brertigger said:
It would be nice if they do rip out the track and replace it, if they replace it with the EE style lifts (the ones that are quick and silent).
Actually, making the lifts silent wouldn't be a HUGE undertaking, assuming that structurally the cars could handle the system.
The clanking is actually the anti-rollback safety system on the trains. Space Mountain (at least the Florida version) has the most basic system, whereby an arm (called a dog) hangs down underneath the car pointing towards the rear. It's spring-loaded so that it can be pushed upward and then snap back downward. As the car is pulled up the lift, this arm comes in contact with a set of jagged "teeth". Each tooth pushes the arm up, and then it falls back down. Should the lift stop or the chain break, the car would only roll back the distance of one individual tooth (about 6") before the anti-rollback dog catches in the teeth. This, of course, creates the clanking as the car goes up the lifthill. (And in a few other places where there are teeth along the track in case the car doesn't have enough energy to crest a hill).
The Everest system uses a silent anti-rollback design. I don't know the full specifics of the design, but at regular lifthill speed, the arm is held up out of the way of the teeth on the track. If the car stops or starts to roll backwards, the arm drops down to engage the teeth. That's why you still hear a little bit of clunking at the bottom and top of the Everest lift hills, because the train is going either slower or faster than the "equilibrium" lift hill speed that it was designed for.
There's a similar system on the hyper coasters designed by Intamin, like the Superman Ride of Steel at my local Six Flags park. It has a silent lift hill except for the very bottom and top. There were a few months on season that the lift hill was running slow for some reason, and it wasn't fast enough to keep the rollback dog up and it clanked REALLY loudly...
Assuming that the Space Mountain cars and track could support such a system, it could probably be retrofitted during a closure lasting a month or two.
But realistically, I very much doubt they'd go to that expense.
And for those that want the light polution within Florida's Space Mountain to be fixed, what Disney needs to do is re-install the roof over the lifthill. That's the big source of the light spill. they removed the roof during a refurb back in the 90's.
-Rob
:sohappy: 
