Top Thrill 2 train, up close

Intamin or not, y’all have fun- it’s a credit I’ll never get. I’m keeping my gay ass as far away from there as possible.

I'm curious what they are going to do with Kaffiyeh's?

Will there be a bin for them?

I don't think a chilled rail would work well at all. The trouble is that polyurethane is a terrible conductor of heat to begin with, which is why the motion of the tire causes heat to build up inside the tire, and in fact can cause the inside of the tire to actually melt. Which isn't a bad thing by itself so long as the melted stuff can't get out of the wheel. When it does, the wheel is done for rather quickly. As Jeff points out, the wheel will sit for a while in one spot, which means differential cooling on the plastic tire, and I would think that could actually promote premature wheel failure, again, because the tire itself is such a lousy conductor. The wheels, though, being aluminum, are excellent conductors of heat, so if you can get the heat out of the wheel, it will tend to (inefficiently, but it will do it) pull the heat from the tire. Also, is it my imagination, or do these large wheels seem to have thinner than usual tires on them? Again, that would tend to promote the heat to transfer to the metal wheel.

Is it Millennium Force that has little water jets spraying on the wheels in the station? Would be interesting if it is, as that's also the one where I've seen them heating the wheels with propane torches on cold mornings.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Unless it was added recently, Millennium Force does not have anything like that, that I have seen. But as you said, they do heat the wheels up in the colder months in the morning under the station.

Titan at SFoT definitely has water jets on the final brake run.

Can’t speak for anything more recent, but Millennium had sprayers in the station when I worked there in 2010. On really hot days when the train would pull into the station, the water would immediately turn to steam when hitting the wheels. Created sort of a neat unintended special effect of sorts seeing the train steam from underneath as it pulled in and came to a stop.

RideMan, Intimidator 305 has wheel sprays in the station.

I have seen sprayers on in Millennium Force's station, but not very frequently. I have seen them off far more often than I have seen them on, so I have no idea what criteria they use to determine when the wheels need cooling and when they don't. Spraying the wheels with water seems like it may be the most cost effective way of cooling off the wheels.

Well, our bodies evolved to use water as a cooling method, so I'm pretty sure millions of years of evolution have to be on to something.

But I also have a tailbone and an appendix, so...

It makes sense; water has a really high heat capacity, so it is the combination of being a great conductor of heat (so it can easily transfer the heat from the wheels), having high heat capacity (to absorb lots of heat), and being inexpensive, simple, and generally non-toxic that makes it a great choice for that application. It's also a decent lubricant, as Top Thrill Dragster's launch track could attest.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Tony got to take TT2 for a test drive today.

In his own words (at the 2:09 mark)...."Oh that's neat!"

Nice. That reverse launch is going to be outrageous.

Tony's reaction when the reverse launch hits is priceless. I have a distinct feeling that back-row-top-of-reverse-spike is going to be my new favorite place on a coaster. Feeling weightless at that height staring straight down is going to be pretty epic.

Are we sure that this video is real since there's no mention of the lethargic launches on the freshly neutered ride?

You beat me to it.

Man, I've got a real psychological barrier around the lack of stopper on that reverse tower.

I think the reverse launch is going to be so unique and have such an impact, that it will be the ride’s standout moment, kind of like the original launch was. I think it looks like great fun and can’t wait for preview day.

Jeff:

Man, I've got a real psychological barrier around the lack of stopper on that reverse tower.

Yeah, I thought that exact same thing. It reminds me of when Disney was refurbishing the broken track effect on Everest

At least there was what appears to be brakes prior to the end of the track.

I still am finding it hard to believe that there is not something mechanical at the top that we just can't see from the limited views we have been given. We need a drone flyover.

My guess is that the system is physically incapable of imparting enough power (in the form of kinetic energy) to the train to get it to clear the track. And, if that's true, why spend the money on a mechanical fail-safe?

The counter-argument is: Why spend the money on building the back spike (and tower!) taller than it needs to be? My guess: It's cool to have a balanced silhouette on the skyline.