Number of cars per train on Dragster

Well, I was recently made aware of this. There are pictures of TTD using both 4 and 5 cars per train, with all of the original theming and riders on both. Anyone know why?

http://cache.rcdb.com/pictures/picmax/p6519.jpg

^4 cars

http://cache.rcdb.com/pictures/picmax/p6701.jpg

^ 5 cars

All of the other Intamin rockets I have checked all use 5 cars per train.

I always wondered how long it would take for a question like this.

When TTD was built it had six trains with five cars holding 16 passengers each. The first car had two seats and the last car had two seats. The last car also had a mock-up engine, tires, and spoiler.

On Media Day (May 1, 2003) and Opening Day (May 4, 2003) the ride ran with four car trains. The black cherry, purple, and gold train weren't ready yet either so only three trains (red, green, blue) with four cars ran those two days.

On May 9, 2003 (the park was closed Mon.-Thu. that season), the ride opened with five trains (gold wasn't on-site) with all five cars with the theming on the back car.

The theming was eventually removed from the trains at the end of May. The ride only operated maybe a total of five or six days in the month of June and finally got back up on July 4, 2003 (around 7pm I believe). It was then that the back car got two extra seats added enabling each train to hold 18 passengers. The extra seats replaced the theming and allowed the ride to reach a higher capacity.

The gold train showed up on-site around the last week of May.

Following TTD was basically my life back in 2003. A lot happened that year.

Also, not all rocket (accelerator) coaster made by Intamin have five car trains.

Kanoen at Liseberg has four cars:
http://rcdb.com/ig2905.htm?picture=29

Speed Monster at Tusenfryd has three cars:
http://rcdb.com/ig3245.htm?picture=47

Furius Baco at PortAventura has six cars:
http://rcdb.com/ig3430.htm?picture=32

It is interesting how 2008 is the first year an Intamin rocket coaster isn't getting built since their introduction in 2002.

Ah, I understand. I had a feeling that it was very temporary.

And I only checked the larger rockets, Storm Runner, KK, Stealth, Xcelerator, ect.

When did the "tire" incident happen?

I thought thats why they had the theming removed.

Like around may 25, or so?

^^^^Yeah, I was surprised too. Maybe parks are starting to become afraid of how high maintenance they are.

Are the smaller ones very high maintenance? I was under the impression that the rides (mainly the ones in Europe) pack a big punch with a reasonable price tag. Furious Baco looks really cool with its trains, but that ride had big problems with it's foundations surprisingly.

I'm not surprised since it's something totally different than what Intamin has done in the past.

And I don't think it's the size so much as it is the mechanics (though size does play a part). Even with Furious Baco and Desert Storm being the newest, they still can't quite run for long periods without problems. And it's usually the same kind of problems for each one, with the occasional surprise(like Bacos foundations).

Phantom 1898 said:When did the "tire" incident happen? I thought thats why they had the theming removed.

I never heard about this. Can you describe what happened?

i heard one of the tires came off the car when it was at speed or at the crest of the tophat. I have heard both stories. Nobody was injured and the tire landed safely in the lagoon by paddlewheel ex. I never saw any news on it but heard stories. It could be false for all i know.

I was on the train ahead of the train that lost its tire. That's not quite how it happened. But you are correct that no one was hurt and the tire landed clear of anywhere that people would be.

I was actually in line 2 years ago at PE and a cellphone fell from TTD and hit the pavement. Lucky nobody was there but even more suprising was a security officer came over picked it up and put it back together. IT WORKED. The screen was not even cracked and it hit hard. I just wondered where the person lost it on the ride to travel that far sideways and hit at that speed.

I heard from someone who worked on Dragster during the incident that the tire(s)could actually be seen spinning freely after a train had stopped. So IF that's true, then that could have been the problem.....unless there was something else that led to them spinning which then made matters worse.

4 vs. 5 is a testament to how committed the park and Intamin were to open the ride when promised. Dragster "borrowed" a certain part from her older sister, but that part was not originally intended to work with the extra momentum of Dragster's launch system. In order to decrease the momentum they decreased the mass of the system by removing a car. Once a new built-to-original-specification version of that certain part could be delivered to the park, it was installed, and the fifth car was added back to each of the 5 trains that were on site at the time.

The themeing is a completely separate issue.

You learn something new everyday.:)