Should GK include a WT facelift?

Cedar King said:
If anything shall be done with WT, it should return to it's full power.

Sorry for the double post, but that's what I've been telling maintenance. Although the other impulses aren't as tall as WT, they run at full power but exude almost the same amount of energy that Twister did in '02, so I don't know why they don't tweak the program.

Alright, that's enough WT talk from me...for now.

Restless Bohemian said:

MaverickLaunch said:
Bins. Man, do I hate bins. Let's take a very high capacity ride and cripple it with bins, and hoards of stupid people to use them.

I don't mean that one is stupid for using the bins. Rather, there are a lot of stupid and lazy people who use bins, and can't follow directions or move like a normal, ambulatory human being.

Yes, no kidding!

I love the bins. I'd rather use them than lockers, as you have to pay for lockers. Are you saying lockers are better than bins? When I put my stuff in the bins, I am quick about it, and yes there are slow people, but at least bins are free of charge....

I think if they do include bins in the station, which seems highly possible, they should do like Diamondback at KI, and have a bin for the front of the train and a different bin for the back of the train. It really seemed to reduce the amount of time in the huddle so to say and gets people back in the train quicker than one set of bins.

If it is anything like Wild Eagle, which I assume it will be, it will have shelves for each row of seats on each side of the train.

TwistedWicker77 said:

Cedar King said:
If anything shall be done with WT, it should return to it's full power.

Sorry for the double post, but that's what I've been telling maintenance. Although the other impulses aren't as tall as WT, they run at full power but exude almost the same amount of energy that Twister did in '02, so I don't know why they don't tweak the program.

Alright, that's enough WT talk from me...for now.

Are you saying that they are running Wicked Twister slow?

Slower than it originally was in 2002. But of course, its still a good ride.

By how much???

Then:

Swing 1- a little past the last supporting column on the front tower
Swing 2- all the way up the back tower
Swing 3- all the way up the front tower (used to get as close to the top as Possessed at Dorney Park gets)
Swing 4- all the way up the back tower again
Swing 5- about as far up as Swing 3 currently goes

Now:

Swing 1- just below the last supporting column on the front tower
Swing 2- barely half way up the back tower
Swing 3- stops about 5 feet shorter than what it used to
Swing 4- all the way up the back tower
Swing 5- half way up the front tower

There's a video on youtube that shows its original operation. I'll post it when I get home from work

TwistedWicker77 said:
Slower than it originally was in 2002. But of course, its still a good ride.

wow. never noticed until you mentioned it.

Has this been done purposely or just the ride aging?

It was done purposely. Apparently the transformers were constantly blowing with the ride running at full speed which resulted in WT's massive amount of downtime in 2002.

Fix : NEW TRANSFORMERS!!!! Hello???

New transformers are only a temporary fix, and they probably weren't cheap enough to blow through like light bulbs. I'm sure a lot of DT's special effects cost less than half of what the transformers did and look at how well they were maintained.

I'm skeptical that transformers would have anything to do with it when presumably there is some kind of capacitance giving the ride the required burst of electricity for each launch.

I'm thinking it had more to do with the the amount of night time welding WT's towers needed during its first year of operation.

~Rob

That separate power line that once lead to only Twister has nothing to do with the transformers themselves. Every time a train launches, it puts out enough electricity to power 2 houses for a whole day (which I'm sure you're aware). The stress being put on those transformers alone, would cause outages to the ride area itself. WT costs a lot of money to operate at the speed it currently runs, let alone it's full speed operation.

The welding was definitely a huge issue too, but with the added yellow supports, the act as shock absorbers which are great stress relievers on the track. With them, there has been minimal problems with the track, and a hell of a lot less welding.

First off, that same line supplies power to Dragster. Second, the power consumed by WT is not coming right off the grid, as there are capacitors in the circuit that can provide short bursts of energy.

You're also wrong about what was "fixed" with the welding, but we'll save that for another day.

I noticed that in original construction pictures that the yellow supports were not there. When did those get installed?

^ Those yellow brace supports were installed in 2003 I believe(the following year) or towards the end of 2002. I specifically remember the ride being down for about a week to weld the braces up. I originally remember watching WT go up the spiral tracks the first year and the main corkscrew track would sway like crazy after the train was gone. Everyone would see it and say "I'm not going on that!" You almost thought they were going to crack in half, it seemed as though alot of stress were on them. They definitely needed braces on them.

Coaster Boi said:
I noticed that in original construction pictures that the yellow supports were not there. When did those get installed?

^beat me to it ;)

Right before the 2003 season. The towers used to sway a bit too much. The track would crack and required welding on a nearly daily basis. So Intamin installed additional supports on all their Inverted Impulse models. It helps reduce the swaying and keeps maintenance down.

Just take a look at this video. The first 10 seconds show how greatly the towers swayed on a shorter 180' model. Wicked Twister runs(ran) faster and is 215'.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcZs4IWMnrw

-------------------------------------------------------
This video shows Wicked Twister in it's inaugural season.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOhqZDtaCDQ&feature=my_favorites&lis...FcaaDmm0JA

Just compare that to the current operation, and there is a noticeable difference.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l63rlAY-Ofk