This is what makes a good coaster designer a great designer. Being able to create different coasters that have the same elements, but somehow, make it all seem so new and exciting to the peeps. Putting two identical coaster types, such as two steel loopers, one thing is for sure, one will become more popular than the other. So it pays to become familliar with designing tracks for as many different coaster types as you can. You can take this a step further and become familliar with all the tracked rides, and be able to build just about anything, from an inverted coaster, to the mini golf attraction.
But since the Steel Twister seems to be the most popular, next to the woodies, then I will concentrate on how to build that style of coaster.
We'll start off with a very basic coaster track design. Then we'll take a look at how we can modify that design and work our way through multiple levels of excitement, intensity and nausea. During this tutorial, the stations, the first drop, the S-Bend to the lift hill, the lift hill, the drop, and the virtical loop never change. All other track elements will be changed, altered and rearranged. Even the brake run is modified to afford clearance to a helix at one point. So while the first coaster looks rather timid, each version gets a bit more involved. Here is our basic track layout...
Because of the 30 ft. drop from the level of the stations, the trains don't loose that much momentum by the time they reach the lift hill. So the trains pretty much travel about halfway up the lift hill. Thusly the lift hill isn't really that much of a wait to make it to the top.
A good trick if you want the coaster to make it faster aound the circuit... Loft, or raise the station(s), so that the lift hill isn't as tall & time consuming.
Below is a graph of the Virtical Gravity or "G" forces. It's a good trick to remember that this graph sort of displays the opposite of what the track actually looks like. For instance, as the trains make the 180 degree turn arouns, on relatively flat track, the graph displays this as a relatively flat line, gust above the 0 G green line of the grapg display.
As the trains drop, the G's become lighter, and it dips below the 0 G level. As they bottom out in the valley between hills, the graph displays higher G levels. Cresting the hilltop, the G's are lighter, and thusly, the display shows a "dip" in virtical G forces. So in this display, the higher G's are in the valleys between the hills, and the lower G's are represented by lower G's in the display. Pretty much the exact opposite of how the track has been built.
Now that you have seen the details of the track layout, we'll substitute a cobra roll, for the turn-around after the original virtical loop. The cobra roll is narrower that a 180 degree medium curve, so this sort of narrows tha coaster's footprint. The coaster hills had to be rebuilt, and the straightaway at the base of the curved drop had been shortened, to compensate for the narrower footprint created by the Cobra Roll modification.
In this version, the inline twist takes the place of the deep drops of the hills, and a helix is created to give the riders a chance to catch their breath. If you don't design some places that give the riders a rest, then the peeps will always be experiencing some heavy G's. And that does not make a coaster a pleasure to ride.
Plus, it sort of boosts that Nausea rating. And we all know that requires a handyman to clean that up.
The reason I like Chain Blocks, is because the trains are allowed to pass from one block to another at normal speeds. While a block brake causes the trains to be slowed to about 4 to 6 MPH. And that causes the trains to loose all that momentum. Which has to be built up again by another major drop.
What you have to be careful about, is that in the rare case that if a block chain has to stop the trains, that the trains have enough momentum to get to the station, or at least, to the next chained block section. Otherwise the trains will be stopped by the block chain, then lifted over the crest of the hill, then roll through the next block... Then, instead of continuing, the trains roll backwards.
They slow down, stop, then roll forwards, and the trains keep rolling back and forth like that, until you discover that it's stuck and close the attraction. Not good.
Below, we yanked out that helix and fed directly into a double corkscrew inversion. While this may look exciting, the inversions are actually a rapid succession, one right after another. This hardly gives the peeps a chance to breathe between inversions. So now, let's see if we can figure out a few ways to tame the beast. So to speak.
Here, the exit is practicly on top of the double corkscrew. This is a great interaction feature for the riders who have just unloaded from the trains. A footpath could easily bridge over between the two inversions. Or the path could take a right turn, and drop a few flights of steps, U-turn to the left, drop a few more steps and pass beneath corkscrew #1.
Here, we added a helix that fits well with the inline twist, banking nicely, and continues the flow from the inline twist, into the helix. A few large wide curves and the helix itself, allows the peeps a chance to catch their breath from the rapid succession of inversions that the train just passed through.
A curved dive and an "air-time grabbing hill" was then inserted to keep the thrill alive, which then enters the corkscrews, (which have been relocated slightly from their original position in the version.) After the corkscrews, the curved banked hill, lofts the trains up and around the entrance to the unloading station.
This gives the peeps in the queue a bit of entertainment while they're waiting in line for their chance to ride. This is a good "interaction" between park elements and makes the ride itself more thrilling. After a small banked curve, a drop allows the trains to gain a bit of speed before entering the helix. But it had to drop far enough to add the block chain before entering the brake run.
Additional block sections are created with the crest of a chain lift. I call them Block Chains, as the track is a chained section, not a brake section. Two additional blocks have been created in this design. this leaves enough of a cusion of "blocks" between the trains. Leaving a full block section that is not occupied by a train traveling within the block.
The blue block brake sections also add more blocks to the track design. It only takes a few moments for a train to roll past these block section, adding more blocks between the train that is still traveling the circuit, and the train that's entering the station. This lessens the chance of a train being stopped on a block chain, and perhaps delay the train following.
If a train is stopped at a block brake or chain, then the momentum that the trains have built up would be lost. Then the trains take longer to get through each block. Causing a sort of back up, and if the track is not designed correctly, the trains may stall within a block, and the other trains would be stopped at the block chains, and bring the ride to a hault.
Edited by Wolfman, 25 June 2009 - 06:23 PM.
