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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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Correction: It did not show 90 degree turns. They may not have even reached 45 degrees. My concept was drawn up with those turns in mind.

I stand corrected.

I’ve been playing around just to see if a top hat is even possible (someone earlier mentioned the high point clearing being the size of TTD/KK) and I’m really not sure it is. Even if the clearing is the correct size overall, if you run the track parallel to the fenced in area toward that clearing it winds up right in the middle of the clearing and not off to the side like it would need to be for a top hat. It’s definitely looking like a spike to me.
 
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I think Zach has the overall concept on point; however I still feel that more of Festhaus Park will be used for some features...if not...what a waste of already cleared space. Looking back at photos of Drachen Fire, I was surprised at how much they fit into area already open back there...this project grows more and more interesting
 
Are there really no other layouts possible for a full circuit track? I just hope that this isn’t just straight out of the station into a launch, dramatic curve before hugging down into the ravine , launched into a spike and rollback into reverse ...basically a slingshot. I am really hoping for a top hat and some airtime hills on return to the station. Is that possible? Whatever they plan, I am really sold on the location of the highest feature, because they are making use of the terrain....I expect something epic with that ravine section of the track. Also, do you guys think it could be suspended?
 
Suspended would be... Interesting though improbable. For that, why not stay cheap and get a Wicked Twister clone?

Side note: I find WT is a really fun ride for how short it is. Would not be disappointed at all for any park in VA to get one.
 
Here's a dump of all of the photos I took of the plans. They're really big images so if they take a moment to load, that's why. Everything should be clearly visible though once you open up the full image and zoom in.

Some notes:
  • There are probably some duplicates in here and they're not all in order. If you're taking the time to dig through these, I figured that was only a minor inconvenience.
  • Pay attention to the page headers. A lot of these contain features slated for demolition or the like. Hence, many of them can be pretty misleading if you're not paying attention.
  • Lastly, these are minimally watermarked. If you want to share them elsewhere, feel free, but please give credit to BGWFans.com and link back to our main article about this filing.
 

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Now that I've slept on it, a few observations:

-In Image00007, the addition of a "1-story building" and "Elevated Pathway" all the way back there beside the RPA buffer zone (in my mind) indicate that something more than just a normal valley of track could go there. The building could house the electronics, etc. for an LSM "boost" up the spike, and the "elevated pathway" seems to go into the buffer zone. Could definitely see that connecting to a set of catwalks along the boost area (for evacuation purposes).

-As for the shuttle vs. full circuit debate: The only reasonable way I could see this being a true circuit would be to end the ride like Maxx Force, with a dive loop/brake run hybrid (or something similar) that would connect the track behind the farthest-left switch track. Assuming Intamin is the manufacturer, they've done a dive loop-ish element on Hyperion, and come to think of it, this 'diving brake run' is what they've done on their launch coaster (Sandy's Blasting Bronco) at American Dream. Doesn't seem likely but it's a thought I had.

(But now that I'm saying this, I'm realizing that pretty much defeats the purpose of the "launch" track between the two switch tracks. Lordy this is confusing)
 
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What if we were looking at a double loading station? If you do some scaling you can find that the station is roughly 66 feet long, a similar train type to what we've seen is Maverick which has a double loading station that is roughly 67 feet long. I know the leaked station plans depicted a 4 car train and maverick is 3 cars but this is just a thought. This could help with capacity since the trains will be small and the ride time looks to be short. The more thinking I do, I am levitating toward Halfabee's idea of the switch track on the south-east side being used to bring the train back in the station. I hope when we get our hands on the footer plan Busch blows us away with something we aren't thinking about.
 
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Just to amplify, the switch tracks by the station are probably the "slow" versions we originally saw with Soaring with Dragon. I know @Zachary had an abbreviated YouTube of that function on a front page story but I can't locate it.

The shuttle concept does absolutely zero for me. Yes, a double launch up a seriously tall spike is cool. But, as others mentioned, it's that long return trip backwards is the part that is purely ho-hum in my mind. (Then again, us old people are horrible driving in reverse).
 
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One major quick thought: land disturbance and earthwork is expensive. Why would they disturb a bunch of land if there is not going to be construction on it? I'm particularly talking about the area of clear space directly behind Verbolten and to the plan south of the high point. There is a lot of space there untouched but yet it has silt fence along the perimeter of disturbance. Find it odd, something is going on there otherwise it would not have needed to be included in the disturbed area.
 
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Here's how I imagine this ride. I think there will be a smaller spike next to the entrance, a train will roll forward and stop, a countdown will commence, at zero, the ride will launch backward up the close spike, stall, then descend towards the launch moving forward then gain speed. it will exit the launch going around 65-75 mph into an overbank turn in entering the second launch over the Rhine. this will bring the ride up to 85-95 mph and it will ascend the 355 ft spire. it will then return through the two launches, before rolling into the short spike then stop before the return switch. It will wait there until the next train is ready to enter the ride course.
 
Remember when everyone was convinced that the ride building and buffer zone for Invadr could only be an elevator lift and Cobra's Curse clone? How did that turn out? While it seems likely that it's a shuttle I can see possible ways that with the right design it could be a full circuit and suggest we wait and see before jumping to conclusions.
 
Remember when everyone was convinced that the ride building and buffer zone for Invadr could only be an elevator lift and Cobra's Curse clone? How did that turn out? While it seems likely that it's a shuttle I can see possible ways that with the right design it could be a full circuit and suggest we wait and see before jumping to conclusions.
Clone? No.
Elevator lift? Some people yeah

Often the best explanation is the simplest one. Y’all are way to start eyed and holding onto the bgw of verboten and prior. Those days are gone.
 
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So knife's edge is the key - is there no way to do a tophat with a turn coming down to direct the train one way or the other?

Thinking if it could launch parallel to VB, the track to the top would be one long thin line - the subsequent turn towards the ravine would be like a serration of the knife, the drop be near vertical, and the curve at the bottom would be at or below the treeline when viewed from KM.

Regarding the other structures or possibilities of switch tracks - will have to think about how that would be factored in here.
 
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