[The Smiler] Construction Updates and Ride Speculation

[TheMan]

And I know that it wasn't a serious question but Hydra's revenge is against Hercules which is the coaster that used to stand on the same spot. I personally quite like that continuity and it ties in with the mythology as well.

That is very clever! I'm not critiquing the coaster by the way, it's a giant looking B&M, which is why I feel the pink is so ridiculous - hence I posted a Range Rover, a fantastic vehicle, trimmed in disgusting pink!

Doesn't mean I don't like the Range Rover (or indeed pink!). Also, whilst I am serious about the colour, I am having a giggle in general.

A fantastic point was made about bringing some colour into our own parks coasters, though we may have a reasonable amount of bright yellow on The Smiler, it would be nice to see a variation. What other track colour could the Smiler be? Maybe it may have been great in a darker yellow?

With Hyrda though, the track colour makes sense, the ride has continuity and story, but a giant pink B&M lol?

 

[Rob]

So we've had rain and snow effect construction so far. Now it looks like the wind is doing the same. I was around the Resort today and although work was happening on the SW7 constriction site there were no cranes up at all on the site. It looks and sounded like only digging was taking place whilst I was there. From looking at the track in the car parks it doesn't look like much more, if any at all, has been moved since the snow has gone.

There is a lot of interesting track in the car parks now though; lots of pieces with brakes, proxies and other mechanism on them. I do however fear that two sections of track with a lot of brakes on them are actually trim brakes, potentially for the "airtime bumps" leading into/out of the cobra roll and/or batwing.

 

[Dave]

Based on last weeks pictures track isn't going up at the moment, i can only assume that they are getting the rest of the ground-work done before the rest of the track goes up.

We know when they put stuff up it doesn't take long (most of the knot went up in a few days) so maybe we will see some movement. It would be nice to see some track peeking above the tree's at feb half term

 

[Rob]

Yeah, it doesn't look like the Gerstlauer car has moved from the ATH car park in the last couple of weeks either.

On another note, if anyone's interesting, the kicker wheel tyres on this coaster are Hankook winter road tyres!

 

[Poisson]

Yeah, it doesn't look like the Gerstlauer car has moved from the ATH car park in the last couple of weeks either.

On another note, if anyone's interesting, the kicker wheel tyres on this coaster are Hankook winter road tyres!

Probably as winter tyres have more grip but are easily available.

 

[bob_3_]

That is very clever! I'm not critiquing the coaster by the way, it's a giant looking B&M, which is why I feel the pink is so ridiculous - hence I posted a Range Rover, a fantastic vehicle, trimmed in disgusting pink!

WTF!! The pink sets off the bright greens beautifully! It's so striking and bold, it's one of the best colour combinations ever.

There's rarely a B&M colour scheme I don't like. But most of the Merlin ones are so boring, just dull and bland.

Muting the yellow would be lame, I love they're adding a splash of bright colour to the area! DOWN WITH DULL!

 

[Josh]

I'm not surprised there's no more track going up just now, the site is just not ready for any to go up other than what's already been done. The groundwork crew need to kick it into gear and get working!

I'm hoping at least there has been a lot more station construction, and maybe some of the landscaping in the pit around the track

 

[Russ]

Yeah, it doesn't look like the Gerstlauer car has moved from the ATH car park in the last couple of weeks either.

On another note, if anyone's interesting, the kicker wheel tyres on this coaster are Hankook winter road tyres!

Probably as winter tyres have more grip but are easily available.

Oblivion uses Van tires and they are Michelin Agilis and the ones on Thirteens lift's are Continental Trolly tyres lol (The joy's of working with tyres)

 

[IanB]

I have heard from a very reliable source that the track will be completed soon, and they will start testing on the 30 February.

Ian

 

[JoshC.]

I have heard from a very reliable source that the track will be completed soon, and they will start testing on the 30 February.

Ian

Not entirely sure if you're serious here, or if you've made a typo...

