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Wicker Man - General Discussion - Part Two

It's a shame that Wicker Man's lighting package seems to be missing after just two seasons. Surely it would have made more sense to install it on a permanent basis initially?

Unless I'm mistaken and it was on during Scarefest, however it definitely wasn't when I visited for Oktoberfest.
 
Coaster said:
It's a shame that Wicker Man's lighting package seems to be missing after just two seasons. Surely it would have made more sense to install it on a permanent basis initially?

Unless I'm mistaken and it was on during Scarefest, however it definitely wasn't when I visited for Oktoberfest.
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Nothing for scarefest either, a permanent package of orange and red floods or par cans would do the trick, so not sure why it was never done. Find it strange how they’ve not installed lighting on all coasters, like nemesis has.
 
I always notice some factually incorrect stuff in his videos too. Which isnt good at all.

This one in particular, he implys that rides such as the Cross Valley woodie and Oblvion fell short of / were a result of Merlins unique selling point policy for coasters. When in actual fact, Merlin or it's key people such as Nick Varney had nothing to do with Alton Towers or Tussauds at the time of both rides.

Now they clearly still used a USP policy. But it wasn't Merlin, like the video implys.
Just lazy writing or research. Not sure which one.
Apart from that, it made an entertaining watch.
 
I used to enjoy his videos but for some reason the tone in his sentences started irking me and it’s all I could think about when watching them.
 
DistortAMG said:
I always notice some factually incorrect stuff in his videos too. Which isnt good at all.

This one in particular, he implys that rides such as the Cross Valley woodie and Oblvion fell short of / were a result of Merlins unique selling point policy for coasters. When in actual fact, Merlin or it's key people such as Nick Varney had nothing to do with Alton Towers or Tussauds at the time of both rides.

Now they clearly still used a USP policy. But it wasn't Merlin, like the video implys.
Just lazy writing or research. Not sure which one.
Apart from that, it made an entertaining watch.
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It’s a little more complicated as Varney had a huge influence on Tussauds USP policy as he was marketing director for Towers in the early 90’s. I have not watched the expedition video but Wardley made it clear In many interviews that the cross valley coaster never got off the ground because it was both deemed that wooden coasters where not popular and there was no USP.
 
Dave said:
It’s a little more complicated as Varney had a huge influence on Tussauds USP policy as he was marketing director for Towers in the early 90’s. I have not watched the expedition video but Wardley made it clear In many interviews that the cross valley coaster never got off the ground because it was both deemed that wooden coasters where not popular and there was no USP.
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Tbh it was probably a good thing, as considering how badly WM has aged the 200ft drops would probably be rough as heck by now. :p
 
It’s a woodie at the end of the day, they live and breath and all have differing technicalities due to many possible impacts.

I was thinking earlier wether the fact that Towers are enclosed within woodland could have a negative effect on the wood track, it certainly has had a negative effect on the smiler’s overall appearance.
 
I thought Wicker was fine when I rode recently

smiler though ..... it’ll be the first sw to go at this rate

the whole park is .... tatty
 
MattyH said:
WM hasn't aged badly? retracking bit is bad but the rest is fine.
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I've read reliable rumour elsewhere that Wickerman is having to have significant (7 figure) money spent on it this closed season to rectify issues it has been having. If true and it's causing that many issues already I wonder whether something was wrong at the design stage or if the constant dampness is causing problems. Could we see the smoke effects lost?
 
I can't imagine that the water spray is what's causing the problems, it rains half the time and usually most the fog vapour floats around rather than going straight on to a specific section of track. It might accelerate the timber needing to be replaced in that area over time as part of maintenance, but probably not requiring a big repair after 3 years.

It's more likely something in the design causing problems. Especially when supposedly the first drop was redesigned after the foundations and rest the track had already been designed, so some change in forces might not have been taken into account at that late stage?
 
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