Maverick Lift

I've always wanted to know exactly what is it that makes a Maverick train to go up the hill? Does it have to do something with magnets?

Those white rectangles you see are LSM motors. It stands for Linear Synchronous motor. Essentially......magnets.

It's worth noting that Maverick's "no moving parts" lift system is actually a pretty ingenious design. The LSM packs are motor coils, which interact with permanent magnets on the bottom of the train. When AC current is flowing through the motor coils, the induced magnetic field in the coil pushes the train up the lift.

Almost as cool is what happens when something goes wrong. If current is NOT flowing through the motor coils, the permanent magnets on the train will induce a current in the coil as the train stars rolling backwards down the hill. That induced current is plumbed into what amounts to a short circuit which will apply a force to the train in the same manner as a magnetic brake. So instead of stopping on the lift as on a conventional coaster, the Maverick train will roll backwards down the hill at a safe rate until it reaches the holding brakes at the bottom of the hill. This is why the second train holds short of the base of the hill until the first train gets over the top, instead of immediately rolling up to the holding point at the bottom of the lift.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Here are magnets under the train.

RideMan said:
This is why the second train holds short of the base of the hill until the first train gets over the top, instead of immediately rolling up to the holding point at the bottom of the lift.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

If memory serves, the second train waits until the first has been cleared the block prior to the second launch.

The second train is sent up the hill manually, but the enable is not active until the first train completes the twisted horseshoe roll.

Magnets on a train are always better than snakes on a plane.

hmm that seems odd that the train is manually sent up the lift. Why?

RideMan said:
It's worth noting that Maverick's "no moving parts" lift system is actually a pretty ingenious design.

I like how you put no moving parts in quotation marks. I wold consider the train a pretty big moving part!

The train isn't part of the lift. :)

This is just an assumption: Probably because the trains are allowed to be dispatched right after the horseshoe roll and can be disengaged on the lift manually by the operator just in case the first one doesn't clear the tunnel. I could be wrong since Maverick and Dragster are the only Intamin controls I haven't operated.

The computer will stop the train from going over the lift automatically if the previous train doesn't make it to a certain point in the tunnel.

ChrisC. said:
hmm that seems odd that the train is manually sent up the lift. Why?

Not only what Rob just said, but it also gives ride ops a chance to check the train one last time before dispatching it up the lift. And trust me, they've caught some things thanks to that manual dispatch.

That Intamin design seems flawless ;)

Thanks guys, seems interesting.

Their design is always in question. And almost always a mess, in the technical sense.

However, I've been thinking about how the ride would have performed if they just had a set up similar to MF where there were two stations that could each only handle 1 train.

Would trains be dispatching faster? Would eliminating two trains moving at once help the technical issue? I don't know. But it really is interesting.

Okay, let's talk about a few things...
djDaemon said:

If memory serves, the second train waits until the first has been cleared the block prior to the second launch.

What I was talking about are the two block points between the station and the lift hill. One is the transfer table, the other...I can't remember off-hand whether it is part of the transfer table or not. But there are places to park two trains between the base of the lift and the station. The first train rolls out of the station and goes straight on up the lift hill. The second train stops on the first block brake, and must hold there until the train ahead clears the lift hill. Now I confess, I don't ride Maverick enough to remember for certain, but it runs in my mind that once the lift is clear (and not until, as there are no anti-rollbacks!) the second train pulls forward to the base of the lift and holds, apparently until it is sent manually. The point is that the second train can't advance to the base of the lift until the first train clears it, because until the first train gets past the top of the lift, there is a chance that it can come back. Once it clears the lift, the next restriction is that the first train has to clear the holding brake uptrack of the launch before the second train can clear the lift. Technically, the second train can start up the lift before the first train launches, but I'm pretty sure the first train has to be over the hill before the second train can *leave* the lift hill.

Avalanche Sam said:

I like how you put no moving parts in quotation marks. I wold consider the train a pretty big moving part!

Yeah, that was kind of the point.

Guide Wheel said:

...However, I've been thinking about how the ride would have performed if they just had a set up similar to MF where there were two stations that could each only handle 1 train.

Would trains be dispatching faster? Would eliminating two trains moving at once help the technical issue? I don't know. But it really is interesting.

Let's look at the Maverick timetable, shall we? According to RCDB, Maverick's hourly capacity is about 1,200 PPH. That's probably really, really generous, but still, since that is a published figure, let's use that as a benchmark, and figure that's the number they used for design and planning purposes.

