how does the demon drop work??

i was just wondering, scrutinizing the pictures for demon drop and i simply can't figure out the mechanism behind it.. can someone enlighten me?? it looks really complicated..

will appreciate it alot.. being a first year mechanical engineering student :)

It's an elevator with really big brakes on the end. :)

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Jeff - Webmaster - GTTP - Sillynonsense.com
DELETED! What time does the water show start?

What I wonder about on Demon Drop is what kind of anti-rollback it has. Obviously it has something to prevent it from falling during the lift, but what?

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Q: What does Top Thrill Dragster have in common with Walmart?

A: Rollbacks

Well in 1984, the lift mechanism failed on Six Flags Great America's "The Edge" which is the same kind of ride. The ride neared the top and stalled then the car dropped down the lift shaft. It didnt have anti- rollbacks. None of the Intamin Freefall rides did. Then Intamin added anti-rollbacks to all of the freefall attractions, including Demon Drop. Now if the lift mechanism stalls, the car will drop juts a couple inches the the anti- rollbacks under the car.

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The number 1 thing needed to ride Dragster is... Patience!

Were there people on it? If there was what happened to them?

--brennan

3 teenagers were on it and the seats curled around the victims hips. Luckily no one was hurt badly and they were released fairly quickly.

Here is a description of Demon Drop. You sit in a four across row in one car. You slowly move backwards and wait for another car to clear one of the block sections. Then you lift vertically to the top of the tower and move forward. Then in a few seconds you drop and at the bottom you end up laying down. Then toward the end of the bottom. A mechanism moves you under the track to your original position. Hope that helps!

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The number 1 thing needed to ride Dragster is... Patience!
*** This post was edited by TTD2003 8/25/2003 6:07:18 PM ***

Just some FYI, "The Edge" is now "Mr Hyde's Nasty Fall" @ SFWoA. Premier Parks bought it in 1997, a few years before Six Flags bought Geauga Lake.
*** This post was edited by villiageidiot 8/25/2003 6:20:57 PM ***

Actually the Intamin Freefalls did have anti-rollbacks. From what I remember, the crash at SFGAm caused the number of anti-rollbacks to be increased on the ride. The incident had something to do with the anti-rollbacks not being strong enough to hold the car, possibly because they were wet, though that part isn't to clear to me.

Also, the anti-rollbacks aren't under the car. They work on the two emergency brake fins on either side of the car. The chain lift connects to the main brake fin in the center of the car. They are not ratchets, like on a roller coaster, rather they are more like one way brake pads that work on the brake fins.

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I'd rather be in my boat with a drink on the rocks,
than in the drink with a boat on the rocks.
*** This post was edited by Pete 8/25/2003 6:38:04 PM ***

Also, Pete, the accident changed the procedure for the movement of the laoded cars. BEFORE the "rollback" as soon as one car started up the tower the next car moved into poston at the bottom of the tower. AFTER the accident, the next car waits until the first car clears the tower and is the ready to drop zone.

villageidiot, a correction...

Premier Parks bought The Edge and moved it to Geauga Lake a few years before Premier Parks bought Six Flags.

SIX FLAGS DID NOT BUY GEAUGA LAKE! THE COMPANY THAT OWNS GEAUGA LAKE BOUGHT SIX FLAGS!!

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

To give a little more detail...

When the car reaches the top of the tower a feeder motor (those little spinning wheels) raises and contacts the bottom of the car pushing it off of the lift and onto the "positioning track at the top". To make sure the car doesn't fall back down the tower, in addition to the lift anti rollbacks, there are flaps that the cars wheels push against as it reaches the top. That is why you go up, slow down a bit, and then go down a little bit before moving forward.

Once out on this "positioning track" there are more flaps that the wheels "push" over to make sure the car cannot be blown back towards the lift. Once in position flaps underneath the bottom 4 wheels fold out of the way to allow the freefall.

