 Welcome back everyone, this is CoasterDaddy, and today I want to discuss the curious case of lightning rod. We all know that lightning rod has been plagued with all kinds of mechanical issues ever since it first opened in 2016. In fact, it barely operated in 2016 at all. A couple days ago, a picture of this sign in front of the entrance for lightning rod was posted that reads, lightning rod is closed for the balance of 2020 as it receives an upgrade from manufacturer Rocky Mountain Construction. Then at the bottom, it seems to tease us a little bit, and it says in 2021, lightning strikes twice. Okay, so this is really interesting. Not only is lightning rod stated to be closed for the rest of the year, but they seem to be teasing us with that little caption at the bottom. And what could this possibly mean? There have been a lot of different theories going around, and I've watched a couple videos about it. In fact, I want to give a shout out to Canobie Coaster. He made a really good in-depth video where he explained some of the issues the park has dealt with over the past few years. In this video, he talks a lot about how they've replaced sections of track that have a lot of stress put on them, which I wasn't even aware before watching this video that they had to retract sections of the ride already. So this is really interesting. The ride, as we all know, lightning rod is very intense, very fast paced, and there are a couple stress points which don't have a lot of supports because of where they're placed and how they're placed on the terrain and throughout the layout and whatnot. I would suggest go watching his video. He goes really in-depth about it. But what do I think may be going on with lightning rod? I think that we're going to see some significant modifications done. And these will not be the first significant modifications that we've seen with lightning rod. A few years ago, lightning rod was closed for an extended period of time. They took the zero car off the front of the train for a while and it operated without that reducing the weight of the train which helped for a while until they were able to get a modified front car. And they also adjusted the launch. So the launch isn't quite as fast now or there are trims at the top of the launch. So basically that first till isn't quite as fast as it was when it first opened. And this did seem to help for a while as far as the reliability goes. But as Canobie Coaster mentioned in the video, he seems to think that this issue doesn't have to do with the launch which very well may be the case. But maybe they'll do some work to the launch since it's closed right now anyway. Who knows? But I've heard a couple people saying they've heard from employees of the park for whatever it's worth. None of this is confirmed. Of course this is all 100% speculation at this point. There's nothing backing this up. But there are people saying that lightning rod is going to receive the high box track from RMC and brand new trains supposedly. And honestly I wouldn't be too surprised to see this. Now if they were to give lightning rod the high box track, of course it would turn it into an undisputable steel roller coaster if it had all steel track. And this wouldn't really bother me much. I mean I rode lightning rod several times and even though it did feel enough like a wooden coaster it was still very smooth, didn't feel that much different from steel coaster. Well I'd be perfectly fine with them giving lightning rod the high box track and just keeping the same layout if that's going to help with the reliability of the ride. And I don't know where the new trains factor in to all of this, how much that would help. I'm not really an expert on that. I know RMC has the first and second generation trains. I cannot remember off the top of my head which generation trains lightning rod uses. I think they could use either one though. Like I said I'm not too knowledgeable on the specifics of the trains. But in any case I do believe that lightning rod is going to receive significant modification and hopefully this ends this constant downtime for lightning rod once and for all. Hopefully lightning rod doesn't become like a top thrill dragster where nearly 20 years into its history it's still down constantly. I hope that the park and Rocky Mount construction can come up with something to retain the legendary status of this ride and keep it for the most part unchanged in layout and ride experience while also being able to incorporate something that is much more reliable. It is so frustrating for a lot of people to go to Dollywood. Many of them wanting to go to Dollywood mainly for lightning rod and it's really kind of a toss of a coin as to whether or not you're going to get to ride it. So it's really frustrating for a lot of people. I've heard many stories of people going three or four times before they're finally able to get on lightning rod. Yeah I just wanted to give my thoughts quickly on this. We have no idea what's going to happen but they seem to be teasing something with a sign I just wanted to make everybody aware of it if you haven't heard of it yet. So what do you think could be going on with lightning rod? This is really curious and really has my gears turning in my head. Like I said hopefully they retain the feel of the ride. I certainly hope that they keep the launch on there because I do enjoy the launch even though it's probably the least memorable part of the ride. I still really enjoy the launch. It did make it unique especially being a wooden coaster. But what do you guys think about this? I would love to hear your thoughts. Any other ideas of what they could do maybe they give it more of an upgrade if they're going to retract it. If they're going to put iBox track on it maybe they add some more elements to it. Effectively RMCing and RMC that would be very interesting and the meme would certainly come to life in that case. I don't think that's necessarily going to happen. I don't believe that but who knows anything is really possible at this point. Something in 2021 is going to happen with lightning rod and I'm really excited to see what it is. Yeah, let me know your thoughts in the comments. Be sure to like and subscribe if you enjoyed this video. Real quick be sure to check out my Teespring store if you haven't. I have a lot of awesome merchandise there all different price ranges. There's something for everybody. It's really cool. I really appreciate the support for the channel no matter how you can support the channel. Really appreciate it. Thank you guys so much for watching. This is CoasterDaddy. Bye.