Weird Coaster Facts

[Jackdude101]

China is on the cusp of having more currently-operating gravity-powered roller coasters than any other country in the world. Right now, the United States holds that title.

 

As of the writing of this post, China has 619 and the United States has 625.

 

http://rcdb.com/r.htm?nm=na&cs=277&st=93&pl=26380&ot=2

http://rcdb.com/r.htm?nm=na&cs=277&st=93&pl=59&ot=2

 

As of today this has changed to China: 625; United States: 625. One more and China out-ranks the USA.

 

It is now official. China's count is now 626 and the USA's count is 625. China now holds the world record for the most operating, gravity-driven roller coasters in one country. Is this a sign of the end times?

[netdvn]

Considering most of those are kiddie coasters or crappy knockoffs, I'd say no. Not only that, but China probably has a TON of undocumented kiddie coasters in random small parks scattered all over the place. Chances are they took the record long before those stats were recorded.

 

- A country with a billion people should have enough coasters to match right?

[IneedTPforbunghole]

- All B&M coasters remove all trains from the track at night, and the transfer track that they sit on does not have the trains resting on the wheels they ride on. This is to eliminate the wheels from getting "flat spots" from sitting in a certain position and ensuring the riders get a smoother ride.

I know of one exception to this rule. On Montu, they leave at least 1 train of the track in the form of a train left on the lift hill. You can see it every day when the park is not open. (night/early morning) The position where the train is held is shown in the following picture:

[ajfelice]

Gatekeeper only transferred off one of the three trains at the end of the night. The other two were left in the station and the main brake run. So add that to the exception list.

 

Weird Coaster Fact: A small, microscopic flat spot on a Maurer Spinning Coaster car wheel will cause it to make a B&M roar as it goes through the course.

 

Another Weird Coaster Fact: if you have a connection or somehow convince a Kennywood Ride Op on Exterminator, they will push a foot pedal right before dispatch so that you spin the entire ride. It's absolutely nuts on those rare rides.

[larrygator]

China now holds the world record for the most operating, gravity-driven roller coasters in one country. Is this a sign of the end times?

 

Not a big deal.

Most of the Chinese coasters are absolute crap.

Those that aren't crap now are likely to become crap over time as the parks can't handle the maintenance.

Chinese has 4 times as the population as the US, they should have more coasters.

 

There are plenty of European countries with a higher coaster per capita than the US.

[Loefet]

Some more Liseberg stuff, starting with Kanonen:

 

Kanonen have used 4 variations of OSTR restraints so far.

First one was the slim hard bands, then they added big padding around them to stop neck/head slashing, then came the slim hard ones with a raised edge along the neck and now finally the soft west with nylon covering, which is a massive improvement in rider comfort.

 

When it first opened then it regularly destroyed the hydraulic hoses between the shot-tanks and the motors, due to the fact that no one really did the calculations to check what type of hose was needed due to the pressure. It have also ripped a good number of cables in it's lifetime so far. The Kanonen launch is one of the most powerful ones on any Accelerator coaster, which is kind of surprising seeing it's small size.

 

Then some Lisebergbanan ones as well:

A cold train need to be full on the first few runs so that it won't valley before the wheel grease gets up to temperature. This leads to that Lisebergbanan have some of the longest queues at the beginning of the day, since they usually starts with just 2 trains, this usually aggravates the normal park goers, who don't understand this concept, more trains are of course added during the day if it's needed.

Due to this they will rope in random employees in the park to fill up the train if they need to test it when the park is closed.

 

Lisebergbanan still uses an old relay based control computer, it's incredibly hard to troubleshoot and will lock down the whole ride if the trains start to go too fast. Not because they are too fast for the ride to make it unsafe, but the relays fails to trigger as the trains past due to the speed.

This will however be fixed in the coming years when Lisebergbanan will get a much needed upgrade with modern technologies, which will allow the ride to be even faster

 

Also I finish this section off with an image of the Lisebergbanan "Tank", which is a rescue vehicle to save stranded trains on the ride and tow them back to the station. It's petrol/hydraulic vehicle with a top speed of 1 mile/hour, meaning that it will take about 1 hour to do the full circuit with it. It used to be a manned so that it required a driver to be operated, but now it have been made wireless, so the "driver" will walk on the ground instead.

The Liseberg tank.

[rcjp]

^That's interesting. I didn't know that. It's kind of funny how I had thought that a similar vehicle to the "tank" would be an interesting way to pull/push stalled trains to the station and now I find out that it exists!

[Aceattack52]

- All B&M coasters remove all trains from the track at night, and the transfer track that they sit on does not have the trains resting on the wheels they ride on. This is to eliminate the wheels from getting "flat spots" from sitting in a certain position and ensuring the riders get a smoother ride.

I know of one exception to this rule. On Montu, they leave at least 1 train of the track in the form of a train left on the lift hill. You can see it every day when the park is not open. (night/early morning) The position where the train is held is shown in the following picture:

The satellite image for SFOG was taken during the off season and it shows one of the trains for the Scorcher left at about the same point on the lift hill.

