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02/20/06 El Toro Update

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jglonek:
2-20-2006 - El Toro update and a small construction update
Welcome to another GadvUpdate! We were fortunate enough to tour the site again on Monday, February 20th, 2006 to check on the progress of El Toro and some other off-season activities. And as always, a HUGE thanks to Kristin and Angel for having us as their guests.

Before we get to the photos, I’d like to point out some notable items from the tour. I’ll start with El Toro. For those that seem certain it won’t open until this fall (or some other extreme date), you’re wrong! Things are progressing nicely and they are still on target for a spring opening. With that said, we were able to witness just how easy it is to “track” these Intamin plug&play coasters. And after watching this in person, I’m now more confident than ever they will meet this goal because it was amazingly fast. They also seem to be VERY close to completing all of the footers and foundation work. The station is also coming along nicely and several components of the lift hill system are in place. I have a feeling that the pace will be picking up now that the lift and first turn are complete.

Another exciting part of our trip was going “backstage” to see what goes into rehabbing a coaster train. This area was a no-camera zone but I can say it is simply amazing to see how much work goes into keeping these coaster trains in top shape. The two trains we were able to view were Superman and Kingda Ka. While both are very different, they were very much the same in terms of complexity and the number of parts. We all have a great deal of respect for the skill and hard work that goes into keeping these trains running smoothly so thank you to the crews that makes this happen!

Here are few other random things we were told or noticed:

- Here is some good news for Runaway Mine Train as we saw some primer going on several locations throughout the ride. We also saw one of the trains with the new individual lap bars installed which is good news.
- Bugs Bunny National park is starting to move along and is now home to a couple of concrete slabs for rides.
- It’s very possible that 2006 will mark the return of Souvenir Maps. Better yet is that they could be free!
- The Chiller was being worked on but no sign of the Batman train. Robin’s train was there though.
- They fully expect to have every ride running and running at full capacity in time for the “fully operational” season.
- Great Adventure is looking for employees! This includes nearly all seasonal positions!
- Finally, while this could always change, we were once again told that Six Flags is not looking to sell any land. In fact, being that it’s the closest park to headquarters, expect ever more special attention!
- That’s all for now. Enjoy the photos!

Special thanks to GadvUpdates.com members Rob and Diana for helping out with the photos!)

El Toro's turn for the first drop is complete..
A great closeup of the cable lift wheel.
There are 2 things to take note of here. The INSANE headchopper at the base of the first drop and the INSANE banking of the crossover turn!
This is the wheel at the base of the lift hill.
The 2nd hill nearing completion.
That is a LOT of wood. This is the inside of the curve to the first drop.
The plug&play track has already been installed on the lift hill.
But the anti-rollbacks still need to be installed.
A look through the station bents.
Work continues in Rolling Thunders infield.
Seeing somebody standing there puts into perspective how tall those footers are.
Looks to be single-side load and unload like Viper was.
Look! A El Toro BOLT! I wonder what it would be worth on Ebay?.
It won't be long before Rolling Thunder disappears!
I wonder if they will keep the exit sign?
Work continues on Runaway Train.
Another view of that insane first drop!
Each section of track is 25 feet long.
A section of track for the second hill.
And finally, I want to point out that this is PRIMER! RAMT will NOT be silver!
We hope you enjoyed our update! Thanks for reading :-)

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