Parkz News
Photos Parkz News has uploaded
Here are all of the photos that Parkz News has uploaded.
There is a gentle dip at the start of the ride into the lift hill.
One of the many "head-chopper" moments where the track darts through the surrounding support structure. In total there will be ten crossovers like this on the finished ride.
These orange wooden beams are locally sourced unlike the rest of the ride's muted pine look. It's a bold accent that's unique to Leviathan.
Everywhere you look is already a twisted mess of track with airtime, heavily banked turns and near-misses.
Leviathan also towers over Seaworld Drive from outside the theme park.
Leviathan towers over Nickelodeon Land, with the first drop aimed straight at Bikini Bottom.
Here you can get a really good idea of how wooden coaster track is made on site. Each 'rail' is a stack of wooden boards, with the top two boards overhanging by a few inches to facilitate the upstop wheels that keep the trains secured to the track. On the top and inner edge of this stack is a steel strip that the train's steel wheels ride on to minimise wear to the wood.
The steel-reinforced ledgers that will support the track have been planed to accommodate the angle of the track that will sit on them.
The impressive first drop is a sight to behold. What's most impressive is that it's actually one of the few traditional, straight first drops on any roller coaster in Australia. No twists, no gimmicks like beyond-vertical. Just sheer, plummeting goodness.
Leviathan ike most roller coasters isn't being built in order from start to finish of the ride but rather in such a way that construction crews can easily access the site for the entire process.
Unlike steel roller coasters which are built entirely from prefabricated components, traditional wooden roller coasters are built on-site from raw wood, which makes the process complicated in some ways, but easier in other ways.
There's many months of construction to go with almost a kilometre of twisted track to assemble.
Leviathan has quickly towered over Sea World in the few short months since construction commenced.
Here's one we prepared earlier.
The treated pine comes from Georgia. Highway... and roller coaster... construction only.
Piles of imported lumber sits in the Sea World car park as construction on Leviathan continues. The roller coaster is being built from Southern Yellow Pine imported from the USA, as most wooden roller coasters in the world are. Here we see packs of wood with nominal dimensions of 2-inches deep, 14-inches wide and 16ft long.
The New Atlantis definitely has really impressive visuals. If it weren't for that abrupt plant building in the middle of it all...
The Vortex theming where the bold, modern colours means that yet again bird poop will be an ongoing challenge to clean.
The 3D ripple effects in the logo means that it catches the sunlight whichever angle you look at it. And the bold light blue LED strips are bright even during daylight. At night this area will no doubt look very schmick.
The signage is sharp. Let's hope this fibreglass and plastic can hold up in years to come with the combined effects of chlorinated cascades, salty sea air and sunlight.
