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Top Thrill Dragster Closed after Brake Fin/Catch Car Collision

Hyde

Hyde

Matt SR
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Reports came in this weekend of Top Thrill Dragster (and a few other) coasters being down. While hopes were that repairs could get the behemoth back online by next weekend, we now have photos and news out that TTD may be down for the rest of the season due to a collision of the train catch car (bit that connects the train to the cable) colliding with brake fins, at speeds that catching tearing and melting of the hardware.
Both TTD and Kingda Ka have had boughts over the years of brake fin snags, but sorry to hear of this breakdown as CP heads into their period of greatest attendance for Halloweekends.
 
Man, that's some fantastic catastrophic failure.

Any word on if it's damaged the train too?
 
I rode it for the first time this year (Faced my fear) and it was Awesome! I tried to make it the first ride of the day (If we did, it would be my sister's friend's first roller coaster), but the gosh dang wind kept it from running all day.
Kind of feel bad for my sister too cause she had a Front of the Line pass after she got stuck on Rougarou for 45+ minutes on the MCBR, and TTD is her favorite coaster.
 
Hixee said:
Any word on if it's damaged the train too?
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Not yet. I heard from multiple folks about TTD being down the entire weekend and maintenance staff walking the launch track, but nothing on visible train or brake fin damage. Time will tell on how "closed" TTD looks this coming weekend.
 
Ouch, @Hyde you mention fin snags in the past, is this the same thing? Any clue on expected downtime for this type of failure?
 
DelPiero said:
Ouch, @Hyde you mention fin snags in the past, is this the same thing? Any clue on expected downtime for this type of failure?
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Kingda Ka's opening year, it had a catastrophic failure when a train launched, and the magnetic brakes deployed during the launch. There was ultimately damage to the cable, motor, and brake fins, which took months to remedy. It could be as easy as swapping in new brake fins, though I would image those take time for production. If there were concern with the general alignment of the launch track however - who knows how long that would take.
 
Hyde said:
Kingda Ka's opening year, it had a catastrophic failure when a train launched, and the magnetic brakes deployed during the launch. There was ultimately damage to the cable, motor, and brake fins, which took months to remedy. It could be as easy as swapping in new brake fins, though I would image those take time for production. If there were concern with the general alignment of the launch track however - who knows how long that would take.
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Thanks, they have 8 months to fix it, otherwise I shall write a strongly worded letter.
 
I know the likelihood of this ever happening is very unlikely but...

...good case for Cedar Fair to convert it to LSM? (As much as I would hate that).
 
Temleh said:
I know the likelihood of this ever happening is very unlikely but...

...good case for Cedar Fair to convert it to LSM? (As much as I would hate that).
Click to expand...
I think it's more a good case for no park to use hydraulic launches again. They'll never convert it - it simply wouldn't be practical.
 
According to Reddit, TTD has begun testing! Hopefully that means the ride will be up by the end of the season.

Edit: Picture for proof.
k9xhchK.jpg

Credit to /u/Thatguydrag on Reddit.
 
Well, my sister was right (for once)!
A few weeks back, my sister said she had met an operator of TTD on Valravn (the ride she used her front of the line on) and he/she said that it might be testing the next Monday. Now, that didn't end up happening, but at least it's testing at some point before the end of the year!
 
Nice to see them putting the effort into fixing it and trying to get it running for the small part of the season that remains. They could have just let it sit until next year but they didn't and I appreciate that greatly.
 
Great news. Hoping to make it up at some point for Halloweekends - have something more to look forward to!
 
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