Crossover Coaster

[Gazza]

Here is an idea for a ride I thought of a while back, Its called a crossover coaster. The ride is basicaly a floorless, inverted hybrid. The vehicle has dual wheel assemblies. One at the bottom and one at the top. The main drawcard of the ride is that it can conbine a standard rollercoaster with an inverted ride. At the beggining of the ride the car goes along like a normal coaster. But there are transition sections that allow the ride to switch between an inverted and normal postiton. The way it works is by lining up the track with the wheel assmeblies, so it can roll off one track and onto the other. This enables new never before seen elements such as a combo vertical loop. Where it starts off normally , but finishes in an inverted position. The dual wheel assemblies allow for simulated jumps, where the ride would appear to jump a gap in the tracks (But the upper track would keep hold of the car). This ride could have many themes, From a ride themed to flying with a normal track on the ground as the runway, That leads onto an inverted section to simulate flying. You could also make a mine themed ride, with exiting jumps over chasms or a stunt show themed ride with run ups and leaps over obstacles. here is a pic of the vehicle which shows the way it can transfer between normal and inverted positions. I will be posting a layout of my ride soon.

[rappa]

I must say it sounds like a cool concept and would love to see it some day. However I don't know how possible mechanically it would actually be to achieve the track transitions your talking about. I'd imagine it would be very difficult to have the bogies mesh up with the track when changing from the top to the bottom rails. Not saying it would never be possible but I don't think its anywhere near as simple as they make it look in some of the animated simulation rides (do you know the ones?) It would have to be a very precision system in order to minimise any stress on the cars or the riders. I also don't know what the affects of friction would be if the car was travelling on 2 sets of rails. You only have to look at the problems with X and that’s at least 2 sets of rails in the one plane, not even one above and one bellow the train. Having said that, cool idea, never hurts to come up with unique concepts!

[Nightshifter]

i always wanted to make or invent a roller coaster where the 360 degree vertical loop becomes upside down. just a thought.

[Gazza]

Maybe the ride itself would be better suited to smaller aplications such as a wild mouse type ride where most of the ride is downhill and the bunny hops would make an ideal place for the jumps. As for the transitions, If you look closley on the pic you will see that the beggining of the regular track has rails that taper to a point. This means the wheels wouldnt suddenly hit anything. They would gradualy come into contact with the rail. You were right when you said it would have to be quite precise, but extra bracing around the track and careful construction would make it possible. One technical limitation is the fact trains cant be used because the connectors could not go anywhere exept in the middle on the car, which would be quite inconvinent. You would have to use a single car vehicle with back 2 back seating (5 or 6 seats on each side) to keep capactity at a tolerable level. Here is a ride layout as i promised, Its called "Stunt Driver"

[GoGoBoy]

That is such a cool idea Gazza. I swear you have some of the best ideas for ride designs I have ever seen. Whether or not they would always work perfectly technically doesn't matter 'cause it's all about experimenting and trial and error until you get the right design. All of your theming ideas compliment the rides really well too. I hope you are going to study engineering or something similar at uni so you can make a career of this. We need people like you in the industry

[Gazza]

Well it would be my dream to open a theme park in Melbourne, But I really doubt I will ever do it for a number of reasons, but I can always dream. I doubt I will do engineering because I dont want to spend thousands on a degree that has a very slim chance of leading to ride design ect. I will probably get into Architecture.