NESSAholics.com
Other Topics => Completely Off-Topic => Topic started by: divasteph on May 27, 2003, 10:04:22 am
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Has anyone ridden the new coaster - dragster??? Millenium Force made me sick I cannot believe they made a coaster 110 ft taller than that - yuck - it looks really scary too!
(http://www.topthrilldragster.com/public/inside_park/rides/thrill/ttd/specs/images/Arialview_big.jpg)
http://www.topthrilldragster.com
has anyone ridden it?
xoxo
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I have no fear of heights but i fear the g forces may cause whatever remnants of a brain still remain in my cranium to be drawn rapidly out my ear canals :mrgreen:
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Hehe, i was thinking about going there this summer, so then maybe I will ride it...
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looks damn cool
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omg, Cedar Point is my heaven on Earth, I'm not kidding. I haven't ridden the Dragster yet but one of my former residents works there and I talked to her the other day (after she rode it she called me) and she was speechless. She said that it's over very quickly because it goes so fast but it is definately a huge thrill. I can't wait.
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I went with my friend Courtney... We rode Power Tower, Wicked Twister (which I must add, is actually more fun that it looks, but we made sure to be in the very front seat, so your facing the ground and can see absolutely nothing else when you go backwards and up... That way it scares the living bahjeebies out of you since you feel like your going to fall out), Magnum, Millenium Force (twice), oh and a whole buncha other one's too...
Oh, and hey lol, Ocean Motion is the greatest... lol, it's all in where you look when the ship goes up... Sit on the left side of the boat when you enter, and look up at the very top of the gears/whatnot above you the whole time your swinging... LOL, it makes your stomach flip like a huge ride would....
:)
Anyways, Melissa is going sometime in June I think... the sixth?? Well anyways, I didn't get to ride the Dragster because practically the whole day it was either "down due to mechanical problems" or "down due to high winds"... Then when they DID open it, there was a four hour wait for the line...
CLICK HERE TO SEE THE NEWS ARTICLE "NEW COASTER DOWN"... (lol, I thought, well what else is new??)
http://www.13abc.com/index.cfm?Article=7821&SecName=28&Level=1&SubID=0&Itm=&SideID=&IsItm=
Anyways, ... I still can't wait to ride it... :-D
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If this works, (edit* it didn't so I took it out) ... Okay I was standing in line with Courtney for the Power Tower right?, well okay, everyones waiting and stareing to see if maybe the Dragster will do any test runs with the body weight dummies...
All of a sudden, everyone was hooting a hollering (of course) because a car was going up the steep hill, ... and up up up it goes, and then... WOOSH, right back down the same side... Didn't quite have enough speed to it, and good thing I'm not chicken because I bet most people would be like, NO WAY! THAT'S NOT GOOD! I'M NOT GOING ON IT NOW! so on and so forth...
Anyways, yeah, just look at the pic and imagine it (edit* okay look at the original pic in this thread and imagine it since mine didn't work) ... Actually I thought it looked kinda cool... :) Unexpected ya know... But good thing there wasn't a car already in place waiting to go up when the other one fell back down, ... now THAT would have been a Dragster Disaster... *pun intended*
;-)
CLICK HERE TO SEE LIVE CAMS OF CEDAR POINT:
http://www.cedarpoint.com/public/inside_park/webcam/index.cfm
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Shows ride pictures such as Wicked Twister, Millennium, Mine Ride, Mean Streak, Magnum, and Mantis...
http://www.cedarpoint.com/public/fun_online/galleries/index.cfm
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And if your going to eat lunch from one of their cafe's... I highly recommend Johnny Rocket's.... It's my favorite because all the waiters and waitresses will stop for certain songs (example Love Shack) and do a dance routine... And IMO most of them can perform exceptionally well. :)
And they have the best Chocolate Malts. :)
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so what the heck does that coaster do as a ride? obviously it goes up one side and down the other, but does it basically launch you up one side? or does it have an elevator cable? are you right side up or sideways on the edge?
:) I'm planning a trip to cedar point this year. I've been to tons of other parks and follow coasters quite a bit, just never made it to cedar point... this IS the year tho.
-katia
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the first hill it has a belt that brings you to the highest spot, then gravity does the rest, once you go down from the highest hill the coaster has enough velocity to make it over the rest of them, sometimes coasters have a few high points thus a few belts
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It shoots you up at full speed...
I don't know really what your asking about how the seats are... But it's all about the speed and the height... 120 mph, 420 ft, 12 secs... I think that's right...
