...

Look at how beautiful Dollywood is!

Barely made it into It's a Wonderful Life but it was so worth the wait!

"You want the moon? I'll throw a lasso on it."

Money money money money!

DON'T JUMP!!

Scrubbing the stage clean, or dancing?

Even the trees put on a show!

I didn't get a picture of the tree playing tetris, but that was cool too

Even Mystery Mine got turnt at night!

Amuurrrica!!

Dollywood getting me into the Christmas spirit since 2016

Seriously, those trees are what got me

Who wraps every twig with lights?

Literally, EVERY twig! Super impressive!

This was in Pigeon Forge on the way to our hotel room. I've never been to this city, but someone please tell me WTF is up with it?? It was one of the craziest places I've ever see! Little kid Las Vegas, that's the best way to describe it!

[nswain1110]

I'm headed to Dollywood tomorrow with the family. We planned on Sat but it's going to be rainy so we opted for Friday instead. Really hoping Lightening Rod pulls through for us!! If not, still going to be a blast as always.

[cec311]

We're heading back on Monday morning to get some last minute use out of the season passes. Staying at Dreammore to get the timesavers. Got my fingers crossed for Lighting Rod as we've gotten to ride it all three previous trips this year! We'll have one first timer with us that really wants to ride.

[coasterbill]

We're at the park now. I just wanted to jump on real quick and mention that the people who are acting like Thunderhead is running rough this year are complete pussies.

 

Also, Mystery Mine is still awesome and Lightning Rod is still a train wreck dumpster fire. Maintenance is literally standing on the track shrugging their shoulders every 5 seconds and most likely questioning their life choices.

[sonoma15]

We're at the park now. I just wanted to jump on real quick and mention that the people who are acting like Thunderhead is running rough this year are complete pussies.

 

Also, Mystery Mine is still awesome and Lightning Rod is still a train wreck dumpster fire. Maintenance is literally standing on the track shrugging their shoulders every 5 seconds and most likely questioning their life choices.

Yep, rode Thunderhead yesterday, such an amazing coaster. Also it may of not been the launch before, but I'm almost certain the problem with lightning rod now is the launch.

[A.J.]

Amuurrrica!!

More like Switzerland amirite AH HA HA HA HA.

[BansheeFanshee]

Great trip report!

 

On a side note, I've been wondering this for quite some time now....

 

Would changing the launch to a regular chain lift hill solve the problems that LR is having? Would it slow the ride's overall speed enough to be noticeable? Thoughts?

[dstephe9]

We're at the park now. I just wanted to jump on real quick and mention that the people who are acting like Thunderhead is running rough this year are complete pussies.

 

Also, Mystery Mine is still awesome and Lightning Rod is still a train wreck dumpster fire. Maintenance is literally standing on the track shrugging their shoulders every 5 seconds and most likely questioning their life choices.

Yep, rode Thunderhead yesterday, such an amazing coaster. Also it may of not been the launch before, but I'm almost certain the problem with lightning rod now is the launch.

I mean, it still might not be the launch hardware itself.. all reports from people who saw it try and launch the other day said it very slowly started going up the hill and then stopped, like, like nothing was trying to pull it up the hill.. One report said it only went a few feet up.. I didn't see any of this myself but it's not like it launched halfway up the lift and just didn't have enough power to get to the top, according to the reports I have read.. it's like it started launching and something stopped it like lack of power, a safety sensor, programming not telling the coaster to launch..

 

Yeah it's obvious that the downtime is due to the coaster not launching but nothing is saying that the launch hardware is to blame. There's nothing saying that this being a wood coaster is causing the issue, from the sounds of it, whatever is causing the issue would probably be causing it on a steel coaster to..

 

There was an article written talking about how much power that launch takes (I can't remember the location I read it, but it was posted here somewhere) maybe the coaster isn't getting the power it needs to power the launch?

 

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[Midgetman82]

Would changing the launch to a regular chain lift hill solve the problems that LR is having? Would it slow the ride's overall speed enough to be noticeable? Thoughts?

I'm confident it could still complete the course if it was a speedy lift hill. The experience, though, would change for sure. The two humps at the top of the launch hill both give airtime, and that would be lost.

 

For a first time experience to the park, I also probably would not have been let down by Dollywood if LR wasn't running. This is a kicka** park on its own, and would be made better once the drop tower is put in.

[coasterdude5]

There was an article written talking about how much power that launch takes (I can't remember the location I read it, but it was posted here somewhere) maybe the coaster isn't getting the power it needs to power the launch?

 

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Was this it? (shameless plug)

 

To address these issues, it appears Lightning Rod may be using a newly patented ultra-capacitor based launch system to store energy supplied from a more affordable electrical service and release it during the launch. These “super” or ultra-capacitors may receive less than 250 amps of power from a power grid in a continuous connection during operation in order to charge. The capacitors charge at 200 amps for 30 seconds or more between launches and then discharge at 6,000 amps in a few seconds to launch the hot rods up the mountainside. Unlike a flywheel generator, this new system may not require a separate or remote facility to be housed in as the capacitors could be located in a cabinet directly next to the LSM drive system or in the main LSM control room.

[Dollywoodlover20]

Would changing the launch to a regular chain lift hill solve the problems that LR is having? Would it slow the ride's overall speed enough to be noticeable? Thoughts?

I'm confident it could still complete the course if it was a speedy lift hill. The experience, though, would change for sure. The two humps at the top of the launch hill both give airtime, and that would be lost.

