Joker's Jinx Question

I would imagine that a lot of the noise comes from the forest of supports that comprises the Premier spaghetti-bowl coasters... the noise from the train must bounce off of all those hollow steel tubes.

Good hypothesis Rob,maybe someone should suggest to management at SFA that they fill the supports with sand to reduce the noise levels.

That would explain why the FoF rides are so loud inside their buildings!

The soundtrack drowns out the noise though.

You people are killing me.......think wheels....nylon???? Get the hint?

I was under the impression that most or all coaster wheels that were nylon or had a layer of nylon. I think that the supports vibrating would be louder anyway, which would lend credence to the thought that the quieter coasters have sand or something in the supports. If it was loose in the supports, it could conceivably dampen the sound substantially.

Batamn&Robin: The Chiller is loud. I noticed that when I went with my bus trip 2 six flags last year. We got there and got out the bus. I heard and saw the trian for Chiller going up the hill getting ready to come back down. U could hear it all over the parking lot I think.

Most coaster wheels are urethane tires on metal hubs, not nylon, though some wheels do use nylon. I'm not sure how much this affects the noise level.

The real source of the noise is the track as the train rolls on it as others have mentioned. Filling it with sand would help, but if the track wasn't designed for it, it may not be possible. The sand adds a lot of mass. You might not gain anything since the LIMs thmeselves are also fairly loud, thought noise baffling might help.

As far as I know the restraint change was the only change mad to the trains.

It would also be more expensive to fill everything with sand.

^Not to mention impractical.

It's much easier to fill the track & supports with sand before vertical construction is completed (Talon @ Dorney comes to mind) but once the ride is actually up & running it would be next to...if not just plain impossible.

My guess is that when SFA requested permits to build the ride they didn't expect it would be as loud as it is & as a result weren't prepared to deal with the noise problem, after all JJ did indeed operate for frightfest in 99 but that would be the last time it would ever run in october again.

The cost of sand filling itself probably wouldn't be that high. The real cost would be any structural modifications required to deal with the extra mass of the sand. Its not just the vertical weight. The extra mass would also change how the coaster behaves in the wind possibly requiring more stiffening. And, of course, if the launch is still too loud, it won't make any difference.

Isn't that why JJ has a tunnel on the launch track?

Poltergeist at SFFT doesn't have a tunnel on the launch track so I guess noise is not as much of an issue with SFFT as it is for SFA,come to think of it Polty kinda looks a bit "naked" without a launch tunnel doesn't it?

I think they look kinda "naked" either way...

I dunno, there is something to be said for being able to see the spaghetti bowl instead of a building, but the theming for FOF does rock, and the first time I rode it, when the train came into the station empty, I almost fell over laughing.

LOL,the first time I rode FOF (PKD version) I thought the tunnel looked a bit too narrow for the train to fiit in...talk about major headchoppers there.

Speaking of PKD did anyone hear the news this afternoon? at around 4 pm there was an earthquake...you heard me right an earthquake just a few miles west of Richmond VA,the quake registered a 4.5 on the richter scale & was felt as far north as Baltimore MD.

I hope there wasn't any serious damage out at PKD because even a magnitude 4 can probably topple any of their coasters rather easily.

I think the noise is cool to hear because its a combination of wind and a rocketing roller coaster train, but as for the Chiller, it seemed very quiet other than the rider's screams.

I think they do fill the LIM's with sand, because if you watched a video of the Chiller, the noise doesn't really start until the train reaches the cobra roll.

Why does everything have to be abbreviated like it's a pet name? Poltergeist most definitely has a tunnel, which you can see in picture #13 on Lone Star Thrills. I think it's to keep the LIMS dry. The station for Poltergeist is also completely enclosed, unlike Joker's Jinx, which floods everytime there's a heavy rain.

---

BATWING FAN SFA said:

Speaking of PKD did anyone hear the news this afternoon? at around 4 pm there was an earthquake...you heard me right an earthquake just a few miles west of Richmond VA,the quake registered a 4.5 on the richter scale & was felt as far north as Baltimore MD.

I hope there wasn't any serious damage out at PKD because even a magnitude 4 can probably topple any of their coasters rather easily.

---

Haha, silly East Coast resident. That is the funniest thing I've heard all night. An earthquake of magnitude 4 is nothing at all! A lot of people don't even feel those. A quake of that size can hardly knock books off a shelf, much less topple a coaster.

It would take a MUCH larger quake to do any sort of damage to a coaster,the structures of which are probably more sturdy than most houses.

Actually, the structures here in the east aren't designed to withstand earthquarkes in the magnitude of a 7 or 8. There was some damage reported but nothing to major. One geolgist said on the news the rock is harder here in the east than it is in the west. Therefore we feel a 4 earthquake a little more than those on the other side of the U.S.

But then again, 2" of snow shuts down Washington D.C. so a big deal about earthquake shouldn't be a surprise.

---

Intamin Fan said:
Poltergeist most definitely has a tunnel, which you can see in picture #13 on Lone Star Thrills. I think it's to keep the LIMS dry.

---

That can't be the reason for the tunnel. Look at the Premier shuttle coasters. They have LIMs that are exposed to rain on the spike where the train falls backward.