??? Capacity

Its the lens of the camera.... The curvature of the lens makes it appear.....

A throw back to the panic about the tower leaning in....Sorry couldn't resist.

theyre all there, its just that the ride itslef is so big, they look tiny ;)

Just got back! I was at the park today to get my season pass and after getting the pass took a ride around the park. While in the construction parking lot Top Thrill Dragster launched. It was the red train and it only had 4 of the 5 cars on the train, moments later (about 1 minute) the blue train also launched and it was the same as the red train, 4 cars! So for those who don't believe that they are testing with only 4 out of 5 cars per train your wrong. The trains were barely cresting the hill when launched most of the time. While waiting in the season pass line i did witness the blue train rollback. As far as the sound of the ride, i was around 100 feet away from the tower for 2 launches and the ride seemed relatively quiet. Also everything in the park was testing today. Milli has only the yellow and blue trains on track, with the red train in pieces near the ride. Raptor, Deamon Drop, Magnum, Mean Streak, The Power Tower, and the Viewing tower where all testing. Driving around the park was great, all the rides look great, the new paint on the Maintis looks really good. The support work on the Wicked Twister is almost complete and looks rather stange. The Wild Cat looks like crap in a ugly yellow and purple paint job! It was worth a total of 7 hours of driving to see it all!
*** This post was edited by Coaster Freak 4/24/2003 6:29:38 PM ***

In the webcam it looked like the red train was all there but I guess with all the other stuff in the way I may have counted other things as seats.

The one train was blue for sure and the other train was a redish color. The two full launches that i saw from a close range did use two different trains for sure and one was blue. The other one could have been a redish color! It didn't matter anyway, i just stood thier looking 420 feet in the air with my mouth wide open! Then when they actually sent trains over this mammoth structure, well it was.......scary!!!
*** This post was edited by Coaster Freak 4/24/2003 6:47:49 PM ***

I just saw a segment on Fox 8 and yep they are short 4 seats. Without a doubt. I have to agree Dan Uh oh......

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"Certified CP Groupie"

If this is a miscalculation on Intamin's part, I hope it is something a quick adjustment can fix. Otherwise, if it's because the hydraulic motor isn't up to initial specs, I'd better get a Freeway stamp for TTD what with the substantially lower capacity and increased wait times!

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Launching in T-minus 10 days...
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I would rather hear synthesizers sing than hear rappers talk.

*** This post was edited by Kevin Lehman 4/25/2003 10:21:06 AM ***

Guys I really doubt this is a serious problem at all. As others have said it is most likely part of the testing process. Here is one of the offical photos showing one of the middle sections of the green train alone. I doubt it's anything to worry about. http://www.rcdb.com/installationgallery1896.htm?Picture=38

All that photo shows is how they arrived out of the shipping containers... nothing more.

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Jeff
Webmaster/GTTP - Sillynonsense.com
"Pray that your country undergoes recovery!" - KMFDM

I doubt Cedar Point would order 5 cars for 6 trains and only use 4 on each. That is unless they found a major problem with using a 5 car train. And even having such problems would suprise me considering the amount of engineering and planning that went into creating this ride.

I still belive the 4 car train is for testing purposes only...we shall see soon enough.
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Eric Morrison (Coast)
Point Hype
http://www.pointhype.com
*** This post was edited by Etrain 4/26/2003 9:01:01 PM ***

CP_bound suggested in the "FOX NEWS CHANNEL" thread that they are testing with only 4 cars because it decreases the train's inertia, which would make it harder for it to make it over the top. With 5 cars on, the added inertia will carry it more easily over the top. So the launch system is perfectly capable of sending 5 cars over the top, but they're testing with only 4 cars (hence, less inertia) to ensure a reduced possibility of rollbacks when all 5 cars are on.

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Launching in T-minus 10, 9, 8 days...
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I would rather hear synthesizers sing than hear rappers talk.

*** This post was edited by Kevin Lehman 4/27/2003 5:08:17 AM ***

There are definately only 4 cars. Here is a pic from rcdb.com:

http://rcdb.com/installationgallery1896.htm?Picture=42

Well Westside7th, I guess that lays rest to what everyone has been bickering about... But I always thought it would be smarter to test with less cars like CP_bound suggested, that was something I've been pondering as well. I mean, less cars = better chance of a rollback, right? If the ride can shoot only four over the top without any problems, than five should work.

I don't trust any of this talk that Intamin or CP made mistakes with a 5th car. If there was anything wrong with the articulation of the trains, then how can they run a train at all when there are two exact cars like the 3rd one taken off? Doesn't make much sense when I think about it.

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2003 - Gemini Crew

Opening day will only have 4 car trains according to this website here: http://www.firelandsredcross.org/topthrilldragster/bid.html

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Opening Day, just a few long days away!

Hmmm...I hope that they get that fifth car operating by the weekend after.

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...and the most anticipated event of summer 2003 is...

The Matrix: Reloaded!

*** This post was edited by CP_bound 4/28/2003 9:54:02 PM ***

Capacity will 1,125 an hour for at least opening day, maybe forever!

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Opening Day, just a few long days away!

And that's assuming they have all 6 trains running...

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Dragster "Top Thrills": 0
World's first strata-coaster!

No... at 12 seats per train, one train every 30 seconds, that's still 1,440 pph. That assumes they can hit that interval, which should be no problem if the launch system can reset that fast.

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Jeff
Webmaster/GTTP - Sillynonsense.com
"Pray that your country undergoes recovery!" - KMFDM

If that were true, Jeff, then at 120 launches per hour, 16 seats per train, you would be pulling about 1920 pph. The aproximate capacity was only 1500 pph before this whole 4-car/5-car fiasco.

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Michael McCormack
Magnum Count: 632

Yeah my number were calculated using TTD's website which stated the capacity would be 1,500, so 12 of 16 seats equals 75 % of original capacity, and 75 % of 1500 is 1125 riders per hour. This would put them around 94 launches an hour or basically a launch every 45 seconds. Of course this all assuming that 1500 is a accurate number to begin with.

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Opening Day, just a few long days away!