Dorney's Thunderhawk trains

I've now seen some renderings of the new trains going to Dorney Park's Thunderhawk, and they've been drawn with no seatbelts, no seat dividers, and GCI style half-bar restraints. Has anyone seen or heard that these trains will definitely not have seatbelts? This seems very un-Cedar Fair to me. I'm not bitching by any means (on the contrary, I'm crossing fingers this is an accurate drawing), but I'm curious about this new development. Anyone have anything to add to the speculation?

I don't have anything to add, but I will say that Thunderhawk is ripe for a track replacement by RMC. Rmc's great it's amazing it rules it's great bahaha.

Normally, I'd be all for it, but not for Thunderhawk. It's a small coaster, and it's one of the oldest wooden coasters in the world. Damn near blasphemy right there.

I WAS wondering if new trains meant significant retracking in the future though. The first drop and bunny hop were apparently redone, and it is noticeable. GCI anyone?

Gotta agree with bunky on this one. Let RMC do their thing on the other coasters, because rides like Thunderhawk aren't being built anymore and a few have closed over the last couple of decades.

I'm most curious about the head rests that obstruct the view. I really hope the sketches they show have those going away. I would LOVE to see CP's Blue Streak lose those head rests as well. I thought the point of them was to comfortably rest your head on, not beat your back and head to a bloody pulp as the train shuffles through the course.

~Rob

Forgot about the headrests. I think those will be gone. Like you said, they really serve no purpose except to obscure the view and make the ride more uncomfortable.

I'd actually like to revise my statement: I'm fine with RMC doing track work. I just don't want a "reimagined" Thunderhawk. I keep forgetting RMC does track replacement and topper track as well as the new crazy hybrid coasters.

Besides, I'm still holding on to hope that Dorney will take out the dinos and build a pretty new RMC or GCI in that spot. No need to destroy or alter Thunderhawk then.

What Rob said above - I love RMC, but when you're talking about one of the oldest remaining wooden coasters on the planet, RMC is NOT an option. Fix it using wooden-coaster materials and techniques - we've lost too many classics already!

Is there a link to the pics?

https://www.dorneypark.com/what-s-new
I'm going to miss the buzz bars.

Looks neat. Definitely still PTCs. I'm glad both CF and SF are refurbing their coasters and trains. Still hope the MF trains are good on Ghostrider, and really excited for Revolutions new trains.

Yes, Tom Rebbie included this in his presentation at No Coaster today.

The image on Dorney's site strikes me a color study, and as such might not have all the details. The color scheme being the main focus.

YoshiFan said:
https://www.dorneypark.com/what-s-new
I'm going to miss the buzz bars.

Have I ever mentioned how much I hate Cedar Fair's mobile sites? I click on that and it wants me to install the Dorney app, like there's any need for that. Then if I click no, it takes me to a mobile site where I can buy tickets or see a calendar of a park that isn't open for another four months. Then if I click to go to the full site, it takes me to the home page instead of the one I clicked on so I just see Coke ads, mostly.

Useless.

Now I don't even care what the damn things look like.

I can't find my previous post on the subject, but I have the exact same complaints about CF's mobile sites. One way around it is to copy and paste the URL into your browser, then add ?mobile=0 to the end (here's the Thunderhawk one... hopefully). But from a usability standpoint, you shouldn't have to do that.

And from a customer-attention-span standpoint, is it really wise to direct people away from your website to wait for an app to download? Especially if the URL that sent them there wasn't the home page.

I did not know this was happening at Dorney.

When those open grill PTC cars were first introduced, (I think I saw it for the first time at an IAAPA a while back), I thought they were hideous. "Who would order that?", I wondered. And I'm not sure anyone has until now.
Now having said that, I like the looks of this train, at least from the rendering. I havent been a fan of PTC trains lately, mainly because of those individual orange torture-device lap bars they currently use. These new lap bars, if the pic is accurate, seem to attach to the cars around the same location as the old buzz bars, higher up on the seat back ahead. So maybe this will be a modern way to keep the feel and comfort of the old bars. Hope so.

Our Slith is probably right with the color study thing, but if that's the case then what's up with "Banana Cream" for the structure when the copy promises a "sharp white"? Unless Banana Cream is out, but I think the colors on the rendering are quite nice, actually. They also claim to bring back the feel of the original, but all I remember is the Dorney Coaster being yellow, not white. Maybe way back in the day, I don't know. When it changed to Thunderhawk and went natural, I was disappointed. I've always preferred the look of a painted wooden coaster for some reason.

Anyway, good for Dorney. And even though I feel bjames was pulling our legs with attempted humor, I will say I can't think of a reason why RMC should ever come anywhere near this ride.