Official HersheyPark 2008 Construction Thread

[coasterdude28]

After one of the best pre-announcment teasers ever created by a park, HersheyPark has finally made an announcement. All rumors can be put to rest. All fighting and arguing can stop. Everyone can now watch this coaster come to life.

http://www.hersheypa.com/attractions...heit/index.php

Lets keep this thread strictly for construction developements.

[Ryan F]

Looks cool, but three 12 person trains...850pph. Gonna have some pretty long lines for this.

[Katie]

This actually looks pretty cool. The lines will be outrageous, but we will wait for it. ;-)

We are doing a roadtrip to Hershey next year as well as Dorney (1/2 day for credit whoring) and Knoebels. This should be the highlight of the trip.

Fahrenheit looks great!

[Fantom]

I don't ever remember seeing long lines for any dry rides at all at Hershey since 2003. Maybe this will bring in crowds, but whatever, this looks worth any wait.

[stevetothekizzo]

Looks cool. I like the pretzel. I think Hershey could have done better with a non-looping hyper type coaster though.

[SFGAFan4]

After all the horrible Six Flags announcements today, this looks like a great ride. Can't wait to get out to Hershey in '08!

[rckrazy06]

Well, I personnally am not a big fan of it and could have been a bad decision on Hershey's part. First of all, The Capacity of the ride is atrocious. Hershey is a large park that is well known and is very popular so the capacity could be a problem, maybe Intamin can work out a way to add another car to the trains. The ride could also be a bit longer considering their other Intamin coaster also has a short ride time. Otherwise, I like the coaster. Hopefully it will be open by May 17, that is the day I am going to the park next year.

[Kennywoodinfo]

Fahrenheit does look cool, hopefully I can make my way over there next year. But I do Agree, a park of that size may need another cart added to the trains.

[HPInsane]

880pph is actually pretty good. Yes, yes I know, it's "low" but in my last years at the park, the Great Bear, which is supposed to be at 1300pph, was only averaging 700pph.

My guess is that Hershey will eventually add a fourth train.

[Fastdawg07]

So what's with the trains and no floor? Did I read that right? Anyway, this is almost what I wanted in Maverick. I mean the inversions...the smoothness (its built by intamin so you know its gonna be smooth)...the capacity is a little low, but this almost looks like the "perfect" coaster. I think I may take a trip to Hershey for the first time ever, next summer just for this...and that doesn't even include StormRunner.

[Bencerisback]

This looks pretty sweet, I still think that Maverick looks better because of more airtime hills and the launch, I don't know though. The only thing I don't like is that they call that an inverted loop, when an inverted loop would ride on the outside of the track, which means it wouldn't have the twist at all and you would be upside down at the bottom of the loop - however that would get really intense

[medieval]

Looks like a great ride. Maverick lines goes pretty quick, but I wonder how this will do capacity wise with only 3 trains.

[Fastdawg07]

So can anybody answer me this? What's so special about the floors? Did I miss something? Or am I just being ridiculous and I have no idea what I'm talking about?

EDIT: Never mind...I'm an idiot. When it said "they won't see visible track below" I took it as the cars were somehow floorless...which is stupid. I get it now, and I'm just in awe of my stupidity right now....lol.

[coasterdude28]

^I was wondering what you were talking about.

Is anyone going to the park on Saturday for the last day of the season? If so, please try to take some pictures.

[go_me]

the ride itself looks cool, but I'm assuming it will be a smoother ride in real life? As an "experienced" user of NL I could tell that that trackwork was atrocious, almost something a beginner would be able to accomplish. There were pumps and bumps all over the place! like I said, I just hope it's smoother in real life...cuz I may have to convince my parents to take me if it is...

[SheikraTTD]

This looks really good. Probably worth the 7 hour drive out to HP and Knoebels next Summer. Like the name alot. Very Clever. But one complaint is that it looks like it is all inversions. Maverick has other stuff going on with the high banked turns with the canyons and the tunnel with the light effects. But it will probably end up great.

[Leo C]

Capacity has me worried. The kind of loop that the launched ride in Finland or Norway has making an appearance here is pretty cool. Only 12 riders, that really blows. Even CHILLER had more people per a 5 car train. This is worth losing a water rapids ride if it's to go? I don't know.

I don't think it'll displace Stormrunner at all.

