Tarped thing on Steel Force's transfer?

I was at Dorney today! When I came to the transfer area I noticed somthing in front of the 3rd train that basicly looked like a big round ball with a blue tarp over it. The one thing I noticed was it appeared to have guide wheels on it. I'm not sure about the upstops or the road wheels though. At first I thought it may be a car from the third train but all 6 were there.

Anyone have any clues what it could be? I wish I would have thought of taking a pic of it but thought of it afer it was dark.

In other news the construction of Hydra has begun. There are several footers in place already. I did manage to get some pics of that though.

I was there yesterday, but didn't get down to Steel Force. If I go today, I'll check it out. And yes, there are plenty of footers peppering the hillside behind Joker, including one that is completely finished with bolts on top and nicely surrounded by mulch.

I seen that Coasterpunk when I visited opening day. I was wondering what that was too. The only thing that I could come up with was that it was a part of the chain lift motor as seen here

http://www.rcdb.com/installationgallery276.htm?Picture=25

Thats not even a great picture of it. That is the only part on the coaster that that would fit the proportion of the covered item on the transfer track. I could be wrong, but I am sure someone will know what it is. ;)

*** Edited 5/23/2004 3:01:55 PM UTC by Coasterfantom2***

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geneticfreak said:
And yes, there are plenty of footers peppering the hillside behind Joker

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"peppering?" Nice wordage! hehe :)

coasterpunk,

Could it be something like what B&M uses to check their track? They have a round globe-like vehicle that clamps onto the track and checks for cracks and whatnot.

-Sean

Sean,

That probably is what it is. It looks too big to be part of the chain lift motor. I didn't even know that B&M or any other manufacturer had anything like that. Do you know of any pictures of these? I find that pretty interesting. It makes sense because a worker or workers aren't going to be able to walk the whole length of the track, and check for cracks.

How exactly does it detect cracks?

I think thats what it may have been Sean. It actually looked like it could have been big enough sor someone to sit in. I'm not sure how pleasent it would be but it did look like it could fit at least one person.

When you said "..big round ball with a blue tarp.." all I could think of was a glazing ball lawn ornament. Maybe Dorney's jealous that Six Flags gets all the lawn ornaments.

mmmmm.....peeeerty

I saw this as well on opening day at Dorney. We heard the people in front of us ask the ride attendant what it was. From what I could hear, the machine goes the length of the track and "checks" it. She said it takes about 2-3 hours for it to run the entire length.

Sounds like some sort of rig that uses ultrasonics to test the track for cracks. Just a guess though.