Top Thrill Dragster 2022 Status

I could be remembering this incorrectly but I swear I recall hearing the Zamperla spokesman claim at IAAPA they have a bunch of new engineers working for the company. It was made at the same time he was talking about the company's past rides and about what they want to do to improve their designs. (Or something to that effect)

Wondering what the possibility is that these "new engineers" are more familiar with a certain other European coaster manufacturers design methods and their older installations. Wild speculation on my part, of course, because I can't recall exactly what it was the spokesman said. But it surely wouldn't be the first time that designers/engineers from one company went to or started a different company, building on what they learned.

Assuming this is for more track removal, I would love to see (and I know we never will see it), after everything is said and done, how a plan like this comes together. Like, was this crane just not available back when the first sections of track were being removed? Was it weather related?

Frog Hopper King:

Zamperla has basically been mainly making these wild mouses.

Except they haven't. Of the 17 coasters they've installed since 2000, two were the old Reverchon model, and one was Cedar Point's ride.

TTD 120mph:

I could be remembering this incorrectly but I swear I recall hearing the Zamperla spokesman claim at IAAPA they have a bunch of new engineers working for the company.

If you are remembering it incorrectly then so am I, and my train of thought led to exactly what you are thinking.

That crane is so massive, I can't think of what else it would be for aside from track removal. You would not need something so large to simply move heavy things around from point A to point B.

Here’s my confusion, and maybe someone can explain something I’m missing, but if the old track is being removed from the tower and being replaced with new track, then what was the point of shipping the launch track to Europe? Wouldn’t they have just scrapped it and waited for all new track to arrive?

Maybe they sold the launch track back to Intamin, or maybe Intamin wanted it for analyis?

Honestly whatever company is doing the reimagining, theres no reason for them to be familiar with Intamin at all.

If the station, electronics, hydraulics, and track are all being removed and all that is left is the supports. They only need the CAD files and specs of the supports.

Virtually nothing on this ride will be the same.

This is wild..... I didn't think they would do anything to the top hat . . . . obviously, they haven't done anything yet, but it sure looks like at least some track may be removed.

It may be the new trains need some different type of track. However, I am starting (for the first time) to wonder if they actually might try to increase the height of the top hat, as crazy and ridiculous as that seems, using the swing launch and back spike to get this over 500 feet . . . .

It just seems ludicrous given the entire structure was configured for 420 feet or whatever.....

I am so excited all this work is commencing now - I thought for sure we would see a season shutdown after the Iron Dragon footer work....

Is this a similar crane to what was used to build Dragster? I know we all remember the guy peeing on the wall, but does anyone remember what the crane looked like?

It does not appear to me that this crane is meant for heavy lifting based on it being on wheels with outriggers. Track sections? Or maybe a man lift basket?

Pushing my luck, any picture of its base?

Shades; 1:32 mark.

I certainly won't say they aren't going to increase the height of the tower, as I don't know what they are going to do. However, I would venture a guess that it would be easier to make the back tower 500' tall, and keep the front tower at the 420' mark.

Every time new developments emerge we’re left surprised, realizing that things we thought were far-fetched are becoming more and more likely, so I’m not counting out anything at this point.

well, first of all, this is clearly nothing more than "infield maintenance."

second, all those people that were ridiculed of being Rollercoaster Tycoon "fanboys" may just be shaping up for an apology (not that I expect those scolding them to actually apologize for being snide -- and likely mostly wrong.)

There’s a higher chance of this being a 600 foot coaster then there is an apology from those people you mention.

Jeff:

Millennium Force couldn't run three trains to start and shredded wheels for the first year.

Just a quick aside on this. I remember hearing about this awhile back but I cannot remember the rough numbers. I was wondering if you could shed light on that. Was it that they were supposed to be replaced every week and it ended up being every day? Or am I way off? If you happen to remember the details I'd appreciate it. Thanks.

So in one of the pics you can clearly see the name Liebherr on the front of the crane. That is a crane manufacturer. Lake Erie Lifestyles posted a vid a few hours ago that shows the crane from the side. It is clearly a 6- axle crane. Well based on some easy sleuthing I believe it is a Liebherr LTM 1350. Guess what the max hoist height is on one of those….

Now this is what we call a development.

To the point about needing two cranes, I would imagine the tower super structure serves the purpose of one for the workers right? They tie off and work off of the tower and the crane just works on moving pieces? They could realistically build scaffolding off the existing tower without much difficulty couldn't they? To access traditionally difficult areas while working? Two cranes may be faster but I think one can work in this configuration.

Could we be looking at something similar to an old Arrow to Morgan conversion/upgrade scaled of changes now?

SpeedDemon:

Well based on some easy sleuthing I believe it is a Liebherr LTM 1350. Guess what the max hoist height is on one of those….

19 foot height increase confirmed!!! Nice work.

High Flyer:

SpeedDemon:

Well based on some easy sleuthing I believe it is a Liebherr LTM 1350. Guess what the max hoist height is on one of those….

19 foot height increase confirmed!!! Nice work.

Lol.

Seriously, cool work. And that points to simply replacing the track, most likely. I wonder why? If recall correctly, the Zamperla re-do of the former Italian coaster brought to Vancouver used the same Intamin track (which would suggest Zamperla's trains can run on it?). Is it just as simple as deciding to replace 21-year old track, even though good portions of the top of that tophat are not high stress points at all (I'd imagine it's the entrance and exit sections of the track that have experienced the most stress / wear over the years....)