Top Thrill Dragster at Cedar Point "Closing"

[Aw hype]

4 minutes ago, Dean Barnett said:

Compare the pair

Please just add the context or make a statement instead of annoyingly beating around the bush. 

[Dean Barnett]

One is TT2 (zamp) 

One is Falcons Flight (Intamin)

Edited May 15 by Dean Barnett

[New display name]

6 hours ago, Dean Barnett said:

Compare the pair

Compare the pair

[Naazon]

9 hours ago, Dean Barnett said:

One is TT2 (zamp) 

One is Falcons Flight (Intamin)

Good story man.

 

Whats your point. I'm not an engineer. I mean you're not either but still, whats your point?

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

Compare the 10.

[Spotty]

5 hours ago, DaptoFunlandGuy said:

Compare the 10.

I pick number 3 my lord!

[TBoy]

Just thinking about the closure, could it be that the wheels are compatible with the Zamperla track but not the Intamin track? I have been a bit sceptical of the ride when it was announced that it would use the Zamperla track but reuse the Intamin track.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

I feel confident that the zamperla track added to the ride was made to copy in every possible way the existing track of intamin such that there would be little noticeable differences between them. I don't think the track is in play here.

All i've seen so far suggests that components are wearing out quicker than anticipated. Everything is pointing to the wheels reacting differently to expectations (maybe weight balancing with the non-uniform guests loaded into it is causing uneven issues to develop not picked up in water dummy testing?)

Maybe the running surface of the wheel is wearing out too fast? Maybe the wheel itself is heating up and not dissipating the heat of the launch fast enough? Maybe a combination - heating up the compound causing the running surface to fail?

The statements made by the park suggest they're redesigning something on the train. My money is somewhere in this ballpark.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

ETR posted saying last night he is speculating TT2 could reopen as early as today - theorising that Zamperla \ CP are just going to increase the frequency of maintenance replacement for the part impacted.

So assuming its a wheel, just replacing it every 1000-2000 cycles instead of every 5000. I assume its short term while they redesign because long term that gets very expensive, but at least in the short term they get the ride re-opened, albeit at an increased expense.

 

[Dean Barnett]

To me - this evidence strongly suggests that the bogies are causing the problem, leading to the train shaking and exceeding the LSM clearance tolerances.

They tested this by taping some LSMs to check for contact with the train, which indeed occurred. This is why they were running the train without passengers a few days ago.

[Gobbledok]

The two leading theories are wheel carrier adjustment to get the train running true which is much harder on a swing launch

And wheel breakdown which is knows as delaminating and likely would require changes to the compound used for the wheels

Both may require reengineering and or manufacture of new components plus shipping which would account for the extended downtime

You dont want chunks of wheel compound flying off the train a 200 kilometers an hour

[Dean Barnett]

[Naazon]

I saw a post on Facebook with pictures of the ride in testing.

For some reason Facebook has decided to promote a bunch of Cedar Point fan groups to me, which in this case has worked out okay.

 

Edit: I don't know if this is new or not. @Dean Barnett normally keeps the updates flowing here.

Edited December 11 by Naazon