Top Thrill 2 Announced

^ It's Cedar Fair, the ride is going to have seat belts unfortunately.

Surprised that more people aren't concerned with capacity, which was my very first thought. Only three trains, a ride experience that's probably two to three times longer, and the need to switch tracks to get set up. No unloading station, it seems.

Now, that could very well be offset by less pomp and circumstance before the launch, and a greater reliability of the launch itself. Ride ops are going to have to be really good for it not to be an issue.

The other thing is that I do not want to see what Fast Lane does to this thing. Non-Fast Lane queue is going to be incredibly slow, but I guess that was true for Top Thrill 1, too.

Scott Cameron:

It's Cedar Fair, the ride is going to have seat belts unfortunately.

Wild Mouse has entered the chat

Seriously? Lol. Believe me I hope it doesn't, but CF is not going to have a 420 foot, 120MPH ride without some form of seat belts.

Austin12:

I cant find it stated anywhere but roughly how high up the spike will it go?

My guess is if it hits 101mph the back car will top out at about 330-350? (someone who knows physics can check the math but if Millennium hits 92 off 300 ft drop, then?).

That's why I am so confused on why they made the back spike 420 feet? Other than visual symmetry or the chance they may increase the speed on the rollback launch, there is a ton of vertical track that will remain untouched on that back spike? Not to mention the cost of that track and support?

Can anybody figure out why the back spike is that high?

Thor:

Surprised that more people aren't concerned with capacity, which was my very first thought. Only three trains, a ride experience that's probably two to three times longer, and the need to switch tracks to get set up. No unloading station, it seems.

Now, that could very well be offset by less pomp and circumstance before the launch, and a greater reliability of the launch itself. Ride ops are going to have to be really good for it not to be an issue.

They only need a launch every minute to hit 1,200 PPH. The launch cycle won't be the issue. The forward launch, rollback and relaunch won't be a minute long (I wouldn't think). The minute the train clears the top hat you can a waiting train slide over and launch. So theoretically, it won't be an issue.

The real issue is whether ride ops can unload, load and dispatch in a minute. HIGHLY unlikely.

that's why it's disappointing they only have three trains and apparently a single load station? The way to do this would have been to have dual load stations (on each side - so train don't stack), 4 trains, and so you theoretically ALWAYS have a train sitting by the transfer track ready to slide over the instant the previous train clears the top hat. This was the idea behind King Ka's station -- and it is the right idea (despite Six Flags' lousy use of it).

Are we sure there won't be a separate load/unload like Top Thrill Drag...er...1?

Nobody is sure about that. I would assume the front of the station will be load and the back of the station will be unload. After the train at unload is empty, it will advance to load (similar to MF). Fingers crossed that multi move will by programmed into this reimagination to keep efficiency high. If the ride crew cannot unload, load, and dispatch in under a minute on a 10 row train, that’s sad. An efficient Wicked Twister crew was able to do it with a 16 row train. Shouldn’t be hard to accomplish.

From the renderings, it looks like they will still have unload on the curve behind the station. This is a bit of a surprise to me as I thought they'd seek to limt the number of staff positions required. I just don't see how they'd load/unload in the same spot since there appears to be a wall between the launch track and the track in the load station.

My guess is the interval dispatch interval could be around 72 seconds (about 50-60 seconds of parked time) which would equal a capacity of 1,000 riders per hour. Not great, but not much different than the original and without the extra expense of two or three more trains.

Capacity will really suffer if the third train is out of service though - just like at Millennium Force where they'd be better off loading and unloading at the same spot when running two trains, but the station design doesn't allow for it.

MDOmnis:

From the renderings, it looks like they will still have unload on the curve behind the station. This is a bit of a surprise to me as I thought they'd seek to limt the number of staff positions required. I just don't see how they'd load/unload in the same spot since there appears to be a wall between the launch track and the track in the load station.

I don’t see on the renderings where the unload would be where the curve is. It honestly looks like the rear of the station will be unload and the front would be load from the renderings I have seen. You can see the exit walkway starts at the rear of the station.

There’s also additional walkways/crossovers in the renderings that I’m confused by. When you exit the ride will you walk over it or under it through a covered walkway?

Maybe you are right TwistedWicker77. Is that a covered pathway for the exit ramp with the pull out of the spike over the top of it? Not sure what I'm looking at honestly. Doesn't seem like there will be much room on either the load or the unload side of the station.

