Holes in S:UF's spine?

I was at GAdv. this weekend and noticed that S:UF has holes in its spine at a few locations.

You can see them here:
http://www.gadv.com/SUF21503b.jpg

On the left side of the picture just inside the pretzel.

You can see clear through the spine in these places and there's a another pair after you exit the pretzel, going into the first turn.

Anyone know why they're there?

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Be polite and ignore the idiots. - rollergator
"faster, cheaper, and more often" that's somebody's new sig -UpsideDawnGrrrl
My shirt in my photo seems to be for "Aging Bull"

Those are where you can install trims if you need to.

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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com - Sillynonsense.com
"The world rotates to The Ultra-Heavy Beat!" - KMFDM

That high? On S:UF at SFOG, the trims are at the base of the drop. What would prompt the change in trim location?

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

Perhaps they want the ability to cut the speed going INTO the most intense element of the ride, if neccessary...

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--George H
---Superman the ride...coming to a SF park near you soon...
Currency tracking experiment... http://www.wheresgeorge.com (Referring to The "George" on the $1 bill - Not Me)

I doubt that they are for trims. They don't look like the attachement points that I remember seeing for Nitro's trims. And, as mentioned earlier, B&M prefers to put trims at the bottom of hills, which is where they belong.

I can't tell from the photo if there is any sleeve in these holes to seal them. Without a sleeve (or possibly an unseen drain hole), water will collect in the track. Knowing how thorough B&M's engineering is I suspect that there is a sleeve.

Otherwise, I can't imagine what the holes are for.

Those definitely are for trims. SFoG has about two or three scattered throughout the course. Luckily, none fired when I visited two weeks ago.

And about B&M putting trims at the bottom of hills, how do you explain Raging Bull?

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Scott W. Short
scott@midwestcoastercentral.com
http://www.midwestcoastercentral.com

Or Silver Star? That thing is so braked its also know as... Silver Brake. There are a couple of trims, all located near the top of hills... where as its will give you major airtime... bang! the trim grabs and you barely float, much get airtime.

Also, add an helix AFTER the midcourse brake run... and Mack really, really tamed the ride down. Explain to me why a park who claims looping coasters "are too intense and dont fit in our park" goes and add an hyper coaster... then trim and design design it in such a way that well... its tall, long... sometimes fast. Where is the airtime and intensity?

Its sad that, SS is the tallest B&M coaster and it is treated that way. I don't know what the holes on S:UF are for probably trims, ask someone.

Have you seen anything else in those type of holes on any B&M coaster. That is where they put brakes, so there will or could possibly be trim brakes added there. They don't have to be in the same place as they were on the S:UF at SFoG. Maybe they learned from their mistakes or what have you and placed them some place new.

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Chris Tyson
Photographer
www.pkiunlimited.com

Add Apollo's Chariot to the list of up hill trim braked rides.

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My 2002 Coaster Season Video Review is now available here: http://www.geocities.com/coasterman_mike

I think maby they are holes to put a onride photo section. witch is odd because they are most times put in the groud .

But that is pretty high up it might have been cheaper to have them come out of the ride . If anyone doughts or knows why my hyipothosis is inncorect please tell me why.

.......................................

TOP THRILL DRAGSTER I await your coming see you on may 4

*** This post was edited by CP Dude 4/9/2003 3:28:10 PM ***

Also, add an helix AFTER the midcourse brake run... and Mack really, really tamed the ride down. Explain to me why a park who claims looping coasters "are too intense and dont fit in our park" goes and add an hyper coaster... then trim and design design it in such a way that well... its tall, long... sometimes fast. Where is the airtime and intensity?

The offical reason why Europa Park toned down the ride was because that Europa is techniclly an ALL family park and they wanted Silverstar to appeal to familys too so they want families to enjoy it but at the same time not to come off saying its too intense because big and intense rides is not Europa's Style(I know its a bizarre reason, but I was told this from one of the managers who is high up at the park) Also there is airtime on Silverstar actually, Sit in the back row, have your harness as loose as possible and experience a bit of airtime heaven going down the first drop ;)

Yeah. I do remember seeing trims (on all kinds of B&M's) mounted like that (most notably B:KF). Thanks Jeff and everyone else.

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Be polite and ignore the idiots. - rollergator
"faster, cheaper, and more often" that's somebody's new sig -UpsideDawnGrrrl
My shirt in my photo seems to be for "Aging Bull"

They are for trim brakes, period. Whether they are at the top of bottom of a hill does not matter.

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Is that a Q-bot in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?

CP Dude said:
I think maby they are holes to put a onride photo section. witch is odd because they are most times put in the groud .
But that is pretty high up it might have been cheaper to have them come out of the ride . If anyone doughts or knows why my hyipothosis is inncorect please tell me why.

Did you not read the other posts?

Your theory would be incorrect. Hmm. If the on-ride photo booth were up that high, they would not only need to attach electrical parts going up to that point, but a lens and flash mechanism would need to be installed up there too. I would think a bell would go off near your head right now ;)

how do the trims attach to these?? I don't see how they would need trims because they toned down the inversion from the SFoG version, and the speed coming out of it is only around 25-30mph.

also, the trims on alot of B&M's i hardly feel--raging bull, hulk--it just seems to coast over them without slowing at all, which is good, but i just wonder other than for an extra block, why put them in, or is that the only reason?

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I am one.
I am Turbo.

first of all, trims do not create an extra block.... they cannot stop a train.

the holes you see are for the air cylinders which expand to close the brakes. look at any modern B&M brake run and you will see those exact holes.

i think that B&M are probably still worried that their slight modifications may not have been enough and so decided to make it easy to fix (if necessary) by cutting two holes in a piece of steel. alot cheaper than doing it later.

and i think the trim location makes more sense from a rider's enjoyment point of view... youd still get to enjoy the insane speed from the drop before you are stunted by the brakes

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"It's like something out of that twilighty show about that zone"

Heck, even MF has hard points for trims that were never put in. It's much easier to build the hard points than to totally hack apart the track later when the park decides they want a trim.

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Be polite and ignore the idiots. - rollergator
"faster, cheaper, and more often" that's somebody's new sig -UpsideDawnGrrrl
My shirt in my photo seems to be for "Aging Bull"

No the holes are definately for putting salt in the the loop.

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MMM Giant Pretzel @ Great America *drool*

Ugh...

You had to make me upload a picture. Look here at the base of the cobra roll on SFWoA's Batman.

That's how they mount brakes in the box track, which is different than the way they are mounted on lifts, mid-course or final brake runs.

Just because it's there doesn't mean they're going to use it. As has been stated before by someone who went to the SFOG Superman media event, Walter himself allegedly said he was concerned about how strong the G's in the loop felt. If that's true, this could have been done as a precaution.

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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com - Sillynonsense.com
"The world rotates to The Ultra-Heavy Beat!" - KMFDM