A good place to go for all the details you ask for is the patent for the Runaway Train coaster. First of all it applies to Cedar Point's
Mine Ride, Gemini and
Magnum XL-200. Second, that particular patent also describes a braking system and a governor wheel system. Third, I have reproduced that patent on my web site; you can see it at
http://capital2.capital.edu/admin-staff/dalthoff/bobsled.html .
To answer more specifically, each wheel assembly includes a road wheel, some means for steering, and (except on
Disaster Transport) some undertrack means for preventing derailment. In the case of Cedar Point's coasters, the steering means is always a guide wheel, although some coasters use a flanged road wheel. The anti-derailment means, known as an up-stop, may be a wheel, as on
Magnum or
Corkscrew, or it may be a flat bar as on
Gemini.
Of course there are brakes on the train; how else would they stop them? At Cedar Point, fin brakes are used on most of the coasters (with
Disaster Transport again the exception) where a metal fin extends downward (or outward in the case of
Millennium Force) from the train and engages with brake calipers located on the track. Except on
Millennium Force, the brake calipers actually squeeze against the brake fin to drag the train to a stop.
Millennium Force is a little unusual in that its brakes use strong magnets instead of friction to slow the train.
Finally, a
trim brake is any brake used to slow, but not to stop, a coaster train. Examples include the first drop brakes on
Mantis and
Mean Streak, and the brakes at the bottom of the third hill on
Magnum. Most of the brakes on the rides are actually
block brakes which are capable of reliably stopping the train in order to maintain block spacing between trains (
http://capital2.capital.edu/admin-staff/dalthoff/blocking.html ). Block brakes are frequently also used as trim brakes to regulate the speed of the train. Consider this: The ride is designed so that a train stopped on the block brake can make it all the way back to the station...so it follows that ideally the train should be nearly stopped when it leaves the block brake anyway.
Does that help? :)
--Dave Althoff, Jr.
(Added some spaces to make the parser see the second URL)
*** This post was edited by RideMan on 2/8/2001. ***