Six Flags America Two-Face The Flip Side?

Ah, now it becomes clearer.

We've been discussing this one over on news://rec.roller-coaster because some assertions have been made that the brakes are hydraulic, which they are not.

But it is safe to assume that the lift motor is hydraulic, and that might explain the reported behavior of the ride: the hydraulic motor is fired up to bring the train down, but of course when the train is being lowered, the weight of the train is enough to do the work...the control valve on the motor basically serves to regulate the motor speed as the train comes down. If a pipe or hose blows between the motor and the control valve, that would release the back-pressure on the motor and allow it to spin more freely, causing the train to drop down the track and into the station brakes.

Which makes me wonder why there is no fuse on the output side of the motor to prevent this from happening...

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

The article was very misleading. If I didn't know better, I'd have read the article and assumed the train slammed into another one. Typical people making a big deal out of something very minor and the ignorant media not taking the time to learn a little about what they're reporting.

^^Well I'm left wondering wether the hydraulic line broke before or after the train came to a stop in the station?

RideMan,

If i'm thinking right about what you describe (with my limited knowledge of hydraulics), Maybe the motor running backwards OVERPRESSURIZED the line (a motor is just a pump in reverse), and the line acted as a fuse by blowing when it reached it's rated burst pressure.

For example, a hose has a working pressure of 3000 psi, which is the pressure it's designed to operate at day in and day out and a burst pressure that 2-3 times the ops pressure, say 10,000 psi. The burst pressure is the absolute MAXIMUM pressure the line can withstand.

So in a sense, the line acted as a fuse to protect the pump and other components.

Well, in a hydraulic circuit typically the fuses would be on the motor so that if the motor started running wild (due to a burst pipe down the line) the fuse would actually shut off the fluid flow, stopping the motor.

In any case, I have learned that this can't be what happened on Two-Face. Apparently the lift motors on the Invertigo are in fact electric, not hydraulic. The hydraulics on the ride are the release arms that operate the catch car, and the chain tensioner. No telling what the fluid release was, or even if it was related to the actual ride failure, without more details on the ride system.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Talk about misleading media... I saw a video story from a local TV affiliate on another site. They had no footage from the actual incident, but showed still photos from the park website with the train in the loop and cobra roll. Now how many people watching that will insist the train was stuck upside down?

I know which footage your talking about. Washington D.C. station WUSA TV 9 put that footage together and it is incredibly misleading. Sounds bites about how the park should close the ride, how the train slammed into the station and their was an explosion were bad enough (none of which I understand actually happened). If your looking for a decent story, try the wjla.com website. There about the only station I know that has done a decent job of reporting the story. I'm still amazed that none of the local stations has tried to obtain the ride documentation or contacted Vekoma to research the ride further. All well, its old news now.

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Rob Ascough said:
The article was very misleading. If I didn't know better, I'd have read the article and assumed the train slammed into another one. Typical people making a big deal out of something very minor and the ignorant media not taking the time to learn a little about what they're reporting.

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Especially since anyone who knows anything about TF would know that the coaster, by its design, only HAS one train.