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Belmont Park Giant Dipper Retracking 1/16/08


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Interesting. Nice to see that they're laying the track as per original - the pics showing the first drop up close show that they have two lines of wood curving down the ledgers. Prior & Church track was built up of 15/8" square section until the top three layers, which were sawn from flat. The square stuff is butt and lap laminated - one is end to end with sides parallel to centerline, the other is diagonal whereby the square strip starts at the laminate outer point and ends at the inner point or vice versa. The layers are built up in this fashion because it offers full flexibility in both axis, the diagonal lap lamination adding extra strength. The very top layer is either sawn from flat or made of three square pieces side by side, ontop of which the steel rail is fixed.

 

Millennium Flyer or any other, seemingly suitable modern cars aren't suitable at all - the structure wouldn't be able to take the load. The original wood cars were lighter and the minimal chassis and fibreglass bodies of the Morgan cars are the only ones suitable today. If you want Millennium Flyers, you'll have to say goodbye to the smooth ride (which I'm sure is given, I've not ridden this Giant Dipper) as more structure would need to be added. The more you stiffen a coaster the rougher it gets, and putting heavy cars on it, which is ofcourse the reason for strengthening it, means you can say goodbye to track that stays smooth - so the track roughens up and the structure holding it doesn't move, it gets rougher and rougher and a great ride becomes useful as firewood. lol

 

Nice pics. It's cold, wet and windy in England...

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The Dipper is quite fun when it doesn't rattle the teeth out of your head, which is more or less the way it was in 2001 when I last rode it.

 

Millennium Flyers would work great on this ride. A slightly shorter nine-car train would very closely duplicate the original. Sadly, I never rode the Dipper till it reopened in 1990, but I heard it was pretty bad in its final years before closing in 1976.

 

Eric

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Funny thing...I was planning on getting this credit with Jahan and Chris next week.

 

THAT won't be happening!

 

It's good to see such extensive work being done on this coaster, though! And I guess I'll be getting the credit in March when it reopens.

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Even though this coaster will probably never pass it's nemesis, the one at SCBB, but it's still nice to see Belmont keeping up. The ride was getting a little bumpy the past year so I'm glad to see they are fixing it up.

 

And I totally agree that they should get some Millennium Flyer trains. I think that will make it more smooth and might actaully get some airtime on some of the little hills.

 

Thanks for the pics

 

Jimmy "My first wooden coaster was at Belmont Park" Bo

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I suppose Americans don't listen to English - again, Millennium Flyer cars would be far too heavy. There would need to be extra structure added (say goodbye to a smooth ride); the cars would need flanged wheels, to the correct gauge; and the heavy cars would batter the relatively delicate track. It'd end up rougher than it ever could with the Morgan cars. In reality a full retrack with new structure would be required by GCI to run their cars upon it, and I would doubt that ever happening.

 

Lovely looking coaster. I've ridden the other Giant Dipper, which may or may not give a better ride (I found it quite dull) but I prefer the layout and look of this true Prior & Church version. There's a nice pic of it floating around the net taken when new with nothing around but sand, reminiscent of early PBB photos. This probably has a better form of foundation however - PBB's big woodies sit straight in the sand, no concrete, just a wooden foot - some are even above ground and just sit still with the weight above.

 

Found that pic:

 

More here ofcourse:

http://www.giantdipper.com/history.html

 

I'd love to get back to CA some day...

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^Right now it is a current limitation, but who is to say they won't modify the design to make it work? It's just a nice thought.

 

I'd like to see them redevelop the whole area to make it an actual seaside amusement park. But that's not going to happen either. Doesn't mean I can't post that I'd like to see it!

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