27 replies to this topic

[Ryan Shrout]

Brad posted this in the Pointless Thread and I thought it was deserving of its own topic where we could fully discuss the possiblities. Here are some posts I"m transfering in from the Pointless thread on the subject.

And here's a neat little concept I found on YouTube, a sit-down suspended coaster. Though it has flaws I'm sure with banking, a smoother track, and a longer train it would be amazing.
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^That's actually a great concept, if you could put it into a larger scale, such as making wider and longer trains and having bigger drops, bigger turns, etc.

Yeah that would be amazing to ride

This really is a great idea as it takes away a lot of the mechanical issues that have been problems for suspended coasters in the past and even caused some to close such as BBW. Add some banking to the turns to kinda help the ride along and this could be a succcesful concept. I would definitely recommend that the slide bar be extended to allow for higher degrees of banking on the swings. Also, just for safety purposes it needs to have a stopper on the ends. Here's one of the things that really excites me about this design. Its the potential to invert. You would still have to be very careful in designing an inverting element to have the right G forces to keep the car in place without rotating but the potential is there. Or, how about making the slide bars into complete circles. You could built a standard vertical loop into the track but from the riders perspictive it could ride like a non-inverting loop as the car rotates to have the heavy side of the car down. Think of the canoe coaster concept where the track can do a full 360 degree rotation and because of the freeswinging nature of the gondolas. And as stated earlier, obviously a production model would feature a multicar train. I'm not sure if anybody will ever try and take on this design but it has ton's of potential.

[Brad]

I'm not too sure I like the idea of inverting... if it's to be a true Sit Down Suspended coaster it shouldn't invert, especially (which is most definitely not happening) if Busch Gardens were to replace the Big Bad Wolf with one. And once it inverted, you'd have no way to control how many times it would keep inverting, which could be based on the weight of the car, which I believe would make most people rather dizzy.

[Ryan Shrout]

The couldn't keep inverting indefinitely because they are bottom heavy. It would take a lot of force to get the swinging car to invert based on rotation alone. I was talking about putting something like a vertical loop on a suspended style coaster. That was something that we talked about quite a bit on the site a while back was the potential of putting inversions on suspended coasters. Their fluidity of movement however made this impossible as the cars might tip over while inverted. With this new idea, a completely circular roll bar would make it so that the car could roll back to rightside up during an inversion element and it wouldn't be hazardous. And if they element were engineered ride, the car wouldn't rotate over at all but ride it just like a standard vertical loop.

[Brad]

^I know but based on the weight of the people in the car could cause it to swing/flip more than desired.
Also, an Inverted Suspended coaster could invert, but it would require something to lock it in place, like on a Top Spin, but at that point you'd have to have it lock during a flat section where it's not swinging, or on a lift hill, because if it locked while swinging... bad idea.

[netdvn]

I'd hate to burst everyone's bubble but the Australians did it first.. and it didn't work out too well for them because Orphan Rocker is the only roller coaster in the world to have been under construction for more than two decades.

A pretty sweet thread with a bunch more details.
If another company can bring this concept to life that would be amazing!

Another clicky

Edited by netdvn, 30 September 2009 - 04:13 PM.

[Ryan Shrout]

Yeah I remember reading about that. But I think what we wanted to do with this thread is talk about improvements on the concept.

[CPF]

Perhaps they could make the car so that the seats could roll over the top, using like a rail circle on the car. Do you know what I mean?

[Ryan Shrout]

Yeah that's kinda what I was suggesting. Having the slide rails that the car swings on make a complete circle instead of the semi-circle shown in the video.

[The Deadman]

that looked pretty cool, heres hoping it gets made in the US

[Shadowblur93]

I'm thinking this would probably make more of a family coaster than a high-speed thrill ride. Also, this seems like the type of thing that would go into FEC's and ski resorts looking for a good summer attraction rather than mega-parks.

[MorganFan]

you could make an inversion on a swinger without banking the turns at all. just make a sharp turn and stop the turn while the car is swinging upward, then it could swing all the way around!

[Kevin Dice]

The inversion count wouldn't be constant if they did that.
Arrow found out very fast the even with suspended coasters, have to bank the turns because the wheel assemblies would just get destroyed in about a week. The turns should be banked but the swinging will still be the exact same.
The inversion idea would work if the coaster was designed to do that consistently.

[krosscoasters]

This does look like an interesting concept. Maybe even if it takes off, it could revitalize suspended coasters...? Probably not, but just a thought.

[HCL]

Isn't this like Tranan?

[Coasterholic14]

You do realize that what you're talking about with a "sitting swinging" coaster is essentially the same thing as a bobsled coaster (which is exactly the way the car on that video works, just modeled a bit differently.......rather than sliding up the banking of the track, it slides up and down the "track" made by those rails it slides on)

As for inversions, dream on. To do an inversion on ANY style of swinging coaster requires a perfect weight distribution to keep the cars from "falling" one way or the other.

