Details on Un-opened coaster

I was going through RCDB and this popped up in the random spot.

http://rcdb.com/installationdetail1870.htm

Well, whats its story? Why has it been SBNO for that long? What kept it from opening?

I've been looking and can not find a definante answer.

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http://coasterplace.web1000.com

Wow, they might get a "new" coaster that is 16 years old?? Crazy, I like the scenery there though, although it looks like some housekeeping might be needed ;)

Here's some info; http://info.mountains.net.au/rail/ksr/orphan.htm It's about 1.5 hours drive from where I live. Beautiful scenery. This coaster is a great idea, however I have many concerns over the design. Bottom line is it doesn't look safe to me as an home-built design, very sharp curves & angles - ouch. Since the track is truly triangular, the upstops are about 30 degrees off vertical to prevent contact with the cross-sections. Compare this to Intamin where the triangular cross-sections are in between the rails & thus there is room for vertical upstops. Not too good.

It's in my wildest dreams that they would replace it with an Intamin creation. Perhaps even travelling a few hundred feet down the cliff instead of just skirting the edge.

Taipan beat me to it... and I can't even post a link to my photos, because all but the last two are my photos at RCDB. :)

The definite answer as to why it's not currently operating is the owner of the "park" (very loosely used term in this case), decided to look into building his own coaster for tourists (it's one of Sydney's major tourist destinations for the stunning views and various precariously positioned scenic rides). He found some people that were designing software to analyse the rides installed at Expo '88 in Brisbane (why you'd need to 'analyse' three pre-designed Vekoma coasters is beyond me... you already know they're gonna suck), so got their assistance. It turned out their software didn't actually analyse forces properly, so they had to write some more software.

They got the ride built by the early nineties. Problem after problem came and left, and some rusting and other things stemming from its stagnant state have meant many part replacements over the years.

When Phil Hammon built his nice new Doppelmayr cable toy (the Sceniscender - quite an interesting ride), he had to take out much of the lower track in its path.

Last year, he told me that once they've replaced the wheel hubs, they'll look at resuming testing again. The best part is that they haven't got the PLC programmed that operates the main drive, which was holding back the ride's certification and opening. Did I mention that the certification is to be done by their engineer responsible for the project, who has since retired? :)

I know, it sounds dubious however you tell the story, but it seems that given their original situation, they've done quite well for themselves to get this far. I'm sure if he'd had the money to do it 15 years ago, we'd probably see a Arrow Runaway Train in its position, with a layout not nearly as interesting or daring.

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Total Thrills Amusement Guide
Australia's Premier Source for Thrills!

all of the photos are of more or less flat track, no hills or anything ... which is probably for the best, since the banking and turns look VERY rough indeed. i'm pretty good with the No Limits simulator, and i can tell just by looking those turns would be very painful (and probably destructive to the track and train) if taken at any kind of high speed.

It's essentially a gentle coast down hill straight out of the station, into the curve-on-the-cliff climax, then into a lift hill, and a gentle coasting past the top-floor cafe, over the carpark and eventually around back into the station, which is roughly at mid-height on the ride. There's no significant drops, but you can guess it'll pick up speed. You'll want to brace yourself for some of those transitions into curves and the dips at the end (the track's either curved or straight - there's no inbetween).

I'm sure if it ever does open, there'll be significant costs to maintain the train, and the very tiny track guage won't exactly take the beating too nicely.
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Total Thrills Amusement Guide
Australia's Premier Source for Thrills!
*** This post was edited by auscoasterman 8/9/2003 8:32:01 AM ***

Looks like it was designed using RCT.

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Is that a Q-bot in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?

I don't know, some of those curves have that old arrow banking in them.It looks as if Ron Toomer might have been that engineer using that bent coat hanger trick he was so fond of. :-)

I remember in rollercoaster magazine a few years ago, there was a story about this ride. I was always curious as to the status of it. They showed the trains in the article which resembled really long bobsleds with similar seating. Thanks for the update auscoasterman.

Wood - anything else is an imitation

It has a real great name.

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http://said.uc.edu/students/oakleysd/cp/CP.jpg
Now tell me Cedar Point is running out of space.

