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Going into a little technical "geekery" here; which I am prone to do from time to time as I was raised by an engineer, the power grid out in Santa Claus, Indiana does not have enough juice to supply the sudden burst of energy to send Thunderbirds trains rocketing out of the station with its LSM launch.



Instead of blowing out the transformers and blacking out the town every time a train launches Thunderbird uses an ingenious method of storing the power needed to power the magnets that pull the coaster down the track. 



Inside of the Will Power Steam Engine Company sits a flywheel.  The flywheel is a large wheel that is spun by an electric motor.  The local power grid is able to spin it up to speed between launches and when another one of Thunderbirds train is ready to go the kinetic energy of the flywheel is turned back into electricity with the engine that spun it up to speed acting also as a generator that is spun by the flywheel.  So in the end Thunderbird gets an amazing kick start and the town of Santa Claus and the surrounding countryside can keep their lights on all due to everything that sits in the little building next to Thunderbirds launch.



With all of that electrical energy turned into kinetic energy that is turned into electrical energy and then back into kinetic for Thunderbird's launch you don't need a lift hill where this coaster is going.



When Holiday World first announced Thunderbird last fall what really got me excited (besides that fact that one of my favorite parks was getting a B&M) was that Thunderbird had an Immelmann which is my favorite loop.  



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Paul B. Drabek