Suspended coaster question

Something that's been bugging me for a while...

On Arrow suspendeds, some of the trains have a weird attachment behind the wheels, and I haven't been able to figure out what it's for. It can be seen on Big Bad Wolf here.

And on Ninja here.

I've also noticed it on Iron Dragon.

Yet, it's not on Vortex, seen here.

What's the deal? what is this for?

"Is this a rollercoaster?"

It's a safety in case the berrings for the axial that attaches the wheel carrier to the car fails. If you notice Arrow does this with most of the parts on the older suspended trains The n shaped arm that attaches the seat unit to the overhead unit (pulling names out of the air) has two berrings and two straps in case the berrings fail. It's weird.

The one part of the system I completely disagree with the older system are the brakes. They are normaly open and it takes pressure to close them. They probably have one way air paths in case a line breaks, Iron Dragon has a set of safety brakes after the main brakes. I disagree with the concept.

Those are gas springs or dashpots. They're used to absorb some of the energy the swinging gondolas have.

In short, the harder a gondola swings to one side, the harder the gas springs push back. It smooths the ride and reduces wear on the chassis.

Edit: Nevermind, you're not talking about those :) *** Edited 11/14/2003 3:53:52 AM UTC by Chernabog***

--Madison

Yeah, I did notice that it was only on the older ones (Although I couldn't find a clear picture of PKI's Top Gun to confirm this). So what was the reason for not incorperating this into the newer designs? Redundancy?

"Is this a rollercoaster?"

Vortexguy said:
Yeah, I did notice that it was only on the older ones (Although I couldn't find a clear picture of PKI's Top Gun to confirm this).

Top Gun just so happens to be this month's calendar shot, and I can confirm those devices are not on Top Gun either.

I just want to be clear, are we talking about the yellow shocks, or the sacks?

Neither, I'm referring to the black arm-support thing behind the wheel carrier.

"Is this a rollercoaster?"

Speaking of those black sacks, I'd like to know why BGW pulls them away from the set of wheels before dispatching a train. Are they looking for something inside there?

That arm is the safety on the older suspended coasters. On the older suspended coasters, the wheel carrier is attached with a pin through a U-shaped bracket at the top of the axle. That allows the axle to pitch relative to the wheel carrier (necessary with dual road wheels), but it creates a single point of failure. So the arm carries a pin that can catch the train if the pin should fail.

On the newer rides (Vortex, Top Gun) the axle bracket isn't exactly U-shaped. The inboard end of the axle extends upward beyond the end of the wheel carrier, with a safety pin attached between the road wheels.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

person: Yeah, they're looking for the goo (grease and stuff) that may fall off of the wheels at any time. When my parents visited the park when Big Bad Wolf was brand new, they tell me that those things weren't there at the time, and as a result my mom got a huge grease stain on her new sweatshirt.