[coasterman1234]

First off, the POV sucked, it was filled with terrible trackworking. But that doesn't matter.

I think the ride looks ok, needs to be longer though. Though, I think it does look better than Maverick, the obession with decapitatingly tight turns isn't as bad. I like the drop at 97 degrees, but the main thing I dislike about it is how short it is. I really like the weird pretzel loop looking thing too. The capacity is probably going to lead to some problems though. Otherwise, it looks decent, but not spectacular. Does it say how much the ride cost?

[KW fan]

$12.1 million

[raser]

12.1 for this but 21 for maverick. Makes you want a traditional lift and a longer ride...

[HPInsane]

Where will it be located? Obviously, I know that it's in Pioneer at the old Chuteout, but they must be making changes (plus the other ride going in nearby Rodeo).

[Leo C]

I'm kinda hoping that the location is space friendly cause if things go bad, I wouldn't mind if they went drastic and added a traditional lift a few years down the road. Even Ultra Twister had work on the US edition to convert from a 90 degree lift to a 45 degree one.

[Leo C]

Isn't the lift hill considered another block brake on most coasters? As good as NITRO is I know that when there are bugs a train could stall on the lift. That could be better than the train being stuck somewhere else. I guess this really won't be an option. This came to mind as I thought about my friend who is a multi year Hersheypark season pass holder that is way more conservative than I am and where Stormrunner was just way too extreme for his cup of tea. I don't see this one working for his favor either. He is a giant Tidal Force fan though.

[Search4Lancer]

Originally Posted by coasterdude28

Is anyone going to the park on Saturday for the last day of the season? If so, please try to take some pictures.

I'm sitting in my office across from it right now, and there's nothing to see. Western Chute-Out still stands, fenced in, with a few tube pieces laying on the ground out there. Plenty of spray paint indicating buried electrical lines - which has been there for quite a while, only seems like there's a bit more today.

[CoasterKid_2006]

It looks like the track comes really close to hitting it's self and some of the supports. I guess it's just the video though

[coasterlove]

I doubt anyone knows yet but I'm curious how the trains will run. There doesn't seem to be any sort of MCBR obviously of any kind. So when one train leaves the station and up the lifthill, when can the one behind it leave? Will the next train have to wait until the one before it gets to the brakes at the end of the ride? Or can it leave sooner, right after the train drops over the hill or somewhere in the middle of the ride?

The reason I'm curious is because I was thinking about the capacity. If the capacity is 880 people an hour, with 12 passenger train, they need to run 73 trains an hour. (73.3333 to be exact but you get the idea) So that means a train would have to depart every 49-50 seconds. Is that even possible without any sort of MCBR? I have to wonder if it will even be able to get anywhere close to that amount when you figure loading and unloading.

Because you figure if there are three trains, meaning to stick to a train leaving every 49-50 seconds, a train would have to be loaded, checked, run the course, hit the breaks and then unload in 2m 30s (50s x 3). I can't see it happening unfortunately.

Opinions?

[epijlh]

What if it had seperate stations for loading and unloading? That would drastically decrease departure times. I think space would be an issue though.

[coasterlove]

Being that it is an Intamin coaster, a seperate load and unload station wouldn't surprise me at all. But in this case, how much time would it save because it's a quick ride and having two stations just means it's two different stops it has to make instead of one before it can finally depart. And with a 2m 30s window, that's very tight if even possible at all. I think this is a case where the capacity is less than stated so it doesn't look so bad.

[epijlh]

Well if they run three trains, one can be on-course, one unloading, and one loading. By the time the first train hits the brakes, the loaded train could be sent out, and the empty train could be loaded. I think it would be more efficient than one station, simply because each train would have 2m 30s to load and 2m 30s to unload instead of 2m 30s to do both. Also, HP wouldn't have to worry about stacking trains 2-deep.

[coasterlove]

No, you're not getting what I'm saying. It has only 2m 30s to everything from start to finish. If the train is to run 73 cycles an hour, that's a pace of 50 second intervals. That means each individual trains needs to pass through and head up the lift every 2 and a half minutes. I hope I better explained what I'm trying to say. So that leaves very little time for load/unload. I'm not sure exactly how long the ride itself is but I'd guess even with a fast lift, it would take 12-15 seconds? Does it use an elevator cable lift? And the ride looks like maybe 45 seconds at least?