Air Gate Question

This is another dumb question of mine, but what exactly are "air gates?"

air gates are the gates at roller coasters that keep you from walking in front of the train while its coming in/out of the station.  It is controlled by air pressure. 

An inexact, incorrect, inappropriate name given to the air-operated gates found at the ends of the seat queues on many coasters. Calling them "air gates" implies that they are air operated, which may or may not be the case. I've seen manual gates, spring loaded gates with magnetic catches, spring loaded gates, motor actuated gates, and (my personal favorite) no gates at all.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Yeah, there's one or two pistons for the whole row of gates, which are all connected to each other by rods.  Those pistons are amazingly strong, it's nearly impossible to push the gates out of their position.  Sometimes the panel operator opens and closes the gates;  and other times, a small verification panel has a switch to open or close them.

What If someone is in the way when they close? Do they open back up? Or crush whoever is an unlucky person??
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Steve
Staff
SFWoA Online

If someone is in the way when it closes, it depends on the airgate system.  From my experience at 2 different coasters, if someone gets in the way it will pretty much pin them and won't open up until the op opens the airgates (Chiller and Skull Mt), if the airgates stay in that position you will then get an airgate error on the computer system and you'll experience a short amount of down time while you have to reset the computer.  Ops usually look out for this and that is why at most places you will hear the standard announcement that the air gates are closing and to please take a step back.

Yeah, at most coasters your pretty much get stuck.  Sometimes you can 'bump' the gates by turning the switch to close real quickly and then flipping it back to open.  It will make the gates move a little bit but they won't close.  If anyone's in the way, they'll feel the gates bump and will get this picture to stand back.  As far as an error, if they won't close, I haven't heard of that at SFOG, but the controller won't allow the train to be dispatched until they are shut.  Also, you can't open them unless a train is in the station.

Most of them will mercilessly pin/crush anybody who happens to be in the way. It isn't pretty, and I can tell you from experience that some operators are not inclined to respond quickly to "OUCH!!! OPEN THE @#$!ING GATE!!!!!".
It would be far better for the gates to be equipped with some kind of clutch, or to be designed to close with very little force, then pump up to full force once fully closed. I'm seeing some progress with these; Kings Island finally fixed the exit gate on "Flight of Fear" that was smashing kids up against the wall with appalling regularity and incredible force.

I can see why parks like to have them, but I've seen far more people get hurt by the damned things than I've seen people crash the yellow line when gates were not present. This leads me to conclude that they probably cause more injuries than they prevent, which is why I don't personally like them.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

And think about it, they don't use "air gates" on subways...and the situation is quite a bit more dangerous. At least an operator can stop a ride should someone spill out onto the track. A subway train comes screaming in at 40mph. 

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"I'll bet that thing hits 5 Gs going through that loop.....faaar ooouut!"

Well, I think people underestimate how dangerous coaster trains are versus 'real' trains (subways).  Also, if someone was to jump them and got injured or worse, it would be to the parks' advantage to have them as it would make a lawsuit against the park harder to accomplish.  I'd say it's more for litigation prevention than anything else.

I have seen some violent airgates... the ones on the Ga. Scorcher are very powerful and FAST.  They will knock the crap outta ya if you don't watch out.

Thank you to all who resonded!!!!

The Fastest I've seen have probably been the ones on DejaVu at SFMM. This is probably a bad thing seeing as they shut completely and won't budge at all.
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Bow Down to...The Sleeping Smiley!!
--_--zzZZzzz
(tm)

Well I see it like this.  There's no air gates on subways, but correct me if I'm wrong, haven't people died from getting run over by a subway train after being pushed off or falling off a ramp?  I can't recall the last time someone was killed by air gates.  And as far as ops stopping the dispatch, that may be true, but let's not forget about boomerang coasters or launch coasters.

I have a gate story!

One time on Millennium Force I was waiting for the back seat and the gates began to close. There was a pair of empty seats and a couple who just came into the station was told to take them. I held my gate open,  which oddly  enough kept all the gates open just enough that they could board the train

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It's not just MonkeyBall, it's SUPER Monkeyball

Joe, all of the gates are connected.  So if you hold open one, they will all stay open.  It seems to me that on the Intamin coasters they aren't as strong.  The B&M's you just aren't going to be able to stop.

As much as I hate to say it, SFGRAMboy20 is right, for example at SFGAm, the air gates at V2, you can hold them and they wont close. but B:TR's gates you cant stop them unless you are the person controlling if they open or close.

i have some gate things

-My freind and me were in line for superman and the gates closed (hard) and he was leaning againsts it, and it opened up a little and the ride op came and shouted at him "IF YOU OPEN ONE OF THESE GATES, THE RIDE WILL SHUT DOWN FOR 2 HOURS!" After that he stepped back

Like an inverted B&M gate opens easily. And I thik that's what happened that time I got stuck on it! Someone opened one of those gates.

The rides won't shut down for two hours.  Unless, of course, you break something by doing that--which is unlikely, but possible.  I'm sure they just said that so you BEHAVED.  Finally, you didn't get stuck on the ride because of someone pushing on the gates.  Please use some common sense.

When I worked at the Adventuredome, we had motor driven gates. It was good because you could open certain rows if a car was closed. It was bad because sometimes they burned out and wouldnt close meaning downtime. These gates however where in no way tied in to the control system so you could theoretically dispatch with them open or open them without a train or boat present. At MGM we still have air gates on Lightning Bolt. They are all interconnected so if you push one, they all move. Also because they are true airgates they close wih lots of force. I have pinned a few kids, not on purpose... One good thing or bad thing is that they are connected to the ride control system so if they are open the train cant leave. Bad thing is if someone wants to be a jerk and not stand behind the line it can mean the ride e-stopping itself.

*** This post was edited by baddboy on 12/30/2001. ***