Project 2021/Drachen Spire: Intamin Multi-Launch Shuttle Giga Coaster [Cancelled]

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General Information:​

"Project Drachen Spire," is a community-generated identifier for the Intamin-made, multi-launch, shuttle giga coaster that was originally slated to open at Busch Gardens Williamsburg in 2021. The attraction is planned to utilize the currently-vacant land behind Verbolten, Festhaus Park—the former home of Drachen Fire.

The coaster's main layout—as leaked before the addition was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic—featured two launches, two spikes (one spiral, one vertical-ish), and a couple of banked turns. Drachen Spire was designed to run two trains by means of a pair of switch tracks connecting the primary, shuttle portion of the layout to the station platform.

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  • Most Up-To-Date Understanding of the Layout:
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  • Most Recent Status Update:
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Another interesting thing is that the balloon test was roughly central to the field, and bgw described having been able to move the high point towards the Rhine. If this were a tower ride this would be a simple change, but this might support a notion that this is a type of ride that could have had that point in presumably the least convenient spot for a top hat...
 
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The point was really closer to the Rhine than center. (BGW marked the spot with a huge star that covers half the site ?). I was using the highly scientific and accurate Google Earth measure....

The red X at the top is "about" where the high point was indicated. Just being creative, I had the track do a sharp U-turn out of the station (where they closed the exit ramp) and another next to the souvenir stand to get the longest run (gotta have paths for the people)... That's the bottom X. The distance between them is about 670ft.

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Now I'm sure @b.mac has some interesting and more accurate depictions of what could go where. My only question is "if the train exits toward the Rhine are they going to use the old maintenance building? Back trains into the station?"
 
Yep the direction of travel is opposite of what is drawn up in the images above.

The only snag I have with what is known so far is exactly how the ride will transfer and how storage will be handled, but that is assuming BGW goes with cheapest option and chooses to keep the maintenance shed from Drachen Fire.

The whole reason why air and hydraulic launches were brought up was because with the known direction of travel the distance between the start of the launch track and the highest point itself is not long enough for an LSM launch system ala Red Force, which is why I cannot determine exactly what the hell BGW or Intamin is exactly planning to do.
 
I am also not near a computer with internet access and I do not trust my photo editing skills enough to illustrate my idea of what the ride will be.

Which is why I mentioned that I was feeding Zachary information to see how he would interpret it.
 
The station plan actually showed both a straight exit out of the station and a left turn that was shown in dashed lines overlayed on the same track. Made me wonder if the transfer track is the first piece of track directly out of the station.
 
Zachary said:
Before the station document, I was all in on a launch between your two "X"es @GrandpaD. If that approach were the plan though, surely the direction of travel through the station wouldn't be flipped though, yeah?
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Yeah, I agree. The "leak" shows straight & dotted line track coming out "the wrong way". But, closing the old exit opens that area. That why I figured a couple of u-turns. Maybe a dark tunnel effect? But, like @b.mac said, if they're gonna go cheap, they use the old maintenance. But I can't see them backing a train in.

Also, that run is a lot shorter than the 925ft Red Force. Unless BGW is going to have a resident chiropractor to treat whiplash, I don't see it.
 
b.mac said:
The only snag I have with what is known so far is exactly how the ride will transfer and how storage will be handled, but that is assuming BGW goes with cheapest option and chooses to keep the maintenance shed from Drachen Fire.
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Counterpoint: Wouldn't the cheapest option be what they are doing for Pantheon? An i305-style outdoor storage track seems way cheaper than trying to renovate Drachen Fire's maintenance bay.
 
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PhantomJB93 said:
The station plan actually showed both a straight exit out of the station and a left turn that was shown in dashed lines overlayed on the same track. Made me wonder if the transfer track is the first piece of track directly out of the station.
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Si, that is my thought as well but I'm confused as to how they would handle train storage due to how far away the maintenance buildings are. They could easily park 2 trains outside the storage shed with the amount of distance between the location of the transfer and the shed itself.

GrandpaD said:
But, like @b.mac said, if they're gonna go cheap, they use the old maintenance. But I can't see them backing a train in.
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It is rather easy to stage trains for an add-on / removal of a train as long as the station is left clear. If the final brakes are flat and contain some sort of propulsion and the launch track staging block is long enough to hold a train without interfering with the transfer then all BGW has to do is keep the station clear.

They're quite famous for dumb transfer methods, and I absolutely wouldn't rule it out.
 
FoozMuz said:
Red force is a good deal less intense than the hydraulic accelerators, so a shorter launch may not be out of a comfortable range.
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True. But Red Force is 367ft. tall and goes 0-112mph almost ±925ft. to clear. My Red X distance is about 670ft. and the height is only 12ft. shorter. So acceleration would be "off the hook".

Edit - I remeasured Red Force. The 925ft is the distance from station to the very back stanchion on the high hat. It appears station to top hat track is ±650ft. So it's conceivable.

Now we get into the positioning of the top hat would be contrary to what was presented to JCC.
 
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It’s hard to tell just using google maps but I find it hard to believe the DF maintenance shed is in play at all. As has been said it’s far away for train storage/transfer and if there is a launch straight out of the station in the direction the plan depicted the train traveling it seems like the launch would be RIGHT up against the side of the building, if not encroaching on the wall, though I don’t remember how close DF’s brake run was to it.

VB06Hokie said:
Seeing these aerial photos makes me wonder if they'll do anything to hide Verbolten's show building since it'll be visable from the area of Project 2021.
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They could build a fake Bavarian village between the rides.
 
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@PhantomJB93 There's nothing to indicate "a launch straight out of the station" that I can see. I see straight track and dotted line track.

Depending on the theme, they could "Big Bad Wolf" it with some fake building facades. Or do what Universal just did by planting some trees in front and painting a tree/sky ”mural" on the wall.
 
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