Mäch Tower

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The first entry in this thread is a WikiPost. As such, it can be edited by anyone with the appropriate permissions.

Manufacturer
Moser's Rides

Model
Gravity Tower

Hamlet
Oktoberfest (Germany)

Opening Date
August 18th, 2011

Closing Date
January 8th, 2023

Attraction Height
240ft

Duration
About 90 Seconds

Riders Per Cycle
30

Height Requirement
48in



Mäch Tower was a Moser's Rides Gravity Tower located in the Oktoberfest section of Busch Gardens Williamsburg.

Originally planned to debut in the spring alongside Beste Brezeln und Bier and numerous other alterations to the Oktoberfest hamlet, Mäch Tower faced months of delays throughout the first half of 2011. Ultimately, the attraction did not open to the public until August 18th, 2011.

Mach Tower was typically converted into an observation tower named Nächt Tower for the park's annual holiday event, Christmas Town.

On December 16, 2022 it was announced by the park that Mäch Tower would close on January 8th, 2023. The ride did not operate in it's typical Nächt Tower mode in 2022, in order to have final sendoffs in the normal drop tower mode.

When it debuted, Mäch Tower featured an onboard audio system which would play music throughout the ride's ascent and a seat vibration effect that would trigger immediately before the drop. A POV featuring the on-ride audio can be found below.

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Direct Link to Embedded Media Source


Sources:
  1. Mäch Tower Announcement Press Release
  2. Official Statement Regarding Opening Delays
  3. "Waiting for the Mach Tower to Drop" via The Virginian-Pilot
  4. "Busch Gardens opens towering drop ride after 3-month delay" via The Virginian-Pilot
  5. First Ride Video & Opening Day Photos via BGWFans
  6. Early Mäch Tower Ride Impressions via Theme Park Insider
 
Last edited by a moderator:
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mjones73 said:
You can turn it in youtube.

youtube.com - click on your username on the upper left, Video Manager button, Hit the down arrow next to the Edit button for the video in question and select enhancements, use the rotate buttons on the bottom right of the video and save your changes.

The rides looks much more fun, thanks for posting those.
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You are very welcome! Thanks for the information. Fixed!

pandorazboxx said:
chickenking said:
Sorry it's sideways. Whatcha gonna do? :p
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And now, a PORTRAIT-style vertical video just for you! Nah..... :p

I think that was maybe the first time I have ever taken one and used it for something. A tower just screams for it. Expect more.
 
Did they just make the braking zone shorter or did they actually install a new braking system? Screamscape made it sound like the latter. Also, anyone want to ask what the new speed is? I'm curious how much of a difference the extra freefall made. It is really noticeable though, and the ride looks all the better.
 
From what I understand they just made the braking zone shorter. Next time I'm there (should be Friday) I can try to get a good picture of the tower for comparison. I'm sure I have a good shot of the whole thing from back in 2011 laying around here somewhere...
 
Like I said before, Drop Towers are designed with a ton of breaks. Then slowly as they test, they will remove the brakes to the lowest point safely/ their desire. You can clearly see on Drop Tower at Kings Dominion where their used to be brakes but are not there.

Mach Tower has had tons of technical difficulties so they didn't focus on removing the breaks, as that requires a ton of testing. But they couldn't test because of all the difficulties. Then on top, the things got out of hand.

So basically what i'm trying to say is that I believe this is all planned by Moser but couldn't be done due to all the other set backs. Same brakes; just a good portion have been removed.
 
Today ( Saturday), the ride was closed for a while. They started testing it, and I think that it is dropping less than earlier this week. It was up and running in a few minutes.
 
Hoopla said:
Today ( Saturday), the ride was closed for a while. They started testing it, and I think that it is dropping less than earlier this week. It was up and running in a few minutes.
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I think that's weird. I mean I'm not accusing you of being wrong or anything, I just think that it would be weird if BGW limited the brakes, and then just decided to re-ad them in a week. Even if they did, they would've closed it for a lot longer than a couple days. They first have to ad the brakes and then go through a couple days of testing.
 
Standing under the Tower eating a pretzel-wrapped hot dog, I noticed that a wall of air almost pushed me over when the ride dropped. Wow! Did it push air like that before the longer free-fall?
 
chickenking said:
Standing under the Tower eating a pretzel-wrapped hot dog, I noticed that a wall of air almost pushed me over when the ride dropped. Wow! Did it push air like that before the longer free-fall?
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Yea it just is a bigger gust of wind now. When you're in line you get cooled down from it, that is why there are no fans in line.:p (when I say fans I mean those things that get you cool)
 
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Interesting pic of MT:
attachment.php
 
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JuniorBGWfan28 said:
Hoopla said:
Today ( Saturday), the ride was closed for a while. They started testing it, and I think that it is dropping less than earlier this week. It was up and running in a few minutes.
Click to expand...

I think that's weird. I mean I'm not accusing you of being wrong or anything, I just think that it would be weird if BGW limited the brakes, and then just decided to re-ad them in a week. Even if they did, they would've closed it for a lot longer than a couple days. They first have to ad the brakes and then go through a couple days of testing.
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I ld be wrong, I just thought that it looked like it was falling shorter.
 
Hoopla said:
I'd be wrong, I just thought that it looked like it was falling shorter.
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Went to BGW today. They didn't open Mach tower till 12ish, and I saw them testing at 11ish. I would see why you got mixed up with the freefall. During testing there is not weight to pull the vehicle all the way down, like in the video we saw. So I was there today, and saw how you could get confused. I went on it too. Not to shabby, but they removed the vibrating right before you fell.:dodgy:
 
The vibrating seats were removed like a month or so after it opened. Guests complained that it was too intense and scary.
 
The on-ride audio was removed for the same reason as the vibrating seats, but it was removed probably a few weeks after the vibrations were removed.

I remember this especially because there was talk of it on here because of how ridiculous the reasoning was. I am researching where we talked about it now. Link to come shortly.

EDIT:
Here is talk of vibrations turned off along with audio turned off. You can read for more to determine a more exact date of when this happened: http://forum.parkfans.net/thread-1065-page-7.html
 
I remember specifically when I went in September 2011 their was vibrations. However, when I rode it again in April 2012, there was no vibrations.I forget if it was there at HOS or not(I probably didn't ride it).
 
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The first entry in this thread is a WikiPost. As such, it can be edited by anyone with the appropriate permissions.
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