Train Articulation

(Sorry in advance if this is a dumb question) I know that TTD's trains, or any coaster train for that matter is articulated so that it can maneuver through the course of the track, but looking at the pictures of the turnaround after the brake run, and then at pictures of the trains (both actual and drawings) I'm beginning to wonder how far the cars will be able to turn. The turnaround appears to have very tight turns, tighter than any I've seen on a coasters anyways. And in order for the trains to go through those turns, won't the cars have have quite a bit of space between them so that they wont hit eachother while turning?
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-life without danger is a waste of oxygen-

Yes and no. Really, only one side of the train will have to "pinch" to go around those turns. The other side will expand, and will not cause a problem. The corners of the cars on the left side will obviously have been designed to clear each other to make that turn, and not collide. As for the physical connection, it is my understanding that Intamin uses a ball socket connection (or atleast they do on their Impulse coasters).

You actually have a good question, because while the majority of coasters have turns and twists in a wide variety of directions, this coaster only has three kinds of turns: Up/Down, Vertically Twisting, and left handed turn.

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Jes
Jes's Roller Coasters DJ Jes
Six Flags Worlds Of Adventure Ride-Ops Crew 2002-2003! Have fun trying to find me!

Thanks Zero-G. I first saw those turns and thought, The trains are never going to make it around those! but this clears it up. Thanks again

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-life without danger is a waste of oxygen-

Assuming that Dragster's train is similar to the train on Millennium Force (and so far it appears that it is...) there is plenty of articulation there.

The joint between cars is actually done with a spherical bearing, rather than with a ball-and-socket as you might think of it as a trailer hitch. Of course a spherical bearing is a ball-and-socket connection, it's just that the coupling rod can go all the way through the bearing so that it can't come apart, even if the bearing fails. Intamin also uses independent articulation on the wheel carriers. If I remember correctly, the wheel carriers are able to yaw independently of each other (there are no tie rods as found on most B&M coasters). And this is with a trailered train. What that does is to allow the wheels to be angled relative to the hitch above them, which is angled relative to the car behind, which is angled relative to its own wheels. So by the time you add up all three angles, provided there is sufficient body clearance, the total angle between wheel sets is pretty extreme. Add to that the use of short cars (I wouldn't be surprised to find that Intamin's 2-row cars are shorter than B&M's single-row cars, but I haven't got measurements to prove or disprove that...) and you have an extremely flexible train. Personally, I thought the curve between the station and the lift on Superman: Ride of Steel at Darien Lake was pretty extreme, but the train has no trouble navigating it.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

On Xcelerator's turnaround the corner of one train and the corner of another get EXTREMELY close, about 5 millimeters apart.

I wonder why the turn around is so tight. Why they couldnt make it more spread out.

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- Dennis
WTC plan Approved. A structure that will stand 1,776 feet in the NYC skyline. It will be the tallest tower in the WORLD!!!

Yup Speedy, and in fact, both S:ROS and Xcelerator make a distinct high-pitched squeaking sound when making those really tight turns... I don't know if it is the wheels making that noise, or the bearings (or what...).

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Jes
Jes's Roller Coasters DJ Jes
Six Flags Worlds Of Adventure Ride-Ops Crew 2002-2003! Have fun trying to find me!

Here's the hitch joint that Dave was talking about.

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Jeff
Webmaster/GTTP - Sillynonsense.com
"The world rotates to The Ultra-Heavy Beat!" - KMFDM

well the inverted trains (like volcano and intamin impulse coasters) are all very articulated, every 4 seats makes 1 car which can move quite a bit more around then the one behind or in front of it.

Big D said:
I wonder why the turn around is so tight. Why they couldnt make it more spread out.

And take out more trees & path?

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"Scream early because once you reach 420 feet, no one will hear you!"-TOP THRILL DRAGSTER

Cedar Point RCT2 recreation-coming soon to coasterbuzz games

TopThrillDude said:
Big D said:
I wonder why the turn around is so tight. Why they couldnt make it more spread out.
And take out more trees & path?
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"Scream early because once you reach 420 feet, no one will hear you!"-TOP THRILL DRAGSTER
Cedar Point RCT2 recreation-coming soon to coasterbuzz games

amm...You can make the turn less tighter without taking out more trees or path. Just use a bigger radius turn instead of 2 very tight turns and straight track in between. Just make one big turn. It would take up the same amount of space this turn does.

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- Dennis
WTC plan Approved. A structure that will stand 1,776 feet in the NYC skyline. It will be the tallest tower in the WORLD!!!
*** This post was edited by Big D 3/15/2003 12:58:52 AM ***

The way they did it works fine, now theres no point in changing it.. In fact, they reapeted it again with xcelerator and it appears that TTD is pretty tight also. Do you really think that Intamin would repeate a design that didn't work?

You can see here how the wheels can tilt from the cars in this picture of WT. It's the first one. http://www.cedarpoint.com/public/inside_park/rides/thrill/2002/wt/construction/gallery.cfm

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New For 2003 Top Thrill Dragster Tallest Coaster Ever!!

The coaches might be shorter as well. There's definitely less room between seats (legroom) on Xcelerator than on MF. TTD will probably follow.

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Scott W. Short
mailto:scott@midwestcoastercentral.com
http://www.midwestcoastercentral.com

Well, By the looks of it yesterday...The train cleared the turn succesfully.

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- Dennis
WTC plan Approved. A structure that will stand 1,776 feet in the NYC skyline. It will be the tallest tower in the WORLD!!!

Yup. It seems that me and you Big D were the only ones who saw that. By the way, that was the Blue train wasn't it?

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Can't wait to be at the Point!

It was the Yellow train. By the way they have put up and hooked the blue train up. Now it is a full and complete train with all the theming and decals. Also they were starting to put up the green train when the webcams became archived.

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- Dennis
WTC plan Approved. A structure that will stand 1,776 feet in the NYC skyline. It will be the tallest tower in the WORLD!!!