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Busch Gardens Williamsburg | Pantheon | Intamin LSM Coaster | 2022

Damn, it looks even bugger than I anticipated from ground height. This is gonna be a monster.

Sent from my Redmi Note 7 using Tapatalk
 
Doublethink said:
wydaily.com

Busch Gardens’ Pantheon roller coaster is almost ready. Here’s a sneak peek | Williamsburg Yorktown Daily

Busch Gardens Williamsburg is unveiling Pantheon little-by-little, revealing the majority of the roller coaster’s track has been constructed and is on schedule to welcome riders in time for spring.
wydaily.com wydaily.com



Press preview was yesterday- few interesting facts:

- track work will be finished within next few days
-aiming to have trains cycling though the ride within the next month
- 3300ft track length
- 15(!!!!) Airtime hills ?
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Oh dear, first guy said a capacity of 1800rph second guy said a despatch interval of 80 seconds with 20 riders per train... That’s a max theoretical capacity of 900rph... Does BGW get busy?

Edit: nevermind, he said 800 ???
 
Nicky Borrill said:
Oh dear, first guy said a capacity of 1800rph second guy said a despatch interval of 80 seconds with 20 riders per train... That’s a max theoretical capacity of 900rph... Does BGW get busy?

Edit: nevermind, he said 800
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I got worried about this info, too. Two twenty rider trains, minute and a half dispatch... Yikes. This thing better work flawlessly 100% of the time without breaking down or it might be a capacity nightmare
 
Doublethink said:
It helps that the swing launch is on an airtime hill so that's probably counted for 3 of those hills
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Even counting that hill 3 times, counting the tophat twice, and counting the backwards spike as an “airtime hill”, I count 11, maybe 12 if they count the turn out of the outward banked hill as an airtime hill..
 
Crazycoaster said:
Even counting that hill 3 times, counting the tophat twice, and counting the backwards spike as an “airtime hill”, I count 11, maybe 12 if they count the turn out of the outward banked hill as an airtime hill..
Click to expand...

Can't tell the full lot yet but there are quite a few small bumps that went in the original plans they are probably counting as airtime hills. But certainly they are counting the 3 on the launch, the overbank, the top hat and probably the stall as well towards that number
 
They also said in typical american style marketing talk that this is a "unique experience like nothing in the world". And I know it's a great combination of elements, but everything here has been tried and tested on various coasters. The 15 air-time moments is just them bigging it up with white lies.
 
My estimations of this thing go up every time I see a construction update! I know everyone's hyped for Iron Gwazi, but I could genuinely see this being the consensus favourite ride of 2020! It just offers so much within its layout, and I genuinely think it could be right up there with Helix, Taron and Maverick as one of the world's finest multi-launch coasters!
 
Matt N said:
My estimations of this thing go up every time I see a construction update! I know everyone's hyped for Iron Gwazi, but I could genuinely see this being the consensus favourite ride of 2020! It just offers so much within its layout, and I genuinely think it could be right up there with Helix, Taron and Maverick as one of the world's finest multi-launch coasters!
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Honestly I think this has the makings to be a world no 1. For me Matt. The more I hear about this ride the better it gets. So say 5 seconds of floater airtime on the spike rollback and imagining you will get similar on the rollback from the top hat too.
 
Here are some videos from the construction tour, including talks from several crew and a general construction update by ACE Mid-Atlantic:-







Just the track at the base of the top hat on the launch side left to complete the circuit!
 
Not really sure about a ride that deliberately ups the ‘thrills’ by potentially killing you if there is a malfunction....

You could say that about any coaster of course but this one effectively teases you with a potential crash? Hmm.

I’m sure it’s safe, I’m just saying that it doesn’t really have much appeal.
 
There are are certainly redundant safety mechanisms, fail-safes, and huge safety factors on a system like this. Remember, this isn't a Lego set - engineers have to consider a wealth of different safety constraints in general, but they must be extra diligent when humans are involved.
 
Nitefly said:
Not really sure about a ride that deliberately ups the ‘thrills’ by potentially killing you if there is a malfunction....

You could say that about any coaster of course but this one effectively teases you with a potential crash? Hmm.

I’m sure it’s safe, I’m just saying that it doesn’t really have much appeal.
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This is a bit melodramatic! Both the LSMs on the launch track and the redundant break fins should individually be able to arrest the momentum of the train in the event the switch track fails. As I have said before these safey systems have been on use on Intamin Accelerators like Dragster for years
 
Doublethink said:
This is a bit melodramatic! Both the LSMs on the launch track and the redundant break fins should individually be able to arrest the momentum of the train in the event the switch track fails. As I have said before these safey systems have been on use on Intamin Accelerators like Dragster for years
Click to expand...
Yes, but Top Thrill Dragster is using those when the mechanism fails to get the cars over the hill. They are intended to go over the hill. Here, the equivalent of ‘not going over the hill’ is the ‘switch track failing’. I suppose you can say the same is true with all break runs but I’m not turned on by the whole ‘switch track whilst the ride is in motion’.

I’m not put off, but I’m not attracted to it.

Clearly there is supposed to be a thrill from the switch trick but I’d rather the coaster just went round the track than bother with that.
 
Nitefly said:
Yes, but Top Thrill Dragster is using those when the mechanism fails to get the cars over the hill. They are intended to go over the hill. Here, the equivalent of ‘not going over the hill’ is the ‘switch track failing’. I suppose you can say the same is true with all break runs but I’m not turned on by the whole ‘switch track whilst the ride is in motion’.
Click to expand...
The system is set up so it "fails to safe". That is, in a fail state, the train will be stopped automatically. Essentially, the brakes on the launch track are always active, and they have to be continuously suppressed during normal operation. If you cut the power, the brake fins spring up and slow the train to a near-stop as it passes over them. The train physically can't reach the track switch if the switch isn't in the right position, because in that situation there wouldn't be enough power to prevent the brakes from engaging.

You could say the same thing about Expedition Everest, which also has a track switch engaging behind the train. There, too, it's not possible to set the train in motion without the switch being in the correct position. The difference here is that the train is not at rest when the system activates, but if anything goes wrong with the switch, there's an ample amount of brakes engaged to stop the train long before it could possibly get close to derailing.
 
Pokemaniac said:
The system is set up so it "fails to safe". That is, in a fail state, the train will be stopped automatically. Essentially, the brakes on the launch track are always active, and they have to be continuously suppressed during normal operation. If you cut the power, the brake fins spring up and slow the train to a near-stop as it passes over them. The train physically can't reach the track switch if the switch isn't in the right position, because in that situation there wouldn't be enough power to prevent the brakes from engaging.

You could say the same thing about Expedition Everest, which also has a track switch engaging behind the train. There, too, it's not possible to set the train in motion without the switch being in the correct position. The difference here is that the train is not at rest when the system activates, but if anything goes wrong with the switch, there's an ample amount of brakes engaged to stop the train long before it could possibly get close to derailing.
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You’re not wrong ?
 
Cranedude said:
"ride safety mechanisim that could kill you"
Wait, WHAT?
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Perhaps I am mistaken but I assume you’re attributing that mis-quote to me - if so, that’s not what I said.

I don’t think anyone has made any comment to infer that the safety mechanisms themselves are dangerous.
 
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