Taken 11/17/2012

[thrillrider]

I know that at some amusement parks, the staff is not allowed to transfer trains on or off. Maintenance has to do it every day. That could be why some of the trains are left on the track in the am or pm.

[Seddy]

^^In that satellite image, it looks like the Scorchers train is only about halfway up the lift. The safety points (where the lift will stop by computers trigger) is normally at the top of the lift, as seen in that Montu image. The GASM stops at the top if the ready brake is not clear, same with the Ninja. It looks as if they might have actually been testing the Scorcher at the moment this image was recorded.

 

Thrillrider is also correct. I had to call my supervisor whenever I needed the second train, ofcourse only if the other train was in the transfer shed. The supervisors would then call maintenance who would eventually show up in their white trucks. Lol. But I remember reading somewhere that TTD operators are the ones who add the trains. Maybe Cedar Fair has more faith/trust in their employees. Idk but its always interested me how different parks go about their daily operation.

[ajfelice]

Thrillrider is also correct. I had to call my supervisor whenever I needed the second train, ofcourse only if the other train was in the transfer shed. The supervisors would then call maintenance who would eventually show up in their white trucks. Lol. But I remember reading somewhere that TTD operators are the ones who add the trains. Maybe Cedar Fair has more faith/trust in their employees. Idk but its always interested me how different parks go about their daily operation.

 

Not completely sure how Cedar Fair goes about it, but my interpretation from a small amount of experience is that the rule of thumb was to always go up with all trains barring any restrictions due to weather, maintenance, or other restrictions from above the Leaders at the ride. Ride Hosts are usually responsible for transferring on and off the proper number of trains/ride vehicles (really simple to do actually). When working at Waldameer, the decision for one or two trains on Ravine Flyer II or Comet is at the discretion of the rides manager, maintenance, and sometimes myself when they are unsure. Operators are not trained to transfer trains or make decisions on how many to operate at Waldameer. Overall, it depends on the company, and from what I can tell from asking around other parks, the operators on the platform next to never are allowed to just operate one train just because they are lazy or feel like it, the number of trains depends on a variety of outside factors.

[Seddy]

^I think SFOG allows managerial to make that decision based on estimated guest numbers for the day. Most days I would get to work with a train parked in the statiom and one behind it at the ready brake. But on somee occasions there would only be one in the station. Now although both trains were on the track, I had the option to 'float' one of the trains at the beginning of the day, only loading train 2 once my line began to travel up the ramp heading into the que house.

[coasterkyle]

I believe Cedar Point is the only park in the chain that allows the Ride Host to transfer on and off units, except for Iron Dragon also if Magnum needs to transfer a second train off (Maint. does that)

 

And as stated before We start with as many units possible then go down as the day go on. (except late Aug when staffing is at minimal b/c of employees going back to school)

[goatdan]

1) Shockwave was the first ride marketed as the tallest ride and fastest ride (admittedly, fastest was only a US claim). Before that point, parks didn't really brag about height and speed. Proof? The record holder for speed until 1988 was the American Eagle across the park.

 

Proof? You really didn't show any proof.

 

Kings Island marketed The Beast as the longest, tallest and fastest when it opened. Link to promo info

 

And I'm sure that wasn't even the first time a park marketed a coaster in that manner.

 

As I've said, you can and probably should dismiss everything as I'm saying because I will not offer any proof, so I'm probably just someone spouting off random stuff... I'll point out though that the link that you had said that the beast was actually the FIRST time that a park marketed a singular ride (from the article):

 

"What resulted was another movement in how park operations: the first marketing campaign for a roller coaster."

 

Which is worth pointing out as another interesting tidbit that I have heard, but the ads before the time of the Beast are so rare to come across it's a hard claim to substantiate, which is why I didn't point to that one too...

 

But to be fair, you're right - the one commercial disproves that as I had only ever seen the original Beast promo where they just mention that it takes you "higher than any other coaster." I guess one would have to check the coaster that took over the speed record from the Beast and see how it was marketed if it mostly holds up as a claim.

 

^^In that satellite image, it looks like the Scorchers train is only about halfway up the lift. The safety points (where the lift will stop by computers trigger) is normally at the top of the lift, as seen in that Montu image. The GASM stops at the top if the ready brake is not clear, same with the Ninja. It looks as if they might have actually been testing the Scorcher at the moment this image was recorded.

 

Yeah, I'd suggest something else is going on there. If not, that is about the silliest place that they would stop a train, the biggest thing being that the lift motors work the hardest when the train is the furthest away, which is the bottom of the lift like that. You can hear it if you stand near a B&M motor that the closer it gets to the top, the quieter it "sounds" like the motor is working.

 

I don't quite get the physics of it, but I know that in at least one other stand up ride, the rule is that you never stop the train on the lift until it is 3/4ths of the way up for that exact issue.

