Coasters- How do they work

I know how a coaster work(blocks,lift,etc). But I have some questions. I just came back from SFO and Cp. I watch Raptor and BKF I noticed that trains were leaving a station before the train in front of it enter the mid course brakes. I thought that the coaster could not leave the station untill the train in front of it hit the mid course. Could someone tell me how the blocks are set up. Also does any have any pics. of the control panel on a coaster? Also how the control panel work?

The train can leave the station but can't crest the lift until the train ahead passes through the mid-course brakes. Raptor and Batman have nearly identical timing this way.

You always need one more block than you have trains, and no train can pass in to the next block unless it's clear. With most three-train coasters, you have a scenario like this:

A - Station
B - Lift
C - First half of course
D - Second half

You could also factor in the final brake run on the B&M rides since you can put two trains in them. On said rides, optimal performance goes like this:

Train leaves station, climbs lift. Second train can leave when lift is clear, but may not crest lift until first train goes through mid-course. Third train can't leave until second train is through mid-course, which means that the first train has to be through the final brake run. If they're dispatching quickly on Raptor or Batman, a train will slow in the final brake run and gently roll right in to the station without stopping. I haven't actually seen this happen on Batman, but when guests are loading quickly and the crew is groovin' it happens on Raptor every day.

Maybe the easier way to explain it is that if a train approaches a block that is not clear, it's going to be stopped on the lift, brake run or whatever. So if Raptor rolled back in the helix, the train behind it would be stopped on the mid-course. If it rolled back in the cobra roll, the next train would be stopped on the lift. Get it?

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Jeff
Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com

Also, for visual instuctions goto www.coasterquest.com

It's like jugling, but with an extra hand!?!?

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I will leave for the point 7:30:00AM June 20, 2000

I was thinking about it. If you ever got stopped on the mid-course block brake of Raptor, or especially Mantis, that would hurt really badly. Coming to a stop at the end of Mantis is bad enough and think about it with that much initial speed. Ouch!

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aIrtIme'S ovErRaTed..

Not true... I've been there on both and it's no big deal.

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Jeff
Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com

The only way I couldn't see it not being that bad is because the block brakes are pretty elevated in both cases. The climb to the block must kill a lot of the speed and the drop after must regain a lot of it. On a side note, what would happen (besides a rollback) where you would get stopped on the mid-course of those two rides?

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aIrtIme'S ovErRaTed..

If the computer "sees" that the prior train hasn't entered the final brake run when you hit the mid-course, it will hold you there. Of course, more often than not they're ghost trains caused by bad prox switches. Let me tell you, it's a sloooooooow ride from a stopped block. I think they do a fake setup on Raptor every morning when they test. Check it out and watch that train crawl over the last inversion!

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Jeff
Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com

Yeah, i have noticed that on the Raptor when it is going through its test runs Jeff and i have never quite known what it was form, but thats for clearing that up