Maverick's trains are really short, probably for mechanical reasons: either because of the power needed to move the train up the lift hill, or more likely, to get a more consistent performance from front seat to back seat from a biodynamic perspective. We know what a punching match a ride on Maverick can be as-built, can you imagine if it ran a nine-car train like Millennium Force?

So we have a problem. We need to hit 1,200 PPH, but we have these dinky little 12-car trains. That means the dispatch interval needed to hit that 1,200 PPH target is 36 seconds. That's pretty straightforward. That's also a pretty serious problem.

For a comparison, let's examine Magnum, which is my favorite example just because I know it better than any other coaster in the park. Magnum has three 36-passenger trains, which can be dispatched at a roughly 70-second interval. It takes about 15 seconds for a train to clear the station, and another 20 seconds from release for the next train to get from the transfer table to the parking slot in the station. That means while the dispatch interval is 70 seconds, the headway between trains...that is, from dispatch to the arrival of the next train...is more like 30 seconds. That leaves about 40 seconds to move 72 people: 36 people get out, 36 more people get in, the exit platform clears, all the seats are checked, and the train is dispatched. Ready, ready, knock, knock, bang, bang, clear [Footnote 1].

Now, when you're loading a train from a shotgun, it doesn't matter how many seats you've got. One row, six rows, eighteen rows, or 40 rows, if you've got the seat queues preloaded and you have enough people checking lap bars, it's going to take about 35 seconds to get two people out and two people in. Now you can see the problem. People, as you can see, are a problem.

To get anywhere near 1,200 PPH, Maverick would have to pull into the station, unload, load, check, and dispatch again in 36 seconds. That isn't enough time for everybody to get on board. So the solution was to use two stations. The trains are brought into the station together, unloaded, loaded, and dispatched together 72 seconds later. The first train goes straight into the ride, then the second train follows 36 seconds later. Meanwhile, as the two trains are sent out of the station, the next pair is brought in. Pairs of trains are operated on a 72-second interval, while a train goes up the lift every 36 seconds. As a result, if we consider transit times similar to Magnum (in fact, I think Maverick is faster thanks to the feed motors), that means a headway of about 30 seconds and a station dwell time of about 42 seconds, which is right in line with what we see over on Magnum with its gigantic train.

Using separate stations for load and unload is slower than flush loading because of the extra steps required. You can, as we see from Iron Dragon, flush-load a train in about 30 seconds at best. Even if you can unload and load in fifteen seconds, you still have to allow for transfer time between stations which again takes you past that 36-second time limit. Double flush-loading ends up being the solution that gets you just about the right amount of time in the station along with the required short dispatch interval.

Now here's a trivia question: Of the coasters built at Cedar Point since, say, 1960, which was the first to use this type of double flush loading?

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Footnote 1: Am I showing my age yet? I miss that process...

--DCAjr

RideMan said:
Now I confess, I don't ride Maverick enough to remember for certain

And you call yourself "Rideman"????

Just kidding Dave. I love your posts. It's refreshing to read well-thought-out comments as opposed to the occasional 15 year old drivel we see on this site.

Besides that, I have nothing of value to add to this conversation that Rideman has not already stated.

RideMan said:
...it runs in my mind that once the lift is clear (and not until, as there are no anti-rollbacks!) the second train pulls forward to the base of the lift and holds, apparently until it is sent manually. The point is that the second train can't advance to the base of the lift until the first train clears it, because until the first train gets past the top of the lift, there is a chance that it can come back.

I've never seen the second train advance to the base of the lift hill until the first train advances beyond the block uptrack of the launch.

I've always assumed this is because (theoretically), the first train could "roll back" up the drop and over the lift. It is, after all, sent up the lift at a relatively high rate of speed.

I see no way possible for the train to do what you've described, despite the rate of speed on the hill climb.

I read something, somewhere which stated that the rate of speed that a train crests the hill has only a negligible impact on it's speed when it hits the bottom. I think the reference was for Intimidator 305, when they were talking about the trim brake on the downhill, I suggested instead they reduce the rate of speed that the train crests the hill (pretty fast on that ride). But apparently it makes little difference.

Is there a point post lift hill which is higher than the lift itself? If so, then the train could, theoretically, roll back and up the lift. But I don't think such a point in the ride exists, so it is impossible for a train to stall mid ride and roll back up the lift hill.