The Voyage *not* to get Rocky Mountain treatment

This past weekend, ACE held their Summer Preservation Conference at Silverwood. While we were there, we were offered the opportunity to visit the Rocky Mountain Construction Group's fabrication shop. While we were there, many people noticed their project board included The Voyage. Low and behold, at the Saturday evening dinner, the head of RMCG, made the announcement that they had found out earlier that day that they would in fact be adding a couple hundred feet of their topper track to The Voyage. From the sounds of it, they will want to have this done this off season. In addition, they gave the impresion, that more could be done in the years to come.

Discus :-)

Not sure how I feel about that. Especially with the potential of timberliners.

I'll be able to comment more after this weekend (Texas Giant here I come!)

Only a couple hundred feet? Interesting.

When I was at Quassy this past weekend, the ride op was saying a Gravity Group guy had been there recently, talking about custom Timberliners for The Voyage in 2012. Just how custom are we talking then??

The bottoms of the first 3 hills on Voyage (can't remember which one, in particular) were pretty damn violently jolting, as of this year.

I'm wondering what happened at Silverwood - topper track was added to Tremors - then it was removed? I wonder why.

Whatever bring Voyage back to the smooth baby it was in 2006, I'm for it. Somewhat different - but I-beam track did wonders for the American Eagle years ago. Before that, the ride was very painful (and slow).

Interesting development in the continuing saga of the greatest ride ever built. As long as it still feels like a woodie, I don't care one bit.

Hmm, that's kind of interesting. I wonder what the Gravity Group guys' thoughts are relating to the track topper idea.

Acoustic Viscosity said:
As long as it still feels like a woodie, I don't care one bit.

That's what...she..said?

Durrrr, never mind about my double question mark emphasis. I was confusing topper track with Texas Giant style I-beam track.

Yes it will be the type of topper track that was added to the Cyclone at SFNE and let me tell you the coaster rides so much better and i even ride the back of the train now which i never used to before due to the bone rattling ride. Plus it will save the park alot of money on maintenance costs.

^Note on SFNE (Riverside) Cyclone. When they put the topper track on the 'station drop', they also re-profiled the drop. They took the kink (decreased in profile radius resulting in jerking you out of the seat; preceded by being slammed back in during the pullout) out of that drop. Bill Cobb had lots of drops like that.

http://i.imgur.com/SVXKw.png

Gasp.

This is quite a shocker. I'm sure Holiday World has thought long and hard about it, though, and has made the best possible decision.

I wonder when we'll get an update on the Timberliners...

CoasterDemon said:
The bottoms of the first 3 hills on Voyage (can't remember which one, in particular) were pretty damn violently jolting, as of this year.

At HoliWood Nights, it wasn't the bottoms of the first three drops. Strangely, it was just before or just after the bottom of each of those drops, which was really, really weird. On one of them, I was able to see the rail bounce during the walk-back, but on the others it was not nearly so obvious what was happening.

I'm wondering what happened at Silverwood - topper track was added to Tremors - then it was removed? I wonder why.

I don't know the exact relationship between Silverwood and Rocky Mountain, apart from the fact that Rocky Mountain was apparently the original construction crew for the Silverwoodies. My impression is that Tremors is their development platform. That might give them reasons for installing, removing, changing, or otherwise fiddling with the Topper Track on the ride.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

This is what should happen to the rougher woodies out there. Replace just a few sections of really rough track with Topper Track. The sections of it on SFNE's Cyclone are smooth (but not too smooth). It still feels wooden and still looks wooden. It's probably not too expensive either.

Ex.) SOB's first drop and rosebowl, the valleys on Mean Streak, etc.

I think many wooden coasters have *Problem sections*. Expecially where you see lots of booster Bents and the Topper may just be the long term solution to weekly, monthly or even yearly problem areas.

Interesting note to what Rideman pointed out. It wasn't the bottom of the drop but just prior. And strangely, Last year it was just prior to topping the second and third hill. The year prior to that. The long left turn prior to jumping the lifthill. ECT.

Okay, I am a bit behind the curve. What is a "topper track"?

Basically they replace the laminated wood tracking with steel.

It looks like this, but I'm not clear on how it's different from the usual metal plates that are on wooden track. Is it just that it covers the entire top side instead of the narrow strip? I just rode Cyclone at SFNE last Friday and didn't know the track was any different until I read it here. It still wasn't a particularly smooth ride.

From what I hear while in Idaho, I believe the main difference is that this is similar to the pre-fab that Intamin does. The laminated wood layers and steel all come out as one piece. I'm not sure how Intamin does it. But, if I heard correctly, RMGC glues the wood together. They believe their assembly will require little if any maintenance in the long term.

Topper Track Demonstration