 

[BigDave]

Either that or someone is winding you up Ian ;p

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

 

[josht]

Hopefully it's a joke for the good fact there isn't a 30th of February

 

[Ellie]

I have heard from a very reliable source that the track will be completed soon, and they will start testing on the 30 February.

Ian

Damn you Bassi! I fell for that >.< Briefly

 

[Poisson]

Ian, your body shall be found in Booth's for that joke (which failed on me anyway) :twirly:

 

[IanB]

It was my poor attempt at a joke, but felt it fitted in well with the Theme of the ride I thought. Something that messes with your head :twirly:

Ian

 

[Alex23]

Just seen this on TTF which I thought was quite interesting so I thought I would post it across..

ok, So iv posted a lot of stuff on here over the past few months. Some of you know, and im sure some of you dont believe that im in a relationship with a marketing director at merlin. I once said that the carts would he standard eurofighter cars. I was wrong, alton towers is a subsidiary or merlin entertainments and has its own marketing department. So my boyfriend doesnt know everything, to my embarrassment. That said, i got the opportunity to play the game this evening, the track is exactly, exactly how it appears on the plans. So i guess this confirms the layout will be the same as the plans. Additionally, i can confirm 100%, please believe me. The washing machine is still on. Towertimes was right. I found this out today for certain. The plans are the same and the washing machine element remains. Im excited. The whole purpose is to add further rotations to maintain the record. Obviously to a limit as not to affect throughput.

I know it will get criticised on here as you dont believe a Secret Element exists but this person has been right on quite a lot so I will leave it up to you :twirly:

 

[Joseph]

Oh dear.... :

 

[Tim]

Just seen this on TTF which I thought was quite interesting so I thought I would post it across..

ok, So iv posted a lot of stuff on here over the past few months. Some of you know, and im sure some of you dont believe that im in a relationship with a marketing director at merlin. I once said that the carts would he standard eurofighter cars. I was wrong, alton towers is a subsidiary or merlin entertainments and has its own marketing department. So my boyfriend doesnt know everything, to my embarrassment. That said, i got the opportunity to play the game this evening, the track is exactly, exactly how it appears on the plans. So i guess this confirms the layout will be the same as the plans. Additionally, i can confirm 100%, please believe me. The washing machine is still on. Towertimes was right. I found this out today for certain. The plans are the same and the washing machine element remains. Im excited. The whole purpose is to add further rotations to maintain the record. Obviously to a limit as not to affect throughput.

I know it will get criticised on here as you dont believe a Secret Element exists but this person has been right on quite a lot so I will leave it up to you :twirly:

If you are going to quote something from another forum you need to quote the poster, especially when the post in question relies on us knowing the poster.

Once again it's spin_doctor that's posting this.

Now I've defended spin_doctor in the past and still believe the original information came from a proper source as a fair chunk of it turned out to be correct. But lately these posts are looking to be a bit of a mess, with several different reasons for how the information was obtained :-\

I really am sceptical of this...

 

[Alastair]

Why the heck would you reveal your source of information as well? That's putting "the marketing director" at risk within the company.

 

[Prometheus]

I don't believe anything his source says, sorry. I still think his source has been misled by those in the know. From the posts Spin_Doctor has made about SW7 so far, he has stated just 3 main points from that now revealed source. The rest has been his own speculation:

1) He was told there would be a beyond vertical drop inside the building, this has not materialized.

2) He was told the trains would be standard single Eurofighter trains; not correct by his own admission now.

3) That the ride will have 14 inversions: yet to be seen.

That makes a 100% incorrect rate for a source that has said hardly anything at all so far in my opinion. I'd like to think that maybe his source has more accurate info now that the ride is being marketed and constructed, that more departments are sharing info between themselves within Merlin. Hell, if he's right about 14 inversions I'll be the first to stand up and say fair do's but I don't believe anything for the moment; that includes anything to do with the washing machine.