CP Wildcat's Chain Lift

Ok bassman2003 and I were riding CP's Wildcat the other day and noticed the chain on it which is just a very simple chain link. It's just one link looped to the next link very unlike the typical chain on most coasters.. It perplexed both of us how the cars are able to grab onto this type of chain lift. Anyone else noticed this? How does this type of chain work?

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Nashville needs a theme park!

It's a fairly conventional chain dog; it can grab any link which is positioned parallel to the trough but not any link which is perpendicular to it. If I remember correctly, the dog engages the outside of the top of the link, not the inside of the link.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

That's interesting how the chain dog latches onto the chain, as the chain was clearly rising up at least a good 8 or 10 inches out of the trough. It wasn't a jerky transition either like I expected it to be. Thanks for the info Rideman.

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Nashville needs a theme park!

It wasn't jerky?

You mean at the point where the dog engaged, your car didn't get jerked forward with approximately the force of a rear-end collision? How did you miss out? :)

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Haha Rideman...Nope not jerky at all. I guess the roller coaster gods were smiling down on me that day.

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Nashville needs a theme park!

Yup, I guess we're pretty lucky huh! I couldn't figure out for the life of me while riding it how the chain dog would get past the "verticle" (the one sticking up) links to attach to the horizontal links. I thought of something maybe clasping around the whole chain, but I never thought it'd be able to just grab on like normal.

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The Coaster Kid

Roller coasters are more than just rides, they're a reason for living