Dad Builds Roller Coaster In His Backyard

[jetsplumber]

http://news.yahoo.com/video/dad-builds-roller-coaster-orinda-052100489.html

 

 

Dad Builds Roller Coaster In His Backyard

CBS-Sanfrancisco 1:58 mins

 

Will Pemble has built his 10-year-old son, Lyle, a roller coaster in his Orinda, Calif., backyard. The project took six weeks and $3,500 to complete. Pemble says the fun ride, which goes up to 14 miles per hour and is powered by gravity, also has an educational side effect. "The mathematics, the physics, the science, the really hard thinking – there needs to be something on the other side of that math that’s worth slogging through the math,” he said. “So if there’s a coaster at the other side of how many feet of track do we need…then suddenly the word problem gets done really fast." Andria Borba reports.

[Nrthwnd]

Very cool of that dad.

 

And such a smart, interested kid!

 

Not too bad a coaster either, LOL!

 

And this is one of the best home builts I have seen

in a long, long time. Even without a loop, heh.

[805Andrew]

Cool to see this dad build this for his son, and to have it be in the Bay Area.

[Nrthwnd]

Ha! Maybe he should get a hold of the guy who made the Mystic Motel dark ride-thru,

for his kids...and they start their own backyard theme park!

 

 

Link to Mystery Motel thread: http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=66513&hilit=Motel

[Shavethewhales]

That's very cool, I really want to see more details on how it was actually constructed. It looks like PVC rails connected laterally to 2x4'x, with a single 2x4 girder underneath (strong axis), and the supports look to also be 2x4 or close, at 4' spacings and unbraced lengths up to 10' or more. I don't get how that is so sturdy, everything I know is telling me the PVC rails should snap off and the lift hill should fall over. There doesn't seem to be anything there to handle moment at the base unless he has it mounted into concrete... I can't see any major deflections though, so he must have it more figured out than it looks.