Silver Dollar City - Miner's Mountain Express Construction

 

Welcome back to SDC and another construction update.

We've done some studying of the site and we're going to give our best guesses on the layout today.  Here by Powder Keg, it appears that there is a long section of track going down this hill

The footers near the restroom appear to be a curve to head into the helix garden area

It looks like the the footers there by the machine on the hill will be connected to this set of footers in a curve before heading towards the backside of Lumbercamp Falls

You can see the mine hoist tower over on this side too, we'll talk about it more later.  

So here is where it gets a little difficult to follow the path.  I personally think that it will to the left past the falls and then it appears to loop up and make a complete circle before heading into a second lift hill that leads into a drop over American Plunge's lift.

Here you can see what we think is the initial loop in this area

Here you can better see when it pulls out of the initial loop and then heads back up and around

I think this is where that second loop is going to cross over and come this way

Going off of the beams that that they've installed for protective netting next to the pathway, this will probably be another curve before heading back to the other part of the ride

I really like the added rockwork.  It really does look like a curve over the Plunge tunnel and then a straight line back to the hill that has the footers on it

Look at the rockwork on the other side of the tunnel and then follow the footers - it's basically a straight line

Here is the mine elevator hoist.  It really towers over the Wildfire plaza area.  It is still not completed, they need to install the drive wheel at the top

Looking at the footers here it is obvious that they connect to the footers on the hill on the other side of Plunge.  This means that the track will be elevated here to go over the ride (and will possibly hug this hoist tower)

You can see they are still working on this tower

Again I cannot get over how much this area has changed this season

These footers will probably be the bottom of a hill before rising up into the next element

This might just be wishful thinking on our parts, but this sure looks like the start of a pathway to connect to PowderKeg.  We hope its not just a maintenance access road instead

So the pathway of the footers here gets a little tricky.  

Our best guess is that this curve lines up with the supports on top of the station (what else could they be) and that we will swoop over this area (queue?) and then over the station before going into that straight down the hill (again just our working theory)

Here are those footers lining up with the station.

The only other possibility is that we exit the station and go this way, but that would require a major launch right away to get up over the midway as it couldn't be low track

Somewhere in this area, we think they will build the queue area

They have started framing out the station and that gives us a better idea of how it will work. We think you'll enter the station on this side before taking a staircase up to the second floor where you'll encounter additional queue before going down another set of stairs to reach the load side of the platform

Here will be the load side of the platform.  It will feature some large windows so you can see the second portion of the ride.  You'll notice that they have already installed wood framing on the openings for the station including what we think will be where the train exits into the ride

So our working theory is that you will exit this side of the station in the train and it will curve right and around the building before launching up into the helix garden.  Not exactly sure the path, but we're fairly confident that this ride will only feature launches

Again, that mine elevator hoist has really changed the looks of the area

We're still not sure why this section was cleared as it does not look like it will be used by this ride

They have added a lot of fill rock though, so who knows

Lots of activity in this area next to Outlaw Run.  The white tents apparently have ride components in them and are keeping things hid for now...

The ride announcement will take place on August 14th and we will be there to cover it live.

Silver Dollar City - Miner's Mountain Express Construction

 

Welcome back to another update on the construction progress at SDC

The piers are continuing to get covered in the area just behind Lumbercamp Falls

We're still interested in what will become of this pit.

Water feature?

They have started to add large rocks for landscaping in this area

They have also added these tall wooden poles, which will eventually hold safety netting for the ride

On the WildFire side of American Plunge, they are starting to install lighting features along this new pathway

Additional rockwork has also been added to the area

Here is a better look at the added rockwork and the lighting features.  This one closest to us might eventually hold a sign as large as it is.  Also in this photo you can see the newest addition to the site

Here you can see it sticking up above the safety fence.

This scaffolding appears to be a new thematic element being added for the ride

Some are describing it as a head frame for a mine hoist

You can see here the scale of how big it is

There are lots of parts to be put together for this tower still.

There are lots of similar looking pieces still staged backstage by Outlaw Run

Here is where the tower is in proximity to WildFire and the new station

Speaking of the station, it has received a floor since our last visit

You cannot seet it from here, but they have also constructed another foundation just over the hill.  It is much smaller though.  Could be for a substation or even switch track

This new tower looks "used".  I wonder where it is originally from and if they plan to paint it

One last photo of the tower.

It is going to be fun to see how this progresses

Over at PowderKeg, a new retaining wall has been constructed.  They are now rebuilding the deck that all of the barrels sat on next to the effects building

Here is the end of the retaining wall.  You can also see the line of footers going down the hill.

Crazy that they are still building additional piers.  How many piers will this ride have?

One last photo of this area. You can see the wooden poles we pointed out earlier against the far fence.