fire in the hole question

[Fury Fire Chief]

Thats amazing!

A volano in Fire in the hole...lol

Baldknobbers coming riding fast... blazing lava exploding fast!! lol

[sdcforever]

^^I'd like to ask the designer about the volcanoes.  Interesting.  I'd also like to ask them about why they chose Devil's Den (besides the Marvel Cave connection).

[saladdays]

When were those sections taken out of the ride?

[sdcforever]

^Sometime in the early 80's.

[Fury Fire Chief]

FITH and BF have such a wonderful history!

Do you think Silver Dollar city will ever release the FITH theme song to the public?

[History Buff]

Those blueprints would be great to see.  That's the kind of stuff that could go into a special exhibit for the 50th anniversary of the park.

[Fury Fire Chief]

It would be amazing to see Concept art (like the onces for flooded mine) for the Fire in The Hole!

[KBCraig]

...dated 1971. The name at that time for FITH was the Devil’s Den. Funny; I never knew that that was going to be the name of the ride. That is Marvel Cave’s original cave.

It's also the name of a popular state park in nearby Washington County, Arkansas.

Old Guy and Baldknobber were right after the first dip you would turn right past a mini volcano and then your train traveled through a cave with Baldknobbers hiding out in it. After leaving the cave your train would turn right, you were then looking over the edge of a cliff above the burning cabin the tracks ahead looked like they were broken and that you were going to fall, just then the train would take a sharp right and then turn left into the train tunnel.

What about the darkened scene where nothing was happening, except you could look across the chasm and see the mangled tracks and burning bridge? This was a preview to what was coming up, setting up the "OMG, WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!" theme of almost plunging into the abyss, except the train veered onto a side track at the last moment.

As a kid, I never caught the incongruity of the volcano, but I certainly remember it being there 30 years ago, complete with the sound of bubbling lava on the audio.

Kevin

[Hatfield McCoy]

That turn from the mangled tracks was really great when I was a kid, especially from the front seat. 

On a seperate note, it may have already been discussed somewhere, but I wonder if SDC has ever considered returning the Fire in the Hole to it's original glory.  It would be great pr now that the riverblast is being delayed.  Since the tracks are still there it seems as though it wouldn't be really costly, and would really spark interest from SDC's base of longtime patrons who would like to ride the old ride again.   

It would really fill a need in the park's 50'th anniversary celebration, and could be paired with some of the previously mentioned "reunion" shows.  Together I think the two might be a marketing coup in a lean investment year.

[Fury Fire Chief]

It would be amazing if some photos turned up showing the old scene in its full, working glory!

[saladdays]

^Sometime in the early 80's.

Hmmm.  I guess I would have either been too young to ride it, or too young to remember it depending on the year.  I could have sworn I remember something different about it, but perhaps not.

[Barreloflaughs]

I think it's funny how there's a whole FITH theme song, but you can only hear certain parts and NEVER the whole thing. Right at the turn of one dark corner you hear some words I can never quite decide on and then, "Fire on the mountain, fire in the hole!" Will someone who works there please get a recording of it? What's the recording on now, a really old tape or what?

[Copper]

I posted the lyrics on here some time ago. As for the audio, its on a sound card.

[Fury Fire Chief]

Does anybody know if Fire in the hole will have a car in the Rollercoaster Museum?

Blazing Fury has a car going into it.

Dollywood ride coasting into museum...

PIGEON FORGE -- If 25 years is the time frame by which automobiles are classified as antique, why not the cars from roller coasters?

And if so, what better place to house a 30-year-old roller coaster car than the National Roller Coaster Museum and Archive in Pennsylvania?

That is where one of the cars of Dollywood's Blazing Fury indoor roller coaster is headed. The museum, which is still under construction, will be home to hundreds of pieces of amusement park memorabilia, including the original No. 1 car from Blazing Fury.

Pete Owens, public relations manager for the park, said the timing for the donation to the museum worked well as Blazing Fury was being updated and cleaned, and improvements were being made to the chassis system. But they were lucky, too, because the request almost came too late.

"The chassis was supposed to have been destroyed," said Barry Stiltner, maintenance manager at Dollywood. "I called the shop in Knoxville and they had not picked it up, so that was lucky."

The rescued chassis was taken over by Randy Crum and Don Turner, who spent three weeks getting the car ready for the museum.

The Fiberglas seats were refurbished and repainted with the orange Blazing Fury paint and the ride's decal added to the front.

The seats were anchored to a piece of plywood, also painted orange, under which the chassis was placed on top of a set of rails.

Stiltner said the men working on the car had no trouble remembering how to get it back to its original condition.

"These guys have been here for 22 years, so they actually worked on it," he said. "They went back to the same process to make it as close to original as we could."

So what's so interesting about a roller coaster that it earns a place in a museum?

As Owens and Stiltner explained, it is powered similar to the subway, using a third-rail system with some power generation along with natural gravity.

"You can actually feel it speed up," Owens said of the coaster and riders who sit in the cars where the power system is housed. The breaking system was also a unique design, with the water feature that makes the ride so popular also acting as the brakes.

But there are other aspects that make Blazing Fury a unique experience for riders.

"I kind of looked up the history of the Blazing Fury, and it's unique where it's an indoor roller coaster and a dark ride, which makes it really more unique," Stiltner said.

The National Roller Coaster Museum and Archives is located in Kulpsville, Penn. According to National Roller Coaster Museum and Archives, it will be the first facility of its kind in the world. It will display "historical and entertaining roller coaster exhibits, photographs, models, actual rolling stock and other memorabilia."

[sdcforever]

^That's cool.  FitH should definitely be represented too.