Alton Towers - SW7 - "The Smiler"

OH MY GOD GERSTLAUER JESUS THIS THING IS AWESOME. I didn't realize one of the drops would have an inversion incorporated. Lift awesome, inversions awesome, ride looks cool etc. etc. this is looking really great. Gerstlauer does it again. This ride is going to be INSANE and disorienting. Those trains are awesome.

Originally posted by GerstlCrazy

OH MY GOD GERSTLAUER JESUS THIS THING IS AWESOME. I didn't realize one of the drops would have an inversion incorporated. Lift awesome, inversions awesome, ride looks cool etc. etc. this is looking really great. Gerstlauer does it again. This ride is going to be INSANE and disorienting. Those trains are awesome.

would you like a box of tissues?

Man he must be crazy or something, behaving like that.

[gouldy]

GerstlCrazy; both drops are inverted drops, not just the one [;)]

They're just finishing the first drop now, and you can see the second drop in the background, still waiting for it's top piece(s):




Edit:

And the 5th and final leg of the Marmeliser is going in today:



And that first drop is finally completed:

[GRIM.657]

beautiful

Whens the opening day of this? Might take a drive down there with some mates around that time roughly.

[gouldy]

No one knows for sure at the moment; I don't even think the park know, yet, as there's still a lot of uncertainty it seems. However, a few things in recent weeks have all pointed to a date of the 18th of May. We were trying to organise a meet up for the opening day, back when the opening day was the 16th of March... but obviously that went tits up

[Coasterkidmwm]

You shoudl just say screw it and meet in June or something.

[gouldy]

Nah, gotta be there opening day! You see familiar faces from other websites there, too, because the ride is crawling with enthusiasts. This has its problems, too, though - because enthusiasts tend to bullpoop even more than the general public do, so you can hear some right lulzworthy things while queueing.


Second drop installed today, leaving the first lift hill as the only remaining track to install, which is also well on the way (both drop and lift in picture):

[Coasterkidmwm]

Guyz it's gonna be a launched lift hill and then there will be a barrel roll at the top like Hulk mmkay

[gouldy]

Your suggestion may be in jest; but others have suggested it seriously *facepalm*.

Seeing the "fins" on the lift has prompted ideas that this is a launch, because "the fins are LIMs!" Even though they're quite blatantly just copper alloy fins with no potential for propulsion whatsoever.

It's their new quiet anti roll back gear, designed with the Ropers in mind no doubt. Rather than being "anti-roll back", it'll be more like "controlled roll back into brake positon at base of lift"

[Coasterkidmwm]

It's gonna roll back into a barrel roll mmkay

[mkingy]

Originally posted by gouldy

Your suggestion may be in jest; but others have suggested it seriously *facepalm*.

Seeing the "fins" on the lift has prompted ideas that this is a launch, because "the fins are LIMs!" Even though they're quite blatantly just copper alloy fins with no potential for propulsion whatsoever.

It's their new quiet anti roll back gear, designed with the Ropers in mind no doubt. Rather than being "anti-roll back", it'll be more like "controlled roll back into brake positon at base of lift"

Definitely not, that makes too much sense for people to believe!

[TheArchitect]

[gouldy]

Originally posted by TheArchitect

It doesn't look bad, does it.


Today, as the last pieces of track are going in (The first lift hill), the construction workers recreated a famous old photo (why, I don't know )

[Coasterkidmwm]

That's actually really really cool to me. Kudos to them

[TheArchitect]

i need this as my wallpaper.... now

[gouldy]

I'll see if I can find a high res version!

More importantly though, there is only one pieve of track now left to install - the apex of the first lift:




They're going to install it tomorrow according to Gerstlauer's on site engineers, so we're not a million miles away from the testing stage now. May even be in the early part of next week.

[Coasterkidmwm]

They're putting the washing machine element at the top of the lift guyz

Originally posted by Coasterkidmwm

They're putting the washing machine element at the top of the lift guyz

That cheap piece of fox dung that only serves to artificially claim an inversion world record? I hope not.

Originally posted by gouldy

No one knows for sure at the moment; I don't even think the park know, yet, as there's still a lot of uncertainty it seems. However, a few things in recent weeks have all pointed to a date of the 18th of May.

the 18th is a very strong possibility as the press night has been organised for the 17th of may.

[gouldy]

Yeah, it seems quite likely to be that date. But that is quite a tight deadline, I think, given how much is still left to do including the testing. If everything goes well, they will be able to make that date fairly comfortably; but if they have bad problems when testing, it could very easily slip to the 25th.


Edit:

The circuit is complete!

i agree it could easily slip, ill tell you all on the 17th after the VIP night

[gouldy]

Aerial shots!
If you want to see more aerial photos, you'll have to go and sign up at Towerstimes.co.uk!









Let the testing begin... in a week or so.

It took me like 2 minutes to follow the track layout in the second picture. Just crazy.