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Big Thunder Mountain, Paris - WHAT?!

dj-fireball999

dj-fireball999

Mega Poster
The last time that I was in Disneyland Paris was in 2008. I'd been there a number of times before hand over the years, so I knew what to expect. Anyway, I went for a ride on Big Thunder Mountain, and noticed a few new anti rollbacks on a couple of the corners. I thought nothing of it really, until I recently watched a "new" POV of it on Youtube, where they seem to have basically stuck them wherever the hell they felt like it.

Does anyone know why they've done this? I've never heard of the ride stalling, or vallying so I have no idea why. The anti rollbacks sound great on the lift hills, and add to the atmosphere in my opinion, but when the trains are hurtling over them at speed, they just sound hideous.
 
Yeah I noticed this too. Though to be honest I think they've only actually added one, on the bend before the second lift, after the splash.

They are bloody loud! Ironically, there still isn't any on the exit of the tunnel at the end, which is probably where it needs it most!
 
This video was shot mid 2009, with 4 extra anti roll back sections added.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B19P0a3INgk[/youtube]

Compared to this, where there are none.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6HW9hVQ6r8[/youtube]

Weird...
 
The true reason for those ARB's is to prevent 2 to 6 hours ride resets if the ride for some reason does an e-stop and the trains are stuck on 2 problematic brake zones: the one before the "water splashdown" and the one right before the "headknocker tunnel" before C lift.

If a train gets reset and just rolls down the picture drop, the trim brake there will grab it so well that it won't make it to the B lift. So, maintenance has to use steel cables that run along the track to winch the train up to the B lift.

For the Headknocker tunnel, that block brake is uphill. So, if you just release the train, the train will just roll back into the helix. Once again, maintenance will have to tow it to the C lift.

Those anti rollbacks are actually passive chain lifts. Maintenance can activate them to get the train to the next lift hill.

Now, what is also very time consuming is the fact that the trains have to be evacutated, but the trains cannot run empty! They are forced to have cast members on BREAK from other areas in the park to run up to the mountain, go sit on a train sitting on lift, ride it back to the station and from there, run to the next train. During morning testing, to replace sandbags, they found a solution where they throw some balloons on the train and then fill them up with some mysterious and very heavy gel. That provides the weight for the train to make it back.
 
This goes back to what I said some ago that the coaster is slower than when I first went on it. I was shocked in 2008 when I went just how slow the coaster now ran, and its so loud when you hit the extra roll backs.
 
For the Headknocker tunnel, that block brake is uphill. So, if you just release the train, the train will just roll back into the helix. Once again, maintenance will have to tow it to the C lift.
Click to expand...

No it wont rollback - It has a chain on that block section.

You speak utter nonsense - No manufacture would design a ride that couldn't move forward by momentum, or by means of motor. Every morning, engineers do something called a block test, which involves stopping a train on every block. If you couldn't release a train from a block section into a lift section, then you've totally failed as a designer and which is why your talk is full of rubbish.
 
Until 2007 or 2008, there was no chain on that section of the ride. It was just an uphill brake run along with a camera pointed specifially there. The reason is simple: to be able to e-stop a train that has a guest standing up and that would be severely injured by the headknocker tunnel. In case you're wondering, when the french schools are on vacation and the french equivalent to the "chavs" storm the park, it can happen daily.

I worked on Space Mountain, Star Tours and Big Thunder Mountain so I know how those rides work. During pre opening testing, they do find things that are flawed and they are corrected at that time. Big Thunder Mountain did not have originally the fourth lift, but they realised in colder periods, the trains would not make it back up to the station, so they added it. Space Mountain got a blocking zone added during testing so they could run 5 trains reliably without having trains stopping on the B lift all the time.

Morning testing is not done like you think. "Block test" are done at night by the 3rd shift maintenance team when required and the morning cast members test each brake zones and lift hills without having to manually stop a train on each.

Who here has been to DLP and found Big Thunder Mountain closed for hours? That's because maintenance were winching trains to the next block. Vekoma and Imagineering must have figured out they had to do it often, because there are steel cables running all along the ride just for that. Did you also know that the steel tracks were filled with air? That's a stress fracture or crack detection system. If the system detects a section is losing hair, it warns the cast member and maintenance.
 
Erol they do make mistakes when building rides trims were added to 13 and an inline from mavrick.

I noticed the extra chains when I last rode btm mainly due to the noise it made at the back it was bad.

This guy worked on the rides am sure he knows more about it than us, and it's interesting that he pointed out the change seeing that everyone said I was talking crap.
 
The headknocker tunnel is after the helix (between the second and third lift), the train goes up a hill, then quickly drops down into a tunnel. The top of the tunnel comes close to the riders head. Right after is the turn into the third lift. Before they added the chain, there was a distinct trim brake sound as you went over that short hill. The reason is simple: to remove the airtime! Disney does not want little kids 40 inches tall to experience airtime when you only got a lap bar that stops a few inches from the kid's lap. Its also why there's a trim brake on the on ride picture drop.

Before you wonder, that tunnel comes VERY close to the riders... So close that in 2001, riding during a rainstorm, the train was going too fast for even the trim brake to prevent the airtime. The result? I smashed my hand on the top of the tunnel!
 
All I know is when BTM opened it was so fast round the track, now it is not and it is simply not as good.

From what I understand the same happened to California Screamin', it used to give airtime so trims were added so not as much was given.
 
From what I can remember that little hill always made a lot of noise!lol And you get a small bit of air as you drop down, but thats more like falling out of the seat, similar to that 'nik' in the track where the spinning mice are.

I guess the reason you cant actually feel them trims is because they dont actually slow the train down, they just prevent it from gaining pace?
 
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