Alton Towers - SW7 - "The Smiler"

[Coasterkidmwm]

FLIPPY LIFT MOTHERF**KERS!

[gouldy]

Well, the lift support structure is going in right now as I type, and... sorry CKMWM but there's no sign of your flippy lift [V]





It is a beastly structure, though.

[Coasterkidmwm]

Looks photoshopped to me

[gouldy]

It is rather different looking lift hill structure for Gerstlauer, though.







A fish-eye shot from this morning.




Photo credit to TowersTimes


Edit:

Borrowed a photo by stretchy on TowersStreet and added the track with my boss paint skills.

[coolbeans326]

how many inversions?

[gouldy]

Still just the 14 at the moment. There were hints it would be 15, but it doesn't seem like there's any track left at this point in which to add a 15th.


Edit:

That lift is gonna look pretty cool...




Picture credit to RoodlesNouter from TowersTimes


Edit 2:

Vertical Lift is in:

That's definitely not a lift actually. Hello vertical luanch!

^these are brake fins...you can clearly see a chain return in that picture. At least I think it is one^^

Really now? I have never seen brake fins on lift before. There was always the anti-rollbacks. Can I see a pic of another ride that has brake fins on a regular lift to confirm?

[gouldy]

The fins have caused some confusion on other sites, too. But there is a lift chain, which wouldn't be there if it was a launch, surely?

The fins can't stop roll backs, all they could do is slow the train down in that instance; but they must be for something!

The top of the lift has quite a large radius, but you'd suspect that it's not nearly large enough for the car to be launch over it. It's also at a constant radius, instead of decreasing, as you'd expect to see (for example like a top hat). Maybe there will be some kind of variation in speed on the vertical part of the lift?

I have no idea if there's another ride with brake fins on the lift...
but I think this is just a new technique to do an e-stop. With the brake fins you have the ability to bring the train back to the bottom of the lift. With normal antirolls this would be impossible and the train would be stuck on the lift until the chain starts moving again.

Edit: Forget it...what gouldy said sounds much more resonable...

I kind of considered the large radius as a timer to equal to the non-vertical lift which would naturally have a larger radius. This way the fall the same way so neither has more momentum than the other. The brakes fins I have no idea.

[gouldy]

The actual radius of the lift apex is probably more to do with the size of the trains, in fariness. This is the first Eurofighter with a train of 4 cars, don't forget, and their wheel assemblies aren't like we've seen before, either.

Still really curious as to what the copper alloy fins could be for. They're certainly not a launch, though. They're not LIMs or LSMs, they're just copper alloy fins; they can only slow things down.


EDIT:

So, the fins have been cleared up: On a usual Eurofighter, there is a simple rack and dog mechanism fitted, like any other lift hill. These are so the train cannot roll backwards down the lift hill under any circumstance. On Eurofighter lifts, this becomes a problem if the ride breaks down to such an extent that the people on the lift hill need to be evacuated from the train, as you can imagine. The evacuation process would be a particularly awkward affair, that could actually be dangerous.

However, with the fins it's possible, without any power whatsoever (in case of a powercut), to allow the train to slowly roll back down the hill into the horizontzal position; allowing the evacuation process to be as simple as stepping out of the train onto a catwalk.

[Coasterkidmwm]

Oh yeah well back in my day we walked uphill both ways and had to walk down stairs when we were evacuated from a train.

Kids these days have it so easy.

[gouldy]

I guess it would take ages to empty this train on the lift as well, given that it's twice the size of a normal Eurofighter train.

There could be a secondary reason for this, too; the Roper's house is nearby, and a rack and dog can be pretty loud... suggesting, of course, we may see the same system on the first lift hill, also, even though it's not a vertical lift.

[GavG]

Kinda off topic here. I thought the Roper's lived in the few houses's that are by the entrance to Towers and not in the village itself?

[gouldy]

Yeah, X Sector is the nearest part of the park to the entrance (from the road) of Alton Towers. Hence why their biggest complaint aside from the fireworks, has been the noise generated by Oblivion.

If you're coming to Alton Towers from the south, as you near the entrance of Alton Towers, you pass X Sector on your right (you can just see Oblivion through the trees), and I believe the Ropers live in this area. I could be wrong about that, though!


Edit:

The final turn into the break run has been completed today, proving there won't be a cheeky final roll before hitting the breaks.

[Coasterkidmwm]

So is an overbank (if one exists) in the prelift section counted as a loop or are the marketers just too busy mounting sheep to count correctly?

[gouldy]

There's a rising heartline roll in the pre lift, and nothing else as far as we're aware. All we know is that there is quite a long section of straight track with lots of brakes on it before the first lift.

Some images from today:

[gouldy]

The first lift hill has begun to be put in today, and... it's quad rail! It also has the new copper alloy fins 'controlled' rollback system employed on the vertical lift hill, I supect for noise reduction.





It's also pretty steep:




An overview from the bottom end of the site:




Seen some really impressive photos of the nearly completed inverted drops today as well; the ride is looking spectacular now, from all angles.


photo credit to Rob at TowersStreet.com

With this Alton Towers will be riding the top spot once again, In USA you go tall with almost no restrictions, yet back in the UK Lies possibly the best coaster of 2013, Most definitely in the UK possibly Europe and i dare say will be in the top 3 of the world!

The ride that looks so good it would be worth making a deal with the devil for.

[Coasterkidmwm]

They'll open it and all of the 14 year olds will say its incredibly rough since they've never experienced an Arrow looper.

[gouldy]

Well it is a Gerstlauer... on their showing so far in this country, we're probably quite right to expect it to be rough. Although hoping that it ends up being more like Lynet, Anubis etc. which I hear are very smooth.

I went on GASM before it was torn down, and to be fair, it was only as rough as Corkscrew ever was

i think it will be very smooth as this is the first coaster from Gerstlauer's new factory so i should think this will be pretty smooth but you will still feel the effects of Gerstache after a while. i very much the proposed opening date of may 18th does happen