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MK Big Thunder Mountain to receive full retrack

Delta-7

Delta-7

Well-Known Member
EeyoreFan#24 said:
One thing I noticed from the WDWRR was how much higher the new building is. No need for the crossing lift and I’m sure better for the maintenance staff.
Click to expand...
Why was it even made like that originally? A lot of coaster maintenance buildings have the track higher off the ground. What they’re doing now with the storage track makes perfect sense.
 
lazyboy97o

lazyboy97o

Well-Known Member
Delta-7 said:
Why was it even made like that originally? A lot of coaster maintenance buildings have the track higher off the ground. What they’re doing now with the storage track makes perfect sense.
Click to expand...
The last before photo has a train and you can see how it was still elevated above the ground level for access. It just wasn’t up at the same level as where the coaster track it crosses over the railroad tracks.
 
EeyoreFan#24

EeyoreFan#24

Well-Known Member
Delta-7 said:
Why was it even made like that originally? A lot of coaster maintenance buildings have the track higher off the ground. What they’re doing now with the storage track makes perfect sense.
Click to expand...

Interesting question. Initially I want to think it’s just modern design trends vs when it was built. I’m guessing however if they had to rebuild to accommodate new trains maybe newer clearance/code/osha/etc requirements also played a part in the look of the end product?
 
A

Absimilliard

Well-Known Member
Delta-7 said:
I thought BTM has LIMs.
Click to expand...

Indeed. I watched a recent railroad video and I saw they kept the old gate that allowed trains removed from the ride to cross over the railroad track with a swing bridge. I don't know how they can avoid using a swing bridge, as you'd need a tunnel under the railroad or a very tall bridge to clear the steam engines given the garage placement.

Historical note: Big Thunder Mountain Railroad at Disneyland and Walt Disney World were the first rides to use LIMs (linear induction motor) to move trains on a roller coaster. It took until 1996 to see LIM's used on a roller coaster to launch a train to high speed, which was the Flight of Fear at Kings Island/Kings Dominion in Ohio and Virginia respectively. Interestingly, whereas Big Thunder Mountain Railroad use the same fin used for braking to interact with the electric magnets, for Flight of Fear, Premier Rides use two separate aluminium fins mounted vertically on each side to interact with the LIM motors. The regular braking fin under the car is used for braking, both with pneumatic calipers and rare earth permanent eddy-current brakes.

BTM LIM motors.jpg


LIMs has seen on Big Thunder Mountain in Paris. In this case, they use two short LIM motors in this segment, with a pneumatic brake caliper in the middle. If you pay attention when the train is dispatched, you can hear a low "humm" noise from those.

What about Rock n Roller Coaster then? Different again! They use a more efficient LSM launch system, where magnets are turned on and off in a precise sequence to push away other magnets. Now, to reduce weight on the trains, the set of magnets to be launched away were not mounted on the trains themselves: instead, you have a pusher cart running on a second track in the launch area that has those magnets and it pushes the train along. I took a photo of the cart in Paris when the ride had broken down.

Rock n Roller Coaster pusher cart.jpg
 

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