Are Coaster Designers/builders rich?

Yes, B&M track is hollow. The spine is formed by welding plates together to form a box section. Easy to see if you look at it closely. The running rails are hollow tubes about 5" in diameter. The ties from the spine to the rails are thick plates. B&M offers sand filling of the track as an option to reduce noise.

http://www.coasterforum.com/boards/attachment.php?s=&postid=175124

The photo speaks for itself.... B&Ms track is hollow. If it wasnt, how could they fill it with sand to dampen the noise??

-----------------
WCUSA-The World's largest theme park is coming!
Theme parks will NEVER be the same!

---

Jim Fisher said:

Intamin's design requires less steel than B&M's, but it requires more labor.

auscoasterman:

Our US dollars are about $1.85 Austrailian. Your $80,000 to $200,000 works out to $43,000 to $108,000 US. Usually the higher end of this scale is found with large manufacturing firms. Smaller outfits like coaster companies usually don't pay quite as well

---

Just to let you know, Exchange rate has no effect whatsoever on most salaries. The exchange rate effects day-to-day life in no way here. It isn't as if we pay $2 for something that's usually $1 over there. Similarly, it isn't as if over the past 10 years or so, peoples salaries have been steadily decreasing as our dollar got worse and worse.

-----------------
So what if the best coaster in Australia is a second hand Arrow?
http://www.totalthrills.com

I'd still like to see someone factually quantify how Intamin track uses less steel than B&M track.

-----------------
Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com, Sillynonsense.com
"As far as I can tell it doesn't matter who you are. If you can believe, there's something worth fighting for..." - Garbage, "Parade"

Jeff: I'll have to make a couple of assumptions on the thickness of the tubes, but I'll get back to you on that.