Six Flags Over Texas (SFOT) Discussion Thread

[texcoaster]

^ It got ignored because it would've squashed the potential for controversy, speculation, and drama.

This is TPR, after all.

[jray21]

Do real wooden coasters fall off the top rails? No!

 

Boardwalk Bullet has at least one place in the layout where the wheels are partially on and partially off the edge of the steel rail. Granted, it's between the final brake and the station, but it's there.

 

But Boardwalk Bullet is a true woodie right? It's not a steel coaster like the Texas Giant now is.

 

If you ever look at a steel track, you can see the wheel marks and there is barely any movement.

[texcoaster]

^My post was in response to a comment about "real wooden coasters" and that's why I brought up the Boardwalk Bullet. It's also a coaster that I know jakizle is familiar with.

 

As for steel coasters and movement on the rails, the pipe rail system and the trains that run on them are very different than this steel boxbeam system and the wooden coaster-style trains. I see no reason that they couldn't engineer a bit of jitter into the ride to make it feel more like a wood coaster. Otherwise, why not just go with a proven steel system and make it like Gemini?

[jray21]

^My bad

 

 

As for steel coasters and movement on the rails, the pipe rail system and the trains that run on them are very different than this steel boxbeam system and the wooden coaster-style trains. I see no reason that they couldn't engineer a bit of jitter into the ride to make it feel more like a wood coaster.

 

Hmmmm, I wonder.....

[A.J.]

From the Rocky Mountain guys themselves: The gap between the bolts is much wider than the typical metal running rail wooden coaster wheels run on.

 

Thanks for clearing that up. That's all I was asking about...

[LcHg5265]

^My bad

 

 

As for steel coasters and movement on the rails, the pipe rail system and the trains that run on them are very different than this steel boxbeam system and the wooden coaster-style trains. I see no reason that they couldn't engineer a bit of jitter into the ride to make it feel more like a wood coaster.

 

Hmmmm, I wonder.....

 

They can talk to Vekoma for ideas.

[COASTER FREAK 11]

^Me too, except there we were chastised for not being "coaster experts"!

 

You weren't being chastised, it was simply brought up that the assumption was the wheel wouldn't fit, or that it would have a super tight tolerance. But if you make the wheel skinnier...then your margin for movement become bigger. And in normal steel coasters, they don't really move around to much on the track because they are able to hold tighter tolerances.

[texcoaster]

According to the interview on the IAAPA thread, they want the new Giant to still feel like a wood coaster, only with far less maintenance issues and a consistent ride feel from year to year.

 

So there will still be some "wiggle room" (or "shuffle space", if you prefer) in the interaction between train and track. This is going to be veeeeeeeeeery interesting.

 

ONE MONTH till train testing???? Holy crap! I will head up there on New Year's weekend and try to get some pics. How much excitement would be generated by SFOT if, on the last operating day before winter break, they had YouTube blowing up with videos of testing trains taken by excited park guests?

 

One of the things I was most excited about in the interview, though, was the "topper track". A much less inexpensive solution for problem wood coasters. Hello, Kemah?

 

If Giant turns out as well as they hope, I'm going to be really excited to see what kind of mayhem can be created when designers like Gravity Group or GCI start cranking out designs from scratch with this track system in mind.

[SauceyXeno237]

The Evolution of Wood Coaster

[coasterlover420]

Just to clear all of the speculation up; RMCC has added their newest invention to the new Giant. I'm not quite sure how it works, but they call it "guide wheels" or something of the sort. They say they could make sure the train doesn't move sideways off the track. It seems like a long shot, but I hope this new idea works! It could bode well for people who dislike riding over bolts.

 

I highly doubt any company in their right mind would engineer a coaster to mess up purposely (excluding Intamin in some cases...)

 

^^I am excited to see this start testing too, that first drop should be quite a thriller!

[BeemerBoy]

The Evolution of Wood Coaster

Isn't it more like the demise? In this case anyway.

[eddie200330]

Well as far as the wheels go, don't the "guide" wheels on the inside of the rails keep it from shuffling? In my wicked perception those wheels should hold the trains in a more true position on top of the rails so as to avoid those nasty bolts. Below is a crappy pic from Wikipedia, but it shows what I am talking about by the guide wheels. If they are somewhat snug against the inside or outside of the rail that the train is running on, there should be no reason for said train to "get out of the groove" and on the bolts.

