how come no more spaghetti bowls?

CP doesn't have a bowl of PASTA yet... perhaps we'll see one on the POINT!

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Tizzle Thrizzle Dragsizzle in 2003izle!

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(SF)Great American said:

They are expensive to run. We're talking enough power to launch a several ton vehicle at highway speeds hundreds of times daily. That eats up a lot of fuel for those generators they have on-site, which are there in the first place to prevent a power shortage in the rest of the park everytime the thing launches.

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Ever heard of capacitors? The LIMS have capacitors that way they can "stock" up on electricity while there is no launching and not cause any inconvienance to the rest of the park.

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So you believe that you are studying us, then kindly explain why you are the ones trapped in your seats.

BassHedz aked: how come no more spaghetti bowls?

A: They were full from the antipasto!
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Guaranteed humorous or your money back...
CB slacker (n): someone who posts a topic recently covered because they're WORKING....;)

Hey, FoF, I've partially retrcacted what I said. As for the rest, I'm just saying what I've read (And seen on TV. Yeah, I know... but I don't exactly have many other sources for amusment park information...).

P.S. How exatcly does a capacitor work on a LIM coaster? I only have the most basic knowledge about capacitors, and it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me... Ride Man?

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I hear America screaming...
*** This post was edited by (SF)Great American 4/15/2003 1:54:49 AM ***

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Guaranteed humorous or your money back...

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I want my money back...

...and I didn't even pay to get in here! ;)

And more on topic:

I personally love the look of the "spaghetti bowl" coasters. I'm all for more of them and more not hidden in a big box. If it's the LIM's reliability or the cost or whatever, how about some sort of hybrid with a lift hill? A lift taking up similar space to a launch dropping into a nice convoluted mess of track would be pretty damn cool (if I do say so myself).

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www.coasterimage.com

Cost is not the RCDB's most available statistic. After looking at the page for every single standard Boomerang and every LIM coaster, I came up with the following:

Boomerangs:
Boomerang, Coast to Coaster (Great Escape, '97): $5 Mil.
Boomerang, Coast to Coaster (SFDL, '98): $4 mil.

LIM:
Batman and Robin (2 coasters, SFGAv, '98): $15 mil.
Wicked Twister (CP, '02): $9.5 mil.
Steel Venom (ValleyFair!, '03): $8 mil.

There was no information on any of the Spaghetti bowls, either Premier or Vekoma, nor on Premier's other shuttles (the Freezes).

The figures are hardly conclusive. However, they are suggestive.

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I hear America screaming...

hmmm, i have to agree with some people above, LIM's do use a great deal of energy. as SFGAm'n said above, Rock 'n' Roller coaster needs it's own power supply/ maybe generator. I know that Tower of Terror at Dreamland needed a whole new power supply and generator because it used over half the total power of the park, this tells you how much power it needs, and dreamworld isn't a small park. This leads me on to some facts about S: TE and SFMM, how much power does that need? because thats ToT x2.

However there still are many spaghetti bowls, and although they might not be built regularly, some pop up now and again, but the thing higher tech resources are now available

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Colossus [1]
Nemesis: Inferno [6]

Ugh... these parks do not have generators. Generators take one form of fuel and produce electricity. Launched coasters do use capacitance store electricity in short bursts. It's that simple. What you're failing to compare is the discharge of said electricity in two seconds compared to say, the driving of a lift motor for 60 seconds.

IOA's Hulk uses a different scheme, where they use turbines to convert electrical energy to mechanical energy, then back again.

Xcelerator and Dragster also convert electrical energy into mechanical energy. A pump that runs more or less continously fills the accumulators with fluid, which compresses air in the chamber. When the valve opens, the fluid drains out and drives the motors, which launches the train. The point is that you still have a continuously running electric pump, and guess what, it will use more electricity than Wicked Twister (which is on the same grid, by the way).

$8 million for an impulse is a steal, especially for a smaller park, and a far more sensible investment than a $15 million+ B&M floorless.

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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com - Sillynonsense.com
"The world rotates to The Ultra-Heavy Beat!" - KMFDM

The total power usage for an LIM isn't much more than for a standard coaster of similar size. However LIMs do use it in bigger chunks since they do all the work in a few seconds rather than a minute or so for a lift. Contrary to rumours they do not use enough power for a small city; and to my knowledge, none use capacitors to store energy. Because of the sudden rush of power required they do need larger more expensive switch gear than a standard coaster. it may be that in some cases it is cheaper to install a generator than to get the power from the local electric company, but it would have to be a large generator since LIMs require several thousand horsepower for a few seconds. Also, generators don't usually like this kind of highly variable load.

Yes, the LIMs are expensive, but they have become pretty reliable. A spaghetti bowl is going to coast much more than a Boomerang since it is a much larger coaster and needs the larger switch gear.

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Lord Gonchar said:

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Guaranteed humorous or your money back...

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I want my money back...

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Your check is in the mail...;). How much did you say you paid again...

Now I am SURE on this and maybe i'm am wrong and please excuse my stupidity but wasn't a Premier Pasta Bowl rumored for Blackpool Pleasure Beach back in early 2002? Im sure it was never said but i could swear i heard something

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Tizzle Thrizzle Dragsizzle in 2003izle!
*** This post was edited by DaNo 4/15/2003 12:27:33 PM ***