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Roll back, The big one

shaunthatkid

Mega Poster
This might require some maths or not, what is the maximum wind speed the big one can operate safely at without a potential rollback? Since on Saturday night there where high winds from the SW which significantly slowed the train down on the return and the turn around. In the station we got told to "Fill the cars to maximum capacity filling every seat." Should a car operate when it is not safe to operate on a empty trains.

Thanks!
 

Hixee

Flojector
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I'm going to give you the useless answer - we don't know for sure. The number of factors is very high. Without running any sort of model (or a decent source), any figures anyone actually gives you are likely a total fiction.
  • Wind speed (as you ask).
  • The direction and aerodynamic effect of the trains - The crux of this is that the specific shape of the train and direction of the airflow (no just compass direction, but the vertical speed, turbulence, etc) have a huge effect. The drag forces of the wind on the train are staggeringly hard to calculate. At best, you'd have to look to the manufacturers for some of this data.
  • The temperature - Not just the air temperature, but also the wheel/bearing temperatures and things like that.
  • Is the wind constant (unlikely), or gusting (if so, how much)?
As a quick estimate, it would be fair to say wind speeds approaching the speed of the train over the crest of the hill would start to raise alarm bells, but those bells are probably already tingling at much lower wind speeds if conditions are right.

The manufacturers probably run some calculations during the designs stage that say something like:
Assuming a loaded train, and standard operating conditions (temperature, etc), the ride should not operate if the wind speed is gusting over 35mph in a SW direction.

More sophisticated rides like Dragster (not that PMBO isn't sophisticated, but... come on...) actually record the train speed over the top of the hill and adjust the launch speeds of subsequent trains accordingly. Obviously can't quite do that on a lift hill, but the point is that the designers have ways of understanding this.
 

shaunthatkid

Mega Poster
I'm going to give you the useless answer - we don't know for sure. The number of factors is very high. Without running any sort of model (or a decent source), any figures anyone actually gives you are likely a total fiction.
  • Wind speed (as you ask).
  • The direction and aerodynamic effect of the trains - The crux of this is that the specific shape of the train and direction of the airflow (no just compass direction, but the vertical speed, turbulence, etc) have a huge effect. The drag forces of the wind on the train are staggeringly hard to calculate. At best, you'd have to look to the manufacturers for some of this data.
  • The temperature - Not just the air temperature, but also the wheel/bearing temperatures and things like that.
  • Is the wind constant (unlikely), or gusting (if so, how much)?
As a quick estimate, it would be fair to say wind speeds approaching the speed of the train over the crest of the hill would start to raise alarm bells, but those bells are probably already tingling at much lower wind speeds if conditions are right.

The manufacturers probably run some calculations during the designs stage that say something like:
Assuming a loaded train, and standard operating conditions (temperature, etc), the ride should not operate if the wind speed is gusting over 35mph in a SW direction.

More sophisticated rides like Dragster (not that PMBO isn't sophisticated, but... come on...) actually record the train speed over the top of the hill and adjust the launch speeds of subsequent trains accordingly. Obviously can't quite do that on a lift hill, but the point is that the designers have ways of understanding this.
that would be true with how aerodynamic if you a train likes the one on suspicious mountain it would slow down.
 

shaunthatkid

Mega Poster
also im not sure if this is photoshopped but while researching i saw this F1 car on a pair of boggies wizzing down the drop is this real?
 

Hixee

Flojector
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
Social Media Team
that would be true with how aerodynamic if you a train likes the one on suspicious mountain it would slow down.
One more time, didn't quite catch that. :p

also im not sure if this is photoshopped but while researching i saw this F1 car on a pair of boggies wizzing down the drop is this real?
Not photoshopped, this was real!
https://www.crash.net/f1/news/46590/1/firman-rides-the-big-one

EDIT: Oops, @CSLKennyNI beat me to it!
 
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