GCI said a while ago that it will be ready for opening day. I doubt the park will open it that soon, however.
Project 2017: InvadR
- Thread starter Sky
- Start date
I'm just making my own assumptions here, but I have to infer that the driving factor was how poorly Gwazi aged as the chains only other wood coaster.Zachary said:
To piggy back off of what Zach said it is my understanding that SEAS required BGW to go with GCI on this project in order to re-use Gwazi parts (ie the trains) and did not do the typical ride manufacturer bidding process. Based on what Zach said above it sounds like BGW may have already been dreaming of a woodie before the corporate directive came down.Zachary said:
This might be an odd question. When you do these hard hat tours, does the park open any food/snack stands for people to grab a bite, do they cater a meal while they are touring, or is it just come for the tour of the 1 ride and then go home. I am sure there are not a lot of people on these tours so I suspect that opening a food/snack stand may not be worth it. I was just interested in what, if any, other things BGW does that might enhance the tour.
Actually, for most media events there is a fair amount of swag. Some of the things have been fairly pricey. I heard that the park gave out lava lamps for London Rocks. It hasn't been as extravagant recently.
At HOS we were given a free wine tasting, a private walk through of the new house, a meal voucher, and a tour of the escape rooms. BGWFans is not swayed by any gifts, but sadly, I am sure some people are.
Media sometimes gets commemorative hard hats from the construction tours, but we didn't actually get anything this time.
KD usually caters their media events.
At HOS we were given a free wine tasting, a private walk through of the new house, a meal voucher, and a tour of the escape rooms. BGWFans is not swayed by any gifts, but sadly, I am sure some people are.
Media sometimes gets commemorative hard hats from the construction tours, but we didn't actually get anything this time.
KD usually caters their media events.
Shane said:
Hence the reduced maintenance costs as a reason given by the park.
As far as Florida goes, large all-wood coasters just don't fare well down there due to the climate - year round sunny, hot and humid weather. Coasters like the Dania Beach Hurricane and Gwazi took a beating from that. As far as Gwazi goes, it also didn't help that the ride ran PTC trains for a dozen years.
Having a steel support structure for Invadr lets the park focus mostly on the wooden trackbed when it comes to maintenance.
Nicole said:
This all seems too suspicious. I'm going to start getting all my theme park news from info wars now.
Does this ride change the operation of the train? Do they have to throttle down when passing the ride? If I am on the ride when the train passes will the steam mess my hair up?
That's a good question, but I believe with my understanding of steam engines as long as they bring the heat down as they pull into the station so to say, there should be little steam coming out of the stack and the train will continue into caribou with little difference.
kenwa said:
I would think that the park will put a protective shield who's sides flare out under the track so that any steam that would hit one of the coaster trains is deflected out if the coaster train does cross exactly when the RR train stack is under it. It probably won't be that noticeable to ruin the look. This would be like the nets that the other rides have to protect park guests on the pathways from being hit by items that fly out from riders pockets and such. It would be a prudent but easy safety item to have.
Seeing how this didn't seem to be an issue when Drachen Fire was running, I think it's not going to be an issue.
It did.
The old footers are still there by the tracks. There is also a photo out there somewhere with the train under it.
The old footers are still there by the tracks. There is also a photo out there somewhere with the train under it.
Wow, I had completely forgotten about that -- the train used to run right through the DF support structure.
Seems like there is substantially more vertical space between locomotive and ride vehicle in that photo than there will be on InvadR. When I first thought about the train running through the InvadR superstructure, I wondered if the occasional (potential) steam application to all that structural wood might cause material issues over time.
...Then I remembered that apart from the track itself, there won't be any structural wood to expose to the steam in the first place.
Of course, steel can rust. Griffon uses a different construction method and quite likely a different grade of steel covered in copious amounts of paint over 99% of its surface, so its resistance to all that splashdown water is a dodgy comparative data point. Still... there are ways.
Seems like there is substantially more vertical space between locomotive and ride vehicle in that photo than there will be on InvadR. When I first thought about the train running through the InvadR superstructure, I wondered if the occasional (potential) steam application to all that structural wood might cause material issues over time.
...Then I remembered that apart from the track itself, there won't be any structural wood to expose to the steam in the first place.
Of course, steel can rust. Griffon uses a different construction method and quite likely a different grade of steel covered in copious amounts of paint over 99% of its surface, so its resistance to all that splashdown water is a dodgy comparative data point. Still... there are ways.