Designing Coaster Concepts

Sometimes I design roller coaster designs and concepts the old fasioned way (AKA paper and penicls). Hey, NoLimits is great for existing coasters but sometimes I feel like going out on a limb and coming up with my own concepts. Amidst many various concepts, one of them was a freefall/vertical drop flyer. But then I took my concept to the next level by adding seats on both sides of the track. There would be 2 separate stations.

The first station would allow riders to board the trains like the typical B&M flyers (sit on the seat, strap in, and the seat tilts back). Then the train would exit the first station, and go into a 180 degree roll which would then place the existing riders lying on their back above the track while the empty cars on the other side of the track (below) would be ready for a new set of riders to load in the 2nd station. The only tricky part of this design was how the supports would be. There couldn't be conventional supports under or above the track since there would be trains travelling on both sides. Think of having two coaster tracks basically joined at the spine. So the question of supports then led me to the trains themselves. The only possible way to have supports would be to have them connected to the central spine of the track(s) from either side (not the sides where the actual rails are and the trains travel on.) Try to visualize a suspended coaster that instead of having the supports attach from the top of the track, the supports attach horizontally to the side of the spine.

But if the supports are like this, this means the trains wouldn't be able to be connected to each other and the coaster would instead become more like a back-to-back racing coaster. What would be the point of that? So to fix this, I decided to pretend super strong magnets could be created that would attach to the back of each train on both sides of the track. (or should I say the underneath of the trains.) Don't ask me any of the details about how the magnets would be able to work or anything, but it would attract both trains together, though keeping them separated due to the track spine between them. This would allow for both trains on each side of the track to move at the same rate and would basically allow them to appear to be moving as one train.

I know this description was probably sort of confusion but I hope you were able to try to picture this coaster. Some other of my coaster concepts are the 'Drop Coaster' (a combination of a dive coaster and flying coaster except riding on your back, feet first through the ride) and 'Standing Swinger' (a combination of a standing coaster and a suspended coaster like Iron Dragon. I feel like this post is already long enough so I won't really explain these but I can if you want me to.

So I thought it would be fun to discuss if anyone else has designed any new or innovative coaster concepts or have just done unique things on NoLimits.

This kind of topic might be better suited for Coasterbuzz.

I would love to see some of the pictures you made. I kinda get the idea, but its a little confusing. I think that a standing swinger would be awesome.

The drawings and pictures sort of look confusing and chaotic too with lots of eraser marks and messy scribbles. I'll see if there's any way to upload them or post them but I'm not sure if I will.

I don't know why I didn't think of this when I made my first post in this thread, but there is a really good visual example of this concept, only without the flying, racing coaster aspects. But the loop/top hat hill on Six Flags Magic Mountain's new coaster for next year, Full Throttle, looks similar to what the track would be like for this entire flyer. Also, just imagine that both trains will be moving as one, only on opposite sides of the track. Picture B&M flyer trains on it, too. Here's a link to some renderings for Full Throttle so you can get a general idea of what my concept would look like. (Look at images numbers 3 and 9 especially to get the best idea.) This is what I imagined the supports and track would be built like. http://www.latimes.com/travel/deals/themeparks/la-trb-six-flags-magic-mountain-full-throttle-08201230-pg,0,7757844.photogallery

Oh, and by the way, I created this concept way before Six Flags unveiled Full Throttle, so I did not get any ideas for my concept from it (the back to back track).

I love this thread, I too design different concepts with pencil & paper. I agree with everything except the loading zone. Why not just have one loading station that has two levels... ?_?

Overall, the idea sounds very innovative. But what is the point having a flying and lay-down coaster in one? Why would any park buy this? Sorry, really not trying to be mean, I just don't see this as anything marketable.

I also thought of a suspended stand up coaster, however, the vertical G's on a suspended coaster are already strong. Adding the stand up position on riders would make this far too uncomfortable.

^I'm glad some people enjoy this thread. I never thought about having a 2 level station. I guess that could work even better.

I saw the point for having this being that it would be visually attractive to many guests, since this would be a very cool ride to watch and look at, especially the supports, track, and 2-moving-as-1 train effect. Also, if some people prefer flying coasters, they would board in the bottom station level which would give them that flying experience during the ride. Those that prefer the lay down experience would board on the 2nd level to have that experience. I also picture the first drop sort of like a dive coaster's drop, with brakes to allow the trains to hang for a few seconds. This would be a new experience not previously given on a coaster like this. The park could market it as a 2-in-1 coaster and if they really wanted to, maybe even a racing coaster if, for example, during the last half of the ride the 2 tracks broke apart and became a twisting racing coaster like Dueling Dragons at Univeral.

I appreciate your thoughts on this concept, and while I can understand why you may not think this would be marketed well, I actually think it would. In addition, it would have high capacity. It would have 4 across seating, plus there would be 2 trains running at a time. Just imagine how good of a people eater it would be, especially if it had 3 pairs of trains.

A Hyper or Giga coaster like B&M winged concept only with the V rising up and away from the track instead of alongside. The seats could be tilted back a bit for even less visual of any track. Like the open air clamshell restraints and seats like on Diamondback. With no floor or OTSR's at all the clamshell restraint would have to be connected somewhere below the seat by jointed arm type system I would think.

Very open air.

I always thought a hybrid between a flying coaster and either a Dive or wing coaster could be a really cool idea.

That would have been cool if GateKeeper would have been a flying wing coaster. Imagine how awesome that would be!