[The Smiler] Train Speculation

[Bear]

Perhaps the world's first element of the Smiler could be the trains?? Here's an idea I had...

Being exposed on a big coaster heightens the sense of danger and thus increases the thrill. So imagine your shoulders, chest, and waist were completely exposed, and you had as minimal restraints as possible... based on my idea, you could be basically held in by the knees and ankles; sort of like a lap bar, but more for your legs.

Thoughts?

 

[T]

Would that actually work?! You'd move around far too much for it to be comfortable. Imagine an E-Stop?!


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[Bear]

Not with adequate lateral support for turns... and there'd be somewhere to hold on and brace for braking forces!

 

[Novas]

Take that one to the HSE and let us know how you get on.

I could only imagine it working with much bigger top restraining part and huge bucket seats, which would make it both restrictive to the legs and a total nut crusher should it invert.

 

[JB1985]

You could easily die with that design :twirly:

Any how, the latest promo image is rather interesting, it shows lap restraints and looks floorless

Personally I think the image seen today will be the final train design

 

[James]

Surly your arse would lift up to a point that the movement of the passenger would be rather dangerous (or at least deemed as dangerous)?

 

[Dave]

You would be placing the load point for all the energy exerted on the rider mid femur (thigh bone). The femur is designed to cope with energy passing through the bone top to bottom (not across it). The bony architecture would be unable to take the strain and you would get a bit of a crunching sound as your femur snapped.

For someone my age that would be 35 weeks in plaster and surgery to fix.

All restraint types (lap bars and OTSR) place the load point primarily on the waist, this is a strong point in the body supported by a combination of the femur, pelvis, sacrum and lower spine with a massive support structure of muscles and tendons.

 

[siralgenon]

You could easily die with that design :twirly:

Any how, the latest promo image is rather interesting, it shows lap restraints and looks floorless

Personally I think the image seen today will be the final train design

You can't have a floorless train with lapbars because there'd be no where to attach it to the train!

 

[Rob]

You could easily die with that design :twirly:

Any how, the latest promo image is rather interesting, it shows lap restraints and looks floorless

Personally I think the image seen today will be the final train design

You can't have a floorless train with lapbars because there'd be no where to attach it to the train!

Unless of course they were Blue Fire style lap bars!

I really wouldn't look too much into the concept images though; apart from the obvious fact that there will be OTSRs. The train shown on the track in the concepts with 4 rows is either a B&M floorless or B&M mega coaster train (I think), cut down and edited in terms of colours of course.

 

[Fredward]

None of them have been floorless, they've been shown with a floor, just close together in typical gerst style.

Probably just looks floorless due to the b&m restraints, you don't usually see them that close to one another!

 

[JB1985]

You could easily die with that design :twirly:

Any how, the latest promo image is rather interesting, it shows lap restraints and looks floorless

Personally I think the image seen today will be the final train design

You can't have a floorless train with lapbars because there'd be no where to attach it to the train!

Well there would be, dependent on how the lap bars were fitted I guess.

Not to fussed on train design to be fair, I think the trains wont be the major talking point on this ride

 

[Anonymous]

...apart from the obvious fact that there will be OTSRs.

Not trying to discredit you, or accuse you of telling porkies, but how can you be so sure that it will be? Gerstlauer make incredibly good lap bars, how can we be so sure it'll be OTSR's? We can't.

 

[Poisson]

...apart from the obvious fact that there will be OTSRs.

Not trying to discredit you, or accuse you of telling porkies, but how can you be so sure that it will be? Gerstlauer make incredibly good lap bars, how can we be so sure it'll be OTSR's? We can't.

It is rather likely to have OTSRs, one must admit, but not definite

There really is that many mistakes in my posts?! Damn this Tapatalk milarky!

 

[Rob]

...apart from the obvious fact that there will be OTSRs.

Not trying to discredit you, or accuse you of telling porkies, but how can you be so sure that it will be? Gerstlauer make incredibly good lap bars, how can we be so sure it'll be OTSR's? We can't.

I personally feel that the fact the concept image clearly shows bright yellow OTSRs is a clear indication of that being exactly what we will be getting. Only of course they'll be Gerstlauer restraints not B&M. If we were going to get lap bars then they would show lap bars on the concept like they did for Thirteen.

 

[Tim]

But have you seen this picture Rob:

Apparently it was taken from somewhere in the park (although I have no idea where so could someone confirm this?). Not only does it show lap bars but looks just like something Gerstlauers would design.

If this is legit it certainly trumps the B&M design for accuracy seen on the other promo.

 

[JAMMY_Jaunts]

I have seen those posters both in Mutiny Bay and Katanga Canyon near the Pizza Pasta Buffet.