 

For a first time experience to the park, I also probably would not have been let down by Dollywood if LR wasn't running. This is a kicka** park on its own, and would be made better once the drop tower is put in.

Exactly. For the ones wanting them to convert to a fast lift, here are your airtime points on this coaster: first drop directly after the launch, the second drop and it lifts you and throws you forward, wave turn has the sideways air, as does the outside banked top hat, twist n shout, quad down, airtime hill, the top of non inverted half loop. Now all of the airtime moments aren't just pops, you're literally sustained in the air and being pulled out. Especially on the quad down. Putting the lift in I'm sure would reduce speed which would reduce air. The ones majorly effected would be the first two. Plus in general, it's just a fun feeling to go launch up a mountain.

[CedarFanboy]

Guess what's closed for the day... when I go to the park Monday, I'm still going to have a blast whether it's open open or not. It would be wonderful if it was open though.

[MidwestThemeParks]

Plus in general, it's just a fun feeling to go launch up a mountain.

 

It's also fun to be able to ride the roller coaster

[Dollywoodlover20]

Here's a video of what's happening with the launch. I guess you could call this a rollback. It launches from the bottom fin and then one of the fins stops it from going any further as you can actually see.

[prozach626]

^^Clearly not an issue related to the launch...

[dstephe9]

The launch on the hill isn't even engaging so wonder if it's not getting power? I'm still leaning towards sensors and software.. I mean, it's not like the launch just isn't powerful enough, the upper launch just isn't going at all and the train gets stopped before it reaches it. I'm guessing Something thinks it's not safe to go and shuts it down?

 

So what's that thing that is popping on the bottom of the hill? Brakes popping up? Looks like the lower launch works and brakes stop it right as it gets on the hill

 

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[STDog]

Sure sounds like a relay opening, cutting off the launch. Possibly triggering anti-roll back brakes too.

 

And that would jive with a sensor issue. It detects something wrong and kills power to the launch.

 

I wouldn't call it a roll back either. That generally refers to not having enough power to top the hill (like on catapults, where it clears the launch mechanism but doesn't top the first hill). But here the power is cut before it even starts up the hill. It just doesn't slam on the brakes when the power is cut. So it rolls up the hill little.

 

Not even half the train is on the hill. It hasn't even gone through the LSMs.

[DoinItForTheFame]

Sure sounds like a relay opening, cutting off the launch. . .

 

I feel like if it were something that simple, Dollywoods very intelligent, and highly qualified maintance team would have figured that out, and fixed it by now.

[dstephe9]

That's the thing, trying to track down an electrical issue, if that's what it is, isn't very simple.. take cars for example, a lot of mechanics will recommend an entire new electrical system if you are having issues with any portion of your electronics

 

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[STDog]

Sure sounds like a relay opening, cutting off the launch. . .

 

I feel like if it were something that simple, Dollywoods very intelligent, and highly qualified maintance team would have figured that out, and fixed it by now.

 

A sensor is tripping that causes the relay to open. It's supposed to open when a fault is detected to stop the launch and it's doing that correctly.

 

The problem is why the fault was triggered.

 

My point was it sounded like a safety system shut it down, not failure of the LSM to move the train.

 

FWIW, back when I worked on military radar systems, about half of the trouble was in the fault detection system not the actual radar. A false fault would be detected shutting down the system. Then you spent time checking what could cause the fault instead of checking the fault detection. The more complicated the fault detection system more likely it was to be problematic.

 

And for a personnel safety issue (like a roller coaster) you design to not miss a fault, That ends up with a lot of false positives.

[dstephe9]

So say it's a safety sensor, who designed that part of the coaster and the software to go with it? Does that fall on RMC? Does it fall on Irvine Ondrey Engineering? Or velocity magnets? Or did someone else come in and do all the electronics system such as sensors?

 

I agree, I feel it's something shutting it down and not an LSM issue as the train isn't even making it to that part of the lift hill and you can clearly see it's shutting down before then. And if that's the case, this has nothing to do with it being a wood coaster or anything.. Whoever designed that portion of the ride should come in and redo it.. no need to scrap a launch system for haywire sensors or buggy software

 

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Edited December 24, 2016 by dstephe9

[coasterdude5]

FWIW, back when I worked on military radar systems, about half of the trouble was in the fault detection system not the actual radar. A false fault would be detected shutting down the system. Then you spent time checking what could cause the fault instead of checking the fault detection. The more complicated the fault detection system more likely it was to be problematic.

 

And for a personnel safety issue (like a roller coaster) you design to not miss a fault, That ends up with a lot of false positives.

 

Sorry, you have legitimate real-world experience with electrical systems — your opinions and thoughts are invalid.

[STDog]

So say it's a safety sensor, who designed that part of the coaster and the software to go with it?

 

I don't have a clue since we don't know much about it. How the systems are split up, who did which, who specified what, etc.

 

I'm speculating like everyone else, using the limited info we have and my personal experiences.

 

My guess is it's an integration problem. No one specific sensor or system, but how they work together.

So when a given system is tested it looks good, but when you get them all together at once weird things start happening.

 

Less sensitive sensors may help, but then you don't want to go too far and miss real problems.

 

A lot of coasters have buggy sensors. And the operators ignore/override known false readings. As I recall that was part of the problem that lead to the Smiler crash. LR may not have overrides because of past situations like that (or only have them in an engineering/test mode nogt available to the regular operators)