5 Car Train in Testing???

When I went to the ride auction site, I was surprised to see the #1 bid was only $650. I would've thought that it would be higher. That makes me want to bid even more. I'm only 14 and even I have that kind of money in the bank. (Don't mean to brag or anything, just making a point.)

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-life without danger is a waste of oxygen-

Guys, aren't we forgetting the bidding is for charity? It isn't about getting on one of the first six trains. It should be about helping the red cross.

Bamaboy said:
Another slam on Six Flags. You people are ruthless.
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Yeah, well the truth hurts. :)

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...and the most anticipated event of summer 2003 is...
The Matrix: Reloaded!

Coaster Freak said:
I guess you should worry now, according to that site, the ride may not have enough juice to clear a 5 car train ever!

I'm sorry, I missed the text on the auction site that said, "Dragster can never run a five-car train!"

Jasper said on a construction tour in January that Xcelerator's 8,700 hp motor would be adequate, and Dragster's was 10,000 hp. I don't doubt that still stands true. Whatever the problem, I bet it's not an issue of power.

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

Jeff, Jasper also told you that WT wouldn't have additional supports! :-P

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ONE freeway stamp a day... ONE

My guess is that this has to do with the amount of negative Gs in the last car, after they did the testing of ride dynamics with the instruments. If that is the case, I doubt TTD will ever run with 5 car trains.

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Florida may have Disneyworld and Key West,
but Ohio has Cedar Point and Put-In-Bay.
It's great to live in Ohio!

Well seeing as how he's a vice president and the majority of people posting on this site are kids who spend all day on this site, I'm going to go with the one that has a bit more credibility.

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

I wonder if CP's contract with Intamin includes performance guarantees?
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Florida may have Disneyworld and Key West,
but Ohio has Cedar Point and Put-In-Bay.
It's great to live in Ohio!

perhaps that spikes won't topple over ;)

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2001 - Hooray For Hollywood
2002 - Hooray For Hollywood: The Sequel

Four car trains could be a temporary situation also. Maybe the park doesn't feel that the launch system has been broken in enough to handle the launch of a five car train. (Jeff, not trying to cause a problem, just got worried myself when I saw that site!)

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Opening Day, just a few long days away!
*** This post was edited by Coaster Freak 4/29/2003 1:10:28 AM ***

Pete said:
I wonder if CP's contract with Intamin includes performance guarantees?
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Florida may have Disneyworld and Key West,
but Ohio has Cedar Point and Put-In-Bay.
It's great to live in Ohio!

I'm not sure, but what I do know is that the coaster industry has a very small market, and I'm pretty sure manufacturers will do what they have to do to maintain a good relationship with the park - even if it means ripping out the old motor and putting in a heavier one (or upgrading it) at no charge. But I believe this is not an issue about power. Soon Monty Jasper will reveal the real reason behind the 5-car/4-car issue in his next (if not final) diary update.

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Launching for the GP in T-minus 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5 days...
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I would rather hear synthesizers sing than hear rappers talk.
*** This post was edited by Kevin Lehman 4/29/2003 5:05:19 AM ***

Well, from what I've heard, the four train operation is only temporary, and not a power issue. It seems there was a miscalculation in the original design and a part is now being built in Switzerland. And also as of 4/28 they still were not licensed to accept people on the ride although that was supposed to happen on Tuesday.

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tambo

My guess is that they could be conditioning the launch system, much like you're supposed to do with a new car. They say that you're not supposed to really overexert the engine until 500 miles or so. Perhaps they're doing something similar with TTD by running it with lighter trains. They're still going to have too hit 120 to get it over, but it's easier on the launch to have a lighter train, hence only 4 cars. Just an idea.

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Scott W. Short
mailto:scott@midwestcoastercentral.com
http://www.midwestcoastercentral.com

Crow tastes better when it's warm.

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If I win the lottery, I promise not to quit my job. Although, it may not take very long for me to be fired.
In the immortal words of Socrates, "I drank what?!"

Dougster said:
Crow tastes better when it's warm.

So who do you disagree with?

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Launching for the GP in T-minus 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5 days...
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I would rather hear synthesizers sing than hear rappers talk.

I'm prepared to accept it's something mechanical, but not any issue with the strength of the launch system. If you remove one car from one train, you need to do it for every train, because the computer expects them to be a certain length as it moves them around.

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

^^ Thats something I was actually just thinking about. The sensors on the track, if set up for a 5 car train, would think the train has not cleared each safety block until the next train gets there (which, theoretically would never happen as a train must fully clear a block before the next train is allowed to continue.)

I also feel this is a way to "break-in" the system, it would be kind of pointless to have 6 single cars just sitting around.

Like someone said before in this topic. It is more of an assurance that the ride will always clear the tower. Once they get everything running efficiently, I would expect a full 5 car operation.

If there were something wrong with one car on one train though.. it makes more sense to remove that one train completely than to remove one car from each train.. I mean this way capacity is down by 24 and not just 16..
*** This post was edited by Marcus 4/29/2003 2:21:52 PM ***

Yeah, that's what I thought too, but Cedar Point always does at least one thing that doesn't make sense. ;) Actually, I then would need to wonder if there's some strange requirement in the program that requires you to always run trains in multiples of two. Hey, it could happen!

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

Are they removing one 4 seat from every train or are they just going to rope off certain rows from the trains that have all the cars?

I agree that it seems to be a mechanical issue instead of design. I can't see how you would spend 25 million and not get what you wanted.