How does an Alpine Coaster Work?

[metalhead7]

I get that the cars use gravity to go down a mountain, but how does blocking on the ride go? I've never been on one but from what I understand the rider has control of the brakes. So my question is do they just run the thing one car at a time? or if not what keeps the faster more daring riders from crashing into the slow ones? I also attached a link to the video I got this question from, I cant imagine they go five minutes before releasing another one person car!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIZkkQBd ... re=related

 

[Hixee]

They basically just space them out and rely on people having some common sense. They'll have a point, maybe half way (or a third etc) down where the car sets off some sort of sensor and the ride op at the top releases the car. So yeah, I think it just boils down to the riders having to use a bit of common sense.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZIlRirNw8k[/youtube]

Doesn't always work though. :roll:

 

[Thekingin64]

As Hixee said, It is just rider common sense as I have been on the bobsled style one at Llandudno ski centre and annoyingly the person infront was braking really hard for the corners so I had to slow as well. If you don't slow down on that one, I have seen people fall off going round the corners.

 

[Coasterfreck]

How does an Alpine Coaster slow down before entering a station?

 

[Hixee]

^I assume they just have a set of skid-brakes mounted on the track. Much the same way that old-school skid brakes work on woodies. Probably a really simple system like that.

 

[dropthefloor93]

What do the Bogeys on these things exactly look like? do they have side road and upstops?

 

[Hixee]

From what I can figure, the outside rails support most of the weight of the cart. They've just got a set of normal wheels resting on top of them. The middle rails are the rails that the brakes work on. The brakes pull the skids upwards onto the underside of the middle rails. This would also act as a type of upstop device. They've also got skids on the sides of the brake mechanism to hold the cart in place laterally. The two inside rails are just for the supports, I think. I can't see anything attaching to them in that picture.

That's my best guess.