 

 

 

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

[COASTER FREAK 11]

^ You are correct. Thats the reason they are called Guide Wheels lol. They keep the running wheel where they are designed to be on the rail.

 

This whole conversation about this seems like we have jumped back to coaster mechanics 101, we should all know this by now.

[Guy T. Koepp]

^I failed Coaster Mechanics 101. It's why I changed my major to film production.

 

Guy "What I really wanna do is dance!" Koepp

[B-RadG]

Arrows, Vekomas, wooden coasters, and basically any coaster with wheels running on the inside of the rails (and some on the outside too) don't have their guide wheels touching at all times. I know the space between an Arrow car's guide wheels (assuming it's perfectly centered on the track) is 1/2 an inch on either side. I don't think that would pose too much of a problem with moving around and hitting the bolts, the track is a lot bigger than it looks in pictures. Even if the car does have that one inch of space it's not enough to run over one of the bolts.

 

Exempli gratia-

[COASTER FREAK 11]

^I failed Coaster Mechanics 101. It's why I changed my major to film production.

 

Guy "What I really wanna do is dance!" Koepp

 

Ive seen that pole in your house guy. I want to see a video by the end of the month! lol

[eddie200330]

^ I don't know Guy, but at this point in time is this where you start throwing dollar bills around?? LMAO

[CorkscrewFoley]

Do you take Canadian?

[Zingoman]

^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.

 

Those of us that have been to the site all summer have repeated ourselves quite a few times saying there is plenty of room. Even if you can't see it in photos, in person it's a lot different. People still wanted to continue the topic because they seem to think the people who have seen it in person somehow know less? Anyway, it's a closed issue now... I hope.

[larrygator]

Hearing it from an RMC representative means a lot more than hearing it from a park patron.

[chadster]

October so far is the only month I haven't been to SFOT this year, and honestly, the idea that the wheels would somehow hit connecting plate bolts never entered my mind seeing the track up close.(Besides, millions of dollars in R&D, highly trained and experienced engineers and designers, all = they know what they are doing, and I, having none of the forementioned experienced place 100% trust in them) Not sure how these types of conversations even get started to be honest. The only thing thus far that has intrigued me as far as the track itself is to see up close and in person how they will close the gap between the transfer track and main track, and that's only because I will find it interesting. The layout still looks awesome and I hope to be there on media day. This ride is going to kick some serious booty.

[BrandonR]

I'll gladly admit I was wrong about the bolt plates being a permanent addition on the rails, but in my defense, it's hard to judge the size and scale of the plates to the track in the photos because apparently the new rails are so much larger than the old rails, if the space between the plates are indeed larger than the running rails of the original ride (which of course means the new rails are huge).

[BrandonR]

^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.

 

Those of us that have been to the site all summer have repeated ourselves quite a few times saying there is plenty of room. Even if you can't see it in photos, in person it's a lot different. People still wanted to continue the topic because they seem to think the people who have seen it in person somehow know less? Anyway, it's a closed issue now... I hope.

 

Hey now, the few times I [briefly] looked at it up close in person I still thought it was a tight fit (at least in the turns where the wheel would be more likely to hit the plate)... But in retrospect I suppose it's probably a decent enough gap when compared to the total width of each rail (which of course means there's quite a bit of unused space on both sides of the running rail).

[CPmillenia94]

I think people are a bit confused about wheel space, all coasters have it to a certain extent and it is NOT what MAKES wooden coasters or any coasters rough, but it can possibly add to it. for wooden coasters, it is the hand carving of all the turns that make turns shaky, and the fact that the wood itself bends inbetween the ledgers making it "jackhammer." This can lead to wearing down the metal wheels over time and make it vibrate slighltly, but the roughness comes mostly from the deterioration of that track, so that it bends in between the ledgers when the train rides over it (usually through a valley), and the natural roughness that isn't painful, which comes from the hand making. For a steel coaster, it is just the bad shaping of the track, or the wearing of the polyurethane wheels making it vibrate. So the new texas giant, whether it has slighly loose wheels or (most likely from the pics of the wheel systems) not. As far as i know, it should basically feel like a steel coaster! And the guy from rocky mountain const. said nothing about it still being rough. He said keeping it from deteriorating, which is what MAKES it rough and hard to keep. See how it all ties together?

 

Btw hi im new here, and this ride will be insane.

Edited November 19, 2010 by CPmillenia94

[texcoaster]

^ Good answer, and welcome to TPR