Cedar Point says Top Thrill Dragster is done, sort of

I don't know what they might keep, I just know they probably want nothing to do with the hydraulic system. It has been a disaster since day one.

Fun:
Absent from this list of concerns is an aging physical track structure.

I have to somewhat agree here. I think if the structure was going to be completely torn down, it would be gone by now. That aside, when you get right down to it, assuming any kind of a tophat like that at 420 feet, the launch has to get up to about 120 to make it that high. Which then begs the question: what technology is new that didn't exist in 2003 to do that? Compressed air was around with Powder Keg and does exist today with Maxx Force, but there is quite a speed differential. My understanding is the other Hydraulic launches - except for Kinga Ka - are all quite a bit shorter and slower. Superman the Escape is comparable height wise with LSM - but - slightly slower and was around when Top Thrill was built. The Premier LIM's are also all older than TTD.

So, is there something tech wise that is newer with launched coasters that I am missing that might come close? I really do not want to see the world's tallest Toboggan with a chain lift on it... :-)

Dragster isn't dead. Its ... pining for the fjords.

Yesterday, I would have been willing to bet money that they wouldn't put LSMs on the ride. Today, I think the LSM conversion is unlikely, but I'm not so sure I would be willing to make that bet. Based on their announcements, it sounds like they are keeping the roller coaster, in some capacity. Right now, I wonder if they are going to build a shed around the high speed section of the launch and brake run. Maybe add some lighting effects.

My understanding is that the energy storage mechanism on the hydraulic launches is still compressed air and the hydraulic motor is just the means of delivering that energy into the train.

One of the easiest ways to make "some other technology" scale up to the appropriate speed is to lighten the train, presumably by reducing the number of cars/passengers. So I'm sure if they needed to they could shorten the train to get it up to 120MPH with LSM's. But at some point the question becomes "Why would you invest however millions of dollars just to deliver a ride experience that 18 million people have already had?"

Walt S:

the world's tallest Toboggan with a chain lift on it...

Tire drive, with a spiral lift, like the new Zambezi Zinger?

More seriously, has LSM/LIM technology improved in 20 years? The control systems, if not the magnets themselves. It also occurs to me that it's common today to see multi-launch rides, so in other words there's no reason the motors all have to be at the beginning of the ride - you could conceivably mount them on the vertical track.

Can LSM's exist on track curved in the "pitch" direction? I don't know if I've ever noticed, one way or another.

hambone:

More seriously, has LSM/LIM technology improved in 20 years?

LSMs are in themselves the major improvement.

LIMs use an absolutely mad amount of power to do what they do. LSMs are much more sensible in that regard. That's why the last new LIM coaster was built a decade ago.

I'm now imagining a ride where the first set of LSMs launch you 3/4 of the way up the tower, then you start to roll backward before a second set catches you and vaults you over the top. No idea if it would be workable, but it seems like it would be pretty cool.

I have obviously not checked this out with either the Lemon Chill guy or the Dippin Dots guy.

Here is a great video by the YouTuber/coaster enthusiast El Toro Ryan. He has worked both on Dragster and Ka as a ride host and now is an engineer. This video was posted on PointBuzz, and I recommend watching it. He talks about the launch speeds needed to make it over the top hat and the launch track lengths compared to Red Force in Spain. Though it is all speculation, he approaches it realistically.

-Chris

That dude annoys me because he just lifts everyone else's video without asking.

hambone:

I'm now imagining a ride where the first set of LSMs launch you 3/4 of the way up the tower, then you start to roll backward before a second set catches you and vaults you over the top. No idea if it would be workable, but it seems like it would be pretty cool.

You mean like this?

https://rcdb.com/3534.htm

Richard Bannister:

You mean like this?

Clearly that has motors on the vertical track, but I was imagining a ride sequence where the initial launch would only send you partway up the hill - then the train would stall, fall backward, and be caught by a second (previously un-engaged) set of motors that would stop the fall, reverse it, and send the train the rest of the way up and over the hill. So you would get a kind of partial rollback effect in every ride.

All the videos of Wicked that I watched launched the car directly over the top of the hill.

With a lift hill, it would be the tallest, fastest non-launching continuous circuit coaster in the world. Add the world's tallest loop to the bottom of the twisted drop for even more record-breaking bragable stats.

I'm kind of excited to see what they are going to do with it.

hambone:

Clearly that has motors on the vertical track, but I was imagining a ride sequence where the initial launch would only send you partway up the hill - then the train would stall, fall backward, and be caught by a second (previously un-engaged) set of motors that would stop the fall, reverse it, and send the train the rest of the way up and over the hill. So you would get a kind of partial rollback effect in every ride.

That's sort of what this thing does (though it's a chain, not LSMs) – it gets close to the top, then drops back most of the way and lifts again.

https://rcdb.com/11615.htm

Jeff: (referring to ElToro Ryan)
That dude annoys me because he just lifts everyone else's video without asking.

Sometimes he asks. I know because he asked me about using my 1991 Blue Streak video in his recent Steel Vengeance video...and quickly learned that by asking for that, he got a lot more than he asked for.

--Dave Althoff, Jr. (Ask for my video and I'll probably say yes...)

hambone:
...I was imagining a ride sequence where the initial launch would only send you partway up the hill - then the train would stall, fall backward, and be caught by a second (previously un-engaged) set of motors that would stop the fall, reverse it, and send the train the rest of the way up and over the hill. So you would get a kind of partial rollback effect in every ride.

Then you want to go to Six Flags Magic Mountain and take a ride on Full Throttle.

I don't completely remember the launch sequence, but the ride launches through the vertical loop, over the mountain, and then stops in the old monorail station in the mountain, as all Premier coasters apparently have to stop in the middle. I think it launches forward, fails to make it over the top of the vertical loop, falls backward and launches through the tunnel backward to not quite make it back over the mountain, then launches forward through the tunnel to easily clear the top of the vertical loop...only to be braked heavily on the way down as that's pretty much the end of the ride.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

I don't know anything. But someone let me know if DAVE vanishes from the GateKeeper gift shop.

He didn't ask me. Look for the video of Disaster Transport with the blurry parts that replaced mine after I issued a take down notice.

RideMan:

Then you want to go to Six Flags Magic Mountain and take a ride on Full Throttle.

Ehh - I don't want to go to SFMM, so I'm hoping someone will give me that experience elsewhere.

RideMan:

I think it launches forward, fails to make it over the top of the vertical loop, falls backward and launches through the tunnel backward to not quite make it back over the mountain, then launches forward through the tunnel to easily clear the top of the vertical loop...only to be braked heavily on the way down as that's pretty much the end of the ride.

You've almost got it, except that it launches backwards first and then does the forward launch into the big hill.

That seems different than launching and falling and having the LSMs stop you from falling backwards and then push you forward.