 

[Rob]

But have you seen this picture Rob:

Apparently it was taken from somewhere in the park (although I have no idea where so could someone confirm this?). Not only does it show lap bars but looks just like something Gerstlauers would design.

If this is legit it certainly trumps the B&M design for accuracy seen on the other promo.

That's the concept I personally wouldn't read too much into. The train is very small on the concept compared to everything else which you can't tell from that photo. The trains aren't going to have Mr Twirly on the back of them like in the concept as that would be, well impossible!

I just don't think they would show a close up concept image clearly showing OTSRs and then go and use lap bars. I could well be wrong, and I really hope I am wrong.

 

[Anonymous]

But have you seen this picture Rob:

Apparently it was taken from somewhere in the park (although I have no idea where so could someone confirm this?). Not only does it show lap bars but looks just like something Gerstlauers would design.

If this is legit it certainly trumps the B&M design for accuracy seen on the other promo.

That's the concept I personally wouldn't read too much into. The train is very small on the concept compared to everything else which you can't tell from that photo. The trains aren't going to have Mr Twirly on the back of them like in the concept as that would be, well impossible!

I just don't think they would show a close up concept image clearly showing OTSRs and then go and use lap bars. I could well be wrong, and I really hope I am wrong.

Concept artwork never really shows off what the final ride will look like. For example, Th13teen's artwork showed a lot, but very little of it actually looked that good on the final ride. It was also marketed as this intense roller coaster and ended up being very far from the truth. Isn't this a sure fire tell that marketing and promotional material should not be believed.

Now, on the subject of the trains and the promo artwork above, it's actually pretty easy to do a logo like that on the back section of a train. I used to work in vinyl and print and have applied vinyl graphics to things with gaps, holes and sections that are very bumpy and it still looked great. That effect is not impossible, it just takes good design and a good fitter. Something which I'm sure Merlin has access too...

The trains, I believe, will have lap bars. It's very much the "Big new thing" from Gerstlauer, and SW7 (sorry, I refuse to call it by it's stupid real name) will have the most inversions in the world on a coaster with lap bars... Record anyone?

I'm not against the idea on OTSR's, I just think that lap bars is the way to go on this, the promo artwork in all cases means nothing, other than to look good and advertise the ride. It's like Raptor, which uses Furius Baco as a base for it's promo artwork. I wouldn't trust it as far as I can throw it.

 

[Tim]

That's the concept I personally wouldn't read too much into. The train is very small on the concept compared to everything else which you can't tell from that photo. The trains aren't going to have Mr Twirly on the back of them like in the concept as that would be, well impossible!

I just don't think they would show a close up concept image clearly showing OTSRs and then go and use lap bars. I could well be wrong, and I really hope I am wrong.

So you’re happy to read plenty into promotional artwork that we know shows B&M trains slapped together by marketing but not ones that look pretty damn detailed and like they could have been drawn up by Gerstlauer (prior to the face being added to the back of course)?

Your choice I suppose but I’m inclined to believe the latter.

---

To also touch on what Jared said about accuracy of designs It's worth noting that there is a difference between promotional art and concept art. An example of promotional art would be this:

An example of concept art:

http://www.drewartwork.co.uk/page2.html

or this:

As you can see concept art can (although not always) end up looking just like the real thing while marketing material tends to be much more dodgy (The Stealth one above was made after the ride opened, and still looks off).

Looking at this new image it looks like it could have been nicked from some concept art then turned into promotional art which is why I have a bit more faith in it. Although if anyone took a picture of that full poster I would quite like to see it and happily concede it could be misleading when seen in context.

 

[Rob]

That's the concept I personally wouldn't read too much into. The train is very small on the concept compared to everything else which you can't tell from that photo. The trains aren't going to have Mr Twirly on the back of them like in the concept as that would be, well impossible!

I just don't think they would show a close up concept image clearly showing OTSRs and then go and use lap bars. I could well be wrong, and I really hope I am wrong.

So you’re happy to read plenty into promotional artwork that we know shows B&M trains slapped together by marketing but not ones that look pretty damn detailed and like they could have been drawn up by Gerstlauer (prior to the face being added to the back of course)?

Your choice I suppose but I’m inclined to believe the latter.

I know what I've said sounds very contradictory. But the close up front on image showing yellow B&M restraints are apparently all taken using the Blivvy test seat, hence they all have the double seatbelt. The same applies for the Nemesis promotional image. I just don't see why they would so obviously show OTSRs if we were getting lap bars. I'm not saying the close up trains will be at all accurate, I just think it makes it pretty obvious that this will have OTSRs. I'd love to be wrong, trust me! I hate Gerstlauer OTSRs, anything would be better than them!