Has a LIM/LSM ride ever "Over-fired" ??

I was bored in physics today, and I was thinking: Has a LSM/LIM ride ever over-fired? I always hear stories of rides under-firing, but never over.

One time, I was on Speed: the ride, front seat. Speed has the system where you launch, come back, and launch a second time. On our second launch, I felt like the wind was much more intense, and the ride was a lot more forceful, but then you dont always think straight on a coaster. Well, we hit the second LIM streach, and my head is plastered to the seat, as is my body. We asscend the tower, and as soon as I heard the "CLUNK" of the stopping break, I knew we were going too fast. As if that wasnt scary enough, on the way back, the trims on the LIM streach slowed us dramatically, and I slammed into the otsr.

Most coasters have Stopping breaks, break pads, or "shock" absorbing pads. ie, Superman: the escape has the stopping break fins, any inpulse has the stopping "bounce" pad, and launched coasters (premier) have the emergency brakes right atop the tower. I may have forgotton some, but you get the point.

I thought I heard something about Volcano overfiring, but thast a continuous circuit course.

-----------------
How much more floorless can they get?

I am not knowledgeable enough to answer, but I have witnessed and experienced empty trains going much higher than full ones on shuttles. I would think that the engineers would see that an over-firing should not be possible under normal circumstances.

-------------
- Peabody

I think that it would suck if that happened on a ride such as the Superman at Worlds of Adventure or Wickid Twister... but then again, I could swear I saw something unusual at the end of the Wickid Twister track that looked like a spring mechanism (or air) that will catch a train if it approaches the top too high (to probably slow it down, and stop it safely without any rider injury). I'm not sure, but I thought I saw the picture on one of those construction gallery pics at Cedar Point's official web page!

The link is right here...
http://www.cedarpoint.com/public/inside_park/rides/thrill/2002/wt/construction/picture.cfm?id=128

Is that a safety feature at the very top of the tower in case the trains do happen to overshoot???

*** This post was edited by DawgByte II on 2/19/2002. ***

Yes, the plungers are there for safety, and they're on the other impulses (like S:UE) as well.

-----------------
--Greg
"The collective women in your life have more baggage than a Samsonite factory..."
My page

Do those plungers really serve any real saftey purpose other than to make you feel safe? Think about it, if you're going fast enough to hit one, you'd be going pretty darn fast, and probably end up with bad whiplash or something.

-----------------
I have no signature.

...but wouldn't that be better than having part of the car go off and slam back down (trying to get back on track) or come all the way off and going of the top of the tower? True that there would have to be a big malfunction in calcualtion for this to happen, but gettting thrown into your harness would be the better of the two scenarios.

-------------
Sept. 11th 2001, Slayer released God Hates Us All. The song "Disciple" uncannily describes the events of that day, as well as the anthrax letters that followed.
--Slayer: Thrash band, or the next Nostradamus?

Yeah, thats a piston that will absorb the shock of a over-fire and not let it fall off.
-----------------
SFNE loses its "floor" for 2002! Visit www.geocities.com/sfneguy for info. and pics of SFNE, including the most unique constr. pics of SFNE on the web. Formerly known as srosatsfne.

relating to the topic, if the brakes werent on hypersonic and it launched at the same speed, the ride would be a blur and it would probably hurt going over the top and hitting the brakes. talking to the security guard he said they ran it w/ out the brakes and he said it was crazy(nobody was on it). he also mentioned there being a "new"coaster(ricochet)so i dont have a prob w/ believing him.

What brakes? The brakes on the tower? They always open before the train launches. They are only closed after the train passes them to aid in a rollback situation (trust me I know ;)).

And if the final brakes were not functioning, somebody would have been in a world of hurt!
jeremy
--That's strike TWO!

Coasterdude, all that stuff about Hypersonic is not true. The brakes going up the tower are off except for a rollback, like 2hostyl said. Every launch the train is weighed so it's fired with the appropriate amount of air.
-----------------
- Peabody

Well Peabody, it's not *always* fired with the appropriate amount of air :)...but they try their darndest :)
-- in the end it doesnt even matter...

I should have said it's "most often" fired with.... :) I missedmy chance to experience that by one train :(
-----------------
- Peabody

With Air-Lunching, It would probably be hard to "Over-fire", simply because the tank has a maximum capacity. A power surge or malfunction could sent an intense amount of energy to a LIM motor resulting in over-firing (unless theres like a power damping system).
-----------------
How much more floorless can they get?

What.... you mean it doesn't actually fly over the edge and catch on fire like on Roller Coaster Tycoon.
-----------------
D.o.t. Crew 2000
Flight of Fear/Wave Swinger crew 2001-2002

Not that I've ever seen, FOF! :)
-----------------
- Peabody

It would probably blow a fuse if too much power went into the LIM Motors. Its like if an outlet uses too much power, then the fuse goes, which stops the flow of power.

Ive seen instances in which a train on Chiller was launched too fast, in all those cases the second set of LIM's at the top of the ride were automatically de-energized so no extra momentum could be added. These LIM/LSM rides are designed so you'll never be in real danger if things like that happen, and all of the premier shuttle launchers have a brake at the top of their circuits plus a stopper afterwards (Which I dont't believe any train has come in contact with).

GreatAdventureAddict said:
With Air-Lunching, It would probably be hard to "Over-fire", simply because the tank has a maximum capacity

Actually S&S's air launched system is one of the easier launched systems to have an overfire on. The speed at the top of the first hill is very critical. Each train is weighed to determine exactly how much air is needed to launch it at the precise speed required. There are of course a lot of safeties to prevent accidents. And, an overfire would result in excess negative Gs not crashing into something.

TrBiggar said:
Do those plungers really serve any real saftey purpose other than to make you feel safe? Think about it, if you're going fast enough to hit one, you'd be going pretty darn fast, and probably end up with bad whiplash or something.

I don't think you'd be going "pretty darn fast" if you hit the end of the spike. Remember, they slow down towards the top of them, so it probably wouldn't hit the top any faster than 10 mph if that ever happened.

-----------------
I was asked to describe X in one word. The word? -- OhmygoshwhathaveIgottenmyselfintothisisthescariest
thingintheworldhelpmeIamgoingtodieAHHHH!!!