Mark-Cal
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Shambala
No, I'm not talking about the wasted energy of travelling all the way to the Towers to ride Smiler for the first time to find it's broken again, I'm talking about wasted potential energy on a coaster.
Now I know very little about how one goes about designing a roller coaster from scratch but I imagine these days as well as a good understanding of physics there's a lot of computer input as well.
I guess compared to putting up a wooden coaster 80 years ago the modern designer has a good idea just how the trains are going to perform round the track before the first bit of cement is poured.
Having a train arrive back at the station "hot" is obviously better than having one that trickles back in having spent every last joule (or whatever it's measured in) of it's potential energy. Any excess energy can be lost mid ride easily with trim brakes but not enough means a redesign I would think, so a good designer is always going to play safe.
Having potential energy to spare is obviously going to help alleviate problems with stalling or rolling back later on along the circuit which makes good sense from an operating point of view and a fast approach into the final brake run can be fun but I sometimes find myself thinking rather than that energy be wasted perhaps it could have been better used up in a final ride element and whether the designers are sometimes shocked just how much faster a coaster reaches the end of it's run the first time they run it for real ?
Shock Wave at Drayton Manor and Millennium Coaster at Fantasy Island were two rides I noticed last year that seemed to carry a lot of energy right to the end of the ride that was burned off in the brake run but what other European coasters can you think of that are better examples, or perhaps the complete opposite ?
Now I know very little about how one goes about designing a roller coaster from scratch but I imagine these days as well as a good understanding of physics there's a lot of computer input as well.
I guess compared to putting up a wooden coaster 80 years ago the modern designer has a good idea just how the trains are going to perform round the track before the first bit of cement is poured.
Having a train arrive back at the station "hot" is obviously better than having one that trickles back in having spent every last joule (or whatever it's measured in) of it's potential energy. Any excess energy can be lost mid ride easily with trim brakes but not enough means a redesign I would think, so a good designer is always going to play safe.
Having potential energy to spare is obviously going to help alleviate problems with stalling or rolling back later on along the circuit which makes good sense from an operating point of view and a fast approach into the final brake run can be fun but I sometimes find myself thinking rather than that energy be wasted perhaps it could have been better used up in a final ride element and whether the designers are sometimes shocked just how much faster a coaster reaches the end of it's run the first time they run it for real ?
Shock Wave at Drayton Manor and Millennium Coaster at Fantasy Island were two rides I noticed last year that seemed to carry a lot of energy right to the end of the ride that was burned off in the brake run but what other European coasters can you think of that are better examples, or perhaps the complete opposite ?