Earlier in the thread I thought the platform was going to be a standard 'enter on one side of the train and exit on the other simultaneously'. It does seem possible that it could be front load / rear unload.

The platform around the curve looks like a maintenance walkway to me. Maybe unloading there for an evacuation if necessary.

The exit tunnel appears to go through the wall and under the curve up to the spike. Not sure if the designs on the tunnel walls are windows or just artwork. Could be claustrophobic if it's all enclosed. Looks like it splits into 2 exits, one into the photo building, and the other just outside it.

All the 'above the track' walkways are near the station and look like they'd be only for employees use. Of course all this comes with the 'no idea what I'm talking about' disclaimer.

Yes it's kind of wild to delete post that are only quoting your words, almost like a sore loser situation lol

My assumption with 3-train operation was that there would be, under ideal conditions: 1) 1 train on the course, 2) 1 train loading and ready, and 3) one train unloading, keeping the ride in constant motion.

I think if they play their cards right with the blocking and transfer setup, this could have decent capacity and not the nightmare like some are predicting . Once train 1 clears the transfer area on the 2nd pass forward , as long as there is a “rollback block” like TT1 and it’s ahead of the transfer area the train in load can be transferred to launch track while train 1 is moving along towards the top hat . Would be no different than TT1 where the 2nd train waits behind the first while it clears the top hat .

Even better they can launch the second the train in front clear the top hat since it’s in its own block at that point and not going over. No waiting forever for it to clear the finish line block like TT1. While the overall ride time might be longer the cycle might be the same or even less since they essentially created a 2nd block on the course with the initial slower launch.

Cedar Pointer:

I was on team spike from the very beginning after the original Twitter (now X) reimagine post. From what we knew at that time; LSMs were not powerful enough to get over the top hat, language of a reimagined ride experience, a growing trend of backwards/forward spikes in the amusement park industry. From there, the evidence grew.

This is, to some degree, revisionist history. That you were on "team spike" based on a Tweet is exactly the sort of thing I had pushed back on from the beginning, because marketing speak is not evidence of anything. Other people used the same words and same "logic" to conclude, before ground had been broken outside of the infield, that this ride would go over 500 feet, would include additional hills, would go the opposite direction, that Intamin just had to be involved, etc. All based on zero actual evidence.

We never "knew" LSMs weren't powerful enough to get over the top hat. We had a few people chime in to suggest they weren't, others suggested they may be under certain circumstances, such as if the launch started further back and went further up the top hat, etc. But we've never "known" anything about LSMs. Hell, we still don't "know" that they couldn't have done the job in other configurations than what they went with.

There was never any evidence of a spike until they started constructing a footer in the lagoon. Anything before that was based on hopes and dreams, so if you were on "team spike" at that point you were not looking at things from a place of logic and critical thought.

MDOmnis:

Is that a covered pathway for the exit ramp with the pull out of the spike over the top of it?

Yes, it appears so. As Hudson pointed out, it looks like guests will disembark at a single load/unload, exiting on the right of the train leaving the platform at point A below. From there they take the covered exit path either directly to the midway at point B, or through the gift/photo shop at point C. The area behind the gift shop appears to have an employee exit to the path that can also be accessed by employees from the station (below point A), and which provides access to the building behind the end of the straightaway.

One thing I noticed from the station renderings, the canopy appears to be extended by one additional steel column and then the above track dispatch booth. Current station has 7 supports, while the rendering has 8.

I think it's a safe bet that the number of columns is not accurate in the render, given the other inaccuracies, such as this apparent block violation on ID.

veritas55:

My guess is if it hits 101mph the back car will top out at about 330-350? (someone who knows physics can check the math but if Millennium hits 92 off 300 ft drop, then?).

That's why I am so confused on why they made the back spike 420 feet?

If we assume the train's center of mass hits ~350', and that the train is roughly 50' in length, that puts the rear bumper of the train around 375', roughly one train length from the end of the spike. Considering there will probably be some variance in launch speed vs. total mass of the train, that means the height the train reaches up the spike will vary by some percentage, let's say 5%. That brings the center of the train to ~368', and the rear bumper to ~393'. If that variance is 10%, the rear bumper reaches ~410'.

Who knows what the expected launch variance will be but even at 5% it's close enough that they may have just figured the incremental cost to make the whole thing symmetrical was worth it.

Also, can you imagine the outcry had the rear spike been, like, 415' instead of 420'? Enthusiasts would be losing their minds! :-P