TTD observations and questions

Just got back from a great 4 day trip to CP... A few questions...

Does anyone know what the motors are under the brake run? I'm not talking about the advance wheels under the retractable brake fins. Referring to the motors under the fixed brakes that begin to spin after the train has already gone by. There's a wide belt running something. We couldn't figure out what they were for...

Where's the red train? They were running 5 trains the entire time I was there, the only substantial downtime being Tuesday. They were working in the engine room. Anyway, the red train wasn't on the transfer, nowhere to be found. Any ideas?

Are they trimming TTD? I know this sounds stupid. But while waiting for my friends to load up their stuff in a locker, I noticed that a set of rollback brakes right above the que entrance (white section of track) weren't retracting. Noticed this on Wed, Thurs, & Fri. I mentioned it to the host at the gate, they said not to worry about it. I mentioned it to a ride op in the station, they didn't say anything. I don't know why they would trim the ride as opposed to tuning the launch but why else would they not fix the brake? And has anyone noticed the radar ALWAYS says 120 right before the train starts to climb? I've seen it as high as 126 but it drops immediately to 120 right before the tower. So maybe the brakes are up intentionally...

Anyway, TTD is an absolutely amazing ride. The technology behind it is unreal, and I don't mind waiting upwards of 2 hours to ride it because I just stare at that tower and watch trains go up and over, then the peoples reaction when they return. And to all the naysayers out there, TTD is running a LOT better than it was last year. They just crank people through that line. Can't wait to go back, I envy anyone who can go to CP at any time...

I dont know the answer to your 1st question but I know the the reason you dident see the red train is because, if I remember correctly, they're(Cedar Point) storing it in a garage to be used later this year, when? I have no idea. There was an old thread about this. As for the trim brakes, mabey CP wants to slow TTD down just a little bit. Each section of brakes that fall arent that long (yet strong), so maybe that section that stays up is ment to slow a train down. When I rode it I to felt a little jolt and a bit slowing down just before the exiting of the launch, so who knows, maybe it is up for a reason. I'm sure we will find out.

It probably gives them more control on the speed.

The belt you see drives a pair of wheels via one motor. The entire assembly is pushed up against the underside of the train by springs. Air bladders fill to push the entire assembly down away from the train so the tires do not make contact.

The brakes are not up intentionally. Apparently some of them "stick" a little, but most drop low enough to not affect the speed of the train. Remember, the faster the magnets move over the fin, the harder the braking force, so at that speed it would be bad news if they were high enough to slow the train.

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TTD 120mph said:
When I rode it I to felt a little jolt and a bit slowing down just before the exiting of the launch

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You are just feeling the hault of acceleration, everyone feels this every launch.

The one that goes up but nothing is there is probably for the 6th train

The motor doesn't have a tire on it at all. It isn't connected to the motors with the tires on it. Yeah, I saw the air bladders, and they moved up and down... Here's my thoughts: maybe its some kind of alternator or generator to demagnetize the fins? I remember in high school running a magnet over a piece of metal and magnetizing(polarizing) it. Just a thought. But again, they're at the point where the train is still slowing, not really stopped so an advance tire doesn't really make sense.

The tires stop the train. The magnets will never fully stop the train on their own, especially on an incline. The train will continue to move, slowly, until something stops it. The drive tires act as brakes. That's why trains tend to move a bit more than they're supposed to on Millennium Force when it rains.

You can see this in action on Dragster on every launch. When the train is moved forward to the launch position and the launch pin is dropped, the brake fins are up. The drive motor assembly is dropped, and as soon as the tires lose contact with the bottom of the train, the train rolls backward, even though the brake fins are still up, until the pin engages firmly with the launch sled.

As for the brake fins staying up...over at the entrance tunnel, there is a triple row of fins. The outboard fins are the ones that stop the train, and those are dropping just fine. The third row, the ones in the center, should be staying up as the train goes past, then drop a moment later: that center row is the brake fins for the launch sled, used to bring it to a stop so that it can be reset. Is that what you're seeing?

