Brakes on extreme launched coasters
Had a look at the latest pics of Xcelerator. It looks to me that the brake fins on the launch track stay up all the time. Should a train roll back & after it's stopped, they would be retracted to allow the train to roll back into the station. Hey, maybe that's why it's set at a slight upwards grade.
My burning question is, can the magnetic brakes work one way only?
Looking at this coaster along with HS & Dodonpa, it would be a catastrophe should the anti roll-back brakes fail.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't those little pistons along the entire length of the launch track?
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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com, Sillynonsense.com
"As far as I can tell it doesn't matter who you are. If you can believe, there's something worth fighting for..." - Garbage, "Parade"
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- Peabody
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The legend lives!
ApolloAndy said:
Peabody: I would've said the same thing until S:RoS SFNE crashed.
...which was the fault of poor mantinence on behalf of the park, if i remember correctly.
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If the shoe fits, find another one.
From the pictures that I looked at, I couldn't tell too much. However, you have to remember that the braking effect of magnetic brakes is proportional to the speed of the train. This means that magnetic brakes will slow a train but cannot be used to completely stop it since they exert very little force once the train is moving slowly. Intamin generally uses there rubber tires for this purpose.
Normal block logic would require that the train behind not be moved into the block containing the launch and first hill until it is cleared. Of course there has to be some sort of brake to keep the train from rolling back through to the previous block.
Right. It's very similar to the braking action of an Impulse. Instead of the fins being on the train and the magnets being on the track, it's vice versa. On the Impulses, the brakes are always in the open position (up) because of the ride's shuttle nature. However, the brakes are closed (lowered) on the final pass and the train is slowed. I'm not sure if the LIMs are or aren't fired during braking. Also, the fins will be brought towards the magnets instead of the magnets being brought towards the fins.
So on Xcelerator, the fins will be down during the launch and as soon as the train hits the tower, or rather clears a section of the launch, the fins will raise in order to slow the train in case it doesn't make it over, thus preventing a rollback crash in the station. I'm also guessing that the final brake run fins don't have cylinders like the rollback fins, so they're always in the closed position forcing the train to slow at the end of the ride. This is where the SFNE S:ROS had it's problems. (Cue Mr. Althoff)
Does anyone know why Intamin made this change in the magnetic brake system? It makes sense to mount the magnets on the train since I'm sure that the fins are cheaper to produce than about 150' of magnets.
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Scott W. Short
mailto:scott@midwestcoastercentral.com
http://www.midwestcoastercentral.com
*** This post was edited by ShiveringTim on 4/2/2002. ***
I think you answered your own question (never thought about it that way). The typical method for them involves lots more moving parts and magnets it would seem, not to mention they don't have to slow a train from potentially 70 mph!
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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com, Sillynonsense.com
"As far as I can tell it doesn't matter who you are. If you can believe, there's something worth fighting for..." - Garbage, "Parade"
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