2017/18: SW8 Speculation

Smokehouse. 420. Least people will have somewhere to go now instead of the gardens

 

When it came to The Smiler I believe it was John Wardley and Candy Holland that worked together to manipulate the plans of the track design, to hide some of the inversions. They were only able to do this due to The Black Hole site coming under the GDO. The planning application for The Smiler was just needed for the station building that exceeded the limits of the GDO, the track they could have drawn what they liked!

If this is the same, and the track comes under the GDO, then the plans could be manipulated. Given the high importance of environmental impact on this site though, they're probably pretty spot on from above. If there is some kind of world's first involved with the track design then they may do a Smiler and hide this from the planning application. Otherwise it might be the final design.

Ground elevations usually look better so I'm not writing this off (like others seem to have already). When we see ground elevations it should give a better idea of what this ride will be like.



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The observations I posted last night were made because I managed to export the pdf files from the screening opinion to CAD, I've overlaid the arbirocultural study plan onto the block plan and turned all hidden layers on, this shows proposed level in relation to existing level really well and, I've only noticed this morning that in the area of the key that showed buildings on the pdf there was a layer turned off underneath called 'ride structure'.... the detail shown in the key gives another big clue / confirmation of ride type! (wooden coaster).

The key appears to be to the same scale as the plan but more accurate and excluding supports the total width measures 3.65m. I wanted to paste an image into this post but the resolution was too poor on a jpg to read exiting levels so I've included a link to a pdf export below:

https://www.docdroid.net/2ihKQwF/ancoast.pdf.html


Some of you may be able to spot a few more interesting things on this that I may have missed so thought worth uploading, the only change I've made to the basic data is to hatch in the area around the 'preshow' where track level appears to be below existing ground level indicating excavation or tunnel.

(EDIT) Another thing I noticed is that the supports and footers on the key look very similar in layout and size to those on GCI coasters (eg. Jorik at Efteling) also the size, scale and style of layout for this coaster is very similar to Jorik (but without the dualling element) Jorik is a great coaster IMO so I'm looking forward to this.

 

^good work in fact excellent work.

I guess we will have months of speculation now as to what is known that building

 

Wodan is also short coaster and it managed to topple Nemesis off my top spot. I love fast ground hugging coasters which this looks to be so I for one am excited to see how this ride progresses.

 

I can see a fair few head choppers and dives in and out of tunnels, plus an epic final drop.

Now it's confirmed its wooden I am excited

 

Me too, rather than thinking about what this could have been, I'm excited about what it is going to be! I love woodies and GCI have produced some great coasters.. and there may be some other interesting surprises that we don't know about yet, if it is a standard GCI then what is 'groundbreaking' about it? Could the angled lift hill mean chain lift into launch, are some elements not shown as with the smiler plans? Is there something else unusual? Having said that, even if it is just what we can appear to see on the plans (ground hugging GCI similar to Jorik and not dissimilar to Wodan) it will be a good addition to the park and will fit well into Mutiny Bay.

 

We're all saying it will be wood, but knowing Merlin, I'm holding my breath just yet until I see wood arriving, then I'll jump on the bandwagon!

 

Ha Ha.. I think given:
The plans show a sloped loading bay (classic on wooden coasters), there is a small drop out of the station pre lift hill, the width of the track is pretty standard for a woodie, the layout is very similar in style to other GCI woodies, the released plans (albeit hidden on the SMDC versions) show a wooden coaster structure on the key, with struts and footers in exact same layout as other GCI woodies, it appears to be designed with headchoppers in mind, the layout is groundhugging, I could go on, If this isn't a woodie I'll eat the bandwagon.

 

Hope you don't mind sticking to that promise! Unlike a certain person...

 

They cant have a woodie anyway - they have used up all the wood on new fences across the resort!

 

.....did I mention that the bandwagon was made of chocolate cake...still don't think I'll get to eat it though.

 

I'm sure that Alton is looking for a good excuse to chop down some more trees around the park.

 

Which manufacturer are we thinking? Weren't there some rumours of a multi ride intamin deal some 18 months ago across Merlin's parks. Could this be the first one??

 

Thought I'd see what they said, it wasn't a no lol

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That would be interesting although I would expect a bigger footprint for one of them

 

It was a "we're not telling you anything". Although, I wouldn't trust anything from TPR!

 

TPR only published the POV.

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It's literally a "we're not telling you anything". Nothing to read in to it either way.

 

They don't know either