Wicked Twister Question....

I have heard talk about a welding mistake while WT was first being built. I heard they had to add extra supports the year after because of the mistake. Is this true and does anybody have any more info on the story?

I don't know about any mistake, but it's known that extra supports were added to the higher portions of the spikes. I imagine it was determined with those extra supports that swaying and possible stress on the track would be reduced.

It is, after all, the tallest in the world. With the longest train. By the cleanest beach.

If you look at the picture below, the two straight yellow poles going from the teal supports to the yellow track were later added to give more support to the track.

http://www.pointbuzz.com/Photos/Photo.aspx?id=183

In the photo below the added supports are not there yet.

http://www.rcdb.com/ig1571.htm?picture=12

Yes, like CP Mac said, Cedar Point added those extra supports on the towers to reduce the swaying. Before they were added, you could see the track sway probably 10 feet each time the train went up the track. Now, that number is drastically reduced. That wind that comes off the lake is terrible and powerful.

The other problem was apparently that the cross-ties between the primary rails were breaking or cracking at the welds. I don't know this for certain, but it's a reasonable conclusion since they replaced them in batches, somehow managing to not close the ride. If you look carefully, you can see that the diagonal cross-ties are fairly beefy and square up in the spikes (can't find a photo), whereas in other places on most Intamin box truss track, they're round and smaller.

^Thats what I was wondering about. Thanks Jeff.

Wicked Twister wasn't the only Intamin Impulse with extra supports added. The Impulse now known as Voodoo had extra supports added in 2004 if I remember correctly.

-Sam

I was a Ride Op on on Wicked Twister in it's first year. I have a decent picture taken by a maintenance guy from up on the rear spike while he was checking the welds. If my memory is correct, you can kind of see what Jeff is talking about. I'm at work right now. The picture is at home. I'll post it some time this evening. Sorry.

Christopher

CPman said:
That wind that comes off the lake is terrible and powerful.

I would say the wind was a non-factor in the decision to add extra supports. I'm sure it could handle the wind as it was originally. The weight and stress from the train is another matter...

If I recall, I believe previous discussion on the matter focused partially on the original design of the spikes being able to take the stress of both natural and mechanical forces unsupported above the level of the main "A-frame" supports. Obviously since they were welding every night, that assumption/conclusion was wrong. In fact, I believe most Intamin coasters with a vertical twist of any degree before 2003 was not supported above the twist, the thought being that the structure could hold itself by design. I am pretty sure that Xcelerator and other coasters with such vertical elements (like the Impulses) all had extra supports added at a later date.

I had a question since this topic has already been introduced. Why did they decide to get rid of the sand when the train passes out of the station? I noticed they made this move this winter. I mean don't get me wrong it looks good, but the sand was cool too.

I remember the track was cracking in the first year, and the maintenance crew had to weld it back together almost every day. That's part of the reason the speed was reduced to 65 for awhile. When the extra supports were added they raised the speed back up to 72.

Cleanest beach? Not when I was there. I was thinking the exact opposite. I was surprised how nasty it was. Maybe that is a conscious decision to keep people from wandering on that part of the beach but I was a little surprised.

^Who said cleanest beach?

CP Mac

Oh didn't expect a quote from a couple months ago.

^ Actually if you would have scrolled up to the top of this page, CP Mac's post was the second post. So although it was from a couple of months ago, it's still only a few posts above yours. :)

I like riding Twister. It's my favorite ride on the beach. By the way, on opening day this year, me and my friend were in line for it and these two girls, for no reason had a serious problem with us and they kept staring at us in line. So I started to talk to them and my friend told me about the track on the ride. Then I told the girls it, and they finally stopped staring at me. I know stuff like that is meant to be confedential, but it slipped out only because they were driving me crazy. :)

What is meant to be confidential? That the track sways? That they had to cut cross-members out and weld new ones into place? None of this is secret.