Erin Carbaugh

Personal CAD Project

For my SolidWorks project, I chose to model Top Thrill Dragster at . When

TTD was originally opened in 2003, it was the tallest in the world at 420 feet. It was the first ever coaster to be between 400 and 499 feet; this sizing is now dubbed to be ‘strata coasters’. TTD stayed as the tallest roller coaster in the world until 2005 when opened at Great Adventure, standing at 456 feet.

TTD is a symbol of the roller coaster industry’s desire to shoot for the stars and their passion for innovation. When roller coasters were still in the early stages of development, no one could have imagined that they would ever tower above many skyscrapers and shoot you forward at speeds far above that of even the Autobahn in Germany.

As an aspiring roller coaster designer, seeing the growth and evolution of roller coasters has always fascinated me. They are, for lack of a better explanation, physical representations of motion. You can almost see the pressure when you look at a banked turn, see your world getting flipped upside down while remaining stuck in your seat during a loop, watch gravity pull you back to earth after a long lift by just looking at the drop. Roller coasters are to engineers as words are to writers.

The hardest part of this project was undoubtably modeling the track. I definitely improved my linear pattern skills through creating the support on the track and I also became very proficient at sweeping curves along a path. One new skill I learned from this project was how to make a spiral and then how to sweep a pattern along that spiral. It took a lot of trial and error to get there but it ended up working very well in the end. By doing this project, I learned several new features in SolidWorks and I also mastered the skills I have already been taught.

A model of the entire Top Thrill Dragster ride.

Top Thrill Dragster model with a focus on the track and the inversions.

Front facing view of Top Thrill Dragster

Drawing of the Top Thrill Dragster Assembly

Note: Every inch represents 52.5 ft.

Image of the actual Top Thrill Dragster in Sandusky, Ohio.

Photo Credit: https://live.staticflickr.com/3500/4069293031_7f04896616_b.jpg