Actually, we're looking at one step below Arrow banking here. Where Arrow would calculate the optimal banking for the speed and radius (with not-so-good transitions into the turns), it appears that here, they've essentially decided whether it's a high speed or low speed turn, and just simply banked all high speed turns at the same fixed angle (Taipan suggested to me once that it's 60º - and I'd certainly agree with that, seeing as the track does appear to be an equilateral triangle).

The name is unique and highly original - I'll give them that. :)

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Total Thrills Amusement Guide
Australia's Premier Source for Thrills!

Maybe because it would kill my parents and leave me as an orphan.

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http://coasterplace.web1000.com

I believe one of the geological features in that part of Aussie Land is Orphan Rock (or so the Travel Channel told me), hence the name.

Edit: A Google Search on "Orphan Rock" brought up this very interesting page about the coaster.

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Alcohol and Coasterbuzz don't mix, don't drink and post.

*** This post was edited by MagnumForce 8/10/2003 11:43:22 AM ***

Ive seen that page about 30 times.
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http://coasterplace.web1000.com

Wow, good for you! I am sure everyone in the whole wide world has saw it as well.

And thanks for the totally pointless post, cionsidereing you must have already knew exactly what was up with the ride before you asked it. :)

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If given the choice I'd choose a hamburger over a hotdog anyday of the week.
*** This post was edited by MagnumForce 8/10/2003 11:45:17 AM ***

No, I didnt know what was up with the ride, like what kept it from opening. That page just has some rumors and stuff, I wanted a real answer, so I started a thread!

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http://coasterplace.web1000.com

Sorry forgot my <sar"chasm"></sar"chasm">

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If given the choice I'd choose a hamburger over a hotdog anyday of the week.

Haha, its ok. I was like WTF that guys rude....

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http://coasterplace.web1000.com

auscoasterman & myself left out an important fact on this ride.

There is one 5 car train & each car takes 2 people all in single file. The person in the front of each car practically sits in the lap of the one behind. Like a steel chute toboggan & water park ones.

I always thought that those curves would be very hard to take on until I saw the train for myself. Each car is able to rock from side to side freely! There are inline axes on both ends of the cars to support the passenger modules from the chassis. The cars are very stiff to rock - to prevent prolonged swinging. I spoke to the owner & he said they came up with this idea as it eliminated having to work out Arrow style transitions, let alone today's compound curves! Very clever, must try it out for myself & see if it rocks or not! (Pun intended. ;))

I can't be sure, but think the rocking axis which lines up with the rider's heartlines is set high up off that of the track's. That means the cars will really tip to the side in curves, rocking or not. Should be fun!

Orphan Rocker is the only sit-down swinging coaster I know of in the world. A first in spite of its age!

Mark up another point to the name along with the rock feature it's named after.

I sent acm pics of the train, one of it tilted & am waiting for him to post them on his site. *taps fingers on table patiently, or not?* ;)

I hate to bring back an old topic, but I've got the pictures that Taipan spoke of (finally) online.

See:

http://www.totalthrills.com/scwgallery.php?page=orphanrocker18

http://www.totalthrills.com/scwgallery.php?page=orphanrocker19

In the first one, you see the tilting that Taipan mentioned. That would be seriously sweet in the some of the lower, faster curves. :)

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Total Thrills Amusement Guide
Australia's Premier Source for Thrills!

Taipan said:

Orphan Rocker is the only sit-down swinging coaster I know of in the world.

Actually, its kind of like an inverted Arrow suspended coaster in concept, wouldn't you say?

I remember seeing the coaster featured in RollerCoaster! years ago and wondered what ever happened to the thing... glad to see that its still around, despite the fact that it has been rather idle all of its life. Looking at the pictures on rcdb.com, I was actually quite surprised to see the coaster set in such a pretty park... the pictures in RC! didn't really do the place justice.

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-Rob
A.C.E. member since 1990
Posting @ Coasterbuzz since 2000
E.C.C. member since 2002
*** This post was edited by Rob Ascough 8/27/2003 2:06:45 PM ***