Menu
What's new
By:
Filters

Alton Towers | Wicker Man | GCI Wood

ATI said:
Well according to GCI's website, Wicker Man actually has a track length of 2,609ft, rather than the original 2,028ft of track. Now I'm kind of torn.
Click to expand...
I agree, ATI! 2,028ft always seemed too short to me considering the size of Wicker Man!
EDIT: GCI's website also says that the ride reaches 43.6mph instead of 44, although the difference there is negligible. The ride is also stated as having a 22m lift height and a 22m drop. Here's a link to GCI's page on Wicker Man: https://www.greatcoasters.com/?p=wickerman

It might interest you to know that I also saw a Blooloop article citing 2,609ft as the ride's length.
 
Last edited:
Do you reckon that was Alton discounting the end portion of track during their official announcement, as it's not really part of the ride experience? Or is GCI just wrong? Always thought that 618m felt a bit too short tbf...

Also when Google Earth updated it's imagery to show the coaster's footers, I thought I'd use the measuring tool to see how long it'd approximately be and it was about 800m (very nerdy, I know).
 
Last edited:
ATI said:
Have they managed to solve the issues this coaster was having? I haven't known the coaster to have any major downtime as of late.
Click to expand...

Last week it was running fairly well - 3 train operations, no major downtime and queue times hovering around 30 minutes or so. Batching between the preshow and loading station still needs tweaking as there is still a bit of stacking on the brake run from time to time, but on the whole not too bad.

With regards to the ride length, it seems that RCDB has also been updated - it too now states the ride as 2,609ft long. Not entirely sure where that extra 600ft have come from tho? If it's been there all along, then how was it measured so inaccurately the first time? o_O
 
^Yeah, RCDB has updated because I emailed Duane about it. I used the Google path tool and it measured around 750 metres, and I measured InvadR and it measured around 600m long, so it is correct. I just think Alton Towers was excluding the brakes, maintenance, station, and possibly the lift hill.
 
I assume the 2,609ft long distance must include everything including the station, lift hill and brakes whereas the official stats Towers released were probably only top of lift hill to first brake run. Also worth noting Towers was saying WM is running at 45/46mph during staff previews whereas GCI are only saying 43mph, which was probably an estimate when it was in planning.
 
davidm said:
Mr Wardley's input, from the man (the LEGEND) himself ; http://www.john-wardley.co.uk/wickerman.html
Click to expand...

Interesting. I'm very curious to know what the first 2 drops looked like before Wardley reprofiled them, I wonder if his NL2 simulation is online anywhere? And also what other changes he suggested that couldn't be implemented. In fact, I'd love to know what the entire ride would have looked like had he been involved from the start.
And another thing, if GCI are 'supposedly' the industry leaders in this type of ride, how come nobody on their team at any point said 'Hang on, these first 2 drops are sh*t, shouldn't we reprofile them'?
 
Have to wonder how disjointed Merlin are when Merlin’s main board director for the theme parks believes John Wardley has been involved in the project for 5 months and only finds out he isn’t through a chance phone call. For such a major addition surely he would know if someone like JW is involved or not? Why didn’t anyone on the design team think shall we get JW involved? It’s no secret he has tried to get an AT woodie since 2005’s cross valley attempt. It’s bizarre.
Real shame that he campaigned for an AT woodie for all those years then they decide to do it without his involvement.

Have to wonder what might have been if Wardley had been involved from the start. Definately wouldn’t have the boring corner for starters.
 
Howie said:
Interesting. I'm very curious to know what the first 2 drops looked like before Wardley reprofiled them, I wonder if his NL2 simulation is online anywhere? And also what other changes he suggested that couldn't be implemented. In fact, I'd love to know what the entire ride would have looked like had he been involved from the start.
And another thing, if GCI are 'supposedly' the industry leaders in this type of ride, how come nobody on their team at any point said 'Hang on, these first 2 drops are sh*t, shouldn't we reprofile them'?
Click to expand...
I assume the original drops were the ones shown on the initial plans. You have to hope that Merlin have learned from this fiasco and next time they'll consult him from the beginning. Tbh it's lucky they got him involved when they did, because it's that second drop that makes the ride decent really.
 
