TTD launch run

I was at the point on 8/8/05 and i noticed when Top Thrill Dragster launched the first like two fins wouldnt go down but the coaster still made it over the hill no problem most of the time. Does anyone know why the first few brake fins stay up now???

Sorry if this has already been brought up

I remember something like this on opening day. The very last set of brakes wouldn’t go down but the train made it over the hill fine. A maintenance man later fixed it.

It's nothing to really be worried about.

*** Edited 8/16/2005 9:35:10 PM UTC by TTD 120mph***

Thanks for the information

No prob.:)

800th post YAY!!!

*** Edited 8/17/2005 1:52:51 AM UTC by TTD 120mph***

The computer is allowed to launch the train I believe with a few fins still up before its shuts down the ride. Its not like 2 fins are actually going to make that big of a difference.

oh really, I didn't know that thanks.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the catch car is pulling the train which has no relation to the top brakefins. So in reality, a few brake fins staying up would just put a lot of extra stress on the launch motor, but wouldn't really slow anything down.

The brakefins are in place to stop a free rolling train, the train isn't free rolling during the launch unless the motor shuts down before the launch is over.

*** Edited 8/18/2005 12:23:46 AM UTC by Gomez***

I just thought that if the first few fins were up by where the train starts moving, i thought that it might slow it down. Does it matter what way TTD train goes over the brakes or not for them to acutally slow the train down??? I thought that if they were up it might slow the launching speed of each train. What does everyone else think??

It hardly has any effect on the speed of the launch if 2 brake fins are up.

oh ok thanks

Well it did on Kingda Ka. :)

The brake fins work in both directions. During an estop launch the motor does not stop but the fins go causing it to only go up about 1/2 the tower.

wickeddragster88 said:
I was at the point on 8/8/05 and i noticed when Top Thrill Dragster launched the first like two fins wouldnt go down but the coaster still made it over the hill no problem most of the time. Does anyone know why the first few brake fins stay up now???

Sorry if this has already been brought up

If the first two fins wouldn't go down, I dont think that it would make any difference at all because the train wouldnt be going more than 10mph over them as the train has only moved like 20 feet. But if the last section of fins is up the launch sled has already released the train so this would make a much greater difference.

~the clean up crew~

The slower the train is going the more time there is for the magnets to do their job. If the train was going max speed (120mph), it'd pass over the fins for all of a tenth of a second. Correct me if I'm wrong, but this makes the most sense.

Actually, TTD can launch with up to half of the brake fins up. If that were the case, the launch motor would launch the train at speeds of somewhere around 5 MPH. A certain amount of time later, the ride will estop.

As far as a pair of brakes up, it will have an effect of the speed of the train. Whether or not it will cause the ride to rollback depends on a number of factors.

I don't know what happened to Kingda Ka, I am, however curious.

What happened with Kingda Ka is well alot of things happenend and it was hell, what i believe happened to the record holder was that it launched but for some reason the brake fins went up and the catch car never realeased so alot of things went horrible. After it all clears up some brake fins get bent, possible cable snap and just a mess that cost alot of money to fix! Luckily it was all fixed and has been running smooth since!
*** Edited 10/10/2005 7:31:00 AM UTC by KingdaKaBoy1114***

Smooth?

Yep smooth, no breakdows accept maybe like one small one that was fixed in like 10 min., All the bugs seem to be worked out, so now its running like the King it is!

Kinda Ka had a tear in the lining and caused the catch car to raise up wich caused a e stop and the brakes came up.. since the catch car was up that meant the train was raised and the train ran the brake fins over. causing all of the damage to the ride. That is what some of there ride host told us on one of there visits to ride the BEST STRATA COASTER.

Vertical motion won't cause the train to intersect the copper alloy plates. They can be damaged if the train has more than a few cm of lateral motion. The train is centered by two factors. The concavity of the wheels holds it in place againsts the rails, and the guide wheels have strong springs that center the train. There had to of been a good amount of lateral force to the train, possibly by torsion. There is probably a little bit more to the story than that.