Edited by Coasterholic14, 12 January 2010 - 10:55 AM.

[Nessie]

^That's kind of the point. You make it so the sides go 360 degrees, and then at the top of the loop, it swings right-side up. It would be a very unique element.

I imagined something like Tranan where it spends some time above the track and sometime below it. I also pictured a heartline roll. The train would stay upright, but the track would rotate around you. that would be sweet.

[Coasterholic14]

The problem is the movement through an inversion would be too unpredictable to be safely executed, given everyone's different weights. It could be pulled off at low speeds, but then you risk the train not making it, and at high speeds, you risk the rider being caught in an awkward position (depending on the axis of rotation and the center of gravity), such as nearly upside down coming down a loop, or having the car slowly rotate and then snap the rest of the way down at high speeds (high g-force spikes). This can be minimized depending on the design of the cars, and it is physically possible, but its just too unpredictable and potentially unsafe.

I also pictured a heartline roll. The train would stay upright, but the track would rotate around you. that would be sweet.

Wouldn't that be kind of pointless to have the track rotate around you? I mean, it'd be a cool effect no doubt, but you could achieve that affect other ways (plus you'd have to make it large enough that someone's not going to be able to touch the track as it rotates overhead). With Tranan, you are hanging off the wings, so when that goes through an "in-line" roll, there is horizontal, vertical, and rotational movement.

Edited by Coasterholic14, 12 January 2010 - 06:28 PM.

[Vicarious Chair]

Either way, it'd be the safest for there to be a guide rail around the entire car, so if heavier passengers are occupying it, the car won't slam against the top part of each side of the guide rail.

[at5626]

Something tells me a weight limit could be possible on this kind of coaster.

Wind could possibly be a factor. Maybe not.

The heartline roll seems like the only inversion I see happening right now. The loop would be the next one I would try. For now, a heartline roll seems the safest. This coaster style reminded a lot of a pipeline coaster and a suspended swinging coaster mixed together. Two interesting coaster styles that are not too popular today, but mixed together could create a whole new experience.

[Ryan Shrout]

If you tried a heartline roll on this type of coaster, the track would rotated around the ride vehicle but it would stay upright. That's the point of the rolling capability. But it would make a vertical loop doable. It might end up rolling out at the top like a non-inverting loop but that'd still be cool.

[MorganFan]

well, you could have a spin toggle for elements on the suspended sitting coaster like the old portable mouse spinners right?

[Kevin Dice]

This isn't exactly free swinging but it still is a cool idea:You could have two sets of rails like X2. The 2nd pair would control the rotation (rolling) of the cars. Then you could have inverted track and upright cars. You could also have a raven turn starting track inverted on top and then diving into a half loop to end with track below the cars and at the same time rolling 180 degrees. It could be freaky element depending on when and how fast the designer executes the roll during the element. I can't picture the mechanics of the car yet though. I'm trying to think of how it could be so that the car base isn't within reach of riders during inverted track while still keeping the height of the cars under 8 feet.


Idea.... If it was a lay down/flying coaster and each of the 2 or 4 passenger tubeish "seats" of each car would rotate individually (rather than a block of the 4 rotating) then the car wouldn't be 8 feet tall. I'll draw up a rough sketch soon if you don't really get what I'm saying. By tubish flying "seats", I mean "seats" like Hexenbesen but with a real restraint and with four tubes attached to a car. Each tube rolls individually rather than the whole car rotating. Down a diving raven turn People would be going head first towards the ground and then would pull out at the last second. This would probably be a mechanical nightmare but still...It could work.

[TexasCyclone]

Long time since anyone's been on this topic. Today Orlando Attractions Magazine released an article about the New Fantasyland and the new additions (there was a press meeting today about it for those who don't know). Anyway, one of the things mentioned was a new Seven Dwarfs Mine Train coaster and the ride system sounded very similar to what this thread is about (Sit down swinging coaster). Read for yourself:

"The Seven Dwarfs Mine Train will take guests on a musical ride into their mine. The coaster will feature a first-of-its kind ride system with a train of ride vehicles that swing back and forth as they move along the track. The ride will be accompanied by animated figures of Snow White and the Dwarfs."


Anyone thinking the same thing?


Read the full article here.

[SonicTeamRCT3]

Acualy these already exist. Its called Top gun at kings island

[TexasCyclone]

Acualy these already exist. Its called Top gun at kings island

You're thinking of a Suspended Swinging coaster. Yes, those do exist, but this topic is about a swinging coaster where the track is below you. Go to the first post because I think there is a video of the concept.