Sidders

I count six inversions. It looks like seven because the element just after the Immelman loop (inversion two) is partially unclear, though if you look at the other pictures (viewable on Coaster Force or where these pictures originally leaked) it is actually a pretty enormous air-time hill. Looks fab, does this ride.

Good point actually. Surely 21st century ride technology (even if it's from Rocky Mountain Construction) would suggest that it's not likely to explode on opening or maim it's riders... All the normal checks would've been done.

Quick Note: This topic's been moved to a more appropriate area of the forum. The original topic is still in it's old location but you'll be re-directed here.

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Well, if Merlin are going by their market research (seems logic) then we won't be getting any kind of pure Woodie for the foreseeable future unless they pull their fingers out of their arses and actually do something like what Outlaw Run is (that is assuming Thorpe don't pull the GCI 2009 Woodie plans off the shelf and actually get a move on re-scaling the ride to fit Island A). Yeah, it's a hybrid design, but that doesn't stop Thorpe from designing a layout that's able to give a decent ride filled with air-time that a normal GCI would give. And if it's got inversions, Thorpe have another easy world record, which we all know they love. I'm all for a rootsy GCI or hell even an Intamin woodie (hai El Toro), but if a hybrid like Outlaw Run is what it takes to get a half-decent woodie in the UK, then I won't exactly be wielding a pick-axe and a flaming torch come opening day. P.S. Same goes for Alton, really... If they can get any kind of woodie then win.

Oh hot damn. Thorpe, do you copy? I want one of these, dammit!

For Mr. Tolson: I think this is her best song yet (save maybe the single version of 'Lights'; it's very Ellie. I don't like the video though. Video is hipster orgasm material.

I actually love that post. But seriously, I've also noticed he's been gone from the forums lately; can't say much about Twitter as I do not partake in twitting, but he's been posting on Facebook like normal. Something about anticipating home-made beef burgers and condemning the potential gridlock of London morning traffic if I recall correctly...

Hi and welcome to TPM, Soph! Slammer's been unavailable for a number of months this year, due to reasons beyond the park's control. Part of the reason Slammer is unavailable for operation so much is that the company who manufactured the ride (S&S Power) no longer make spare parts as production has stopped for the Sky Swat has been stopped due to lack of popularity (I think Slammer is the only operational Sky Swat left in the world after S&S sold only three of them between 2005 and 2009-10?). This means that external companies have to be contacted if spare parts are needed, and extra time is needed to fabricate and transport them. The last official news we heard from the park was that the ride would indeed be opened later this year, but for now a date is not set. Ride signage has been taken down to draw less attention to the ride since early July. Sorry to say it, but Slammer doesn't look like it'll be operational for your trip on Friday. Hope this helps.

Ah fine enough Josh - completely missed that part. But I've called you out on plenty of posts in the past (GERSTAULER!) so we're quits now.

Woah woah woah woah... woah! Who said anything about other members? Going by what a mightily pissed off Liam was saying in last night his jibe against hypocrisy was merely directed at someone (who sounds like a royal bitch) from his Facebook. Is it okay to vent his spleen where he knows she won't see it? Yeah I'm not saying it makes him better but damn just letting it out in words can release at least some tension. This is the topic for it, so why is it suddenly wrong to do it? I swear all this bitchiness just goes in cycles - what wrong with letting off a bit of steam now and then? **** sake people. And Josh - I know the feeling, mate. My granddad (pretty much the only person in about five generations of our family to have what he calls "a loose dowry" (I.e. - **** loads of cash stored away somewhere) remarried to a bitch a couple of years ago who "enjoys the finer things in life" and is spending pretty much everything he has. He doesn't seem to care because he's a direct beneficiary of this indulgence, as is she and the rest of her family. However, his two children - my mother and my aunt - don't see much of it. My aunt doesn't really need it as she's happily married with no children, but my mother has six children of varying ages (20yrs all the way down to 4yrs), and to be perfectly honest, my mum doesn't have very good contact with any of her family (my aunt can afford to fly to Spain and visit her mum all the time), so we don't actually get much money from anywhere really, and my mum's the kind of person who, if left anything in an inheritance, say, would be the last person to spend it on herself, and I've sort of forgotten where this is going but the injustice stands out for itself. Basically she's worried none of her children will get a cut because a lot of it will simply go to the royalist bigot bitch my granddad ever had the misfortune of meeting. Personally I'm not bothered - we've never had money so I can't really complain about simply not getting it in the first place but this would really hurt my mum, and given the state she's in right now I don't think it'll do her any good whatsoever.

