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Silver Dollar City: General Discussion

There's something I love about seeing a train full of test dummies flying around a track for the first time!

:)
 
Isn't it about time we had some high quality shots of this coaster in action? :p Well Screamscape has this sorted for us, along with some news regarding the opening date of the park and this beast:

2013 - Outlaw Run - (2/11/13) I’ve got great news from Silver Dollar City. When the park opens for the 2013 season on March 15th, Outlaw Run will be ready to open as well! The park has sent us some fantastic shots as the trains make test runs that you do not want to miss. Check out the sidebar to see the photos as this looks to be one of 2013’s most sought after coaster credits.
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Apologies for the double post, but I've only just fully watched that video.



What a beautiful coaster. One of the most gorgeous coasters I've ever seen. What a stunner. It runs so smoothly and so quickly; this, this is what Britain needs. A kick-ass coaster that is just so aesthetically pleasing and thrilling in that old rickety way, yet so safe. I love every single support, and if a Rocky Mountain doesn't make it to our shores in years to come, I'll be severely disappointed. What a lovely piece of hardware, and I applaud Silver Dollar City for pushing the boat out and investing in a unique ride that I hope will boost their reputation and encourage further similar purchases.
 
Ok. Not a fan aesthetically and also think it is very short.

Negatives out the way.

Fast, smooth, the top is stunning! Exit out of station sets the tone, lift hill super fast, removing the side fence at the top, nice touch.

The Off Ride pace looks absolutely blisteringly fast! My favourite kind :)

Had my doubts about this, having actually seen how they run - they are gone.

THORPE PARK fodder all day long this - Chessie/Alton will never be able to build it without major issues to this degree, which it needs, otherwise completely pointless.

I'm sold, from being skeptical. The relentless speed - cor dear!
 
TheMan said:
THORPE PARK fodder all day long this - Chessie/Alton will never be able to build it without major issues to this degree, which it needs, otherwise completely pointless.
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I don't think you're quite right there; it's not too loud apparently and if built in the valley it could be taller and longer than this.
 
Alton Towers would probably find it easier to install one of these over a regular woodie because these are much smoother and quieter and they aren't your typical wooden roller coaster (we know how much Alton love their unique rides).

Thorpe Park is more suitable for a big GCI, though one of these RMC coasters with the topper track (no I-Box / Iron Horse please otherwise everyone will throw a tantrum :p ) would fit in perfectly there too.

Anyway, I don't think we'll be seeing any woodies for a good few years. :/
 
Alastair said:
TheMan said:
THORPE PARK fodder all day long this - Chessie/Alton will never be able to build it without major issues to this degree, which it needs, otherwise completely pointless.
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I don't think you're quite right there; it's not too loud apparently and if built in the valley it could be taller and longer than this.
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You and Al have put in me firmly in my place over this one ha-ha!! ;D

I still would not want one cross valley, it would ruin it as much as I would like it. They are aesthetically vile and have no place in the gardens IMO.

A traditional, beautifully engineered woodie has a way more pleasant form and structure and blend into the environment far easier. As much as I want one cross valley, those gardens are special, and anything that isn't, well beautiful quite frankly, has absolutely no place there.
 
Outlaw Run doesn't look much different from a regular woodie and the section of the valley a coaster would run through is just woodland, not the actual gardens as they're protected.

Anyway, we best stop this here and carry it on in the AT Future section (there's a wooden coaster topic somewhere).

:p
 
Edit: I thought I'd highlight a few key quotes.


The only things I dislike about it from these latest videos is that I'm not too sure about the look of the station from above and also the huge ugly barbed wire fences that run along parts of it. I can forgive the lack of any plats with it obviously being brand new and not the right time of year (once it's been there a few years it's going to look even better).


Anyway, I've had a look for a few reviews on it and found these:


What a great looking setup! Outlaw Run has such a great theme with the stagecoach, and the que line looks amazing with all of the wood and woods that surround it. As the stagecoach (train) rolls into the station I could feel the hair on the back of my neck begin to stand up like a defensive porcupine.

The first ride I rode was with my co-host Summer and we rode towards the back of the train. Our excitement and nerves intensified as we began to climb the hill peaking at over 160 feet above the ground. Wow! What a view. The first drop was awesome as we plummeted into a deep ozark valley. The trees seemed to pass by so quickly I could almost swear to you that we were going a lot faster than 68 miles per hour.

Outlaw Run didn't feel like your typical wooden roller coaster. It was smooth. There was very little jerkiness, and the numerous head choppers were very real. The rush seemed to intensify as we screamed through the Ozark forest with each new element of Outlaw Run somehow being more breathtaking than the last. The barrel rolls were great. I had a sense of being in a fighter feeling the negative g-forces pulling me out of my seat then the rush of positive g's pushing me deep into the car.

This ride isn't what you expect. It's so much more. When you ride it, expect your expectations to be far exceeded. They will be. I have ridden many roller coasters of all types, and I have lost count as to exactly how many, but it is well over 100. Outlaw Run is by far the most fun and technologically advanced wooden coaster of all time. Get ready for Outlaw Run!
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Source.



BRANSON, Mo. — Wearing an ear-to-ear grin after a whirlwind ride on Missouri’s newest roller coaster, Outlaw Run, Robb Alvey paused to put what he’d just experienced into words.

“I’ve never been on anything like it,” he said.

Silver Dollar City’s $10 million hybrid wood-steel coaster, which opens to the public Friday, is in many ways a technological step forward in roller coaster technology.

The wooden coaster is said to be making history by sporting three inversions, including a 720-degree, double-barrel roll at the end of the 1 minute, 27 second ride. Not only that, but the 16-story-tall lift (roughly the height of Joplin’s Messenger Towers Apartments) plummets riders into a tree-lined valley at an 81-degree drop, which is just nine degrees shy of a straight-down drop. This is the world’s steepest drop ever built on a wooden coaster, Silver Dollar City officials said.

