Alton Towers - SW7 - "The Smiler"

Is this going to be a vertical lift or a launch? Looks f'ing awesome.

[gouldy]

It begins with a regular lift, and then half way through the layout is a vertical lift. At least, that's what the plans said, but the things built so far are a little different from the plans we saw originally.

Oh, okay. Yeah, I asked because of the track dumping left out of the station but it's hard to see where it goes. Looks like it will end up just to the right of the brake run and transfer in that ditch. Ride looks sick as f@#$!

[gouldy]

All of the evidence now points to the coaster's final inversion count being 15. This makes sense, because although rcdb currently lists the inversion record as 10; Guinness World Records lists Eejanaika as the record holder with 14, which is total crap, but they got away with it.

Regardless, a coaster with 15 track inversions would definitely claim the record.

First a screenshot from the game, you can see "The Marmeliser" (the big piece of spider theming), on which you can just make out the words "15 rotations"





Next, someone got a photo of a Smiler mug, which has 15... loops? or something... on the handle. 13 which you can see, 1 on the bottom and 1 on the top of the handle.






Lastly, we get this German article about Merlin (it's translated literally from German to English, so some of it reads like total gibberish), which would appear to be pretty darn clear about it.





The only thing is... where on Earth would a 15th track inversion fit? The inversions seem pretty much one after the other and crammed in, when we thought it was 14, but a 15th? My guess would be that there might be an extra cheeky roll thrown in before it hits the brakes, but there doesn't look to be quite enough space in what's already been built, to fit that in. Only really leaving something very special happening with either of the 2 lifts... any thoughts?



Edit:

And photos of construction as it is this morning (photos taken about 10 minutes ago, ha)








EDIT2:

Added an element with my boss MS Paint skills

Originally posted by gouldy




Next, someone got a photo of a Smiler mug, which has 15... loops? or something... on the handle. 13 which you can see, 1 on the bottom and 1 on the top of the handle.

this was brought by a member of towersstreet.co.uk and it has 14 loops on the handle. it was brought from the hotel on the Friday night but the mugs were removed from sale by Saturday after they were put on sale by mistake. its not supposed to be on sale till may. well done towers for that goof up.

i was at the towers on Saturday and wow the thing is bloody impressive. the scale is alot bigger than photos indicate.

some photos I took from Saturday







the start of the big center piece is already on site and you can see the LED boards on it




abit of a mystery here too. there is a rogue support on site. this support is the one which holds the centre of the "serpent roll" up however there is this suspecting support that has a blank piece leading down. it has no footer for it so cannot be just a beam and from the plans looks like it heads for the centre of the path of the track on the exit from the element. this leads me to believe that either there is a fairly big piece of themeing here or there is another inversion somehow.

[gouldy]

Cheers Gaz for your photos!


This is a panoramoic photo I took on my visit yesterday:





And I took this photo, because I think it shows how nice the area will start to look, as this part seems pretty much finished off:






Edit:

Originally posted by gazag


abit of a mystery here too. there is a rogue support on site. this support is the one which holds the centre of the "serpent roll" up however there is this suspecting support that has a blank piece leading down. it has no footer for it so cannot be just a beam and from the plans looks like it heads for the centre of the path of the track on the exit from the element. this leads me to believe that either there is a fairly big piece of themeing here or there is another inversion somehow.

I don't personally think there is much of a mystery there. If you look at other supports on site, you can clearly see that the one pointing downwards will connect to another piece of support, not trackwork. This will just be another brace back to either the floor, or the side wall where the concrete is in that area. The track of the second dive loop dives down underneath the brace that will go there. You can see it much more clearly in my edited photo in my previous post.

you are more than likely right Gouldy. I shall be back at towers later this week or mid next week to check on construction

[gouldy]

As if by magic:




photo credit to JayJay90 on TowersTimes


EDIT:

Seaserpent roll starting to take shape today:





photo credit to JayJay90 on TowersTimes



EDIT 2:




photo credit to JayJay90 on TowersTimes

[gouldy]

Seaserpent Roll now nearly completed, except a support which is still to be added:




It seems these are the uniforms the ride-ops will be wearing:




Thoughts?

Holy hell, that is one twisted knot of track!

[gouldy]

Originally posted by cjd

Holy hell, that is one twisted knot of track!

Yup, pretty much...

i was going to go today but i ran out of time and had to miss out. ill pop up next week instead for a few hours. im liking the uniforms for the staff although i would of preferred them to be doctors rather than generic solder types

wow, this ride looked crazy in the plans but, seeing it built is just astonishing! And there is still more to be done!

[gouldy]

Fairly major snowfall again, causing further delays no doubt. The park had to close on Friday and remains closed until Monday, weather forgiving, of course. The ride is already a fair bit behind schedule!


Photo taken by Staffordshire police

[Coasterkidmwm]

How does your police force not have a 3 year life expectancy if they need to rely on terrible De'Range'ed Rovers?

^Range Rovers actually have a lot more capability than you'd think. It's like the Veyron: despite all of the luxuries and weight it is extremely capable for what they are. Unless you get the 2WD version.

[TheArchitect]

It's a Land Rover Discovery (also use the Freelander and Range Rover), and I think you'll find they cope just fine with them.

Originally posted by TheArchitect

It's a Land Rover Discovery (also use the Freelander and Range Rover), and I think you'll find they cope just fine with them.

I think he was referring to the abysmal reliability record that land rover has.

Don't know about Land Rover reliability so I guess I can't comment on that lol.

also smiler

[gouldy]

Smiler [;)]




The snow melted enough today for them to carry on with track construction, I guess. Looks as if they have installed the bottom of the first drop.


EDIT:

Worth a quick look:

https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/ ... 9457_o.jpg

[gouldy]

Trains!

[Coasterkidmwm]

OTSR's = lolz

[gouldy]

This is England we're talking about. Our laws regarding this sort of this are quite silly. Not to mention the fact that a lot of the general public would probably not ride it, if it didn't have OTSRs. I'm not sure we could have expected any different.


Edit:

First pieces of theming starting to go up!






photo credits to Roodlesnouter from TowersTimes

[Turbo]

I am really anxious to see this completed. I may even get a chance to ride it this summer

The trains are pretty ugly in my opinion. They're very boxy, but I guess they fit the theme.

I agree with Turbo, this should be marvelous when completed! It's such an immaculate ride.