Details on SwitchBack Mechanism for Everest

[joel_maxwell]

but...if I know Disney, you would sit up there on top of that white mountain in blazing heat for 30 minutes before they even considered letting you out, and then they would lead you down an obscenely-long stairway one by one for fear of you falling...and I'm sure that stairs would somehow end in a special "Everest Breakdown Giftshop" with special LE pins...

without a doubt that escape route will have a secret door that will lead right to the gift shop. so true, so true. i wouldnt be that surprised if they blindfolded you and put you on a service elevator, turned you in a circle acoupe of times so you would lose you barings (for security purposes of course) and then lead out of the mtn, straight into the gift shop.

 

[MagicalMonorail]

well actually yes, he is my best friends father. My friend and his family are visiting here in florida for a few weeks because when imagineering got transferred out to california he got trasferred too.

So, do you know if WDW is getting any new rides soon? Any special rehabs or closures? Thanks for the Everest info!

 

[JEDI1138]

I have been told by a vice president in Imagineering what the mechanism is like. I found out after talking to him about the special effects and inner workings of Universal's The Mummy. The mechanism will not be a regular train switchback, that would be way too obvious. It will be a swith back where once you go up the track to the area where the camp is, at the top of the mountain, a small piece of track behind the car will move to the side and another pice will move in which is a turn to a seperate track. the two pieces will be on a convayor belt underneath them. It will either be a metal slide conveyor or a metal slide moved by hydralics. This is speculation but I feel it could be right because both of those ways would still provide support for the car in either position and be quiet enough that a rider would not be distrcted by it.

That is how the Mummy works, But NOT Everest. They are not even similar in their function.

 

[SpenceMan01]

From the pictures that Lynx linked to, it seems like the tracks would be on the same backbone, and the whole assembly would rotate to switch. I drew up a quick drawing. Please forgive the bad drawing, had to use paint. (Slow day at the office :animwink: ).

Drawing

 

[Moustronaut]

From the Orlando Rocks pics it does look like the switch will work horizontally... from the description gfhweb wrote its pretty similar to the monorail switch outside the MK.

I don't think this is correct. I got to go with Lynx04 from the first page.

If you look at the Orlando Rocks picture one track is above the center track spine. The other section is anchored below the track spine. I'm pretty sure this switch rotates 180 degrees along the axis of the track spine.

If I remember correctly, Everest is built by the same poeple that built RnRC. RnRC uses this same rotating switch to go from the main line track to the maintenance shop. Makes sense they would use a switch technology they were familiar with.

 

[Moustronaut]

From the pictures that Lynx linked to, it seems like the tracks would be on the same backbone, and the whole assembly would rotate to switch. I drew up a quick drawing. Please forgive the bad drawing, had to use paint. (Slow day at the office :animwink: ).

Dang Spence... you beat me to it!!!

 

[DigitalDisney]

Yes, Vekoma (the people that built RNRC and are working on Everest) have used the spine-based rotation mechanism before. Other Vekoma roller coasters use it to connect the ride track to the maintainence track.

 

[SpenceMan01]

What really tickles my fancy, is this: When you're coming up on the switch section, how were they going to handle the other piece of track coming in? What I mean is, when you're coming along and hit the switch track, if you looked off to the side, would you be able to see this disconnected hunk of track sitting there next to the track you're on that leads off to a tunnel or what?

From looking at the construction picks, it looks like that "hunk" will be a little farther away from the track than I thought. It seems that the track hanging underneath in the photo has a branch of track off of it, so it will "reach out" to the disconnected piece of track when the switch is made.

I think how they did that is rather interesting. If you can't understand what I mean, let me know and I can try and draw something up. (Gotta love MSPaint!)

 

[MichRX7]

So anything like what they use on X-Flight at what is now Geagua Lake? You have two loading stations and the track rotates along it center depending on which train is leaving the station?

 

[The_CEO]

So anything like what they use on X-Flight at what is now Geagua Lake? You have two loading stations and the track rotates along it center depending on which train is leaving the station?

Mich it is just like that, I was searching for a picture of X's transfer but couldn't find one. But yes I do believe it is exactly like that.

 

[ToTBellHop]

What really tickles my fancy, is this: When you're coming up on the switch section, how were they going to handle the other piece of track coming in? What I mean is, when you're coming along and hit the switch track, if you looked off to the side, would you be able to see this disconnected hunk of track sitting there next to the track you're on that leads off to a tunnel or what?

From looking at the construction picks, it looks like that "hunk" will be a little farther away from the track than I thought. It seems that the track hanging underneath in the photo has a branch of track off of it, so it will "reach out" to the disconnected piece of track when the switch is made.

I think how they did that is rather interesting. If you can't understand what I mean, let me know and I can try and draw something up. (Gotta love MSPaint!)

Don't forget this will be in a mountain. It would take only a little rockwork to make the two sections of track not visible at the same time.

 

[RSoxNo1]

Exactly, you can have sections of mountain a foot off the ground on either side of the switch track that will cover the "inactive" track.

 

[Tim G]

Don't forget this will be in a mountain. It would take only a little rockwork to make the two sections of track not visible at the same time.

First of all it's dark...and you'll be distracted by the Yedi...
At a certain point you reach some kind of a top...
At that moment the screaming Yeti comes out... Flashlights etc.etc.. before you can recover from the shock, the train is switched and away you are... BACKWORDS...

 

[ogryn]

OK, I knocked together a [very] rough diagram of what I think is happening. Have I got it right?

 

[DarkMeasures]

Now this is reminding me of the jungle Cruise...

 

[ToTBellHop]

that looks pretty accurate to me, although I was under the impression that the Yeti would be within the mountain, not at the top.

 

[Lee]

that looks pretty accurate to me, although I was under the impression that the Yeti would be within the mountain, not at the top.

That is my understanding as well. The top will have twisted track where the Yeti has been, but the actual animatronic will be down inside the mountain as the climax of the ride.

As for how this thread started...it's a bit off. The track will rotate into position for the switching, not move horizontally.

This photo, available for months, is a dead giveaway.

 

[ogryn]

OK, I edited it a little (can you tell? :lol: )

The track rotates 180 degrees to switch?

 

[ToTBellHop]

OK, I edited it a little (can you tell? :lol: )

The track rotates 180 degrees to switch?

that looks more accurate to me...and in line with the press releases. Also, if you want to see the type of switch track used, look at the switch track to the two stations on Big Thunder.

 

[Yen_Sid1]

that looks pretty accurate to me, although I was under the impression that the Yeti would be within the mountain, not at the top.

The Yeti will chasing you the entire time but the only time you will actually see him is near the end.