SKY ROCKET
CONSTRUCTION UPDATE
APRIL 6, 2010 |
| Welcome back to another construction update for Kennywood's newest coaster, Sky Rocket. Not much work has occured on the coaster since our last update, with the exception of some of the surf curve track being put up following the completion of the final overbank turn. However, track pieces seem to be arriving fairly frequently now and much of the track for the first hill is now on site. Anyways, on with the pictures... |
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We'll start this update off with an overview shot of the construction site. As you can see, not much has changed from our last update, with the exception of several pieces of track for the surf curves being installed. |
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Another angle of the construction site as of today. As I said, not a lot has changed, but if you look closely supports for the first overbank are starting to pop up. |
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Here's a closer look at the lone support that is now up for the first overbank turn. Based on the radius of this turn, it's going to be pretty drawn out coming off the second drop. It should offer riders several seconds of positive g's and low to the ground action. |
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Moving onto the track, several new pieces of track have arrived over the past couple of days. This piece in particular belongs to the turn after the barrel roll leading up to the mid-course brake run and second drop. |
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Another new piece of track. Based on flatness on one end and the banking on the other, this looks to be the lead in to the inverted top hat. |
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They also seem to have received both pieces of the crest for the first hill. Here you can the first piece which is directly after the 90 degree ascent from the launch. |
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The interesting part of this particular piece of track is it has these special brackets. Unlike what people may think, these will not mount brakes, but rather computer controlled sensors. |
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A closer look at the sensor brackets. This might hint that there might be some braking device on the next piece of track. |
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Here it is! The first vertical piece of track for Sky Rocket. |
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Another look at the first vertical portion of the first hill. The end in the foreground will be the portion leading to the crest of the hill, whereas the other end will be the entrance to the first hill. |
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One of the disappointing discoveries about this piece of track, is that the vertical portion really isn't vertical for very long. When compared to coasters like Fahrenheit at Hersheypark, the hill isn't going to have you vertical for very long. Hopefully the drop will have a longer vertical portion than the ascent. |
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These two pieces also showed up this week. The piece on the left belongs to the turn leading up to the mid-course brake and second drop. The piece on the right belongs to the first portion of the inverted top hat. |
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Based on the flatness on the one side and banking on the other, it looks like this is the first piece for the turn leading up to the second drop. However, I'm not 100% certain. |
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Here's another piece for the inverted top hat. These pieces look to be pretty overbanked, so it might very well be a true inverted top hat and not just a overly banked turn like many readers thought it would be. |
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And the final piece of track they got in, was this one. This is the second piece of track for the crest of the first hill. As you can see, the radius of this hill is gonna be pretty big. |
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The biggest disappointment for this piece of track, is you guessed it, those holes on the ties of the track. If you compare those to the piece for the MCBR, you can very well see there is gonna be some sort of brake just before the first drop. However, keep in mind that this could merely mean that there will be a trim break at the top of the hill just to control the speed the train is going into the first drop. |
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And lastly, as you can see they have began putting together the transfer table for the coaster which might mean it may be installed soon. For those that don't know what this is for, basically this is the section of track that can slide horizontally allowing them to add or remove a train from the circuit from the storage/maintenance area. |
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Thanks for checking out today's Sky Rocket Construction Update brought to you by Kennywood Connection. Stay tuned for another update in the coming days as more supports and track start to rise at Kennywood!
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Thank you to KWC member Myself for providing the pictures used in today's construction update! |
