Menu
What's new
By:
Filters

Lightning Rod Status

If Lightning Rod was ever wood, then clearly it isn't anymore. If so, congrats to El Toro, for taking back the title of the world's fastest non-hybrid wooden coaster (a record it didn't have upon construction, but it gained first place after Son of Beast was pulled down in 2009).

Kinda strange that nobody but RMC has even tried to come close to that record since T-Express was built in 2008. At 40 m and 100 km/h, Wodan in Europa Park is almost up there, but the tallest all-wood woodie built since Wodan appears to be Fjord Flying Dragon at Happy Valley Tianjin. The tallest in the West is Mystic Timber at Kings Island. It's only half as tall as Son of Beast was, and about 2/3 as fast. Mystic Timbers is only the 10th tallest all-wood woodie in the US. 7 of those above it were built before 2000.

Kinda makes you wonder what happened to the idea of big wooden coasters. They just shriveled away after the financial crisis.
 
Hutch said:
I mean, 99% of wooden coasters have steel strips mounted on the wooden track (only one I can think of otherwise is Flying Turns). So by your logic, we might as well call all wooden coasters hybrid coasters.
Click to expand...
The steel plates on a traditional wooden coaster have 3 purposes:
- help to distribute the weight more evenly
- reduce friction
- reduce wear

They do not support the track, and are actually supported by the wooden track below. The Topper track with its thick steel plate supports the wood and vice versa. In addition, the shape of the steel plating will follow the shape of the wooden track below. On the topper track, the shape of the wood follows the shape of the steel on top. Is it a steel track? No, if you'd remove the wood, it would not be stable at all. And if you'd remove the steel it wouldn't be stable either. While on a wooden track, you could (in theory ofc) remove the steel plating without sacrificing stability (of course the increased wear and worse weight distribution would quickly destroy the track, but it would not break during the first run).

Edit:

Pokemaniac said:
Kinda makes you wonder what happened to the idea of big wooden coasters. They just shriveled away after the financial crisis.
Click to expand...

I think the issue is the precision of the track. Traditional wooden track has quite high tolerances, even on a GCI. It will also change it's shape over time, and depending on temperature and humidity. Even the weight distribution on the train will cause the track to respond different.
This makes it very hard and expensive to build a big wooden coaster, which is also not painful to ride.
Intamins prefab is a good solution, offering a tough track with high precision, but even though it can take the speed, it will still age and needs to be replaced over time. The worst case is Colossos @Heide-Park, which had no replacements done in 15 years, just to need not only a complete retrack, but also lots of bends to be replaced as well, due to the deformation which took place.
In addition, Intamins prefabs are quite expensive, and you could easily get a comparable large steel-coaster for that price. And the latter one would boast not only lower maintenance, but more exiting layouts. However, I am wondering if the Intamin track would be able to complete inversions - I personally think it could, and if you change the train to one with shorter cars, it should be able to do some RMC-ic maneuvers.
 
Last edited:
Trax said:
However, I am wondering if the Intamin track would be able to complete inversions - I personally think it could, and if you change the train to one with shorter cars, it should be able to do some RMC-ic maneuvers.
Click to expand...
I could have sworn that Intamin once offered the model with launches and inversions both listed as potential elements in their product brochure, so they might well be able to offer this, but don’t quote me on that.

But if GCI and Gravity Group can do (or at least offer) inversions, then I don’t see why Intamin couldn’t/wouldn’t!
 
As it turns out, any roller coaster can do an inversion, give the right speed and track length. :p

Trax said:
I think the issue is the precision of the track. Traditional wooden track has quite high tolerances, even on a GCI. It will also change it's shape over time, and depending on temperature and humidity. Even the weight distribution on the train will cause the track to respond different.
Click to expand...
And herein lies the reason we're even retracking Lightning Rod. Even for the thoroughly reinforced Topper Track; the wooden support structure can't hang.

