Maverick Rollbacks?

Hi all, im new to Pointbuzz. Last weekend when I was at the Point, I was over at Maverick taking pictures when I noticed a sign in the queue. It said, "Occasionally a launched train will not clear the lift hill or launch tunnel. You should not be concerned: the train will slowly return to the proper launch position."
Im not sure how the train could possibly not make it over the lift hill, and it even seems unlikely that it wouldnt make it over the dive after the launch. The only reason I can imagine a rollback might occur would be due to an E-stop during one of the launches. If anyone knows otherwise, please clarify.

Loss of electricity.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_Blackout_of_2003

In other words, it is possible but won't happen very often.

Or anytime there is a ride fault that shuts down the ride...

I think I saw a rollback today while it was testing.. It started to climb the hill and then it instantly slowed down and reversed its direction slowly. Not sure what that was all about though.

*** Edited 5/15/2007 4:08:35 AM UTC by BGRooDoG***

I'll bet that it's just a cautionary message, just in case. I suppose with the LSM it's a possibility....
*** Edited 5/19/2007 7:58:57 PM UTC by playa21***

Wouldnt the trains crash if it happened?

No.

The way the LSM's work, the train will roll back slowly without power. And I'm not exactly sure where all the Tires are to advance the trains, but I Imagine there will be some between the launch waiting zone and the lift hill.

There is a block before the launch tunnel, where a train can be stopped if one rolled back in the launch. And there is a block before the lift where a train that rolls backwards down the lift can be stopped before going into the station (similar to Dragster)

It would be interesting to see a rollback after the tunnel. I wonder if the brakes on the hill will slow it down a lot, or won't do anything at all.

Did anybody see the other part of the sign about earrings? As soon as we read it, we turned around and saw a girl with five earrings and we just had to look at eachother.

what about earrings? are they prohibited?

SIGN

Looks like a yes to me.

*** Edited 5/18/2007 3:36:17 AM UTC by Loopy***

i don't care necessarily about the earrings. But if you can't wear earrings, there must be some headbanging going on :( wah! That would suck!

When un-powered, LSMs act as brakes. The amount of stopping-force the LSMs apply is porportional to the speed of the train. Thus, the faster the train is going, the more foce applied to stop the train. So in the event of an e-stop while on the lift, the LSMs won't hold the train in place (no speed = no stopping force) and the train will slowly roll down the lift. This is similar to Dragster after a rollback. Even though the brakes are up, the train never comes to a complete stop.

KidsRRT, it's a precaution, not another way of saying "this ride includes headbanging". With people suing for silly things these days, I can't say I blame them for the decision on this.

LSMs don't act as brakes in themselves. The inverters have to be setup to brake their load whenever they are not running. It gets quite complex when you look at how the inverters operate so they can reliably brake when not operating and cut out the braking current to operate again.

.. or here is one for you.. maybe the earrings will be drawn into the magnetic field of the LSMs ripping out of the side of your head. *sarcasim*

However thats not bad for speculation. Think of the cell phones.... (shivers)

LOL!! I didn't have a problem with my cell phone on Superman: The Escape or California Screamin'. So, I think we'll all be ok with Maverick and it's LSMs.