Alvey is no stranger to roller coasters. He’s ridden hundreds of them, all over the world, recording them for his YouTube channel, Theme Park Review, which receives 2 million annual hits.

Reading about a ride is one thing. Experiencing it is quite another.

“It far exceeded my expectations,” Alvey said.

Members of the Herschend family, which owns the theme park, were the first guests to ride the Outlaw Run during media day Wednesday, other than those who had worked on the ride or trained to operate it, said Lisa B. Lau, a Silver Dollar City public relations worker. After that, 24 randomly selected people from the media made a second trip on the ride. After that, the train was entering and exiting the station nonstop.

“Just to be here right now and finally seeing the guests being loaded, it’s the best day of the season if you ask me,” said Cory Roebuck, the theme park’s director of operations.

Standing nearby, watching the trains climb the lift, the man whose company constructed the coaster said it was a proud moment.

“It feels pretty good to develop something like this that has so many firsts in it,” said Fred Grubb, owner of Rocky Mountain Construction. “It’s the first of its type in the (coaster) industry. This was the technology that others are trying to copy.”

The ride has 2,937 feet of track made of laminated wood layers with a steel “topper” track. It also uses steel wheels and not the normal polyurethane wheels. This creates a ride that looks and rides like a traditional wooden coaster but runs as smooth and fast as one of its steel cousins.

Steven Diullo, of Nixa, said he expected the Outlaw Run to feel like Six Flags St. Louis’ wooden coaster, the Screamin’ Eagle. Rather, he said, it’s every bit as smooth as the WildFire, Silver Dollar City’s steel coaster.

“I think people need to know how smooth it is,” he said. “It was the greatest thing I have ever ridden. I was screaming the whole time.

“Somewhere in the middle, there’s this big bank, and it’s like you’re sideways, like you’re going to fall out of the coaster. It was like nothing I’ve ever ridden before.”

That’s what Brad Thomas, senior vice president of Silver Dollar City, wants to hear. It is a ride like no other found in the world, he said, and “has all (those) thrilling components — but is still a ride” that mom and dad can enjoy.
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Source.



The Outlaw Run is a wooden roller coaster at Silver Dollar City, in Branson. It's the first wooden roller coaster to twist upside down and it does it three times.

I was one of the first to go for a ride.

Silver Dollar City's newest ride is 87 seconds of twists and turns, drops and rolls.

"Oh my God, it blew my mind away. I mean, seriously," said roller coaster enthusiast Robb Alvey.

Silver Dollar City spent more than $10 million on the Outlaw Run. The track is more than a half mile long and the cars reach a top speed of 68 miles per hour.

"You can't believe it. You can't believe the feeling. Well, I've never felt anything like it," said Peter Herschend.

Herschend helped found Silver Dollar City and was one of the first to get a ride.

"That was like no ride I have ever been on and I've been on hundreds of them. That was amazing," he said.

Now back to my ride—I buckled into the last car, took a few deep breaths, and was on my way. The ride starts with a 16-story drop at 81 degrees. That's the world's steepest drop on a wooden roller coaster.

From there, you go through nine different turns that give you a weightless feeling, finishing up with a double barrel roll.

"The triple inversions on this thing, I've never felt anything like it on a wooden roller coaster, ever," Alvey said.

Alvey is a roller coaster reviewer with themeparkreview.com. He said Outlaw Run is unique because of its wooden construction. Wooden roller coasters don't go upside down.

"Wooden roller coasters have attempted to go upside down before and have failed. This one did it successfully three whole times and it's awesome," Alvey said.

"It's very unique, it's a one of a kind, there's none other like it," said Fred Grubb.

Grubb owns Rocky Mountain Construction, the group that built the roller coaster. He said the secret is the state of the art track.

It's a new technology that makes for a smooth ride. There's not that usual back-and-forth you find on a typical wooden roller coaster.

Herschend said he is very proud of how far Silver Dollar City has come since it opened in 1960, and this latest attraction, he said, is just the next step into a promising future.

"The men and women of Silver Dollar City have just done a great job of making this day happen, right here, right now," Herschend said.

Silver Dollar City opens for the season this Friday and goes through the Christmas holidays. The park's owners expect this ride alone to bring in an additional 70,000 visitors, just this year.
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Video.

Source.


Here's a video of a short news report by WGNTV.
 
All we need now is you Al to present your post in PowerPoint format to the Merlin development team. You can't ignore comments like that.
 
Alastair said:
All we need now is you Al to present your post in PowerPoint format to the Merlin development team. You can't ignore comments like that.
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They can and will. ::)
 
I think the big problem I can see why a UK park would struggle to get something like this is that Rocky Mountain are an American Company and are the only ones really doing this at the moment.

It would cost a millions more on top to create something like this in the UK unless they sub-contracted like Arrow did for The Big One and CCI did for Megafobia.

This is why I don't think we'll see a GCI here in the UK or a Premier Rides ride here either.

We can but dream though and hope a UK park takes a punt on it. The park that does though - I feel - will reap the rewards from it.
 
Spike said:
I think the big problem I can see why a UK park would struggle to get something like this is that Rocky Mountain are an American Company and are the only ones really doing this at the moment.

It would cost a millions more on top to create something like this in the UK unless they sub-contracted like Arrow did for The Big One and CCI did for Megafobia.

This is why I don't think we'll see a GCI here in the UK or a Premier Rides ride here either.

We can but dream though and hope a UK park takes a punt on it. The park that does though - I feel - will reap the rewards from it.
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How is it any different to Swiss and German companies building coasters over here though?
 
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