Pull Through

That has to be difficult controling the trains on the descent of the first drop for the pull through.

Why would CP not want anybody to see the pull through?

Who says they don't?

Well they have all of the webcams turned off

That could be why i think that

Here are some shots from the funcoast cam:

http://funcam.funcoast.com:8010/temp/1169149774813.jpg

http://funcam.funcoast.com:8010/temp/1169149836362.jpg

*** Edited 1/18/2007 8:04:14 PM UTC by Ride or Die***

They probably needed to do maintenance on the app that hosts the images. That's the MOST likely reason all 3 came down at the same time.

If not, give me 20 minutes to contact my broker and purchase some shares in an aluminum refining and foil manufacturing company and then continue on your way.

Since we currently have no cameras to watch, I thought I'd share a few tid-bits I watched today.

Around 8am they backed the train up about 20ft+/- and re advenced it over the next 45 minutes.

The Pull up the hill began at around 11:16am.

The crain pulled the train about 95% of the way up the hill in about 10 minutes. It then spent about 25 more minutes inching it's way up before the cameras went down.

I don't really watch the sandusky cam or the funcam. So, I can't comment on those as much.

And before anyone says i spend too much time watching the webcams, I have a capture program that does it for me. I can watch the whole day in about a minute if I wanted to. :)

Man that really pisses me off. I had semester exams at school and I started to wach the cams around 11:00 and we left at 11:11 to come home early (special priviledge of exams) and sadly I decided to take a nap before I checked the cams again :(

I was about to say Jason.. are you ok? I mean.. I was hoping you didn't watch the cam the whole time... that would be just sad.

Nice tho, cool to see what goes on.

Do you think the Web Cams will be Working Tomorrow or will we have to wait till they get done with the Electrical Wiring & Pulling the Cars around the Track again?

Electrical and wiring? That wont be for a while still, like a couple of weeks. By then the pull through will be old news and actual testing should begin (and Im not talking about train testing). We're just waiting for those transformers.

Jason Hammond said:

And before anyone says i spend too much time watching the webcams, I have a capture program that does it for me. I can watch the whole day in about a minute if I wanted to. :)

How can I get a capture program like that?

This may sound a little stupid but I'm like no mechanical engineer or electrician, but what do the transformers do?

J. Trick Loves Millennium Force, there are many, but I use Webcam Magic.

JackLovesTTD, the Transformers battle for the earth as the Autobots and the Decepticons ;)
*** Edited 1/19/2007 3:41:10 AM UTC by Jason Hammond***

Not them transformers lol

^^ LOL!!! Good one!

Electric transformers convert electricity from (I think) FirstEnergy at a very high voltage into a lower voltage that CP can use to run the rides and keep the lights on. The power company transmits power at a very high voltage over their grid so it can travel long distances, then at certain places it is "transformed" into a usable voltage. I'm not really sure what voltage rides like Maverick need, but a normal house uses 220-240 volts. (I'm sure the rides require much more!) *** Edited 1/19/2007 3:48:33 AM UTC by halltd***

They do the camera maitinence every year. I have to do it for our up north cam. The company sorta requires it. I think electrical is the hardest too because if the LSM aren't connected correctly, they could short and burn up. I don't think that CP wants to pay a couple thousand on a new LSM that someone screwed up.

JackLovesTTD said:
This may sound a little stupid but I'm like no mechanical engineer or electrician, but what do the transformers do?

Transformers trade off voltage and current, but ideally the power remains the same. Household outlet receptacles provide 120 Volts AC. Say I want 12 volts AC at 10 amps. I would use a transform designed for that. An ideal transformer would work like this:

Input 120 volts @ unknown current

Output 12 volts @ 10 amps

Since power is the product of current and voltage, 12(volts)*10(amps) =120 watts.

Since power is the same on both sides: 120watts = 120volts * x amps.
120watts/120volts = 1 amp.

So, The input will be 120 volts @ 1 amp, and the output will be 12 volts @ 10 amps.

How does that 120 Vac get to your house? I'll give you a potential path, might have more steps and transformers and different voltages, but you will get the idea:

Generator 2000 volts @ 100,000 amps
Step up transformer
High tension power lines 500,000 volts @ 400 amps (say 500 miles)
Step down transformer
Distribution lines 2,400 volts
Step down transformer in fron of your house
240 volts into your house split into +/-120 volts.

Cedar Point added a 34,000 volt line from the power company to Millennium Force's overbanked turn where a step down transformer sits. My guess is that it steps the voltage down to say 2,400 or so volts. This line will go to the Maverick ride area where another transformer will sit and step down to 480 volts. This will go into the electrical building, go through drives and even more transformers. The drives will power the LSM and other power will go to lights, the control system, compressor, ect.

Say Maverick draws 480 volts @ 10,000 amps, why use a number of transformers to increase the voltage when you could simply transmit the power at 480 volts?

Say there is 10 ohms of resistance through such a power line from the company and you had two choices.
480volts @ 10,000 amps
480,000 volts @ 10 amps

The power loss will be I^2*R= Watts or amps*amps*resistance=power

10,000*10,000*10 = 1 billion watts lost with 480 volt transmission lines, lets try the high voltage now.

10*10*10= 1 thousand watts lost with 480,000 volt lines.

See the difference? This is exactly why we use uber dangerous power transmission lines, its very cost effective!

In fact, Thomas Edison went around trying to get people to use DC because it is safer than AC. He electrocuted countless animals in his pursuit with AC including an elephant...

Then again, AC with transformers is exactly why electricity is practical. Life would be completely different had we stuck with DC. Untill the last 15 year, it was only practical to go from AC to DC. Going to DC to AC was very expensive and not practical.

I said that drives run the LSM. They actually convert AC to DC and built their own AC. They are drives, but more specifically called inverters. LSM can only be controlled by varing the AC frequency. The inverters used are new technology much better than used on Superman the escape's LSM.

Will they have inverter failures? Yes they will. They need a ton of inverters so chances are, a few of them aren't going to work correctly and need replacement. You usually need to put them in service to cause them to fail. It's most interesting when the insulation fails and an arc flash causes the inverter to explode. Not good for the pocket book because this can also take out the transfromer and LSM.

Well, I'm glad we got that straightened out. <rolling eyes> ;)

Ask for an inch and I give you a mile?

Mile?!?! I think you circled the globe with that one.

Good explanation though.

JuggaLotus said:
(...)We just have to hope that Mr. Stengel didn't screw up the design (although he hasn't let us down yet).

And yes, SOB's loop has already been removed.

How ironic.

Herr Stengel did the structural and dynamic engineering on Son of Beast.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.