Valravn Goes Vertical--Construction Starts

What a hell of a sound coming from Valravn also! Good to know that it'll have that classic B&M roar.

Oh god, it's so beautiful... :')

I've been watching them build this all winter, as we all have, and I'm so happy to finally see it run. Makes me all the more excited to ride it! I could continue, but I'd just devolve into the descriptive style of a ten year old.

Oh, the heck with it.

DID YOU SEE THAT? It was all WOOOSH, and then NYOOOM, and then it flipped around like WHOOOOOAH, and OH MY GOSH CAN I RIDE IT NOW PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE?

At the bottom of each hill, as well as right after the 270 degree roll, there's some kind of loud 'click' sound. Can someone explain to me what that is? My guess is that it's the top wheels making contact with the track again after experiencing their own slight floater airtime, but I'm not sure if that's right. Thanks in advance.

PS: I've also heard that clicking on various parts of Gatekeeper.

I believe it's the sound of the anti-rollback and or chain dog falling in and out of its position on the train. Since those components aren't in a fixed position in the train when it's not on the lift (like how some other coasters use springs to do the opposite), they will fall into the train when it inverts (or is dropping) and fall back down, thus making the loud sound you hear. In fact, if you get the right seat on Gatekeeper, you can actually watch it happen when the train inverts. Just look under the spine of the train for the chain dog and watch it. It's kind of cool. :)

In comparison, the "chain dogs" on Dragster's trains are held up into the trains magnetically and have to be released by a magnetic current when engaging the catchcar. If the chain dog wasn't held up into the train by magnets, they run the risk of a train slamming into the catchcar (as it's making its way back to launch position) in the event of a roll back. And that would be VERY bad.

This ride looks amazing! Just 1 more month!

*beats his head against his desk*

So many hillside elevator experts here. :)

Hopefully the weatherman will quit picking on us in a month. Good Grief!

CoasterFreak94 said:

Valravn's funicular is about the same size as Millennium's funicular. They have pictures of it on the construction photos section on th website. Evacs will probably take about an hour if they use the funicular

Here is Sheikra's lift elevator:

http://www.johnnyupsidedown.com/sheikra/sh373a.jpg

When Valravn is complete, I'll be stunned if its elevator is any different. Sheikra's trains are the same size as Valravn's. The elevator appears to hold 8 passengers in addition to the maintenance workers.

An hour to evacuate seems reasonable to me. Remember these are floorless trains, so special platforms have to be put into place in order to get riders off the train before even riding the elevator.

You'd think it would be same size. I haven't seen any good photos of it.

Griffin's is slightly larger and holds ten people since their trains are 10-across.

As for the platforms, Griffin has bins at top of hill on both sides with pieces in it. They take the pieces and set them in front of each row for guests to step on.

And for the chain dogs, many people don't know there are two types on each train. There are the regular dogs for the lift chain. Then there are the reverse ones for the chain at the first drop. That is how the train is held and released. Not a hold brake. Something I didn't know myself until I took the Griffin tour and got to see it up close.

Am interested in seeing how the park does the Valravn tour. We were shocked when doing Griffin with no harnesses. It was cool walking around the top freely.

Valravn's elevator is slightly larger than Millennium's. It's much faster than Millennium's too. However, it is enclosed and from what I hear, air conditioned.

That is very good to hear, a luxurious funicular/elevator is a key component of any good, high quality coaster. If it had reclining seats with memory foam cushions I think Valravn has a solid chance of being the best coaster on the planet, I'm hoping we will get confirmation of the seat type very soon.

Seat type? They are the same as gatekeepers

^^ You have to follow the joke lol

Looks like gold colored shaders are going up around Valravn as seen on the CP snapchat

Aaaaaaand there's Seagull poop on the very top of the immelman...

Tony just posted a new Valravn minute. Watching those seat belts at :51 has me excited!

Guys! The station looks fantastic! It looks like CP is TRYING to execute a theme here!

Courtesy of Tony Clark's Twitter Page

I think hell has frozen over.

Because Frontier Town/Trail hasn't been a theme for 60 years? Is the Maverick station a box?

Theme? Looks more like a graphic artists wet dream. ;)