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um, holy sh*t. so i looked at the webpage a bit more.
The technical specs are incredible! omg... and it is an intamin coaster just like millennium force... wow
http://www.topthrilldragster.com/public/inside_park/rides/thrill/ttd/specs/index.cfm
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it doesn't have a belt, it just shoots you up the damn hill, probably air pressure or something. Millennium Force has an elevator belt... then i looked at the actual track layout with the 270 rotation coming down at 90 degrees? off the hook ...
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lmao, my car does 120, that coaster is still weak
how would air pressure shoot you up a hill?...im sure there is a belt in there somewhere, its right under the coaster so it doesnt really stand out
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ok so i went and looked, it starts off with a belt that puts you at 120mph at the beginning of the ride, thus you have enough speed to go up the first hill which is 420 feet
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allow me to quote from the website i posted.
The train then moves into a "starting line" position, where it launches forward, reaching speeds of 120 mph in approximately four seconds.
Can you explain to me, in technical detail, how a belt can pull a car to 120 mph in 4 seconds?
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the belt is attached to the motor, the motor is apparently a strong one.....along the belt are little hooks that hold the bottom of the coaster, so when the ride starts they engage the belt thus launching the coaster off the starting line.....
it would take a tornado to do that with air pressure, maybe i can make a sketch
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it has a "Hydraulic launch system"
Isn't that basically saying it's launched and not pulled by any means? Wouldn't the belt just confuse things or possibly get in the way?
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:)
Hydraulic Launch - Launch mechanism introduced by Intamin AG.
A shed with a set of nitrogen accumulators, spindles, and a hydraulic system sits approximately 160-feet from the station. The nitrogen accumulators push the hydraulic fluid into a turbine system that powers the pulley. The system generates nearly 9000 horsepower and uses the pulley to catapult the train out of the station.
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well not really, but the method you described works as well :D
check it this is how the belt driven coasters work, when you ride a smaller coaster look for the belts going up the biggest hill, they are the *clikclikclikclikclikclik* you hear when the coaster is climbing
(http://www.mdcplus.com/web/tqhx/coaster.jpg)[/img]
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so the cable pulls at the same time it's launched? that has to be hell on the damn cable...
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actually, the hydraulic system you are talking about runs a pulley, the pulley is attached to a belt....thus my answer
yeah the "belt" is usually some super heavy duty chain...capable of 9000HP in this example...im sure its so big when you go to the ride you wont miss it :wink:
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i actually do understand the concept of a belt, what i posted is the technical facts of the TTD coaster.
It IS a "Hydraulic launch system" and that is the definition of what it is. I'm sure there is a cable involved as you can't use the Hydraulic launch system all the time, so the cables and what not will be used for moving the coaster out and into position, but trust me... i didn't pull that out of my ass.
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i know you didnt, the hydraulic system is attached to a pulley, a pulley is a wheel with a groove set in the center for a belt, therefore this whole hydraulic system you are talking about is attached to a big belt that hooks under the coaster and launches it forward at the beginning
:D
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but is the cable or the hydrolic system responsible for getting the coaster up to speed?
It seems like the hydrolics are used to launch and the pulley/cable are more for a guide and to maintain control.
If this cable is pulling the coaster, i don't think there is a "cable" strong enough to do that... which may be why the cable has snapped once and one of the wheels flew off already both within 24 hours and both within 3 weeks of the ride opening.
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exactly like you said, 9000HP is a lot of strain....the hydraulic system is turns the pulley, thus turning the belt, the belt would be hooked up the entire way along the bottom of the coaster to even the pressure out, but for that much power its obvious you need one HUGE belt, and im sure the wear and tear is ridiculous, but thats what you get for being a moron coaster inventor, they shouldda just had the belt drag it up the hill nice and slow, wouldnt have required so much work......its also possible the belt runs a bunch of wheel that sit under the coaster and spin...i havent seen so i dont know,...i just know the conventional system is chain driven
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I don't think there is a belt because then the car wouldn't have been able to fall back down???
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the belt is under the car at the very beginning hun, it is launched of a starting ramp and the sheer velocity is supposed to carry it up the hill :wink:
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Ohhhhh, this is a thread about a theme park with coasters, hydraulics, pulleys, and belts. Silly me, I thought this was about Hunt's Point. Not Cedar Point. Tee-hee. :P
I adore the lovely, little sketch of how coasters work, Logikal. (The sound effects were my favorite part! *clickclickclick* )
100th Post! Woo hoo!!! 8)
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you gotta do what you gotta do....i dont even know where cedar point is, all i remember is rocky point, but that place is long gone, or maybe its just run down and everyone forgot about it....
