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GCI Titan Track Conversion

Wait are they doing the whole thing or just a section?

I'll be honest, it looks really ****ing ugly, I hope they paint the steel. I'm curious to see how this will ride though.
 
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SilverArrow said:
(Does this make it a new cred?)
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To me, no.

I count Hulk and CanCan Coaster as they totally replaced all the track in one go and reprofiled some of it while they were at it. If this work is just replacing a small section with steel (which may well end up being rolled out over the whole layout over a number of seasons), then it's the same as any other wooden coaster retracking - not a new cred. If they re-do the whole layout in one go - possibly, but I don't think I would unless they do any major reprofiling...
 
Ooh that's an interesting one.

Say they did, over a couple of years, retrack it entirely, slowly replacing the wooden track with the steel track. The feels like it should be a different cred? You quite literally have gone from a wooden coaster to a hybrid coaster, and they're very different things, even if they have the same layouts.

Presumably when converting from wood to steel there would be some sort of reprofiling too? Even if it's just minor, it feels unlikely to me it would be completely the same? That's just a guess on my part though, so could very much be wrong.

I'm normally in the camp of 'if a park retracks a ride piece by piece over several years it's the same ride'. But this feels different.

Way I see it is it's like pizza: if you order a "ham and pineapple" pizza, take off some of the ham when it arrives, and replace it with a different type of ham, you still have a "ham and pineapple" pizza. If you eventually replace all the ham with the new ham, it's still is that pizza. That's your normal slow retrack.

If you take some of the ham off when it arrives and replace it with bacon, you've changed it, but enough to still call it the same to what it was earlier. But if you eventually take off all the ham and replace it with bacon, it's fundamentally different. That would be this weird scenario of if they slowly replaced all the wooden track with steel imo.


Personally I'd be very surprised if the track was replaced with steel track over a number of years. So I guess it's a mute point in that sense. But still, an intriguing development.
 
I appreciate what you were going for with the metaphor, but I can't help but feel like pizza was an odd choice. Gave me a good chuckle, that.

"Boy, he's making a good solid post here"
JoshC. said:
Way I see it is it's like pizza
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Okay... let's see where this is going... :confused:
JoshC. said:
If you take some of the ham off when it arrives and replace it with bacon, you've changed it, but enough to still call it the same to what it was earlier. But if you eventually take off all the ham and replace it with bacon, it's fundamentally different.
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Whelp! :p

I think what we can be sure of, though, is it would be very stale pizza if you spent several seasons replacing the ham with bacon. :D
 
JoshC. said:
Say they did, over a couple of years, retrack it entirely, slowly replacing the wooden track with the steel track. The feels like it should be a different cred? You quite literally have gone from a wooden coaster to a hybrid coaster, and they're very different things, even if they have the same layouts.
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Extending that line of thought, wouldn't it be a separate cred in the midst of the reconstruction as well? Half wooden, half hybrid? Would each of the quarter phases count as a new cred as well? The eighths? I wonder at what resolution we're talking about new creds here.
 
Hixee said:
I appreciate what you were going for with the metaphor, but I can't help but feel like pizza was an odd choice. Gave me a good chuckle, that.
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Pizza was an odd choice, but I couldn't think of a better metaphor. I'll take a chuckle even if my point didn't make the cut though ?

Maybe my next metaphor should involve walls... ?

Pokemaniac said:
Extending that line of thought, wouldn't it be a separate cred in the midst of the reconstruction as well? Half wooden, half hybrid? Would each of the quarter phases count as a new cred as well? The eighths? I wonder at what resolution we're talking about new creds here.
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That's another weird one. I think anyone who does call it a new cred in it's current guise would struggle to truly convince many others. But then, you can't call it a new cred when you replace another small piece with steel, by the same logic. And so on and so on until you then have the whole track is steel. But a wooden coaster and a hybrid coaster are different really, so it doesn't really feel like that argument fits to me.

It's a grey area, and one where it's hard to answer.
 
I think it would make more logical sense to replace all the track at once. Although my question is, why aren't they doing it in the winter?

Also, I think this should really have its own separate thread.
 
SilverArrow said:
https://twitter.com/x/status/1305632925430550530

(Does this make it a new cred?)
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Well this feels totally random and fascinating. I honestly haven't really tracked GCI and GG's "answer" to RMC's Iron Horse product; has more been shared on this at IAAPA or otherwise? Or are we looking at a genuine unannounced pilot? Overall think it's cool to do with a small park like Funspot, such as the VR pilot they did on their family Vekoma SLC.

To speculate on the "will it work" moment; I'm optimistic. Steel track by and large provides a smoother, faster ride. And I did have a pretty meh ride on White Lightning earlier this year; granted, the trains were running pretty empty, but there was a good deal of rattle and shuffle onboard. Any opportunity to go smoother, faster is welcomed by me.

CanobieFan said:
Why do it in the winter vs any other time? We don't really have an off season here and with holidays, Christmas and New Years are massively busy times since everyone is off... and all the cold areas in the US wanna escape down here for some mini-summer fun.
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Unfortunately they missed a prime window during some "unscheduled" downtime earlier this year. ;)


Hixee said:
I count Hulk and CanCan Coaster as they totally replaced all the track in one go and reprofiled some of it while they were at it. If this work is just replacing a small section with steel (which may well end up being rolled out over the whole layout over a number of seasons), then it's the same as any other wooden coaster retracking - not a new cred. If they re-do the whole layout in one go - possibly, but I don't think I would unless they do any major reprofiling...
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Unless we're talking significant redirection of track and profile, agree it's the same credit. Ghostrider is a good, recent reprofile example. GCI's work completely replaced the track, really improved the ride; but the layout is essentially the same, and still lends itself to the same credit, despite the improvements.
 
Hyde said:
Well this feels totally random and fascinating. I honestly haven't really tracked GCI and GG's "answer" to RMC's Iron Horse product; has more been shared on this at IAAPA or otherwise? Or are we looking at a genuine unannounced pilot? Overall think it's cool to do with a small park like Funspot, such as the VR pilot they did on their family Vekoma SLC.
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They announced it at IAAPA last year: https://www.coasterforce.com/forums/threads/gci-prototype-steel-track.44007/ at fun spot no less! :)
 
I think for me, if they replace a few elements with steel and it rides differently (I'm assuming it will as wood and hybrids feel very different) I'll count it as a new cred but it's got to be a significant chunk of the main ride elements (e.g. not the station or brake run).
 
I think if the ride has the same layout/profiling but different track (even if it is a different type of track), it's the same credit.

Also what are the chances that Alton Towers just do it with the troublesome parts on Wicker Man and just paint the track brown? /s
 
By the looks of things, only this small section of WL is receiving the new track, as wooden track is being made to connect to the ends of the steel track:-


This makes me assume this is purely to test the track's functionality and make necessary improvements to the design if needed. Honestly not expecting Infinity Flyers to be tested, but will be curious to see if they do!

Am I right in thinking this steel track is pre-fabricated much like RMC I-Box track?
 
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