This roller coaster got stuck upside down due to a power failure. But roller coasters are not powered by electricity when going through loops. They are free-wheeling. The only time they are powered by electricity is when going up the lift hill or during magnetic acceleration. Obviously a power failure while the train is going up a lift hill would result in the car stopping there on the hill, not in a loop. I suppose that if the power failure happened at exactly the right time during linear acceleration it could result in the car not gaining enough energy to make it all the way through the ride, but that seems extremely unlikely, as does a car with insufficient energy actually stopping at exactly the right spot in a loop to trap it there. So what happened here? Anybody ever ridden this coaster?
As a coaster fanatic and a major chicken, I can assure you that the brakes on a modern coaster are indeed, powered throughout the run even though the coaster is not dependent on a motor for its acceleration. It can be stopped at any point during the run by the operator. This upside down during-the-loop kind of stop is not that unusual.
When the first big coaster was put in at 6Flags in Gurnee way back when, one of the pictures in the paper was of the insurers hanging upside down on the Demon. It had been stopped there on purpose to reassure them.
I think there is usually also a small secondary motor to enable the coaster to get back home.
Pedantic Man would like to point out that the Demon was not called the Demon when it was first built. It was called, IIRC, Turn of the Century for a couple years before its name was changed to the Demon. As Chief Pedant you should have known that. 
So you’re saying that there are brakes on the cars that are designed to engage if power is lost? Because that’s the only way your answer makes sense to me.
But that’s the brakes, not the accelerator. I think the question is, don’t these things build up enough momentum on the up, up, up part to get them through the wheee! part without additional power? Or is that the old model of rollercoaster? Are rollercoasters today actively powered through the loops?
I would not use the word “reassuring” to describe such an experience. 
-FrL-
Image borrowed from Fark: http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u264/fzumrk/xcoaster.jpg
The track turns upside-down while on the lifting mechanism, before the first drop. Presumably this is when the power failed.
From the picture I saw, it looks like this coaster drags you up a vertical rise which then goes over backwards, possibly at the start of the ride. So I * think * the power went out just before the car was released, but while it was upside down.
All I know is, I wouldn’t ride the damned thing.
Well I don’t know how that coaster is designed, but for safety’s sake, requiring power to keep the brakes off makes a lot of sense. If the power gets turned off, the coaster stops. no rear ending the car in front, or getting hit from behind.
Quite likely as in this case in a very uncomfortable spot, but safe.
::: post deleted, went back and read thread more carefully, question was answered after all :::
Well, that makes sense.
The back of a Volkswagen?
No I said safe.
Isn’t that how brakes on semis and trains work? They require pressure to keep them off; if there’s ever a failure they stop.
On the coasters I’ve seen, the brakes are in the track itself. Given a power failure, the cars would coast to the next set of brakes and stop. I freely admit that I am not an expert on coaster design and that there are probably many different implementations.
I believe so.
Yep, it was called The Turn of the Century before it became The Demon. However The Turn of the Century did not have the double loops. It only had the double corkskrew. When they turned it into The Demon they added the loops, painted the track black, and added the tunnels/rock formations. This back when it was owned by Marriots and not 6Flags.
Wow, kudos on the detailed memory, Hampshire! My recollection is that I was not tall enough to ride the ride until after it was already named the Demon, so I did not know that.
I worked at Great America during my summers in college and something always seemed to be happening at the Demon. It got stuck in one of the corkscrews one time, although I believe it was due to some malfunction of the train and had nothing to do with the power being out. A train entering the station collided with a train exiting the station; this was caused by a couple of guests screwing around with a basketball in the queues, and the ball rolled into the track and jammed some brake controls. Finally, I helped saved R Kelly from a mob that recognized him as he was getting off the Demon. This was when Bump and Grind was #1, but I had no idea who he was.
Roller coaster guy here… A few points: virtually no roller coasters today have either accelerating or braking mechanisms on the coaster cars themselves. Brakes are almost always built into the track and work by squeezing on metal fins attached to the cars.
Brakes are also designed in the way that in their default (unpowered) position, they are sprung shut, and it takes electricity to open them.
That said, the mentioned coaster is not a traditional one and it’s launched or propelled up a vertical incline into the inversion, and my guess is this is when the power outage happened. The ride may have some sort of anti-rollback safety device but the descriptions I’ve seen of the ride aren’t quite clear.
Power outages are a hassle more than anything at theme parks. I used to work on the Titan roller coaster at Six Flags over Texas one time when the power went out, and the policy was even if the power came back on, all riders had to be evacuated… And there just happened to be a train stuck at the peak of the 255" lift hill, which meant a lot of climbing. It must have also been a slow news day because a few news choppers caught word and before you knew it, it was being broadcast on German news stations.
That looks fucking AWESOME.
I do not think it was the Demon until it got its upside-down double loops after the big drop. As the T of the C, I think it only had a couple of ‘hills.’ It was the addition of the upside-down part that necessitated reassuring the insurers that you couldn’t fall out if the ride was stopped emergently while you were upside down. Same track and location but fundamentally a different ride. It’s sort of a fine point.
Shirley you understand.
Back to the brakes…there a number of different mechanisms for safely braking a coaster which has lost the main power. Each new big modern coaster is sort of a one-off in its design and needs. For instance, a modern vertical coaster might use passive magnetic braking to prevent a launched train from falling back to the ground since the clickety-clack ratchet mechanism would be too abrupt. All modern coasters have pretty good redundancies as evidenced by the fact that the Teeming Millions seldom manage to bump themselves off on them.
I should definitely lose the Chief-ship for posting in haste and repenting in leisure but I’m just too lazy too change my handle. 
Besides, I am on vacation. Really.