Tower of Terror !!

Tom

Tom

Beta Return
DarkMeasures said:
Wouldn't there be a motor in the top of the tower and one in the bottom?
If you ever watch from outside, you can see 2 cables attached to the car. One pulls the car up, the other pulls down. I makes perfect sense because the cars fall at a rate faster than gravity.
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All common passenger elevators have one cable (well, except the hydraulic versions, which have none). It attaches to the top of the cab, goes up and over the pulley/drive wheel, and back down to a counterweight.

However, in the TOT, the cable is one continuous loop. The motors just change direction in an instant and both "push" and "pull" the car up and down the shaft. There's still got to be a counterweight somewhere in the works, but there is still only one motor per shaft, at the top, just like all cable elevator shafts.

Hope that helps :)
 
S

Sledge

Account Suspended
I don't know how you could even look up looking for the cables. That is the only ride in the world where I get nervous. I hate any of the launch you up and fall rides but obviously this is different. The feeling when you first drop is the worst feeling ever.

I remember many years ago going to Disney World and they had this big structure in the median of the roads when you first came in that had the Tower of Terror elevator on it rocking back and forth as if it broke and i think the cable sparked or something. Anyways, on the "structure" it said "Now Twice The Terror!" What was that about? Was it originally just one drop and this structure was hyping that it was more than one drop now? Anyone know what this was about?
 
mattb

mattb

New Member
Sledge said:
I don't know how you could even look up looking for the cables. That is the only ride in the world where I get nervous. I hate any of the launch you up and fall rides but obviously this is different. The feeling when you first drop is the worst feeling ever.

I remember many years ago going to Disney World and they had this big structure in the median of the roads when you first came in that had the Tower of Terror elevator on it rocking back and forth as if it broke and i think the cable sparked or something. Anyways, on the "structure" it said "Now Twice The Terror!" What was that about? Was it originally just one drop and this structure was hyping that it was more than one drop now? Anyone know what this was about?
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Yes. The second version of the ToT software had two drops: the first down, back up to the top, drop down, then go back up for the freefall bounce, then to the bottom.

They've changed the sign every time they change the software. I believe they make mention of version four--maybe by Tower of Terr4r with a 4 inside an elevator button to look like an o? Not sure on that one.
 
RnRJoe6114

RnRJoe6114

Member
The original was just one strait through drop 13 stories. The third was a choice that the computer made from three drop sequences. And this version or the 4th is completely random. The ride itself is in complete control of how many drops and launches upward you have during the ride. "Never the same fear twice"
 
S

Steve4wdw

New Member
It took 7 years for my me to convince my mother to go on the ride (she was 54 by the time I got her to do it this summer). That being said...I'm HOPING above all hopes and prayers, that if I do rides for my CP (leaving in january leave on wednesday for my presentation...hope they hire me lol) that I'll get to do the tower. It's my favorite because it's the ride that got me over my fear of rides back in '97 (ToT 2).
 
SpenceMan01

SpenceMan01

Well-Known Member
jchriscandy said:
Is the Tower really all that scary?
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I don't think so. I went on it during Tower 1 or 2 and then again last January. After her first ride on ToT, my GF who isn't a fan of drop rides said "That wasn't that bad." It's just the awesome themeing which makes it seem very foreboding and the fact that the drop is in the dark adds to it too.
 
Rob562

Rob562

Well-Known Member
I thought I'd add in a couple comments on some of the older posts...

First, the motors. The 12' x 7' x 35' measurement is really the measurement for the entire motor *assembly* at the top of each drop shaft. The electric motor itself is about 3'-4' in diameter, and a few feet deep. In the overall assembly, it's actually rather small compared to the rest of it. The motor is on one end. There is then an axle that runs from the motor through what amounts to two huge drums that the cables wrap around (with brakes and stuff within the shells around the drums). I'm 99% sure the motor drives the axle directly, there's no transmission involved.

One of the cable drums is centered over the shaft, the other is above one of the side walls. From the centered drum, a cable runs down to the VVC (the "cage" that the ride vehicle rolls into in the shaft). From the other drum, a cable runs down the side of the shaft to a large counterweight that travels up and down the side of the shaft, opposite to the VVC. (When the VVC's at the bottom, the counterweight's at the top). There's a third cable that runs from the bottom of the counterweight down through pulleys at the bottom of the shaft and back up to the bottom of the VVC. There's tenstion on all cables all the time. Thus, as the motor turns in either direction, it's actually driving the car up and down the shaft. The limit to how fast the car can go is really a factor of how fast the motor can spin as well as the wind resistance of the car working against the motor.

I have a friend who took a video camera into some of the backstage areas of Tower during his last week on the CP. Even up onto the catwalk behind the HTH sign out front with his manager's blessing (and accompaniment). He set the camera down on the catwalk and walked away while it filmed a cycle or two. One of the shots was up in the motor room with the motor going through one entire cycle of Tower version 2 or 3... I'll have to see if I can find it.

-Rob
 
T

typhoonguy

New Member
LadyDarling said:
So - where IS that hidden Mickey in the bioler room! My DH SWEARS he's seen it, but he won't tell me where (which makes me think he just likes to hear me call him a liar LOL).
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On the wall, left hand side right by the split in the lines. It looks like a funky stain on the wall. It's starting to fade, though.
 
DisneySam

DisneySam

Active Member
I would have to say TOT is pretty scary. The drops that is. I am a big coaster/thrill ride junkie and I remember the first time riding it when it shoots you up to the window thinking that was the drop and I was like "oh that sucked" then I got the 4+ drops. I screamed my head off. I definitely needed an adult beverage afterwards, but it was fun.
 

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