Once the car reaches the bottom there are something like 100 proximity switches that trigger the brakes in a cascading fashion. Once the car reaches the end of its break run another feeder motor pushes the car forward of that "gap" you see at the end. Once clear, more flaps open to allow the top wheels to enter the "question mark" shaped track. The feeder helps tilt the car back and position it for "reentry". The car falls back a little bit until it contacts the bumper lift that lowers it back into a standing position under the brake track. Its then that more feeder motors push the car back into the station.

here was a website I found a while ago that had full on definitions of all the equiptment and specifications for these rides, but I dont remember..sorry!
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Future CP Ride op?

As for the emergency brake track...

It works on the two side brake fins. The "brakes" are essentially linked metal plates with pads the rub agains the brake fins...Im not sure how they would be opened since they dont look like they move really easily
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Future CP Ride op?

I know how much everyone enjoys a reintroduced 3 year old topic but for all you DD mechanical wizzes, I have question: What is that pin that falls down the center of the tower after a car is dropped and hits the break run? I'm guessing it's the lift mechanism. Anyone, anyone?

Man, can you imagine what it would feel like to fall from the near top of the ride and crash at the bottom! That would be killer on the tailbone. OUCH!! Ew, I can't even imagine what that must have felt like.

DemonDroppin... I was looking at that very same thing the last time I was at the park... I am pretty sure it is either a counterweight or the lift mechanism...

RideMan??

Yes it is a counterweight. As jeff said earlier it is essentially a giant elevator. If you ever are in an elevator that you can see out of, on the other side people see the counterweight to lift it.

The lift mechanism is actually a continuous loop, as far as I can tell. There's a catcher thingie (the thing that connects to the car) in two places on the lift mechanism. When one of them is at the top, the other is at the bottom. The thing you see head down the shaft is the thing that goes to pick up the next car while one car is going up the shaft.

*** Edited 8/3/2006 8:25:02 PM UTC by Michael Darling***

I'm not sure what you're talking about...

But Not Michael is right about it being a continuous loop...there is a drive motor at the bottom of the shaft which drives what appear to be two pair of roller chains. At intervals...and perhaps there are only two on the loop...there is an arm attached between the chains which catches on the back of the base of the car. I'm pretty sure there are only the two because I've never seen one...the car itself is always in the way. But you can watch the mechanism operate...Mr. Hyde's was good for this as there was a place right next to the base of the tower where you could stand...and see that it does not reverse. My guess is that the lift mechanism has an anti-rollback device on it in addition to the anti-rollbacks that work on the ride vehicles.

Pete described the anti-rollbacks, which you can see on the tower. They are a bit like the anti-rollback devices used on the Vekoma SLC coasters, except that the fin is on the car and the anti rollback device is on the tower. (photos of SLC anti-rollback).

I've got some detail shots of Demon Drop and Mr. Hydes that I shot for a video project I'm working on; I'll see if those are at all enlightening if I dig them up...

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

It's fun watching DD operate. The ride is timed so well on when a car falls, the next car starts to go up, by the time the previous car gets upright again, the next car falls a few seconds later and it repeats this all day long with very little delay. If only TTD could work like that.

You'll notice DD is blocked that way. The car waiting to climb the tower will not move into position (inside the tower) until the previous car has hit the breaking pathway. Once that car completes the breaking run and it has made contact with the feeder motor (the spinning wheel that completely stops the car and sends it down into the "gap" to reposition the car upright) will the car at the top of the tower be able to move over the "edge" and freefall. DD is only ever down because of weather (one drop of rain will shut it down) or when a car hasn't reached the feeder motor and riders are stranded on their backs, there will most likely be a car also stopped at the inside top of the tower. This is really the only mechanical issue facing the ride nowadays (despite the popular "DD is a mechanical nightmare" that so many people seem to think). *** Edited 8/3/2006 11:40:01 PM UTC by DemonDroppin'***