Howie said:
Interesting. I'm very curious to know what the first 2 drops looked like before Wardley reprofiled them, I wonder if his NL2 simulation is online anywhere? And also what other changes he suggested that couldn't be implemented. In fact, I'd love to know what the entire ride would have looked like had he been involved from the start.
And another thing, if GCI are 'supposedly' the industry leaders in this type of ride, how come nobody on their team at any point said 'Hang on, these first 2 drops are sh*t, shouldn't we reprofile them'?
Click to expand...

I remember there were some sections with the original planning application that showed near enough no first drops, it just kind of meandered down the hill which lead to everyone truly believing it would be a launched wooden coaster, simply because the drops were so ****.
 
Yeah that reflects REALLY badly on Alton's planning department if the senior management were of the understanding that he'd been involved for the last five months.

Can imagine the awkward silence when he finally asked "What does John think of it?".

At a guess, the ****e original drops were probably something Alton themselves asked for; GCI are more likely to just do as they're told than to wilfully chuck in a **** ride.
 
https://www.towerstimes.co.uk/sw8/ride-plans/
163932.jpg

Yeah so basically quite a significant portion of the first bit of the ride just kind of bounced along up in the air just after the lift hill, before finally dropping into the Wicker Man structure at the end of a ridiculously long sound tunnel. No idea why they (whoever 'they' actually is) thought it was a good idea to have basically a long straight followed by a single drop, instead of John's idea which managed to fit a drop, an airtime hill and a really fun double down thing into the exact same plot. This NoLimits recreation not long after the original plans were released might give a better idea of what it would probably have been like:
 
I can kinda understand why maybe he was left out of the project initially. He's very much retired now and the new project team will be wanting to create something new on their own merits!

Although considering how much work John had done previously to get wood to Alton, he's said on record so many times that it's his dream. Infact over the years I'd noticed him campaigning for it numerous times. It seems almost cruel to have not even consulted him in the early stages.
 
Also sounds like he campaigned heavily for a woodie before they built the Smiler, I would LOVE to see some of the layouts and themes which he came up with.. Although they didn't go for it on the basis of "Merlin’s reservations on the likely public attitude towards such a ride". Great decision that turned out to be.

After those initial reservations, Merlin opt for a woodie on their own accord just after the worst accident in the parks history. Go figure.
 
spicy said:
After those initial reservations, Merlin opt for a woodie on their own accord just after the worst accident in the parks history. Go figure.
Click to expand...
I have a feeling that the metaphorical wheels were already well in motion for SW8 before the Smiler crash. The crash, and then the Colossus debacle, leads me to think they wouldn't have built a woodie if they hadn't already developed something 'to the point of no return'.
 
Yeah likewise, they'd have gone for a much safer option.

And yeah as above, the more I think about it the more I think it's unbelievably harsh on Wardley, knowing how much he pushed for a woodie, to treat him as such an afterthought.
 
Smithy said:
Yeah likewise, they'd have gone for a much safer option.

And yeah as above, the more I think about it the more I think it's unbelievably harsh on Wardley, knowing how much he pushed for a woodie, to treat him as such an afterthought.
Click to expand...
I think it's possible thought that perhaps Merlin is so disjointed that either people thought he was already part of the project, already had been asked, or just simply overlooked because everyone else was so distracted and frantic about the project. I dunno, that's just the impression I get when I think about Merlin in the planning stages for the coaster.
 
Hixee said:
I have a feeling that the metaphorical wheels were already well in motion for SW8 before the Smiler crash. The crash, and then the Colossus debacle, leads me to think they wouldn't have built a woodie if they hadn't already developed something 'to the point of no return'.
Click to expand...


Yeah the woodie was very much in the pipeline before the smiler crash. They were even doing height tests in the forbidden valley and visiting europa park alot. They had initially planned on opening in 2017.

Idea sessions for SW9 will already be underway now.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top