If I were a betting man; RMC does not produce another Topper Track coaster. Why go with some that looks like steel, feels like steel, but requires the upkeep of a wooden coaster? I-Box solves many of these problems.... just as steel roller coasters have for many decades. 😅

It is no coincidence this is the 14th I-Box conversion of RMC (Zadra marks 15 I-Boxes in total, but was built from the ground-up); the simple economic drivers of steel, and the ability to do large, aggressive elements make I-Box an obvious choice over Topper Track. (And no, I'm not saying that's the right choice, just the cold, hard math)
 
I will never forget the moment @Snoo and I first saw a train come down that quad-down. We just looked at each other, speechless (which, if you know us two, will know that doesn't come naturally to either of us when we're together).

You see the footage and it looks fast (I think I even recall debate about whether early testing footage was sped up), but you see it in real life for the first time and it's something else.

That looks just as good as it always has. Hopefully the uptime will improve now!
 
Last edited:
For ultimate I was wrong and apologies for fueling unnecessary banter:
Multiple people have already said it doesn't feel any different than before. In fact one said they usually couldn't ride LRod too much bc it was so intense for them, thought maybe it would be less so now with steel and nope, was still too much for em to handle more than once lol
So my excitement level is back to 10!!! Especially now that I feel confident that it will actually be open sometime during the 2-3 days I'm in TN!
Hixee said:
I will never forget the moment @Snoo and I first saw a train come down that quad-down. We just looked at each other, speechless (which, if you know us two, will know that doesn't come naturally to either of us when we're together).

You see the footage and it looks fast (I think I even recall debate about whether early testing footage was sped up), but you see it in real life for the first time and it's something else.

That looks just as good as it always has. Hopefully the uptime will improve now!
Click to expand...
Oh man that's the best. I remember when El Toro first opened and a bud and I thought yeah looks cool and all, then got off with mouths actually agape. Same happened with Skyrush. IDK if its possible for this beast just because of the hype, but ready to find out!
 
Guess this thread will remain active for another while, then. This might not be the most unreliable coaster ever, but it certainly is the one whose reliability is most notable due to how good it can be when it works as intended.
 
I mean the launch/ride system is quite complex (all the safety brakes, launch mechanics, etc) so I imagine most of the issues now will be down to the same reasons why a lot of Intamin's have issues, rather than it being track/structural issues. So this is probably as reliable as it can get unless the launch is removed.
 
Maintenance Guy Here:

Logic systems malfunction all the time. I work in a billion dollar factory and we average about 4% downtime. That number is extremely higher on newly installed or modified equipment as in the case with
coaster. We can’t just judge the reliability of a piece of equipment over a 10 second video.

We don’t know what exactly happened here but I could give 5 scenarios here that would involve a simple reset of the program and the coaster back up and running in about the time it takes to do an evac.

in other words... I’m not concerned.
 
jay37415 said:
Maintenance Guy Here:

Logic systems malfunction all the time. I work in a billion dollar factory and we average about 4% downtime. That number is extremely higher on newly installed or modified equipment as in the case with
coaster. We can’t just judge the reliability of a piece of equipment over a 10 second video.

We don’t know what exactly happened here but I could give 5 scenarios here that would involve a simple reset of the program and the coaster back up and running in about the time it takes to do an evac.

in other words... I’m not concerned.
Click to expand...
IT’S THE OFF-SEASON, LET US POLE ON OUR JUDGEMENT!!! 😜

Scrolling through Twitter, gratefully can’t spot any additional downtime shots. So indeed probably one launch gone wrong.

Even Maverick, which has had a functioning launch lift for 14 years, has a misfire or two.
 
Hixee said:
I will never forget the moment @Snoo and I first saw a train come down that quad-down. We just looked at each other, speechless (which, if you know us two, will know that doesn't come naturally to either of us when we're together).

You see the footage and it looks fast (I think I even recall debate about whether early testing footage was sped up), but you see it in real life for the first time and it's something else.

That looks just as good as it always has. Hopefully the uptime will improve now!
Click to expand...

Like.. we came. Literally came. <3
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top