Articulated Trains

What are articulated trains and which roller coasters have them? What criteria must a roller coaster train meet in order to be considered articulated?

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It's not really the coaster, but the trains. Dave's site has a good explanation.

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Woodencoaster.com

On an articulated train, each car has only one axle and depends on the car in fron of it to support its front end. In essence, its like a whole series of trailers connected together. Of course, the lead car must have 2 axles. Often the lead car is a very short dummy that doesn't carry passengers. There are other possible articulation arrangements, but this is the one used on every coaster that I can think of.

The term is misleading at best, in my opinion, because all it really means is that the train has joints in it.

Most modern wood coasters, for instance, have partially articulated cars on them, in that there is a pivot shaft on one of the axles. It's correct to call such cars "articulated". It's also correct to call any train where there are joints between cars an 'articulated' train.

The situation Jim Fisher describes, where each car has a single axle and hangs off of the car ahead, is what is frequently meant by an articulated train, but a more accurate description of that would be to identify those cars as "trailiered" in that each car is carried on the back of the one ahead.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Schwarzkopfs feature the trailered aspect, as do some PTC's (Thunder Run, Wolf Bobs, etc).
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