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

I was standing in line on Thursday night after the thunderstorms passed, waiting for Dragster to reopen. While they were testing the trains, there was one brake fin that wasn't consistently going down with the rest right before launch. The ride ops at the entrance called the station, and maintenance was called. The fin never failed to drop when maintenance was there, but did occasionally continue to fail to drop through the rest of the night. That might be what Shane saw.

Laura

Shane the third row of fins at the end are for slowing the launch sled down

That makes sense about the fins at the end of the launch. It just looked weird that they didn't drop with the rest of the fins.

Anyway... The motors I'm referring to, again, don't have tires on them. They are on the track after the tower, after the fixed brake fins start. When you're in line next to the brake run, you can see them plain as day. Again, there aren't any tires on them. I don't think they have anything to do with brakes and obviously don't advance the trains...

Like I said, the tires aren't directly on the motor's axel.

About the red train, I was also wondering where it went. I just got back the 19th and I asked a couple of the people at the entrance (that make sure you're tall enough/allow you into freeway) where it went. They said it was sent to ?Switzerland? because they were finding out a way to avoid the overheating problem in the magnetic brakes.

I don't know what would cause the mag-brakes to overheat....unless I'm mistaken, they make no contact which elimnates friction from being the source of heat.
Anyone else know what it could be or were the ride-ops just feeding him a BS answer (since I'm sure he wasn't the first that day to ask about the red train)
I'm kinda intrigued if this could be a source for rework. Of course, its also pretty expensive to ship the whole train back to switzerland, and they probably would have one there that they can run tests on, not to mention numerous computer models.
Oh well, I think I answered my own question and his.
John
DEE-TROIT BAS-KET-BALL

Just because the brakes don't touch doesn't mean that energy doesn't have to go somewhere. You better believe it generates heat.

They aren't running six trains anyway, so I don't think it matters if it's there or not.

The advancing tires on the ending brake run, that Shane is talking about, are there to allow light trains to exit the brake run quicker. You were obviously watching fully loaded trains, that's why the trains were past the wheels when they raised and started turning.

If you watch the ride when it is running with empty or partially loaded trains, especially when it is cold, you will see how slowly the train moves through the end of the brake run. The advancing wheels in the area of the fixed brakes raise up and move the trains through when they are creeping along at that point. Most of the time, when the ride is running with a full load, the trains don't need the advancing wheels, and are already past that area before the advancing wheels become active. *** Edited 6/22/2004 8:46:39 PM UTC by Pete***

One of my best friends is working on the Dragster crew this year. All he's been told about the wherabouts of the red train is that "it isn't ready yet." He also said they are anxious to get that red train into action so they can try running a 6 train operation.

Ok here goes, Red Train had to be sent back to Intamin, for modifications, to both the Train and and the Magnets, The Magnets overheat do to force distributions the same reason the launch track shakes, when this happens the ride hosts get a fault and the train has to be transfered off adding down time and forcing them to run using only four trains. The motor on the brake side track is a drive wheel motor the wheels are further down the track well after the finish line. Red train is Back in CP, but has not yet passed Ohio inspection but it's return is anticipated soon. The Ride Host can not wait for its return not because they are planning on running 6 trains (it has been determined that a 5 train operation is more efficiant as they are consitantly meeting interval with 5 trains and with the new loose article and seat size restrictions it would be almost impossible with 6) The Break fin Shane saw up is not a problem but is not suposed to be up either. The radar drops to 120 as the train climbs the hill because friction slows it down, not the break if it was the break it would make it up the hill. The ride host do not tell you things just to blow you off if your nice to them and don't ask stupid questions like when they're down how long it's gonna be after they just said they have no idea how long the delay will be or when the wind will stop. Matainence keeps the ride host informed as much as the can but there main prority is to fix the ride.

I see TopThrillBouncer missed the paragraph section of the 3rd grade.

He may not want to post such specific information that really is not public knowledge. That can end your career.

MrScott