CGA - Railblazer Update
GUYS JIM LET ME DO TWO UPDATES IN A WEEK, HOW COOL IS THIS?
Well, it's not like he really had a say in it. I missed my flight back to HQ and was stuck with two homeless dudes under the 87 overpass. Protip: if they offer you 'grass', don't take it. It's NOT the same wheat-stuff they put in your Powershot at Earth Organic...
Anyway...
I somehow was able to sweet talk my way into letting CGA let me check out Railblazer from behind (giggity), so this update is a bit of a behind the scenes of their new coaster, due out...uh...damn. I forgot to get the opening date. Well, it opens soon, so line up now!
View from the back of the attraction. From here, the lift runs at a 45º angle before it dips, turns around and whips you over the top and down into a vertical drop.
After that initial vertical drop, you pop back up and into a massive Immelmann. But what's insane, and we'll look closer in a second, but you don't rotate into the inversion until you're at the apex of the element. If I'm guessing right, this is going to boost some airtime coming up off the incline.
See what I mean? Similar inversions have a more...gradual roll in/out. This one? LOLNOPE, You fly up the hill, twist hard and dive back down. They're pushing the limits and it's BASICALLY THE BESTEST THING.
Here's another angle.
After that drop back into the rest of the course, you hit an off-axis airtime hill. Follow the track from the bottom of the first inversion. You hit the bottom, coast up and run off-axis before diving back down and around the rock work surrounding the first drop.
Here's a look from the other side. That off-axis airtime hill is buttoned up right around the rocks of the first drop.
From that airtime hill you hit this turn up and into a S-turn around the first drop. It doesn't do it justice in photos, but this turn upwards is STEEP and SHARP.
A wider look at it. It looks distorted after that last curve, but it's actually a built in incline before diving back down, guaranteeing a fun pop of airtime, especially for the last rows of riders.
Mm....curvy.
Here's that drop in before you hit the next inversion on the route..
After that drop back down and in through the rock work, you hit this fun 180º Stall inversion over the station. I swear, outside of the lift and break run, I really don't think there's a straight piece of track on this thing.
See what I mean? IT'S SO CURVY.
A wider look shows that up and over across the station, which by the way, looks really great. The woodwork on this is going to look fantastic when done!
After that, you flip through another rollover..
Only to cruise right into this turn around...
Which, by the way, is a lot of fun to shoot with the angles because the track disappears in and around the rock so much. I can't wait to see this thing finished.
As you make your way through that turn, you face the entrance of the attraction before popping back up a small hill and onto the brake run.
With that, your ATV adventure through the coastal hills of California comes to a close. Hope you don't have whiplash after all those turns...
By and large, this thing is such a beast packed into a really small footprint. RMC is already a fantastic company who makes GREAT steel/wood hybrids (see: everything they've ever built). Now that they're stepping out and into the new zone of this Raptor track, it's going to be amazing to see what comes after Railblazer and Wonder Woman's coaster out in Texas. But let's be honest, who cares about Texas when we have this right in our California backyard.
After seeing this thing in person, I can't express just how twisted (literally) it is. We don't have an opening date yet...because well...I forgot to ask.
To round this out, here's more shots of the coaster. Enjoy.
OH! And an added footnote...
They're working on brand new signage closely around Railblazer! It's so great to see not just a new coaster get dropped in the park, but also a concerted effort to mainline a consistent theme and design around the perimeter of the new attraction. Fingers crossed for more of this!
That's a really thin stage.
But...we'll leave you with this....what could it be?
