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Six Flags Over Texas (SFOT) Discussion Thread


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You've gotta remember, that photo was taken straight on with the bottom of the drop, but there is a slight twist on the drop (look at the top of the lift and the track goes off at an angle......

 

I think that is just the perspective, No Engineering firm would have design a multi-million dollar tracked ride with a kink like that!

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^ If you look carefully at the pics taken from other angles, you can still see the warp. Keep in mind, though, that the other end of that piece of track hadn't been connected to anything, so it could've been fixed by the time they attached it to the next segment.

 

^^ That's why they run a gage meter around the entire layout before sending out the first train.

That's why the ride goes through extensive accelerometer testing before the first people get on board.

That's why they have to cycle the trains for however many hours with consistent results before the public is allowed on.

 

I'm sure there is some tweaking that will be done in between (and possibly before) all of those steps.

 

I still imagine that the ride will open late, probably just barely in time for CoasterCon in June. I can't imagine, with the amount of money, advertising, and hype they've given this ride, that SFOT will allow it to open until it's what they're expecting it to be: smoother, faster, and better than the original in its heyday.

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I still imagine that the ride will open late, probably just barely in time for CoasterCon in June. I can't imagine, with the amount of money, advertising, and hype they've given this ride, that SFOT will allow it to open until it's what they're expecting it to be: smoother, faster, and better than the original in its heyday.

 

Why do you think it won't open on time? The track work is nearly done, and I suspect it'll be complete within the next few weeks. That gives them more than three months for testing and tweaking before the park opens in March. Unless something is severely wrong, I don't see why it would be delayed until June.

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Will it have airtime or "forcefully wedged between a lap bar that I'm straddling, and a seat" force!? So many new coasters are like that - not real airtime. "uplift force" time though. ehhh...

 

Restraints have changed (permanently). I'd wager that the only place you will find the airtime you refer to from now on is on older rides. El Toro and the likes have pneumatic restraints, and still manage to be insane when it comes to the perception of airtime (for me at least).

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I still imagine that the ride will open late, probably just barely in time for CoasterCon in June. I can't imagine, with the amount of money, advertising, and hype they've given this ride, that SFOT will allow it to open until it's what they're expecting it to be: smoother, faster, and better than the original in its heyday.

 

Why do you think it won't open on time? The track work is nearly done, and I suspect it'll be complete within the next few weeks. That gives them more than three months for testing and tweaking before the park opens in March. Unless something is severely wrong, I don't see why it would be delayed until June.

 

Go back a ways and you'll see posts (some from me) saying that I'm betting that the accelerometer tests are going to show that massive reprofiling will need to be done OR that the ride will have to be trim braked to death before it opens.

 

I'm also still not sold on those minimal supports holding up the overbanked turns.

 

Don't get me wrong... I sincerely HOPE that it opens with the park on March 5, I'm just not betting on it.

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^with the track work so far along now, who's to say they won't spend the next couple of months beefing up the structure? No doubt there will have to be a few things done to it but I'm betting if they are they aren't focusing on it just yet.

 

I drove by the park today and the first actual overbank has track in it (the second turn after the first drop). It's really tight as it curves over the top. Looks pretty wild!

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I'm not sold on some of the supports either, but I think they'll beef them up once they finish the track. As far as the G-forces, by the looks of it, it will be crazy, but I don't think outside of any extremes. Just pushing the envelope. No part of the ride screams "More intense than Rolling Thunder turn around on El Toro" or more G-force than Titan's helix. If anything, they may be equal to, but I don't see it being a huge issue. The cars look like they were designed to handle a significant uplift force, and the steel track won't wear as easily.

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You know all of this armchair engineering is really kind of silly and pointless. Do you think they'd spend 10 million dollars on a project and casually forget that part of the track won't be able to support the forces? Or that they'd not run dynamic simulations and FEA on the structure and forces experienced by the passenger? I'm sure minor changes are likely, but major re-profiling and trimming? I'll say unlikely, assuming they did all the correct modeling and simulation.

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Anybody here been checking out the IAAPA thread? It has been confirmed by Rocky Mountain themselves that the bolt plates on Giant's track are there to stay.

 

Well, that surely means that any worries that they won't correct the bowing-out on some sections of track is unfounded. If the bolts stay, that car has got to be PRECISELY in the right spot on the rails at all times with very little side-to-side variance.

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Anybody here been checking out the IAAPA thread? It has been confirmed by Rocky Mountain themselves that the bolt plates on Giant's track are there to stay.

 

Well, that surely means that any worries that they won't correct the bowing-out on some sections of track is unfounded. If the bolts stay, that car has got to be PRECISELY in the right spot on the rails at all times with very little side-to-side variance.

 

That's what I said too, in the IAAPA thread - there can't be any tolerance for error. I'm no expert, but I do have some knowledge of roller coaster engineering - I've been nerding out on the subject for years in preparation for a hopeful career in the amusement park industry after I graduate in Mechanical Engineering.

 

But, I am not knowledgeable on Rocky Mountain's system, and so I have no idea how wide the running wheels are. They've most likely already thought of that though.

 

I really want to see some testing soon...

Edited by A.J.
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I would thank that no sound observations could be made from pictures or structures alone. Doubt could be cast (such as in the case of the overbank supports) by one's preconception of what "practical engineering (or application of physics)" should look like. The reality of engineering though, is that the math paints a different, and certainly truer picture. You may think a certain thing looks incongruent with your idea of sound construction, when the pages and pages of calculations at Rocky Mountain engineering are sound, and the structure will be sound accordingly.

 

Such are the dangers of "armchair engineering".

 

(Or it could fall apart and you can laugh at me)

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^That point right there I think really settles this. Nobody could tell before that there was that much room between those bolts, but if there is than there's no reason to worry.

 

Plus, riding over those bolts would be a smoother ride than riding right off the regular wooden rails...

 

I've actually stated previously in this thread that there appeared to be enough room between the plates to mount a regular steel running rail, it just gets ignored, much like this will. In a month or so, people will be talking about the plates again.

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