Dollywood Lightning Rod

Yes it was a PR nightmare. They have only advertised the ride the first season. There were billboards all over the area advertising the ride It was hardly open. Two years later it’s still not functioning right. Advertising something that can’t be produced is bad business.

It’s much better to build a reliable ride that satisfies customers than a hit and miss right that just sits there

ShaneDenmark said:

Didn’t Jeff or someone used to argue here that lift speed doesn’t have any effect on how fast the train would be going at the bottom of the first drop? Never understood the argument l, whoever it was.

I don't know if it was me, but in this case you're talking about the difference between horizontal and vertical movement, where the vertical component is affected by gravity. If you drop a bullet and fire one from a gun at the same time, they'll both hit the ground at the same time (there's a great Mythbusters episode where they prove this).

That said, the roller coaster over the hill scenario is not a perfect analog to the bullet, because the track exerts force on the train that forces it downward after the lift, redirecting that horizontal energy down. The horizontal speed of the train at the top of the lift would have to be very significant to affect the speed at the bottom of the first drop. Someone did bother to do the math on here once, but the difference was not substantial.

Big trip of 4 enthusiasts planned for next summer. Will pass by Dollywood if Lightning Rod isn't working. I would guess that it's not good for business. It appears to me that RMC needs to be a little more selective in who they contract to work on their projects.

I don't know what the launch speed over the top is, but the affect of speed at the top of a hill almost always has less impact on the speed at the bottom than you'd think. That said, it will have a substantial effect on the possible height of the next hill. The numbers will converge later in the ride because some elements of friction are proportional to speed.

The launch stops launching before the top of the hill. The train is moving faster than a tradition lift but it's not that fast.

Or they (or RMC) could hire someone who knows how the #^#* LSMs work (if that’s still the problem). Premier, Mack, and Zierer have been doing great things with LSMs over the last decade with very few reliability issues.

It’s rare that a coaster mfg actually makes the LIM/LSMs. That’s usually anothe company that is contracted out. So calling another coaster mfg that also contracts the LIMs out isn’t going to help unless you’re just trying to get a referral on what company to go with to make the propulsion system.

Yes, you’re correct. My (inegelgantly expressed) point was that there are other vendors out there that result in much more reliable rides.

I’ve been staying in WNC the last couple weeks and literally gave up on my plans to visit Dollywood for the first time because this coaster has been closed this whole time. It’s a real shame they can’t keep it up. If my experience is like that of others’, then it’s definitely costing them money for it to be so unreliable.

I understand that people want to ride Lightning Rod, but it amazes me that they avoid visiting because it’s down, especially if it would have been their first visit. Dollywood is an AMAZING park and might be the best non-Disney theme park in the country, and this was true well before they built the wooden disaster.

We want to visit DW again, it's one of our favorite parks. (It's been since whatever year Wild Eagle opened) But at 9 hours away, yes, we too are not visiting specifically because of Lightning Rod.

While I won't go so far as saying that our 3 tickets are hurting the park financially, it is a decision factor for us specifically. At that distance, we won't be visiting until we can be much more reasonably assured we'll get to ride it.

Coasterkeen said:

If my experience is like that of others’, then it’s definitely costing them money for it to be so unreliable.

The number of people who a)know the ride is closed in advance of their visit and b)decide not to visit based on that knowledge is so small that it lacks statistical significance. It may be costing them something, but the park is far from suffering as a result.

Regarding the lift hill speed question:

It's all about the exchange between potential energy (due to gravity) and kinetic energy (the speed of the train), with a little bit of energy lost along the way due to various factors, such as aerodynamic drag, friction in the wheel bearings, rolling friction between the tires and the track, flexion of the track and structure, etc. The problem becomes very simple if you ignore all of the energy losses, so that a train's kinetic energy at any point is equal to whatever kinetic energy it started with plus whatever amount of potential energy has been converted, based on how far the train has fallen.

Potential energy U = mgh, while kinetic energy T = mV^2 / 2, where g is the constant acceleration due to gravity, h is the vertical fall from the high point, V is the train's velocity, and m is the mass of the train. Setting them equal, the masses cancel, and you're left with energy in units of feet (which aren't actual units of energy, but in this case they are since the masses cancel): h = V^2 / (2g). So if you want to know the effect of the train's velocity at the top of the hill on its velocity at the bottom, simply convert the velocity to feet, then add that to the height of the drop (again, ignoring friction).

Take Millennium Force for example. You have a 300 ft drop and a lift speed of about 13 mph. 13 mph (19 ft/sec) equates to about 5.65 ft of energy. As you can see, 5.65 ft is insignificant compared to 300 ft, so the difference between the top speed during normal operation and top speed if you got stopped at the apex of the hill and then just barely crept over is minimal (95.6 mph vs. 94.7 mph). The fact the Millennium's top speed is 93 mph means that it loses a little bit of energy as it navigates the first drop. Long story short: a 13 mph speed difference at the top only results in a 1 mph difference at the bottom when you're talking about a 300 ft drop. Kind of interesting.

What Jeff said about the bullets is correct, but the key difference is that in that scenario, you're talking about the amount of time it takes for the bullets to hit the ground, not the speed at which they do. While the dropped bullet and the fired bullet hit the ground at the same time, the fired bullet will hit at a much higher speed, because you gave it all that kinetic energy to start with.

PhantomTails said:
I understand that people want to ride Lightning Rod, but it amazes me that they avoid visiting because it’s down, especially if it would have been their first visit. Dollywood is an AMAZING park and might be the best non-Disney theme park in the country, and this was true well before they built the wooden disaster.

I believe you, and I’m not trying to impugn the park! If the whole family felt like making the trip then LR wouldn’t even be an issue. But, in this case, planning to go solo and most likely not gonna ride the family coasters, I’m looking at a lineup of four that I’d be riding (not including the one I was most anticipating) at a cost of $60-$100 if I got the timesaver pass. I can look forward to coming back next time I’m out here!