Bone Yard

My teachers always taught me that the only dumb question is the one that doesn't get asked, so...What is a "mobius set-up"?

A mobius strip is a strip of something that looks like a figure 8, but only has one side because of a half twist.

A mobius setup is the same idea, it looks like two tracks, but it's actually one really, really long one that crosses over at some point in the ride...

Can anyone explain it better???

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-The Pants Has Spoken
"Yellow line? What Yellow Line..."

Basically, imagine Gemini as it is now.

However, the blue train would end up in the station the red train started in, and vice versa.

Muckmack, if you've been to Kennywood, it's like the Racer.

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Food is an important part of a balanced diet.
--Fran Lebowitz

I've never been to Kennywood, but I have a good idea of what a mobius is now. Thanks for the information everyone. I wouldn't really see any point in changing Gemini to one though. It would not be worth the money to make such a small change in the feel of the ride.

...And operationally it would require major changes to the trains and platform (because the red trains are not compatible with the right-hand platform and vice-versa), plus it would make it necessary to always run the ride with a full crew. Furthermore, if one lift goes down, or one station brake goes down, the whole ride is down. Nope, the current setup makes the most sense.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Why isn't the blue train compatable on red, and vice-versa?

My guess is Brakes, and the position of the chain and rollback's. I think they are set up oppisite on each side.

No, the brake fin is right in the middle, and the chain/safety ratchet dogs are similar and equidistant from the center. But I believe it was a Gemini crew member who pointed out to me that the lap bar release pedals are on the outboard side of the train (left on red, right on blue) and the mechanical release rail is on the inboard side (red=right, blue=left).
I'm also not sure about the flags under the train...under the lead car on one side, under the tail car on the other...to signal the console when the train enters or leaves a block. I don't know if that is mirror-image on the two tracks or not.
It does explain, though, why during the late season when the ride has only four trains on it, when one lift breaks down and the crowd sets an attendance record they don't put one of the blue trains on the red side and run with three trains...

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Joe suffering from a case of Geminiamnesia today


Also, I'm not sure if this will have anything to do with it, but aren't the sensors chiseled into the side of the platform also on opposite side's?

Actually, Joe if I am remembering correctly, the stuff you are thinking of is for optical emitter/detector pairs where the light beam goes across the track at least twice, at least once at a diagonal, across a distance greater than the length of the drawbar. That detects the presence or absence of a train within the space between the emitter and the detector, and since the beam goes all the way across the track, it wouldn't matter which side of the train it is on.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.