Split-up flume ride

[Gazza]

This is one of my newest ideas 'galvin', its a Split-up boat flume, to give you a general idea of what it is, It is a log flume with 6 passenger boats that are really two 3 passsenger boats joined together, the ride starts out like a normal log flume, but park way through, a mechanism spilts the Two 3 passenger boats apart and they go down seperate routes, offering different experinces depending on which part of the boat you are in, then the two courses come together again and the two boats duel against each other for the final part of the ride, before the two courses form back into one and the boats join back together to form the 6 passenger boat again. This ride could have many ways of themeing it, for example, riding on logs through a sawmill, before a ripsaw tears your log into two and both go their seperate ways. Another idea could be exploring through the rainforest in a raft, but a crocodile attacks and bites your raft in two and the party is separated. Yet another idea could be canoeing in a river but some of the members of your crew are abducted by aliens. A ride like this would be interesting because of the feeling of uncertainty the ride creates because you dont know what is happeing to the rest of the riders and because of the deuling part at the end of the ride. The rafts would seperate and reconnect using a click on/click off mechanism seen commonly in everyday life, for example like the pause button on a cassete player. Hydraulic equipment is used to push the boats together and get them apart. Anyway, here is a pic of it..

[Shaun]

I love it! (now I've realised which directions the boats go ) I like the sawmill idea. Asking the obvious, how would the boats join together? You would want a reliable system. Maybe they just clip together with a couple of barbs out the side then at a certin point in the track, the double boat hits a arm which releases the 2 boats? Maybe like a car door lock somehow? Reminds me of that movie with the car that splits in half, Malcom or soemthing? Have you seen the vekoma motorbike coaster cars before? It's got nothing do with your flume ride but I thought it was a geat idea. might give you some inspiration I love reading about your ideas Thanks Shaun

[Gazza]

Yeah, Malcom is the movie, that was a cool flick, especially the bit at the start where he gets all tram parts and makes that buggy and the bit where he uses the bins to overcome the security guard. The ssytem used would be a click on/click off mechanisim as I said before, like on a tape player whare on press keeps the button down, while another press lifts the button up again, this would be adapted so the boats would be pushed together with a couple of robo arms or something and they would stay together, while another push would disconnect the two boats. That car door type toggle would work too as they would stay together no matter what, which would be good for safety and they would only seperate at the correct point in the ride. Oh and the motorbike looks cool>

[Shaun]

Sorry I didn't read your last paragraph before ......... I see what your saying I like tha car door idea though. What you could have was like a track under the water just before the boats split. So the double boats enter the underwater track, where a lever under the boat disengadges the boats. The boats then split apart and keep following the tracks which split off into diffrn't directions and then the boats move off the track and are free to continue on. I think if you did it on a track like that there would just be much less room for error, as as long as the boat enters the track the rest of the process should be smoth. I think you will get the picture....? Maybe you could use the same type of track and running rails on the bottom of the boats at the loading station. All just ideas Shaun

[Gazza]

I did think of a rail idea, The front boat would have rails on the left side but not on the right, and the rear boat would have rails on the right side but not on the left, on the normal sections there would be a rail on both sides of the channel but on the sections after the split up each route would only have a rail on one one side. On another note, maybe I should head to the rail yards and look at the couplings trains use, I think during shunting they use a click on / click off mechanisim, I know a train buff so maybe he can shed seom light on it for me.

[Shaun]

So I'm confused? Are the boats going to be next to each other or behind each other? I was thinking they were going to be next to each other. So it would be like having 2 ordinary log flumes side by side that just split apart and join back together. Shaun

[Gazza]

They are behind each other, joined together almost like a 2 car coaster train.