Lightning Rod at Dollywood has reopened.
The RMC-built Lightning Rod has been plagued with nothing but trouble since its opening in 2016. Missing most of its debut season and closed since July of this year, problems previously seemed to be focused on the unique 1500-horsepower launch system as the main problem. These were confirmed to not be the issues when Pete Owens (Vice President of Marketing for Dollywood) previously stated in a CoasterForce interview that "the launch works great, were working through some other issues on the ride, were looking for a long term fix."Reports of bumps along certain parts of the track have been mentioned by some riders but never confirmed by Dollywood or Rocky Mountain Construction. This could lead to us seeing some re-profiled sections of the track during the 2019 off-season for improved rider comfort.
Currently, Lightning Rod has reopened for guests to ride after receiving an update to the train, The front "zero-car" no longer has as much theming and weight to it according to pictures surfacing on twitter.
 |
| Image by @coaster_mojo shows the old zero-car (top) and new car (bottom). Much of the theming has been stripped off the car. |
 |
| The new front car is much smaller and looks to have shed quite some weight. It also gives riders in the first row more of an unobstructed view. (Pic: Daniel Glauser) |
In 2008, renowned coaster engineer Alan Schilke collaborated with Grubb to design RMC’s two new revolutionary track technologies, the “Topper” and “I Box” tracks. These two new track systems have established RMC as one of the world’s leading coaster engineering companies. -Dollywood
No comments
No spam or outside links unless they pertain to the article or add to the discussion.