[The Smiler] Construction Updates and Ride Speculation

[Ian]

Re: Secret Weapon 7 Discussion Continued

TTs photo looks to me like part of a MCBR, or part of the base of a vertical lift. The ram is part of a brake, which you can see at the bottom of the image. It's how Gerst brakes usually work if I remember rightly. Two plates, and a ram on an angle which squeezes them together. Unlike B&M for example the plates don't move straight against one another. They more slide past each other at an angle meaning they come together. Like if you put two hands together in the air and slide then up and towards each other slightly. They run past and then meet. As oppose to just clamping straight in. I think Maurer use the same system on spinners.

The base of the vertical lifts on Eurofighters are usually supported on a lattice style frame, which would explain all the metal seen there. They have a brake at the bottom to hold the shuttle in place while the chain starts to move and the catch car comes into position

 

[JB1985]

Re: Secret Weapon 7 Discussion Continued

thanks for the link - i would too say its the bottom of a vertical lift

 

[JB1985]

Re: Secret Weapon 7 Discussion Continued

it seems with your FB picture that the doubters have been proved wrong

 

[Dar]

Re: Secret Weapon 7 Discussion Continued

The picture of the hydraulic ram seems like it should be mounted vertically because the junction box label is on the side and the way it is now, it would open sideways! With that in mind, I have no idea where it could go!

 

[Ian]

Re: Secret Weapon 7 Discussion Continued

Our team have been out snapping more photos of the pieces in question. As you can see here it's a mechanical brake. From another angle you can see how the ram is connected:

 

[Josh]

Re: Secret Weapon 7 Discussion Continued

I thought it looked like something for brakes, nice to have some confirmation and is that a separate bit of track behind it with kicker wheels?

EDIT: just noticed the all the photos on fb, that show it is kicker wheels

 

[Danny]

Re: Secret Weapon 7 Discussion Continued

I'm not the only person who saw this section of track and thought "N'aww", right?:

 

[Ian]

Re: Secret Weapon 7 Discussion Continued

DinkyTrack! It's adorable <3

I'm sizing up a place on my wall for it as we speak

 

[Craig]

Re: Secret Weapon 7 Discussion Continued

Rumour has it it's not for the ride itself but merchandise for Towers Trading next year .

On a serious note though, it's great to see things finally moving. There seems to be a lot more activity going on today which we really haven't seen a great deal of in recent weeks!

 

[Dave]

Re: Secret Weapon 7 Discussion Continued

Who doesn't love a good set of kicker wheels!

And confirmation they have started taking track to the site

Its just nice to see something happening

 

[James]

Re: Secret Weapon 7 Discussion Continued

I leave for just over 24 hours to come back to the internet exploding in pleasure with the news of track being moved.

Great to see things are finally moving. Hopefully track will start to fly up soon!

Since I'm a bit lost in the loop. Has there been any sign of any hardware for a vertical launch/lift seen anywhere?

 

[JB1985]

Re: Secret Weapon 7 Discussion Continued

great to see this finally happening!

Should flow pretty quickly now, especially with some premade footers.

My only concern is the large amount of rebar, surely that would leads to a lot of concrete pouring still?

 

[Rob]

Re: Secret Weapon 7 Discussion Continued

The amount of rebar in the car parks show how little of the construction site has actually been prepared for track. There is still so much digging and concrete pouring for footers that needs doing. Yes it's good things are happening, but I really think they need to up the rate dramatically still.

 

[James]

Re: Secret Weapon 7 Discussion Continued

I really hope my theory that the land at the top part of the site is to be used to cover the bottom part of the site is right. If so, once the indoor section is complete (as the photos suggest track is for the indoor section) and the land is moved, then the top part of the site should take shape quickly.

It does beg the question though, why has construction been so slow? Apparently Alton Towers/Merlin Studios learnt from Th13teen and were prepared for this, so what's gone wrong? Clearly they had a flooding issue a few months ago (although that is partly their fault for leaving a pipe gushing water into the pit), although to me at least, it seems there's a bigger picture and they've either come across a lot of on-site issues or something has gone wrong behind the scenes.

 

[LiamC]

Re: Secret Weapon 7 Discussion Continued

And confirmation they have started taking track to the site

Its just nice to see something happening

Might just be me, but am I the only one who think that piece of track looks a lot bigger than normal Gerst track?! Or maybe I'm just trying to spot anything out of the ordinary

 

[Rob]

Re: Secret Weapon 7 Discussion Continued

It does beg the question though, why has construction been so slow? Apparently Alton Towers/Merlin Studios learnt from Th13teen and were prepared for this, so what's gone wrong? Clearly they had a flooding issue a few months ago (although that is partly their fault for leaving a pipe gushing water into the pit), although to me at least, it seems there's a bigger picture and they've either come across a lot of on-site issues or something has gone wrong behind the scenes.

For starters I personally think they started too late, I'm sure they started work on schedule but the risk factor would have been a lot lower if they had started earlier. Secondly I'm not convinced the people doing the groundwork have done the best job they could have done. I heard rumours earlier in the season about them not having a project after this one therefore they've been in no rush to get the job done as they would then have nothing else to do. Then there is the issue of the flooding which seemed to be a somewhat continuous issue that the couldn't fix; the amount of times I saw small waterfalls running down areas that they had dug out was astonishing.

So it's probably a combination of things. And at the end of the day I put it down to one thing, bad planning. This project was conceived very late on for an SW scale ride. Clearly the planning wasn't as rigorous as it may otherwise have been and they may have underestimated potential issues with the site. The need to plan rides further in advance, it is becoming a real problem for them. I may be wrong in what I'm saying but I'm sure it is a factor.

 

[Tom]

Re: Secret Weapon 7 Discussion Continued

There's no evidence to suggest they're behind with anything. No one knows what the original timetable was, if there even was one.

There is ZERO chance of this not opening on 16 March.

 

[LiamC]

Re: Secret Weapon 7 Discussion Continued

There's no evidence to suggest they're behind with anything. No one knows what the original timetable was, if there even was one.

There is ZERO chance of this not opening on 16 March.

As has been said, I don't think anyone doubts that. It's more the fact how complete the whole EXPERIENCE will be when it opens in March

 

[James]

Re: Secret Weapon 7 Discussion Continued

I certainly don't doubt if it will be open by March. As I've said several times I believe the ride itself will be open by then, it might just have certain elements missing to form the 'experience'.

However I do question why construction has been so slow and what might of happened to have caused this. It doesn't take a genius to work out that they are behind schedule.

 

[Rob]

Re: Secret Weapon 7 Discussion Continued

There's no evidence to suggest they're behind with anything. No one knows what the original timetable was, if there even was one.

There is ZERO chance of this not opening on 16 March.

Just because Towers haven't come out and said that they are behind doesn't mean that it's not behind. And they're never going to do that anyway. If by some miracle they aren't behind then they've got a very very strange schedule for construction. Anyway the main evidence for it being behind is the constant pushing back of the track delivery, it was meant to initially arrive around the start of September, then October 1st, in the end it was mid to late October. Why delay delivery if you're not behind? Then I don't know what version of the schedule it was, but at some stage track was due to do up starting on October 31st, clearly that didn't happen and it has only just started going up.

I think at present they will just about get it open for March 16th, but I think they will miss the 1st March hand over to ride operations date. However, lots of snow or other bad conditions over the winter and they could be in big trouble, and they probably know this. It doesn't take a genius to realise the coaster is behind schedule when it is December and the vast majority of track is still sitting in car parks around the Resort.