Behind the Rides: TTD

e x i t english said:
TTD - You are dead wrong.

It does not have anything to do with the brake runs being on an incline. A magnetic brake simply cannot hold a train.

It can bring it all the way down to almost 0, which could technically count as a dead stop, but it will keep creeping forward until it is held in place by something that isn't magnetic.

Ok now I feel like an idiot. I completely understand now.

Basically it can slow the train to a dead crawl (even on a flat surface) but cant keep it in a fixed position because of the nature of the magnets. Now that think of it, I do remeber a dicussion somewhere where I heard exactly what you just said.

::sighs::Well that's one slap for me. I dont know how Im going to pass my finals tomorrow.:)

Yeah, if it was 'totally flat' as you suggested, friction would be the actual force bringing it to a deadstop, not the magnetic brakes.

And patrick, that is disturbing :)

Thanks Ben, always good to have a sanity check :)

Thanks for posting that link. Apparently I have "been in a cave", lol. I have the rss set to tell me when there is a new post on the blog, but I guess it stopped working, because it currently says "no new messages in the past 3 days".

Jer said:
Maybe, the part they are not allowed to photograph, is the electrical/computer room? I myself, have never seen any pictures of it, but always wanted too.

You're not missing anything... unless you're into a big long row of dark grey cabinets. There's a picture floating around of Wicked Twister's electrical room (Actually, I think it's on this site)... look at that, and picture those same cabinets dark grey instead of beige. That's the Dragster Electrical room... exciting, eh?

I remember reading somewhere that the maintenance guys aren't supposed to be photographed because of their union contract. So it would make sense that since they can't photograph the union guys, they can't photograph the hydraulic room, because any time the ride is down or not yet open, there are maintenance guys working in the hydraulic room making sure everything is working so the ride can stay up.

Next time I see a maintenance guy, I'm totally whipping out my camera phone.

Wow, I dangle this bait in this forum and I don't even get a bite!

Purdue University Engineer said:

Also, is there anybody out there who knows why, given the pictures shown, this response from T&T is incorrect?

Timothy, the blinking red light indicates that the system has encountered an error and needs to be checked.

Because I think it's interesting, here is why T&T's response is incorrect:

The posted comment just refers to the "red light" being lit in the pictures of the main and launch control panels, and T&T jumped to the assumption that it was blinking. In fact, the "red light" would have been lit solid in those pictures because you can see the e-stop button is depressed in the pic of the main control panel. Therefore, the fact that the "red light" is lit in those pictures does not mean:

that the system has encountered an error and needs to be checked.

It simply means the ride has been intentionally e-stopped.

It is standard operating procedure at the end of the operating day to e-stop the ride to not only place the ride in its safest mode for maintenance, but also to be able to legally assign fault to anyone who operates the ride the next day without maintenance approval (because you can't unintentionally reset an e-stop).

Any idea where I could buy some buttons like on TTD's control panel?

Grainger sells them.

Here are a few examples, they are quite expensive! ;)

http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/wwg/itemDetailsRender.shtml?ItemId=1611778648
http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/wwg/itemDetailsRender.shtml?ItemId=1612700021

Just search "pushbuttons" or "illuminated pushbutton" on ebay or that website.

Those are the same buttons we have in our fire station, they are used to turn the traffic light out front to green for us when we go out on a run. I know, off topic.

I'm sure in part two, T&T will photograph the hydraulic room. They have numerous pictures of it already on their website. It just wasn't part of this installment.

I think they did a great job of this behind the ride. I'd love to see a picture of the underside of the trains though. I think that would be cool. It'd be cool to see a close-up shot of all the pulleys right before the hydraulic room too. I love standing there and watching/listening to the launch process. That sound is amazing.

Well so much for showing the hydraulic room. Does anyone know who made the hydraulics for Dragster? I work for a hydraulic company and I was curious if they designed the valves for it. The people I talked to at work aren’t sure. I know they designed the parts for X Scream on top of Stratosphere.

I'm almost positive Intamin manufactured and designed it all.

Is anyone else excited about finding out who the guy behind the voice (Keep arms down, head back, and hold on) is? Maybe it's just me.

I remember hearing some company in Itally did the hydraulic design.

Sure, Intamin designed the ride, but I'm sure they used parts manufactured by other companies in their design.

Sorry to be off topic, but this matter has been discussed for a while around here. I emailed CP asking about the tower lights and why they aren't used any more. This is the response I got.

Dear Vince,

Thank you for bringing your question to our attention. I agree that the lights are very impressive at the Top Thrill Dragster. I will bring up your comments to the appropriate department to ensure all of the lights are working.

Again, thank you for bringing your comments to our attention.

Sincerely,

Matthew Ozoskey

Manager

Ride Operations

Wait, wait, wait.......since when have they NOT been using them??!!

Sorry but I’m a bit confounded here.

I'm a bit confused as well. When did this happen?

Or, are we talking about the tower lights shown here?
http://www.pointbuzz.com/Gallery.aspx?i=106

That's what I'm thinking now, because the countdown lights work.