Arrow 4D headed for Japan!!

"Guess it took them a few years to get it right then didn't it"?

Who's "them"?

The 4D has a whole new team of designers.

Dweaver: 1pt

Everyone else: 3000pts ;)

Hey! I'm the Drew Carey around here, not You!!!

;)

By them, I mean anybody that worked on it. THat can mean the same old people as well as new people coming in to Arrow and working on it. Its still They.

Moosh, if I recall correctly, the Arrow engineer/designer that was expressing the most concern over SF's "pushing the envelope" with regards to the height and speed of X was none other than Alan Schilke...not that HE would know anything about the ride...;)

But, as noted, I was nowhere near the place when those discussions were going on....but my MOUSE was...:)

I am happy to see another one being built. I am hoping to see a few pop up in america in the next few years. Of course I still haven't gotten to make it out to MM to ride the original.

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For that purpose the pioneering prototype built for Six Flags Magic Mountain, California was completely reworked. Instead of an axle the engineers incorporate an Ackermann steering as it is used by B&M, Intamin and - recently - Vekoma. For the average rider the differences won´t be perceivable.

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Does anyone know if this means X will finally be able to run 3 trains? Or open on time every day?

It's able to, but it's run by SFMM. THey can't get the garbage cans open on time :)

There are all kinds of parks interested in the 4D concept. S&S said that they had to work on making the trains much lighter and other problems before they would even consider building another. With all the lawsuits and all, I have no doubt Stan and the gang feel they got it right now.

Chuck

Sure, you can bet you butt there are TONS of parks interested. But they are/have been interested in one that works well, has good capacity, etc., and have been waiting to see if that can be the case before shelling out the $$$

Well, with what WE'VE seen at SFMM, and what *we* have NOT seen (but parks prob. HAVE) at the S&S HQ in Utah, I'm guessing that Stan AND the parks are reasonably satisfied that the *next* 4-D will be reliable and have decent throughput...

SFoG? ;)

Of course Thrust air had to be retweeked majorly to go from a test bed to running reliably.

Interesting parallels there. They built the second TA2K in Japan, improved, but not enough to tempt an american park to build another. Now we see an attempt to ressurect it in a different form here as Powder Keg. (Minus the inflatable tires, I beams, etc) I wonder if the 4-D will be refined further of a 3rd is built.

Unless some other company comes out with a similar product (and soon) I doubt there will be the same lack of interest from American amusement parks. I wonder if this is that "big bang" that Kinzel would like to go out with.

I know, I know, but I just had to...it's the conspiracy theorist in me. :)

When the new 4D is built. If I ran S&S I'd give all the park chains (CEO's) a free trip to japan to experince it for themselves. I'm sure someone would be interested in it. Granted it would probably half to run with three trains. Does S&S have block brakes on their coasters?

Dosen't every coaster with more than one train have a block break now adays?

They have block brakes at the end of the ride, but many coasters (especially Intamin) do not have mid-course brake runs.

Right. I was talking Blocks and not MCBR:). So there is at least one set of block brakes on all new coasters.

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MrX said:
The fact that SFI may/may not have pressured Arrow into build a 200ft. model doesn't change the fact that Arrow built something they weren't totally comfortable with. The main reason for the problems simply comes down to underengineering on Arrow's part.

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Where have I heard that before....

The Bat perhaps? Arrow has a history of underengineered designes, especially with ride vehicles.

From what I remember about the 4-D's before seeing the final layout for X, I can remember seeing a few virtual designs from Arrow. None of them were even close to the size of what X ended up being. That was obviously Arrow's comfort zone with that design. Also, the only other existing 4D was that extremely short track segment from their indoor test facility.

I certialny was not part of the negotiations between Six Flags and Arrow, but it stands to reason that after years of development of the 4D, Arrow was already on their collective heels. They probably bit off more than they could chew because they were desperate for all their hard work to finally pay off. Sadly, with the requests (demands?) that Six Flags put on the contract, Arrow ended up losing.

john peck

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remember the lousy 3rd-party welding the park had done to it? Just to save a buck cost them more.

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Just a guess here, but is major welding part of routine coaster maintainence? It's probably something that average SF maiintanence worker isn't qualified to do. Maybe a spot weld here and there, but major steel trackwork is usually not part of a daily track walk. If you know something I don't please share.

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CoasterKrazy said:
They have block brakes at the end of the ride, but many coasters (especially Intamin) do not have mid-course brake runs.

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and many Intamin coaster cough(Superman)cough don't have enough brakes at the end of their coasters.

Sorry couldn't resist;-) *** Edited 1/9/2005 5:12:46 AM UTC by Barry Short***

This has been talked about for years. Someone want to show me the press release?

I particularly find it funny that everyone acts as if they were sitting there in meetings between Arrow and Six Flags.