Hershey was kind enough to invite me out to take a spin of Fahrenheit for it’s opening day. A ride review will follow later tonight, I’ll just explain the 80 or pictures I took of the ride.

97 degrees and fallin fast. Lots of airtime to go around also.

Skyward ho!
To explain the lift system a bit. The lift is powered by two independent hydraulic motors at the top of the lift. The motors are powered by a pump located in the building at the base of the lift hill. Hydraulic oil is pumped all the way to the top of the lift by two 4 inch steel pipes. Each motor powers a separate chain and each chain is able to lift the train by itself. If you notice there are not any anti-roll backs on the lift. This is because each motor has a hydraulic brake if the ride begins to slip. To evacuate people (if necessary) they slowly lower the train back down the lift into the pre-lift area. The entire ride has a backup power supply just in case of a power failure. The train is not physically attached to the train either, instead they use something similar to a catch dog on an aircraft carrier. It hits the back of the train and carries the train up and over.

Pictured is Jason Brown head of promotions and Gary Chubb manager of maintenance, he is also in charge of future rides. We were able to talk to Gray and ask him technical info on the ride, which is where everything posted above came from. Someone asked if there were any rides that we should make sure we get on this year. He told us to focus on the Pioneer area and that a wet ride and a dry ride would be a good idea. So it looks like Hershey will be losing two rides for the rumored Boardwalk expansions next year. My guess is the Canyon River Rapids (based off of rumors) and Rodeo.

One of the most insane elements I have ever been on. When you are standing in line you can get a clear idea of what the ride does, but this element really confuses you when you ride. The “turn-outs” go the opposite way of what it feels like they should.

This is where the ride valleyed early in the day. Fahrenheit has one fat Cobra Roll.

I call this area the triple stack because there are three inversions all stacked on top of each other. In this image you can see all of the inversions and basically the entire ride.

The last inversion before the curve section of the ride.

There is a big pop of air on that last bunny hill, it totally took me by surprise.

You can check out the full gallery of pictures here. There are some opening day related pictures here. Fahrenheit is a really good coaster that you should get on if you have a chance.

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 25th, 2008 at 10:13 am and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.