Grizzly at PKD

Has anyone noticed that PKD's Grizzly's trains actually rock back and forth. I was just on it and it moving from side to side. I could actually feel the train moving from side to side like one side is larger than the other so it rocks back and forth.

-----------------
-Sean Newman
74 coasters and growing
Life is a roller coaster ride it!!!

hey sfgadvMan, funny you ask this....i was there Sat night, and we got the last ride of the night. the area rides mgr rode with us in the front car, and he told us it had something to do with the upstop wheels....im cant remember what he said after that, i think they were riding up against the anti rollbacks....but i could be wrong. but i do remember him saying it was the upstop wheels :)

Tim (who remembers being dragged on Grizzly at PKD in 1984, kicking and screaming....got off and from that day forth, has been addicted to these crazy machines:))

-----------------
"hi, my name is Tim, and im a coasterholic"...."Hi Tim!!" hehe:)

I don't recall that kind of motion, but I havent' ridden Grizzly yet this year.

I have noticed this on the way up the lift hill. To me, pieces of the track appeared crooked or uneven and was causing the train to move from side to side. (You could tell that these places in the track were newer repairs that didn't match up to the original track.) It certainly wasn't bad....I love that ride.

I don't care what the train does on the lift. The ride is one of the greatest wooden coasters out there. If only PKD didn't remove all those trees for Hurler it'd be even better!

-----------------
-Kyle Brylczyk
KoRn - Untouchables, June 11th, 2002

The rocking you noticed was more than likely the trains flexing due to track variations. PTC's tend to flex or shift as they manuever a track... they are designed to do that.

Wooden track is irregular no matter how much time is spent on it. When there is a bump or change in one side as the train rides over it, the train will shift or flex to compensate.

To better exemplify how PTC's are made to do this, just look at the back of one of the cars sometime. (I believe Grizzly trains have this, not sure though) Often PTC's have a steel cable that extends across the back seat of each car. It helps stabilize the car and holds the sides together in case of some extreme condition or terribly irregular track. It is more or less for safety, but never-the-less shows how PTC's are open to "flex."

The Wild(e) Beast is a duplicate of Grizzly at PKD. It's trains flex more than I have ever seen. Speaking of which, if you like PKD's Grizzly, then you would LOVE the PCW version. Both are exact copies of the old Cincy Coney Island Wildcat and are great fun. But PCW maintains theirs extremely well, there is no lag on the first turnaround like at PKD, as a matter of fact there was once a trim installed (still there, not in use) on Wonderlands to slow the train as it entered the turn. PKD's barely makes it past the anti-rollbacks.

Finally, PKD had let this coaster go to pot as of three years ago. Man, what a little graphite/grease would do. It's horrible metal on metal screeching prompted me to nickname the coaster Grizzleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee last season.

Shaggy

-----------------
Shaggy
A.K.A. John K.

*** This post was edited by Shaggy on 4/10/2002. ***

When going up the lift last season in the front car, only one set of the wheels was on the track at once while the other was one each off. Once we started down the first hill, we leveled out. I rode it again later in the day, but didn't have the same problem.

This is kind of changing the subject but is there some trims on the first hill because when I rode we crawled around the first bend. It seemed just a little to slow. Other than that the ride was great. Especially the tunnel that really seemed you don't have enough room

PKD is my home park and The Grizzly is the rollercoastter I have ridden more than any coaster. Shaggy is right. In the last 3 years the ride has gotten worse. It crawls around the first turn. I keep expectng to hear on the news one day that the ride has gotten stuck If they would take care of the ride the way HW takes care of their wooden coasters it would still be an amazing ride. When I ride it now I can only think of the way it used to be.