Top Thrill Dragster 2022 Status
Do we know of any other coasters in the works elsewhere that this track could be for?
Could this fabricator be making track for Zamperla?
If Intamin is involved with the new Dragster, I would think the only way this would have likely transpired is if it was part of some sort of settlement.
DA20Pilot:
If Intamin is involved with the new Dragster, I would think the only way this would have likely transpired is if it was part of some sort of settlement.
The planning for this reimagining was almost certainly underway before the accident. All the accident did was move up the closure date.
SpeedDemon:
Here it is with only the track in the background cut out
Just put a circle over the guy’s face instead of chopping the picture up like that.
A space theme is a good possibility and cool idea, given the strong tie to NASA in Ohio. Armstrong Test Facility (Plum Brook Station) is just down the street, along with the Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. Now that I think about it, Power Tower maybe could get a space theme treatment without even changing its name.
TwistedCircuits:
To the point about needing two cranes, I would imagine the tower super structure serves the purpose of one for the workers right?
Maybe, but that's not how they built it. I would be surprised if scaffolding would be economical, since they're only working on each joint for a relatively short amount of time before moving to the next one. So that would be a lot of assembly/disassembly of scaffolding. But who knows.
What I really don't understand is why we have not yet seen any replacement track staged anywhere. I don't recall any coaster being constructed that didn't have track arrive, staged near Breakers Express, well before the crane showed up. Of course it would take some amount of time to remove old track, but in that case I would expect track to show up relatively soon.
Brandon
Brandon that's a good point, I think the item to look for next is new track while they use this crane for whatever project it may be. If new track shows up while they're pulling old track then that adds even more credence to the theory.
Still haven't been able to uncross these circuits...
DJ Fischer
eChameleon:
Orange and blue? Finally, a tribute to the Mark Price era Cavaliers.
That would fit. Just when it seems to be taking off, it comes right back down to earth.
Not to burst anyone's bubble but Capital City Crane (The crane owner) Doesn't show that they own a LTM-1350. They do own a LTM-1300 which is also a 6 axle crane but only has a maximum tip height of 384 feet.
High Flyer:
The planning for this reimagining was almost certainly underway before the accident. All the accident did was move up the closure date.
I've long suspected this too, especially given the timing where TTD would be coming off the books assuming 20 year amortization, and the fact that the project began last year with track removal.
Still can't shake out in my head the order in which they removed thing(s) if the plan was to do a total rip & replace of the structure.
Why remove the launch up to the engine room? Why keep the supports on the brake side? One would think you would remove everything during the demo portion of this story (last summer / fall).
Point: that track could be for the spike only.
djDaemon:
What I really don't understand is why we have not yet seen any replacement track staged anywhere.
So that's what that tiny shed near Wild Mouse is for.
Promoter of fog.
magdrag95:
Point: that track could be for the spike only.
We'll find out if they start painting the top hat blue and orange.
BleauxJays:
They do own a LTM-1300 which is also a 6 axle crane but only has a maximum tip height of 384 feet.
If that is the model of crane that is on site, I think that this brings up the possibility that there will be NEW track added to the tophat... (i.e. something to give the ride a second lap going part-way up the existing tophat structure) Although, more realistically it could be a replacement of only a portion of the vertical track on the "Up" side of the tophat to add vertical "launch" LSMs.
DA20Pilot:
High Flyer:
The planning for this reimagining was almost certainly underway before the accident. All the accident did was move up the closure date.
I've long suspected this too
I'm not clear on why you two think this is the case. Not saying it's wrong, but the timeline doesn't seem particularly compressed, given what we know of CF's "five year" plan, wherein attractions are generally locked in only a little over a year or so out. The accident happened in August 2021, 21 months ago, and we're still a year from opening day 2024, so it will have been almost 3 years from the accident to the new debut. Even allowing for ~6 months of internal discussion and reaching out to vendors, we're left with well over two years to get this going.
Brandon
^ not to mention if they use Intamin then the manufacturer is already intimately familiar with the ride and doesn’t necessarily need the extra 2 years of planning. And if someone else is going it then you still can cut down the normal planning process because the super structure, and station are already there and you’re forced to plan to those already anyway. There is way less from scratch design work to do with a retrofit than a scratch custom ride.
Well, I think CP has long known they have an expensive, problematic (and potentially dangerous) mess on their hands with TTD and the hydraulic launch.
And I suspect they have looked at what can be done about that, including LSM conversion, going back a ways, especially once Red Force came to be.
And prior to the accident, I can see them waiting until after TTD was off the books and fully amortized before making a major expenditure on redoing it.
And, visible work began on the new project just over 1 year after the accident, with track removal.
I'd be a little surprised if, in only 1 year's time, they began the process of considering their options, finding a vendor, agreeing on a concept, and had a design finalized to the point where surgical track removal would begin. Not saying it's impossible, but I think these projects typically take longer to get there.
And, we know that CP typically has a 5 year plan, and given TTDs aforementioned problematic history, I wouldn't be surprised if preliminary planning for reworking of TTD began as far back as up to 5 years before it hit the 20 year full amortization.
And if Intamin ends up being involved in the new project (which I find doubtful but possible), this would all roughly line up timeline wise (albeit a little bit stretched) with a possible settlement agreement of some sort with Intamin over STR. STR was removed in 2015 IIRC, and statutes of limitations typically run 2 years, so perhaps around 2017 CP reached a settlement with Intamin just prior to the statute expiring (and 5 years before TTD is off the books assuming 20 year amortization) to redo TTD at a substantial discount a few years down the road when TTD came off the books.
Admittedly this Intamin point is highly speculative and not especially likely, but I think the remainder of the points I made herein make a lot of sense.
DA20Pilot:
I'd be a little surprised if, in only 1 year's time, they began the process of considering their options, finding a vendor, agreeing on a concept, and had a design finalized to the point where surgical track removal would begin.
But 1 year out isn't that short of a timeline, based on what I understand about their planning process. And especially so if they, as you mention, already had some ideas on what they could do with the ride to improve reliability, etc.
If I recall correctly, Cedar Fair and B&M began discussing GateKeeper at IAAPA in mid-November of 2011, with land clearing began less than 9 months later in August 2012. And the ride opened less than 18 months following that initial discussion at IAAPA.
TTD track removal began, if I recall correctly, in September '22, so more than a year after the accident, and they didn't start obvious new construction until early this year, roughly 16 months after the ride closed.
Brandon
Closed topic.