 

Thrillrider is also correct. I had to call my supervisor whenever I needed the second train, ofcourse only if the other train was in the transfer shed. The supervisors would then call maintenance who would eventually show up in their white trucks. Lol. But I remember reading somewhere that TTD operators are the ones who add the trains. Maybe Cedar Fair has more faith/trust in their employees. Idk but its always interested me how different parks go about their daily operation.

 

It changes ride to ride and chain to chain. I have opinions on what I think is the best, but they don't matter really

 

And as stated before We start with as many units possible then go down as the day go on. (except late Aug when staffing is at minimal b/c of employees going back to school)

 

This is also completely park to park and in some cases ride to ride. Although again it really doesn't matter, I'm of the opinion that if you are stopping people in line to do something, you should be adding capacity to the ride not taking it away - but I'm also of the opinion that if there is no staffing difference with units, you run with the max units (IE you never run with one unit when you can run two for the same amount of staff, even if there are minimum crowd levels). There are LOTS of theories in every chain and park about what is the best for real, and there are GREAT arguments on the other side too, but it has nothing to do with manufacturers or anything like that.

 

An argument can be made about which parks are the most efficient with their maintenance programs and that is really how the unit cycles should be handled, but that's not really a "fact" thing.

 

Since it is a fact thread, one last one for now...

 

- Of the Great America parks, there were three designed although only two opened. Because they intended to use the exact same plans, all of the original buildings in the Six Flags park are built to the same earthquake code as the ones in California, even though they didn't have to be.

[Woodie Warrior]

Of the Great America parks, there were three designed although only two opened. Because they intended to use the exact same plans, all of the original buildings in the Six Flags park are built to the same earthquake code as the ones in California, even though they didn't have to be.

 

Do you know where the third one would have been located?

[Rollercoaster Rider]

Of the Great America parks, there were three designed although only two opened. Because they intended to use the exact same plans, all of the original buildings in the Six Flags park are built to the same earthquake code as the ones in California, even though they didn't have to be.

 

Do you know where the third one would have been located?

 

 

The DC/Baltimore area.

[Loefet]

Found this video on a German coaster forum which is very interesting, it shows how they are reducing the peak power draw on Juvelen at Djurs Sommerland, by using one of it's two launches as a flywheel set up to give the other launch an extra boost.

This probably explains why this ride uses electric motors compared to the previous installations which uses a hydraulic systems in a similar fashion as an Accelerator coaster, to keep the peak power usage on a low level.

 

[triggernel]

Of the Great America parks, there were three designed although only two opened. Because they intended to use the exact same plans, all of the original buildings in the Six Flags park are built to the same earthquake code as the ones in California, even though they didn't have to be.

 

Do you know where the third one would have been located?

 

 

The DC/Baltimore area.

 

What's with this area and planned parks not getting built?

[Rollercoaster Rider]

Of the Great America parks, there were three designed although only two opened. Because they intended to use the exact same plans, all of the original buildings in the Six Flags park are built to the same earthquake code as the ones in California, even though they didn't have to be.

 

Do you know where the third one would have been located?

 

 

The DC/Baltimore area.

 

What's with this area and planned parks not getting built?

 

 

Brain Dead NIMBY's. Something this World has way too many of.

[triggernel]

I suppose if they can't keep the government running, how can they get a theme park going?

[rcjp]

Found this video on a German coaster forum which is very interesting, it shows how they are reducing the peak power draw on Juvelen at Djurs Sommerland, by using one of it's two launches as a flywheel set up to give the other launch an extra boost.

This probably explains why this ride uses electric motors compared to the previous installations which uses a hydraulic systems in a similar fashion as an Accelerator coaster, to keep the peak power usage on a low level.

 

That's interesting. Certainly not the first idea that comes to mind when thinking of an efficient solution. Still I wonder, are drive tyres actually more efficient than hydraulic lunches? because I heard those were pretty good in that department using little more energy than a chain lift would require.

[mike541x]

Of the Great America parks, there were three designed although only two opened. Because they intended to use the exact same plans, all of the original buildings in the Six Flags park are built to the same earthquake code as the ones in California, even though they didn't have to be.

 

Do you know where the third one would have been located?

 

 

The DC/Baltimore area.

 

If only this ever happened....

[Loefet]

That's interesting. Certainly not the first idea that comes to mind when thinking of an efficient solution. Still I wonder, are drive tyres actually more efficient than hydraulic lunches? because I heard those were pretty good in that department using little more energy than a chain lift would require.

I would say that they use the same kind of power if they need to launch the train to the same speed. The difference might be that the electric version may be a lot simpler to make, but will use more power over shorter time than the hydraulic based system.

[LoopScreweD]

Both Demons at the former Marriott parks have there second loop shaped differently than any other arrow loop (that I know of), the loop is more circular and less clothoid.

Normal first loop standard for arrow on all there looping coasters until Tennessee tornado

The slightly more circular loop threaded through rock facade also the loop is shorter than the first

A comparison with a traditional double looper that being dragon fire at Canada's wonderland

[XYZ]

^I wish that second loop wasn't shaped differently since it is more rough.