What catches the train?

I know what prevents the train from rolling back down the lift hill, but what actually grabs onto the train?

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Mike T.
Fly with the man of steel in 2003!

Nothing. The chain doesn't grab onto the train its vice versa. The chain dog is like a rachet sortof. It allows the train to move forward, such as a coaster that is approaching the lift at a high speed, but it can't go back. The rollback is to ensure that the coaster doesn't rollback if the lift stops, chain brakes, etc. The chaindog just hooks onto the chain grooves. Rideman can prolly explain it better...

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If you want to be happy for a few hours play rollercoaster tycoon 2.

If you want to be happy for a day go to Cedar Point.

If you want to be happy for a lifetime help other people.

Here ya go.

Naah, Ride of Steel did a pretty good job of it, and Walt has some decent photos on the site that Millrace linked to (that's coasterquest.com, by the way...).

If you look at the two side-by-side photos on the above-liked CoasterQuest page, you can sort of see the assembly on the back of the train. Philadelphia Toboggan calls that assembly a "chain clutch" and it consists of a single casting with three fingers mounted on a single axle. The two outboard fingers, the chisel-shaped fingers marked "A" are the safety dogs, while the large part marked "B" is the chain clutch. Because of the way it is mounted, it can easily ride over the tops of the links in the chain, so long as it moves forward relative to those links. If it goes backward, the end drops down into the link and catches on any link in the chain. Hence 'clutch'...at the top of the hill, as the train goes over the top, it easily releases from the chain so that the train can go down the hill.

Walt from CoasterQuest has a better photo...at the top of this page...that shows the chain clutch assembly on the underside of a PTC train. Trouble is, in that photo, the dogs have been removed for inspection, so only the casting (it looks a big like a huge computer heat sink) is visible, but you can see the casting and you can see where it is positioned under the car.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Thanks!

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Mike T.
Fly with the man of steel in 2003!