First Drop and Double Up on New Texas Giant?

Someone up there was commenting about the bolts holding the track together on the top part of the rails - they're temporary and those connections will be welded smooth before the end. I swear I had a source but it's escaping me at the moment...

Charles Nungester said:
The trains are primaraly Wooden coaster trains, The track is designed to simulate this. Since a wood coaster runs on steel rails anyhow, I doubt reduced friction is even a issue.

If that's really the case, then it's already a failure. If the wheels aren't some kind of polymer, the track will be destroyed.

That track is two inches thick and probably will use the same graphite lubing as normal wooden coasters.

A Structural Engineer I know in the wood coaster business says While everything about it will be like a wooden coaster, He doesn't consider it one.

There is some closeups of the actual track out there. Its basically the same as the layered boards with two track boards on top.

As far as polymer wheels, IDK for certain but the whole thing is designed to replicate wood, Four road wheels, four guides and four upstops

RCMAC said:
Mean Streak wasn't great when it opened, and its since been tamed from that.

There was one great season for Mean Streak, that being around the 1994 season. I spent a lot of time at the park that year and vividly recall some decent day time rides and one particular night ride that was wild out-of-control fun that was full of air time (photo camera drop had you out of your seat the whole drop and the lift turnaround was wicked!) and great speed throughout the entire ride...I remember getting off and thinking "Wow!" that is what Mean Streak was meant to be. That ride had nowhere near the brutality it has now. Sadly, that was also the summer issues started arising with the structure resulting in the water irrigation system being added and then the trains mid-season were reduced from 7 car trains down to 6 car trains to further reduce stress and wear-n-tear. I believe one trim was added to the first drop as well. Then the off-season brought some major changes and things just got worse.

What the engineers have come up with for the Texas Giant, especially those overbanked turns, could very well make Mean Streak a great coaster once again too. DK has a history of not going back and tweaking older rides, have to wonder if this could be the one to break that business logic?

Charles Nungester said:
That track is two inches thick and probably will use the same graphite lubing as normal wooden coasters.

So what? The track steel on roller coasters is not intended to live indefinitely. It has to be replaced periodically.

Normal Wood coaster track tends to ripple especially near the bottom of drops. It is grind-ed smooth. and the steel replaced periodically. What I meant by the two inch thick steel. Thats a lot of grinding and a lot more material to work with. It also on curves feathers off to the sides.

I equate what TG is going to be running on as more like Railroad track to any other kind of track out there for coasters.

Railroad track? There is some *vague precendent* out there already...

http://www.rcdb.com/779.htm?p=5049

I'm pretty sure that these trains have polymer wheels http://www.rcdb.com/4065.htm?p=21647

And it made for a nice ride.

Is Mammut a non-Intamin wood coaster that uses the Plug & Play system (IIRC, that's a Stengel trademark, right?)? Those G Trains look nifty.

Mammut looked like a standard layer system to me. You can also see it in the pic that I linked.

Yeah, after looking, it does look like regular track. The reason I asked was because the builders listed built Toro and 2 other PnPs, and it didn't list an actual Ride MFG on RCDB, just the builder and Stengel. Odd.

Looks like a fun coaster, though.

^Clint - go here: http://www.rcdb.com/r.htm?ot=2&co=7563 ;)

That doesn't answer Clint's question, Bill. The others have Make/Model noted as being by Intamin with designer being Stengel.

Also, my understanding is that steel coasters with polymer wheels actually have more frictional losses than the traditional wooden coaster setup with steel wheels on a thin strip of steel atop the wooden rails.

The loss of energy wasn't what I was worried about, I was talking about the wear and tear.

Jeff said:
Particularly given the (presumably) lower friction with the steel track on Giant, it will conserve energy. So what, then, do you do now that they've removed the big turns around the lift?

I suspect they will re-work the turns into something more exciting. I never cared for that element despite loving the rest of the ride. Perhaps they will make it a single loop around the lift so the train carries more speed into the "magic carpet" finale of the ride. Looking forward to seeing what they do. So far aside from keeping the midcourse brake (I'd rather they just run two trains and not need this pause), they have made the two changes I was hoping for:
1) make the first drop less drawn-out (steeper)
2) extend the drop parallel to the first drop, all the way to the ground instead of pulling out 40 feet in the air as before.

Oops, my bad, apparently misunderstood exactly what Clint was asking.....not sure I get it any better now, so I'll move along... ;)

New photos of Texas Giant were posted recently! It's looking really good! Maybe I'll have to thumb a ride to Texas this summer!

This thing looks like it has the potential to be spectacular. Some of those hills and turns look absolutely nuts.

WOW this thing looks crazy. I'll be very anxious to hear how it rides. I would hope that DK (or successor) keep an ear open as well... assuming Mean Streak isn't burned to the ground by then. ;)

Thinking the gigantic SBNO woodie in southern Ohio is a more likely candidate at this point...although MS can't be too far behind.