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Silver Dollar City | Fire In the Hole | RMC Refurb | 2024

Its good they have given a whole years public notice and showing some love towards the ride. Gives people more of a chance to ride than a week or negative 2 years notice.

Also loads of time for some to react saying this is the saddest thing they have heard, hopefully that's hyperbolically.

A very cool and very dated experience - SDC can do better.
 
Aww, absolutely love the angle they're going here for a proper, season-long send off, rather than a mid-season announcement and LaSt RiDeR aUcTiOn.

Will always be one of the weirdest, cult classics in the coaster community. Here's hoping the RMC reno doesn't change too much.
 
I haven't ridden Fire in the Hole, but I've ridden its twin at Dollywood (Blazing Fury). I actually really liked it! Hopefully the new version retains that magic.
 
Oh, S***. I hadn't realized that this was actually happening. It's good to see an old (somewhat) dated coaster get upgraded, and great that it might be an RMC. I will be sad to see it go through. Hopefully, RMC does good with Fire in the Hole 2.0
 
In case it was ever in doubt, there's been RMC shirts spotted inside the building;
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With that checked off, it's conspiracy time. Last year RMC announced a design contest for their proposed Family Coaster offering model, which invited enthusiasts to create the decals for a train that looked very similar to those of a certain recent Disney coaster. Once people realized that it was nothing more than a Tom Sawyer fence painting job, the idea was hit by negative feedback and RMC canned it pretty quickly. Anyways, in recent months one of those decals in particular has made it onto the website, very fire related. No idea whether these are actually applicable here, but this whole story got me thinking... could Fire In The Hole 2.0 be using these trains?
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New-generation Fire In The Hole announced today for Silver Dollar City in 2024;

Silver Dollar City Reveals Record-Setting Indoor Family Coaster New Multi-Million Dollar FIRE IN THE HOLE Debuts Next Spring​

August 14, 2023


Expansion supports award-winning theme park’s extensive multi-year development plan

Silver Dollar City today announces the new groundbreaking $30 million FIRE IN THE HOLE indoor family roller coaster, the largest in the Midwest. Opening in spring of 2024, the highly-anticipated attraction joins the park’s lineup of revolutionary rides. Located in the newly incorporated Fire District, FIRE IN THE HOLE doubles the size of one of The City’s most popular areas, already home to Station No. 3 firehouse and a collection of family-friendly attractions. Just ten months ago, the 1880s theme park, Silver Dollar City revealed an additional $30 million investment in new guest experiences and improvements, hinting at further development in the next five years. Tripadvisor, the world’s largest travel guidance platform, recently announced Silver Dollar City, located in the picturesque Ozark Mountains, as the number one amusement park in the United States based on traveler reviews and ratings.
“Signifying our biggest investment in a single attraction, FIRE IN THE HOLE continues Silver Dollar City’s strategic, multi-phased growth plan offering families opportunities to play and stay together in the heart of the Ozarks,” said Brad Thomas, President of the Silver Dollar City Company. “Spurring the creation of The Fire District, the custom-designed FIRE IN THE HOLE makes history as the Heartland’s largest indoor coaster. As the District’s anchor attraction, it will be a favorite rite of passage for families where one generation introduces the next generation to this adventure and where the heroes of today spark the heroes of tomorrow.”
The coaster experience, with a powered incline and gravity descent, including three drops and a quick splash-landing, promises a thrilling ride. In addition, a custom soundtrack with high-resolution onboard audio, show lighting effects and enhanced special effects, like using fiber optics to create a fast-burning fuse, heightens the ride experience and brings the FIRE IN THE HOLE story to life. Nearly a third-of-a-mile long, the new ride is housed in a five-story, temperature-controlled building to ensure ridership regardless of weather.
True to Silver Dollar City’s roots, the new ride's storyline is steeped in authentic regional heritage as the story is a fictional account of a real night in Ozark Mountain history when the mining town of Marmaros was burned to the ground by notorious vigilantes called the Baldknobbers. Created for multiple generations, FIRE IN THE HOLE depicts the day when Silver Dollar City citizens of all ages are pressed into service to save their town. The makers of the finest fire wagons in America’s Heartland, the Silver Dollar City Pumper Factory, invite the townspeople to the unveiling of their newest model.
Instead, the visitors find the town in flames due to the reckless Baldknobbers. Ignited into action, everyone bands together to battle the fire.
Known for pioneering innovation in the theme park industry, and a decade since they first teamed together on the history-making, award-winning Outlaw Run, Silver Dollar City once again partners with Idaho-based Rocky Mountain Construction (RMC) to custom engineer and manufacture the new FIRE IN THE HOLE.
“Like Silver Dollar City, Rocky Mountain Construction is committed to creating custom-built ride experiences that haven’t been done before,” said Darren Torr, President of RMC. “We loved the challenge of engineering, fabricating, and installing the one-of-a-kind FIRE IN THE HOLE, creating a new ride experience while honoring a legendary coaster. It feels fondly familiar, yet it will be daringly different.”
The new attraction is inspired by the original FIRE IN THE HOLE attraction, first imagined, engineered and custom built at Silver Dollar City in 1972. Now celebrating its final season at the Ozarks park, the first FIRE IN THE HOLE made history when it opened, being lauded as one of the world’s first indoor roller coasters. To date, more than 25 million guests have experienced the original Ozark adventure and final rides continue through the end of the 2023 season.
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They streamed the announcement on Facebook, very sweet and twee. https://fb.watch/mq0ACaBQ16/

Over an hour and was really well put together for what it was but little was actually said. There were people in character, a main park guy hyping it up and a dozen or so mentions of cinnamon bread. Fire In The Hole is replacing Fire In The Hole.

This will be a unique ride that doesn't exist anywhere in the world but I didn't catch them say here what that actually means. RMC was mentioned but a powered coaster was not. Although it has been covered in the press release posted above "powered incline and gravity descent" so a credit for all, yay. Those in attendance got to go straight to a tour of the new site so perhaps extra details will be spotted and spread/confirmed soon.

It was also interesting to note they have a master plan but they wont cover that today. More announcements to come. A lot of land has been purchased so lets wait and see what its used for.
 
This is such a unique type of ride, in a league I'd only put Knott's Calico Mine Ride of as "first attraction rides that remain go-to staples". I'd say SDC did right to not tweak things too much, and stay truer to the original design while updating ride systems and effects. Even if this isn't enough to move the needle into "new credit territory" (still need more details on how much change we're talking versus just updating effects/simple systems), really dig the moves being made here!

Also, new splashdown photo:

 
So going through OG Fire in the Hole stats (a little hard to come by, and use Blazing Fury to infer https://rcdb.com/501.htm); we're basically as very similar stats, especially for similar max speed and ride duration. Which is to say; extremely high likelihood we're just using the same layout.
 
Even if this isn't enough to move the needle into "new credit territory" (still need more details on how much change we're talking versus just updating effects/simple systems)
As far as I understand it, they're building the new ride at a different part of the park compared to the old one that is still operating in 2023. If this isn't a new cred, then I'm not sure what is.
 
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