It CAN Happen

While at the park today, I turned to check out the status of Dragster while getting in the freeway line to Millennium Force and saw the train cresting the hill, I thought. It was actually sitting at the top of the hill, stopped. About 10 minutes later two maintenance workers rode the elevator to the top and pushed the empty train down and over the hill. It then re-opened and didn't seem to have too much speed making it over the top the rest of the time I was at the park.

Though I'd like to this info to be true, it's not hard for someone to make this up without any proof of it happening.

And I think we all know that it CAN happen, it's just extremely rare.

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Cedar Point here I come
~!~Augest 3~!~

And Jennifer Aniston CAN dump Brad Pitt and call me up for a date, but it isn't very likely to..... LOL

It did happen. My brother was at the park today and called me about it, and one of my friends works the ride and told me it happened today. So believe what you want but it DID happen. To me that is just pretty dang cool too :).

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2003 Statistics
Top Thrill Dragster: 9
Magnum XL-200: 44
Trips to the point: 27

This story is true. I saw it while standing inline for Power Tower. The entire line in Power Tower turned around and looked at it. It was up there for a long period of time.

yup, so you guess he's bull****ting ya...(i usually believe stuff until it is logically proved wrong) and instant messaged that dude and yup... he wasnt telling any lies, it would be sweet to see it, someone should have nabbed a webcam pic of it if it was up there for a long period of time (i believe i heard somehwere around 10 mins)

If i was one of the mentinance workers i would jumped in the train (despite the restraints closed) and told him to push me back wards... lol :)

I'll cya guys tommorow, ill be the goofy people with ski goggles and masks on ;)

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TTD: 2 (Rollbacks seen: 1)
MF: 18
WT: 8
Usually at CP: every mon, tuesday, thursday

So then this begs the question... was the top hat not designed with enough of a point? Why hasn't this ever happened on Xcelerator?

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

You'd have to think that no matter how much of a "point" it has, there is a small chance in hell that it will launch just right, and be slowed enough just right to balance at the top. While rare, and pobably less likly with more of a "point", it's still probably not impossible with Xcelerator.

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OMG! The Space Spiral is leaning!!" Must be the weight of that new air conditioning system everyone keeps hypothesizing about...

Actually Jeff, if the point of the top hat was sharper, it would still be possible for it to sit up there, but seeing that its 420 feet in the air, and winds are much greater up there, it is still very very rare.

If you want to see a similar phinominon, start flipping a coin onto your desk, and wait for it to land on its edge;)

Or try tossing a marble up onto a basketball rim, and having it sit there there:)

Edit: Hah, cp rider, you must have posted while I was typing in my reply.

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Cedar Point here I come
~!~Augest 3~!~
*** This post was edited by riordan11688 7/31/2003 10:34:10 PM ***

yes but this did happen with an empty train, some people have been trying to explain that it could happen with a trian full of people, which i dont think could ever happen, unless all the guests weigh the exact same.

dammit riordan11688!!! i just lost 27 cents trying to get some coins to land on its edge, they fell off the back of my desk and that place is a friggin abyss! i had a good friggin 100 flips or so with that damn nickel!

:) just trying to figure out what are the possibilities of that happeneing
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TTD: 2 (Rollbacks seen: 1)
MF: 18
WT: 8
Usually at CP: every mon, tuesday, thursday

Heh, well if it does happen...go to vegas and place afew bets for me;)

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Cedar Point here I come
~!~Augest 3~!~

It happened today with an empty train. I don't think it could happen with people in it but then again I didn't think it could ever happen at all.

For it to happen with people in it the weight distrabution between the front and back of the train would have to be just right. I know it can happen (excluding wind), because I have built a 5 foot TTD with the k'nex set and it has stopped at the top.

I am currently working on a better 7 foot TTD;)

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Cedar Point here I come
~!~Augest 3~!~

I hope those guys took Monty Jaspers digital camera up there to get this one on record.. hahahah that would make the website even better.. wow.. I knew i should have went yesterday....

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TTD rides =11.
occupied train rollbacks seen =23. Balanced at the top for more than a few seconds seen=6

What time did it happen.. maybe we could archive the cleveland cam... to see it... hehe..

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TTD rides =11.
occupied train rollbacks seen =23. Balanced at the top for more than a few seconds seen=6

I'm having trouble figuring out why no one thinks it could happen. Even with an "unevenly" loaded train. Physics doesn't care about the weight distribution in the train so long as it stops in the right place. And, as the tires wear down onto the track, they will create more friction. It's like saying that a tightrope walker is an impossible scenario. And, I'm sure we've all seen, at least a video, of that. No, ninety degrees turned doesn't matter. Balanced is balanced.

At any rate, the cure for this would be a couple kickers at the top of the tower that would only engage by manual prompt.

P.S. Sorry, if this post irritates anyone. But, I know my physics. Oh, and by the way. What is the horsepower of the Xcelerator motor compared to TTD's motor? And, again what are the height comparisons? HHHMMMM! Maybe, just maybe, the motor isn't quite enough. Maybe, the gravity is different on planet Switzerland.

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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?!"

What If there was a kicker at the top that never let this happen or even rollbacks!!

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:) C :) E :) D :) A :) R :) :) P :) O :) ! :) N :) T :)

I was at the park today. It got stuck at the top around 4pm maybe a little before.

I had been in line to ride dragster but it went down so I headed over to the back of the park. It was still at the top when I got over to the swing ride.

It was at the top for at least five minutes.

Hope this helps for you non believers.

I believe it! If you go to the cleveland.com cam. Go to the archived shots. At 3:59pm there is nothing at the top, in the 4:00 shot, it looks like there is something there. It is hard to make out because the "SLP" is right there on the screen. If you click "next photo", at 4:08, you can see the elevator going up then at 4:11 the train is off the top and the elevator is going back down.
http://www.cleveland.com/cedarpointcam/