FAILED Roller Coasters: Lightning Rod at Dollywood

Peter tells the story of a roller coaster in Tennessee that is known for breaking down a lot. But is it really a "failure" or is it just misunderstood?

0:00 Intro
0:27 Intro Music
0:45 Early Development
3:30 Construction Begins
3:58 The Ride is Announced
4:42 The Ride Experience
5:55 Opening Delayed
6:45 The Ride Opens
7:23 Technical Difficulties
9:31 Adjusting the Launch
11:00 Modifying the Train
11:26 The Pothole
12:05 The Wooden Structure's Issues
12:48 The Steel Retracking
13:51 What's Next?
15:23 Comment Shout Out
16:57 Outro

Music: Oh no! by Le Gang

Other music by NCTRNM

[ThemeParkCrazy]

I find it funny that RMC started by suggesting an I-Box coaster with a lift hill instead of a launch and that's exactly what it turned into.

[brickpocalypse]

The funniest part was when RMC needed help building a launch so they reached out to a company that also could not build a launch

[cosmicberry]

I want to shout out the LRod crew. I get a season pass every 2 years. Every time I've been to Dollywood, and gotten to ride Lighting Rod, it had technical problems the whole day previous to my ride experience. The crew deals with problems that come up constantly, and they work as fast as they can to resolve those problems. Guests get upset with them every single day, and every time I've been, I've seen them get yelled at. They still show up at work and do the best job they can with the utmost enthusiasm. They never give up on the guests in the park, and they genuinely work very hard to ensure as many guests as possible get to ride. So thank you all :)

[simplyswith]

I rode this last year and my favorite part was the view after the lift launch. I knew nothing about this coaster and still remember how surprised I was when I finally saw the track nestled in the mountains while coming over those crests. Pretty awesome view to go in blind to.

[TheFraziers]

This ride is far more reliable nowadays and still packs a punch. I've ridden it on a hot summer day and also at the Christmas event when it was 36 degrees F and the ride still absolutely hauled through its layout in both conditions. It may be problematic, but it's totally worth the ride experience in my opinion!

[karatechop]

Now I feel lucky to have ridden this coaster. Putting aside all of the technical issues, it should not be forgotten how unique the first part of this ride is: A launch that goes uphill, the feeling of being thrown over the hill instead a slow crest from a chain lift or even a flat launch - which gives you the full effect of the hill at high speed (this happens twice - the first small hill and then the larger 165' drop) and the fact that the second hill is the big one. It's a really fun ride that hopefully has many more years, even if Dr Frankenstein has to keep it going.

[thesteveterryproject]

Basically, most of the problems stemmed from Dollywood’s insistence on topper track so they could claim “first launched wooden coaster”

[jobyd]

So we visited Dollywood as part of our honeymoon right after they reopened for the holiday season in 2021. We love Dolly, but weren't really familiar with the park itself so we didn't do much ride research. We basically hopped on this while walking by later in the evening, and had no clue what we were getting into. We came out of the station and then we saw the hill and went "oh wow..." Imagine our shock when it was a launch coaster. Man, what an unexpected trip in total darkness! 😀 I can't wait to go back and try it again!

[blakeb]

Funny story about my recent experience with this coaster with my family.

It was my first time visiting the park, and as an avid coaster enthusiast, I obviously was the most excited for this beast of an RMC, and it truly was number one on my bucket list. The plan was to visit the park for two days, however the 2nd day would be filled with rain and would be freezing cold, which made me believe I had no shot at riding on the second day. So I was hellbent on riding the first day. We got to the park at open, and we made a mad dash for Lightning Rod, because we had a Timesaver pass, lines didn't matter, and we wanted to get on the ride before it broke down. Well, jokes on us, the ride was already broken. So we waited four hours, watching trains circle the track over and over, and explored the other bits of the park and rode other rides. We got word it was open, and we ran to get to it. I didn't care what row I got, all that mattered was that I'd get to ride. We get in line, and we are ready to board, when I get assigned the back row. The holy grail of roller coaster train seats. I was ecstatic. We pull out of the station, make the turn and start going up and up and...

Rollback.
Literally, had the best seat possible, and I got a rollback. I was infuriated, as the ride had been running for about an hour at that point. So I waited another 2 hours before, finally, the ride was back up and running again. Once again, we ran to get there, and this time I was assigned 2nd to back row, so a slight difference in what the actual back row would've been like, and a great alternative. It actually worked that time and I got to ride, and it truly must be experienced to be believed. I was speechless and could not form words when the train came to a stop. everything from the drop, the wave turn, the whippy snap into the outerbanked 90 degree turn, the off axis airtime hill, of course, the godly quad down, the aggressive speedhill, and the whippy turnaround to top it all off. Truly a perfect ride, and I'm just glad I could get on it.

[AvidSonicFan]

As far as ambition goes, Lightning Rod was the Son of Beast of the mid-to-late 2010s.

[steelwitness]

Pigeon Forge in general is probably one of the greatest places to visit. So many awesome things to do and if you ever managed to try everything in Pigeon Forge then you can drive 20 minutes down the road to Gatlinburg and have even more amazing things to do.

[justinvinyard]

Dollywood is going to get rid of lightning rods launch and replace it with a chain lift. Lightning rod is temporarily closing on October 30th. it will reopen on spring 2024.

[gemstar]

At a very recent event at this park, our ERT had to be moved from LRod to Thunderhead because a new part had just been installed but LRod didn't complete 25 consecutive test cycles without a problem. It was down the entire day. Fortunately, Thunderhead's brand new retrack has made it an elite wooden coaster, better than it's EVER been, and jumped up in all of our rankings!

[spittinvenom]

It didn’t fail, it only succeeded slowly

[Coolharry]

I would personally like to see these videos:
- Failed Coasters - Skytrak at Granada Studios
- Failed Coasters - Orphan Rocker At Scenic World
- Top 10 Most Dangerous Attractions (actual dangerous, like Cannonball Loop)
- The Story Of The Vekoma SLC

[AirtimeThrills]

I think given what they had to do to it in 2021 it's fair to call it a failure, but I'll take that "failure" any day of the week. It ran consistently last year and I thought it was great. Not as good as its opening year but still great

[DMac]

I just rode it this week. It was the first large coaster I've been on in over 20 years. Scared the crap out of me, but I loved it. I knew nothing about it prior to going on it, lol.

[Requiemreverie]

Funny watching this video. My boyfriend and I met at Dollywood and both worked at L Rod once our seasonal position ended. I didn’t work there very long due to personal reasons, but the time that I did work there, not a day went by without some kind of problem. The team used to joke that if the team lead hit a specific pothole on the way to work that it guaranteed there would be an issue that day. Let’s just say she didn’t miss the pothole very often.

[danielh]

I got lucky and road it three times in a row last year because the line was short.
The launch was an unexpected surprise and I loved it. Definitely one of my top favorite coasters and I hope this stays open for years to come.

[crooked-halo]

My first time on Lightning Rod was last Fall (2022) and it absolutely blew me away! A magnificent and intense ride. It wasn't down once for 2 days in a row. My favorite part is the quadruple dip, especially the last dog-leg dip. Just watching this coaster fly up the lift and whip around the last turn is astounding! Thunderhead was my main reason for going and it remains the best coaster in the park to me, riding much better than in my two visits years ago. Thunderhead was so intense at night that it hinted at the insanity of night rides on Voyage. Lightning Rod is a wonderful, fantastic coaster! I'm a traditional amusement park hobbyist & not a fan of most theme parks, but Dollywood is amazing & beautiful with extremely friendly employees.