Wicked Twister Wiggle

Maybe it's a few late night beers, but all I could think of was this...

http://youtubedoubler.com/gcl0

I've had Platinum Passes for 4 years now, and have always noticed the swaying that others have mentioned on Mean Streak, Mine Ride (wow), and Wicked Twister. Jeff posted that WT at one time did not have extra supports. That prompted me to Google image search. On a site called "COASTERIMAGE" there was a before and after picture. It looks like they installed two yellow support rods at the top of the green towers attached to the track. I would like to see video of it operating without those extra supports.

I would post the picture I found, however I am an old guy who is "computer challenged".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5j9zTtoPHe0

Closest thing I could get.

Holy Toledo! You were right about those extra supports helping! This makes my stomach churn.

The train seems like it used to go much further up the back spike the first time in the media day video.

It did. The launches were reduced during the 2002 season, I believe.

In that YouTube video it appears that when seated in the rear seat you really get an extra "twist" at the top of the backwards run. These days with the reduced height the twist is okay, so I can imagine how the extra wicked twist feels (felt). It is neat how close to the end of track it came.

Even though the track extended well above the green towers, it doesn't appear to me that it put undo strain on the structure. Maybe Ride Man can explain the technicalities. I can see that without the new supports it could have scared some potential riders away.

In Wicked Twister's inaugural season there was a ton of downtime during May and June. There was also a lot of welding during that time frame. Especially on the back spike. Just for fun, I was reading through some old threads here and there were some 'electrical issues' with the ride when it first opened. In hindsight, there may have been some issues, but I think it was a bunch of baloney and the ride was really having structural issues.

I think those supports were necessary and based on the weld marks still visible on the track, it made the issue a little more manageable. Not to mention the ride was tamed down to limit the trains height on those towers.

When I worked at the park in 2002, part of nightly walk to the front of the park to get on the employee bus included walking by Wicked Twister after close. Every night, and I mean EVERY night, there was maintenance workers on the left side track welding something near the top. Made me never want to on that coaster.

Here is a video of them welding Wicked Twister. This is in the general vicinity of where I saw them back in 2002.

I think the swaying is normal. I know the Wicked Twister used to sway a lot when it first opened. Then they added supports to the ride to reduce the swaying. I have also seen the TTD track swaying as the train is going up the hill. You have to be close to the hill to notice it.

Next time you are waiting in line for Mine Ride, as you go up the ramp, look closely at the ledgers at the top of the final helix and notice the little chunk of measuring tape attached thereon. Apparently the park does some monitoring of the flexibility of that helix.

It's been summed up here pretty well already. Steel is flexible, and when you have a long piece of it sticking straight up into the air it can bend quite a bit. Vertical track sections are especially difficult to support, which is why Wicked Twister was initially self-supporting. The added structure was to add rigidity to the track which should serve to reduce the motion at the attachment point and add an additional inflection point. My guess is that after the additional supports were added, they probably found that they had to do repair welding in *two* spots on the tower instead of just one, but they probably had to do it less often.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.
(who wondered if the Wicked Twister Wiggle was anything like the Arrow Dance)