Griffon

The maintenance area has a freezer, a toaster, a microwave oven, and a huge heated pot.  You may think that this allows a place for Busch Gardens Williamsburg's employees to heat up their meals, but this cooking equipment is actually used to work on the roller coaster!  One use of this equipment is heating and cooling items to change their sizes.   Nearly every metal expands when heated, and this physical property is used to work on the wheels and bearings.  For example, when a wheel is heated, the hole in the center expands.  This would allow the roller bearing seen in the previous image to be inserted into the center of the hub.  As the wheel cools back to room temperature, it contracts around the bearing and tightly grips it in place.

©2018 by Joel A. Rogers.