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It's in Sandusky, OH... a few hours away from here...
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It's in Sandusky, OH... a few hours away from here...
Pssst, where is "here"?
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Well i would guess she lives in Ohio relatively close to cleveland, but thats just a guess
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exactly like you said, 9000HP is a lot of strain....the hydraulic system is turns the pulley, thus turning the belt, the belt would be hooked up the entire way along the bottom of the coaster to even the pressure out, but for that much power its obvious you need one HUGE belt, and im sure the wear and tear is ridiculous, but thats what you get for being a moron coaster inventor, they shouldda just had the belt drag it up the hill nice and slow, wouldnt have required so much work......its also possible the belt runs a bunch of wheel that sit under the coaster and spin...i havent seen so i dont know,...i just know the conventional system is chain driven
Pete, as an engineer, im gonna tell you that it is HIGHLY unlikely that they have a hydrolic system pulling a belt and the the belt pulls the coaster. That would just be bad engineering to say the least.
The ONLY time you see a chain driven system is when the coaster is designed to use a launch hill. The launch hill is what gives it enough momentum to run the whole track.
Otherwise, you use a launching mechanism to give it enough force... most of the time its either a magnetic based system or its wheels that are spun by a motor of some sort. I guess its possible to do it with hydrolics, but I would litteraly be worried about giving people whiplash with that. But im not a designer, so I have no idea what the details are.
---Andrew
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If you didnt notice Andrew i mentioned using wheels to move the coaster rather than direct contact with a belt to relieve pressure in the statement you qouted :P
And who said the engineering was good, didnt the coaster break twice in two weeks ?
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Maybe they are also using the magnetic technique to launch the car. Superman The Escape in Cali has this system, as well as The Volcano in VA at King's Dominion. This was a revolutionary development that allowed cars to go from zero to 60 in less than 3 seconds. For these types of rides that don't have a launch hill, a pulley is not used, however I don't know how to classify the dragster. To me it's not a roller coaster, but it does have that out-and-back design to it. I'll ask my friend who works there if she knows next time I talk to her.
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I didnt suspect magnetic force since flux isnt really comparable to physical horsepower, i never would say i know though, if you ask id be interested to know what the heck they are using to balance out the pressure =)
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If you didnt notice Andrew i mentioned using wheels to move the coaster rather than direct contact with a belt
Yeah, but you suggested that the belt that drove the wheels might be hydrolic based. Which makes no sense.
If it says its hydrolic powered, then i have to assume its some sort of hydrolic powered "press" that litterally hits and pushes a part of the car so hard it launches it. Like a little kid throwing a paper airplane.
Frankly, that seems like a bad thing (tm) because of the stress on the car. But theres no other way I can immagine hydrolics launching a roller coaster. By their very nature hydrolics aren't a continual motion technology.
---Andrew
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Well it says the hydraulic system is attached to a pulley, i dont see how a pulley could "push".
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lol... I'll have Melissa ask the ride workers when she goes in June.
Sheesh!
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hmm.... perhaps it works like a rip cord? Like there is a big hydrolic press with a big long steel cable on it, the cable wraps THROUGH a pulled and attaches to an axel with rubber wheels that sit at the bottom of the car?
That might work. Since its not continual motion it could still work with hydrollics. That would even be a situation where they could use a chain along with hydrolics. Not a typical system, but it seems possible.
---Andrew
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(http://www.angelfire.lycos.com/oh5/mallory0/cp.JPG)
HEE HEE :lol:
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Melissa and Josh went yesterday, and it was down again! Man, its a cool looking ride, and its probably a real adrenaline rush, but it really sucks with it's reputation.
http://www.13abc.com/index.cfm?Article=8032&SecName=28&Level=1&SubID=0&Itm=&SideID=&IsItm=
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i want to go there and ride it but first my mom wouldn't let me, and second i live in texas so it would be a loooong drive. but i wanna ride it.
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bloody hell thats more than scary! At Alton Towers here i didn't even dare go on Oblivion- the world's first vertical rollercoaster, i think....
how the hell is that thing actually safe!!??
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how the hell is that thing actually safe!!??
Its broken all the time, thus no one can ride it, therefore it is "safe"
safely immobile :mrgreen: