How does water coaster blocking work?

[Matt N]

Hi guys. As you probably know, coasters usually work on the basis of block sections, where a train will not be allowed to move into a specific section of the ride until the train in front has cleared it. However, there’s one ride type where I’ve noticed a deviation from this rule, and that’s the water coaster. I’ve noticed multiple occupancy of block sections at numerous points on water coasters, which wouldn’t be allowed on a regular coaster. Take Poseidon at Europa Park, for instance; in this POV, I can see numerous times where the channel sections have 2 or 3 boats within them, and I’ve even seen multiple occupancy of lift hills:

However, this POV also shows that the ride does hold back the boat at the back for a bit before it can progress further, so there is some kind of block sectioning there.

With that in mind, I’ll admit I’m struggling to work out how the blocking on water coasters works, so my question today is; does anyone know how blocking on water coasters works?

 

[Hixee]

The 'coaster' and 'splashdown' sections are their own blocks, with only one train allowed in at once. Once clear of the splashdown section (plus some sensible overrun), the boat is considered clear of that block and the one behind can proceed. When they're in the trough they just bob along as normal, I would suggest with slightly looser blocking controls and just monitor boats in vs boats out and e-stop if there's some build up of boats detected. There's not really any significant risk, and I would wager that these looser block sections are long enough that you'd be able to detect an issue pretty quickly.

The lift hills I assume are similar to log flumes also - as the boats are pseudo-locked in place, it's not quite the same risk as a freely coasting section where usual block rules apply. A train won't be allowed to move into the coaster/drop section of track from the lift hill if the block isn't clear - the lift hill would just stop.

Think of them like log flumes, more than coasters, and it feels a bit more intuitive how they have it configured.

 

[Matt N]

The 'coaster' and 'splashdown' sections are their own blocks, with only one train allowed in at once. Once clear of the splashdown section (plus some sensible overrun), the boat is considered clear of that block and the one behind can proceed. When they're in the trough they just bob along as normal, I would suggest with slightly looser blocking controls and just monitor boats in vs boats out and e-stop if there's some build up of boats detected. There's not really any significant risk, and I would wager that these looser block sections are long enough that you'd be able to detect an issue pretty quickly.

The lift hills I assume are similar to log flumes also - as the boats are pseudo-locked in place, it's not quite the same risk as a freely coasting section where usual block rules apply. A train won't be allowed to move into the coaster/drop section of track from the lift hill if the block isn't clear - the lift hill would just stop.

Think of them like log flumes, more than coasters, and it feels a bit more intuitive how they have it configured.

Ah right; that makes a lot of sense. So “clearing the block” within the channel sections is considered to be clearing the splashdown as opposed to clearing the entire channel?

Cheers @Hixee!

 

[Hixee]

Ah right; that makes a lot of sense. So “clearing the block” within the channel sections is considered to be clearing the splashdown as opposed to clearing the entire channel?

Cheers @Hixee!

I mean, I'm no log flume or water coaster designer, but I would assume it is something like that. It's how I'd do it.

 

[CSLKennyNI]

Can confirm having operated Poseidon few years ago yeah it is pretty much as Hixee says.

 

[Christian]

When I rode Poseidon a couple of weeks ago the ride ops were dispatching boats faster than the ride could handle them (such an EP problem). This meant that boats would always jam up in the water sections. Sometimes 10 boats waiting in a row. The lift hills would then make sure to space the boats out. Meaning that after clearing the jam I still had to wait about 5 minutes on the lifthill on various parts of it. First at the bottom, then the middle and then the top.

As Hixee said the ride would only allow 1 boat on the coaster and drop parts but it would massively stack on lifthills and water sections, using the lifthills to regulate the flow of boats. It was a very slow but super interesting ride. Think it took about 10-15 minutes to be back at the station.