GCI coming to Dollywood in 2004
Dollywood: Dollywood is Tennessee is said to be getting a new Great Coasters International woodie in 2004.
From Coaster X
Posted June 27, 2003 at 11:09 AM
According to Amusement Business: Thunder Head is the name of the new wooden coaster set to debut in 2004 at Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, Tenn.
The Great Coasters International woodie reaches speeds of 55 m.p.h. and will have a maximum drop of 100 feet.Designed by Mike Boodley with the help of the GCI staff, the coaster is a twister with 3,230 feet of track. It's built on the side of two mountains and makes use of the valley between them.
The coaster will feature what officials are calling the world's first "fly-through" station. At about half the way through the ride, the trains come back through the station on a track eight feet above the exit platform, but still under the station roof. It will be traveling at 40 m.p.h. at this point. The ride will be the centerpiece of a new themed area of the park called Thunderhead Gap.
If i get more info i'll post it here!
You may view an official Dollywood Marketing poster of the ride at Screamscape's Dollywood Page.
Yea, that's Thunder Eagle. It ran for a few years at the Go-Cart Track that was there, but then it closed and they went Bankrupt.
It is being sold to a Ski Resort in Canada for use at there summertime Waterpark.
From Coaster X
Posted June 30, 2003 at 7:12 PM
After just returning from Dollywood-The construction is in full swing. If you want to view the construction, I recommend the Dollywood Express since it passes right by the site.
From Anonymous
Posted July 1, 2003 at 8:31 AM
I'm an avid Dollywood patron, and just wanted to say what excitment it is to see a new ride. The last all new ride was Tornado, I'm not counting the Wilderness Adventure because it was just a new line area, preshow, and movie. Plus some new effects, but other then that, we've not seen much of a ride from Dolly the past few years, they've been playing around with a water park and different special events.
Wood coaster...just the two words make me get the all overs. Can't wait...
Only thing holding me back...THE LINES...lines on new attractions are always awful their first year, but now that Tornados been open for a few years you can walk right on it most days. Sure it will be worth it.
And an ALL NEW area, not seen one of those since Dollywood Boulavard...err...I mean, Adventures in Imagination...
From Coaster X
Posted July 3, 2003 at 9:32 PM
Dollywood.com now has a Thunderhead page.It has 2 new renderings never before seen unless you have visited DW recently.The second one is the entrance of Thunderhead Gap and the third is the station-it shows the heavily themed trains (with a steam locomotive with steam coming out of the stack) and the "fly-through" section.
Just as an update, the Thunderhead project is almost finished. One of the last major projects on the site was the trestle for the dollywood express to travel over. They closed the train almost a month early this year to begin work on this. The project will definatley be ready for grand opening
Oh and one more thing, the trains will not be steam train themed, you can see a picture of what are clearly GCI Millenium Flyer trains on www.rcdb.com an search for thunderhead
You can view the latest Thunderhead construction pictures here:
GCII's Thunderhead Page
http://www.greatcoasters.com/thunderhead.html
Dollywood's Thunderhead Page:
http://www.dollywood.com/New_Progress7.htm
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