Somewhat of a random post today, I have pictures from last week I haven't gotten around to sharing and there has been another test run with passengers and a POV video to share.
Last week I took some pictures of the cars being prepped and loaded onto the track for the test run. As I arrived cars were being added to the track, prior to be placed on the track the wheels were being spun to loosen them up due to the cool temperatures.
The cars were then carefully eased into place one at a time through the opening built into the loading platform structure. The cars are then positioned directly above the small notches cut into the track allowing the up stop wheels to clear.
After all of the cars are in place and joined together to form a train (the number 2 train was being used) ballast was loaded into the seats to provide weight for testing.
Now we have a ready to test train. The video below shows the beginning of the first test run I posted video of last week, the team basically used a push start to get things rolling!
After several successful tests the team decided it was time to have someone ride the coaster. The first ride went to a manager from MVR and the person from MVR who oversaw most of the construction all winter long. Here they are waiting for the first ride.
The next ride went to the people in Green Bay who will have primary responsibility for the day to day upkeep and maintenance of the ride. Here they are waiting for their ride.
That wrapped up testing for the day. While on site a couple of other changes to the site were noted. A lot of the concrete in the queue area had been poured.
A few days after that test run there was another test run with passengers including Green Bay Mayor Jim Schmitt who was instrumental in bringing the Zippin Pippin to Bay Beach. One of the riders shot a point of view video of the ride, you can see it below.
The weather for Green Bay is looking a little better for the next ten days so hopefully work can wrap up and the coaster can be opened to the public. I'll try to make another site visit sometime this week to check out the latest progress.
It was a big day at the Bay Beach Zippin Pippin Roller Coaster site today. For the first time a train was loaded onto the tracks, weighed down with ballast and completed a successful run of the track. After the first successful run several more runs were made including two with two passengers each. I was on site for the testing and was able to get some good video of the action. I'm uploading the best videos of the days activities, the first video is now on-line and linked below. Keep checking back, I will be uploading other videos and still pictures from the days testing.
A second video is now available, see it below. This video was taken from the South side of the coaster looking North, the opposite side from the first video. I believe this was the fifth dry run for the coaster.
In other news the opening date for the coaster has been pushed back two weeks. Mother nature simply threw too many turns into the testing part of the schedule, less then a week ago the Green Bay area received about 9" of fresh snow preventing a lot of the final preparation work at the site from finishing up and delaying the testing you are seeing above. To launch the coaster per the original schedule training for workers to run the coaster would have to be going on now instead of the very first initial test runs. To make matters even worse the weather for the balance of this week looks bad with rain and cool temperatures in the forecast. The new opening day is now May 21st. The countdown clock on this site has been updated with the new date.
One of the Zippin Pippin's trains have been added to the standby lane on the coaster and the automatic safety gates are partially installed. The Zippin Pippin continues to inch closer to testing and eventually rides for paying customers (now less than 20 days away). For the latest pictures keep reading below.
The big news is one of the trains is in place on the service track. Each car seats six and there are five cars per train. So there is room for up to 30 riders per train.
The other train is on site, each car on a pallet along the north end of turn 1 and 3. With the cars on the pallet it's easy to see the three sets of wheels.
It would appear we are getting close to some of the first test runs for the coaster. If I hear any details about testing I will be sure to pass them along. In other news there is a contest being run by the city to be on the first official ride of the coaster on May 7th. Children and adults are invited to submit an essay entitled "What does Bay Beach Amusement Park mean to me?". If you are interest in entering (I know my kids are!) check out the official website.
Even though testing is not yet scheduled I decided today I needed to see what was new at the Bay Beach Zippin Pippin Roller Coaster. I found some new activity and got some pictures of it. Since my last post the Green Bay area was hit with a late winter storm totaling about 17 inches of wet heavy snow. This snowfall slowed progress on the finishing touches quite a bit; however, with the major construction wrapping up well ahead of schedule everything is still in good shape for the grand opening which is now just about one month away. The latest progress is shown in the photos below.
The first thing I noticed is the operators control panel and platform is in place up on the loading platform. You can also see the layout of where the automatic gates are going to be.
As all of these final hookups are being made the two big remaining items are the automatic gates on the loading platform and the trains themselves to make their appearance and be threaded onto the track. I'll keep visiting the site and report on these activities when they happen. With all of the snow nearly gone again and a beautiful sunny day I took another north facing panorama to end my visit.
