Farhenheit construction walk-thru 3-12: Part Two
Well I’m back from Spring Break and on a good computer, so I will fill you in on a few more of the details I learned while visiting Hershey.
There you can see a few more of the plugs on the supports in order to make the ride quiet. Fahrenheit will not have the roar that the Great Bear suffers from.
Work on the cobra roll is continuing. The beginning supports were being placed when we were there.
Gary Chubb was the leader of the construction tour. He shared a lot of great info on every aspect of Fahrenheit. One of the first things he talked about was Hershey’s view on ride building. He said, “If you look at our past coasters, we try and keep the environment as natural as possible. Storm Runner really threads the needle. If you look at that coaster you would think that it has been there for decades, but we take special care to try an not remove trees. If we take a tree out, we will place another one somewhere in the park.”
Here you can see some left over casings for the footers. They looked to be about four feet or so in diameter. Gary told us that Fahrenheit is on about as close a construction schedule as possible. They actually put out a request to five different ride makers (Mack, Zamperla, Gerstlauer, Intamin, and B&M). They gave them a budget and footprint of the ride. Obviously Intamin was the winner by presenting a solid ride design that was sure the thrill riders.
This is the top sprocket for on of the sides of the chain lift. Fahrenheit will use duel chain lifts, one on each side, to get the trains up the 90 degree climb. A look at the bottom sprockets can be found here (yes you can see both of them there).
A look at the twisted track of Fahrenheit. Gary later went on to say that computers have really enhanced the design of coasters today. Things that were not possible ten years ago can now be designed and built on a tight schedule.
That’s all for this update. A very special thanks to the people at Hersheypark that made this possible. In particular I would like to thank Kathy Burrows and Gary Chubb for allowing Coasterdom to be included in this event.
