Top Thrill 2 train, up close

I briefly dropped in to the IAAPA Expo today, and I suppose the standout thing was the new train for Cedar Point. Still can't believe that people were debating last year whether or not it was Zanperla.

I'm any case, the biggest change from what they showed last year is the wheels. They're over 20" in diameter. The rest appears fundamentally the same (theme aside), though I think the car last year only had magnet channels on one side, whereas this one has them on both sides. Same single beam down the middle, and lots of large, machined parts. For example, it looks like there's the center beam, with a cross beam for each row of seats, then one large piece each seat. The floors look like single pieces of fiberglass or carbon fiber or something.

Like any modern ride, the restraint appears to be a double hydraulic redundant system, so a seat belt would not be super useful. Legs angle up while bar holds you by the thighs.

To me it's impressive, because it gets down to basics with fewer parts, very few welds, if any.

They do look nice. The wheel covers are interesting.

Road wheels definitely are bigger and look impressive.

Both B&M and Zamperla seem to know a deep bucket seat with knees higher than hips works best at keeping riders secure. Has Intamin figured it out yet?

Are the wheel covers supposed to serve as mud flaps? What are they trying to contain - water from a wet track? grit on the track?

Gunkey Monkey:

Both B&M and Zamperla seem to know a deep bucket seat with knees higher than hips works best at keeping riders secure. Has Intamin figured it out yet?

Intamin finally perfected their trains with Velocicoaster. Those trains are probably my favorite of any coaster I have been on.

I didn't find them perfect, exactly. I felt like you had to wrestle yourself to get out of them. But at least you can be confident that you won't fall out. Zamperla's seat is better.

Jeff, any word if these trains will be getting seat belts?

Intamin finally perfected their trains with Velocicoaster. Those trains are probably my favorite of any coaster I have been on.

I find Pantheons to be the best myself.

So with Xcellerator finally back up, I'm sure CF is even less pleased with Intamin in any way shape, or form.

How long do you think it last Hydraulic? and Kingda Ka?

My guess is some park in Europe, or perhaps they figure out something for Coney for their next big use of these trains and launch system.

As I said, there's no real reason for seatbelts.

We thought that about Diamondback once.

Jeff:

As I said, there's no real reason for seatbelts.

Cedar Fair legal enters the chat.

The lawyers are not engineers or experts in human factors.

I finally watched Tony's video, and they confirm that they're using carbon fiber on some of the body parts. I thought I saw that texture at the back of the floor!

Train certainly looks like it has been designed to reduce weight.

According to an Amusement Today article from last year, the chassis is milled from a single piece of material and has zero welds. I'm kind of scared that Zamperla might actually know what they're doing this time around. Sounds good on paper, at least!

Shades:

What are they trying to contain...

I assume they act to contain delamination, considering the covers exist only where the train body isn't between the wheel and occupant.

According to an Amusement Today article from last year, the chassis is milled from a single piece of material and has zero welds.

The Falcons Fury trains also revealed yesterday, look exceedingly similar, with milled aluminum spine, and beams, "weldless", giant wheels, though they are hollow with aluminum spokes here cause of the heat in Saudi.

I think CAD and CNC tech and price drops have brought customization and better engineering, at cheaper cost.

I was surprised Seas announced that Premiere was building all the new track for Loch Ness and not S&S.

djDaemon:

I assume they act to contain delamination, considering the covers exist only where the train body isn't between the wheel and occupant.

Most trains have something like this, we're just not used to seeing wumbo wheels that are so exposed.

If you look closely at this picture, you can see the covering on the road wheels on the B&M hyper train.

I always assumed these were like mudflaps to keep water and debris from flying onto the riders, but that's just a guess on my part -- wheels do delaminate after all.

Here's a video from Zamperla...

...aaaand it's gone. Cue the conspiracy theories.

They have to edit it again after they add the seatbelts.