PTC announcement coming

Interesting concept. I was wondering when (not if) they would ever design new trains like this. Frankly this is long overdue. I wish I could see an artist rendering of them though.

Wow. I guess PTC realized that some coasters will run better with single-bench cars?

LOL, I was totally confused thinking it was a NARROW train like a PTC junior and that riders would sit 1-across, 2-deep....don't I feel silly right now! ;)

Someone's got the Flying Turns on his mind!

Knowing Bill, it's Whizzer ;)

^ & ^^From now on, please refer to me as "Dudley Do-Wrong".... :)

Mmmmmm, Whizzer countdown is now at...53 days!

Turns countdown...who knows? ;)

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thrillerman1 said:
So basically they're MilF trains...but not. Four sets of wheels per car? I wonder if the MilF's are patented and that's why PTC had to go with 4 instead of 2.

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The patent is my guess too. They said:

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PTC president Tom Rebbie is quick to point out that his company’s new train will not be a conventional trailer-style set-up. Instead, each of the twelve cars will seat two riders and feature four weight-bearing road wheels per coach.

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Weight-bearing? Maybe it only has two guide wheels and upstops? *** Edited 6/22/2007 7:01:39 PM UTC by RavenTTD***

You mean two of the four wheel assemblies will not have guide wheels and upstops?

Yeah, I am saying they could be there just to avoid a patent violation. That paragraph I quoted sounds to me more like a legal defense rather than a description of the train.

Or maybe the road wheels will be paired like on Arrow trains for example?

I thought about that but he did say it was not the conventional trailor-style. Who knows what that means though?

Just a guess but it probably means that they are fully articulated instead.

You mean not conventional in comparison to normal PTC's as opposed to Millennium Flyers. For some reason I was thinking Millennium Flyers when I read that line.

So I am guessing Ravine Flyer II will be even better than it was supposed to be since it has trains sort of like MFlyers?

Well considering how may Millenium Flyer trains are actually out there, it is kind of unconventional in the way that there are not many out there. Although they may have their own proprietary coupling that may make it unconventional. Guess we will know when we get to see artist renderings of it or an actual photo.

What a great site PTC has, with all non-functional links. That's really professional.

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Wonder if we might get a set of these on The Voyage. ;)

So basically, PTC finally agrees with me. There style train is no longer functional on todays style coaster, and they are now admitting it by offering a Millenium Flyer type train for anyone who may want to upgrade in the future, or choose this presumably better style.

I have to believe that PTC have seen for themselves the far superior benefits of the MF style trains recently, and decided that this is the future of their business, if they want to have a future.

But will it be?

The question is, what will be the operational characteristics of the new cars? If the cars are built the same as the current crop of articulated cars, we'll see higher roll rates than the current cars can do (thanks to the shorter wheelbase) but possibly still not as high as what the Millennium Flyers can do because of the extra axles. My question is, will this new car do anything to solve the yaw problem (and the fact that PTC cars can't)? Or does that become a moot point once the wheelbase is this short?

Yeah, I want to see the rendering, too. 8-)

--Dave Althoff, Jr.