A lot of them have, but what makes Outlaw Run such a breakthrough (and one of the main reasons Thorpe need to consider the possibility that this new-generation of Woodie is something their target market would love) is that the ride is primarily a wooden design, though there are up-stop wheels on the trains and steel tracks to manoeuvre safely through the inversions, meaning it classifies as a hybrid. And to have this sort of layout on this coaster type is nothing short of unheard of - that's why you might think they've not been done before. However, outwards-banking turns are nothing all that new to even Wooden Coaster designs (see: Wodan @ Europa Park). Although Outlaw Run will undoubtedly be the first to try the manoeuvre to such an extreme extent, as Wodan's I believe is featured on the track leading from the station to the lift hill, so the train is barely travelling over 10mph. These elements have also made appearances on S&S' El Loco designs, travelling at similar speeds. But that said, it's very impressive that Outlaw Run will be travelling at over 60mph (estimate - how tall is this thing?) through it's outwards-banked turn. However, the image earlier in this thread looks to be more of a Stengel Dive to me, but one (the only one I believe) that fully inverts, so it's sort of outwards-banking because the ride rolls to the right but exits the manoeuvre to the left. Whilst Stengel Dives aren't necessarily something new either, I don't believe we've ever seen one on a Woodie (for steelie Stengel Dives, see: Goliath @ Walibi World, Maverick @ Cedar Point). Don't quote me on this, but I'm sure some pretty wild things have been done with the Woodie design in the past. There's been some built with vertical loops (not entirely sure if any are still in operation), and if I remember correctly one particular coaster (an in-house build which was planned to open as 'The Cannon Coaster') from decades ago at the then world-renowned holiday resort of Coney Island sported a gap in the track, where the train would make a small 'jump' off the track and then land onto the next piece of track at a slightly lower level (the coaster failed during testing and never opened). But yeah, considering this'll be made with 21st Century hybrid ride technology and not fag-packet physics, Outlaw Run looks absolutely insane, and a real bona-fide winner for Silver Dollar City.

AND, it has a new world record - steepest drop on any wooden coaster, taking the title from El Toro by just one degree... Thorpe, I do want.

This is me. So I stopped posting statuses. Fuq da police.

Was probs Sheepie...

Hey Charlotte, always good to see new members. Hope you stick around, and see you around the forums and in the chat room if you like.

It's no secret I'm not the most sensitive of people, but damn this song is just... wow. That voice, and that production...

As long as they don't go down the Six Flag Magic Mountain route and completely destroy the entire point of the ride by adding weights to the train, then it's a complete no-brainer for me. Possibly wait till 2014 though, for reasons that GOOSEANIMATICS points out.

Terror of the... err...Trowels. Yep. Definitely Trowels. Joking - Terror of the Towers.

When Scouting For Girls released 'This Ain't A Love Song', I was a bit pissed off they'd matured a little too much, but it was pleasant enough indication of progression, but then the rest of 'Everybody Wants To Be On TV' went it the complete opposite direction and unbalanced everything and they were **** again. This time they've gone for a similar musical sound as 'This Ain't A Love Song', but this time there's that playfulness that their last lead single lacked. No, if only there was some actual sun and a street BBQ to bring this baby to life.

Well that BASE jump looked... painful.

No that's probably just the same piece of metal framing that's always been there.

Just dropping this in: the seating issues should be sorted shortly, if not already. A few tweaks here and there have prevented the trains' seats from playing up.

Not sure if there'd be any point in a Leviathan-style nameboard/set-piece because The Swarm's logo has it's own bridge to itself already. Jack's hit the nail on the head though - the pipe looks more like an internal support for a stood structure, which is to be bolted into the ground as well, so that means it's heavy. My best guess is it's going to be a smashed car that's been picked up and dropped by The Swarm and smashed an enormous whole in the ground. If this is a sign of things to come (first Krake receives more themeing, now The Swarm) then I take my hat off to Merlin. Now if only they took their sights down to the more finite details of a coaster like, oh, I dunno, the paintwork or existing themeing pieces/devices. OH, HEY INFERNO.