Vertical Lift Hills: Why are they so uncommon?

[Zeock]

They are a space saver, and are much more interesting than a traditional lift hill. I wonder why they are not that popular?

 

[Shaggy_Dog_]

Because they aren’t as versatile, you can take a small Gertslauer style shuttle car up a vertical lift but good luck taking up a regular train. Launches are a good way of doing things and can lend themselves to more interesting layouts.

 

[DistortAMG]

Because they aren’t as versatile, you can take a small Gertslauer style shuttle car up a vertical lift but good luck taking up a regular train. Launches are a good way of doing things and can lend themselves to more interesting layouts.

You could easily take a regular train, with ease, it is not like the technology will not allow that sort of thing. We have canal boat lifts in this country that vertically lift 50x the weight of what would be considered a heavy train, they have been doing that since the early 1900's too. The technology is absolutely there.

I would assume they are much more complex, need more maintenance and are more expensive to install compared to a traditional chain lift. Requiring much more money to install and operate.

 

[rob666]

And the fact that they are uncomfortable, and a real pain to evacuate in the case of a breakdown.

 

[Shaggy_Dog_]

You could easily take a regular train, with ease, it is not like the technology will not allow that sort of thing. We have canal boat lifts in this country that vertically lift 50x the weight of what would be considered a heavy train, they have been doing that since the early 1900's too. The technology is absolutely there.

I would assume they are much more complex, need more maintenance and are more expensive to install compared to a traditional chain lift. Requiring much more money to install and operate.

I was referring more to the vertical lift hill as found on Eurofighter and Infinity coasters but yes there are coasters that use an elevator lift to travel up vertically. Speed at Energylandia is a good example.

But even these elevator lifts seem to be rather uncommon for regular coasters. RCDB lists only 42 coasters that have used elevator lifts and I suspect that once you take out the water coasters and bizarre little things like batflyers there’s not so many left. You’ve got things like Matterhorn Blitz and Winjas but again they are using small cars rather than a classic train.

https://rcdb.com/r.htm?ot=2&el=12174

 

[RicketyCricket]

Farenheit at Hersheypark is an interesting one. Think it may be Intamins only vertical lift?

 

[Dave]

They are harder to evacuate and require heftier chains and motors than standard lift hills. So you only buy one if you are short of space or want the vertical lift as part of the experience.

 

[SMT_]

Less energy required to yank a shopping trolley up a hill than it would be for a Mercedes, guess this is why it's a popular trait with Gerstlauer.