Top Thrill Dragster 2022 Status

They haven’t removed all the fins yet; there’s still a few pairs left near the launch engine house. This was taken from the midway right near the lawnmower display.

Wide angle shot of the location, with the fence clearly visible 😁

Spell it with me…

B-R-A-K-E

Jeff noted that Intamin probably doesn’t build their LSM’s…

Remember the company name was derived from International Amusement Installations. Now they’re sort of a manufacturer, but mostly, and from the beginning, they’re really more of an integrator. Originally they didn’t build anything, but they would combine a structure engineered by Werner Stengel, built by Waagner-Biro with vehicles designed by B&M and call it an INTAMIN ride.

—Dave Althoff, Jr.

Just wanted to add too, from a quick look from Power Tower Drop, all the control hardware (brakes, sensors, even kicker wheels) has been removed from the entire track, including the brake run and stations. All that remains right now in the launch, brake run, and station is the skeletal box track and the top side of the track (i.e., the cable guide and the plates where the kicker wheels on the brake run/stations popped out).

(referencing the video with the reverse launch 500 plus foot spike. Reply didn't seem to work for me)

So this isn't directly related to TTD but I noticed what looked like a Mach extreme spinner in the iron dragon plot and I would love to see that YouTuber post a video of that because I don't see it anywhere on their channel.

^The reply button isn't what you're looking for. I think you want to use the quote link, which looks like the quotation marks. Next to reply. You need to select the text you want to quote. I assume this is stop people from quoting an entire post is the only want to respond to a certain part of said post.

TwistedCircuits:

So this isn't directly related to TTD but I noticed what looked like a Mach extreme spinner in the iron dragon plot and I would love to see that YouTuber post a video of that because I don't see it anywhere on their channel.

I did notice that, if you find it let me know. Just make sure you have your feasibility study done beforehand lol

There’s also a pretty little blue green number where Corkscrew currently stands. So…
Why anyone is getting excited, hopeful, overly analytical and/or butt hurt over a fantasy some YouTuber made up is beyond me. I’m sure you can find hundreds of them to drool over if that’s what floats you’re boat, but I don’t think posting them here is helpful.
It seems just about everyone has a solution to this mystery- what if none are right?

YouTube has some great stuff, and an awful lot of crap made from video they didn't make themselves. It's annoying.

Yea just stumbled across the video thought it was cool because it illustrated some of the ideas I saw discussed in this post. Exactly why it was posted with “obviously speculation but intriguing”. Wasn’t meant to be a stance or concrete. Just a cool thing to discuss. :)

RCMAC:

It seems just about everyone has a solution to this mystery- what if none are right?

This is actually what I'm hoping for.

Well, I think what is happening does seem to support the idea that they are scrapping the hydraulic launch. I wonder, if LSMs can get the train up to speed in time, would they maybe leave a few retractable brakes to help stop of there's a roll back?

Kevinj:

This is actually what I'm hoping for.

A halibut omelet?

0g:

would they maybe leave a few retractable brakes to help stop of there's a roll back

They shouldn’t need to. LSM Stators should act as brakes on their own.

Yes, if you've ever seen Maverick's lift cut out for some reason, the train gently comes back down.

...except, apparently, on Lightning Rod where an aborted launch caused the train to come zooming down the lift hill until they installed safety brakes .

Not sure why that is; the stator coil is basically a coil of wire wound into a short circuit, meaning when the power is off it should behave more or less just like a copper brake fin interacting with the magnets on the train.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Exactly. The LSMs can act as a brake as well. Let me rephrase my question. Say the hypothetical LSMs can get the train up to speed before the end of the old launch section. Could they have left a few retractable brakes at the end of the launch section to have a little more stopping power than the launch stators can provide when the train rolls back? I'm just wondering why they removed 90% or so of the retractable brakes, but left those last few.

Very strange to see the track without all of its original components. Going to be very interesting to see how this all plays out.

Is Montezuma’s revenge at knots being converted to magnetic launch?

Og, they probably are going to finish removing remaining 10% during the week when the park is closed during the week.

Shawn, why the new account?