Question

[I_Love_X]

I was wondering how does the Journey to Atlantis in Sea World San Diego work? It goes from a roller coaster to a log flume but how does it detach and reattach to the track? also how does the elevator work?

[hyyyper]

well, detaching from the track is not that hard to image, the track just ends...

 

as for attatching, the track narrows down and the wheels go around the very narrow tube, that tube gets bigger and the wheels catch onto the track. As for elevator....i guess just like every elevator: car goes in and gets locked, elevator sealed, elevator goes up, trains goes out.

[robbalvey]

^ Yeah, what he said!

[mcjaco]

And I thought it got it's magic powers from the skunky water.

[Jew]

^Apparently it gets its magic powers from a talking Dolphin. Or something like that.

[Gav]

well, detaching from the track is not that hard to image, the track just ends...

 

as for attatching, the track narrows down and the wheels go around the very narrow tube, that tube gets bigger and the wheels catch onto the track. As for elevator....i guess just like every elevator: car goes in and gets locked, elevator sealed, elevator goes up, trains goes out.

 

I'm in the US at the moment and rode this a couple of days back...nice little ride.

 

Anyway, its not quite as you described, the vehicles dont really lock onto a tubular track like a normal coaster, the closest thing it could be likened to could be the brake run on a boblsed coaster...in other words the track is more like a trough. The road wheels run on 2 rails below the boat, but the guide and upstop wheels follow tracks of their own, so really the ride has 6 rails instead of two....this pic shows it well:

http://www.rcdb.com/ig3106.htm?picture=6

 

Now, as Hyyper said, coming off the track is easy, everything just comes to an end:

http://www.rcdb.com/ig1891.htm?picture=2

 

But to get the boat back on the track firstly the boat runs onto a conveyor belt which runs down the center, which makes it so that the road wheels are running on the two rails, and at the same time the two guide rails either side funnel in and then run parallel to stop side to side movement

The upstop rails just start whenever they are needed (ie the fast parts of the ride)

They aren't there in the station or whatever since obviously there is no need, and they would just get in the way of boarding:

http://www.rcdb.com/ig1891.htm?picture=11

 

As for the lift, yes you roll and lock in, a bunch of sensors make sure the boats are in properly, and stop others from entering whilst it is out and about.

When you go up you feel it tip side to side, this is like a vertical version of a passing loop on a railway. 2 lift cabins are operating in the one shaft, and S bend around each other at the halfway point, so one cabin is going up whilst the other is going down.

Another mack ride, scooby doo spooky coaster uses a similar system:

http://www.roller-coaster.com.au/gallery.php?gid=84&image=15

http://www.roller-coaster.com.au/gallery.php?gid=84&image=8

[brilinjo]

^Now THATS a good answer. Takes an Aussie to explain how a coaster works.

[hyyyper]

i think i guess pretty well, i've never seen or been on a watercoaster...i just figured out that it would be the most practical way

[kraken613]

Good way of explaining it!

[Team Thriller]

When I went on Poesidian here at Europa Park I noticed the track WAS

smaller when it attached but then got larger. The boat like bumped onto it.

 

--James