How roller coasters are made

Hey guys, does anybody have any videos or information on how roller coasters are made? Everything from the designing to the actual making of the track? I find it very interesting how they make these great big coasters so precise. Also what is the time period of actually making the coaster? I know coasters are planned 4-5 years in advance but how long does it take to actually make the track and supports and everything else.

Any pictures, videos etc. would be great. Thanks!

Well, when a mommy and daddy roller coaster love each other very much, they... nah, forget it.

Dave Althoff's site has some serious insight into how certain aspects work. I know it's not quite the whole design/build process, but it's a very interesting read nonetheless:

http://capital2.capital.edu/admin-staff/dalthoff/tech.html

Let's see... this piece goes here, this piece goes there... this one goes here... (having a vivid memory of a certain Chilly Willy episode).

Also, try checking the FAQ sections on coaster company websites

You are so adorable. lol

Did you do any Googling to help you with your quest for knowledge. A lot of people here (if not mostly everyone) know a lot about this. It's taken people on this site years, if not a decade or so, to learn what you are asking. This could be the longest thread in the history of CoasterBuzz. :)

I don't even know where to begin. Maybe you could start at Wikipedia. That page has a list of the different manufacturers and their websites. You could check out each of those websites to learn about where they are made, and maybe get some idea on how they are made.

That's my first suggestion.

Honestly, your best bet is just to PM RideMan and carry out your conversation with him if he feels so inclined. While many of us are knowledgeable in many different aspects of areas you want to know about, Dave seems to have most all of the answers any one of us would give. In fact, I'd guess that for those of us that are not actual engineers and mechanics, we've gleaned a fair amount of our knowledge from his posts and knowledge.

Believe it or not, I (was) am an engineer. Well... I got the degree and did it for a couple years. Wasn't for me. Most of what I learned about coasters was from studying them starting when I was a little kid. On tv occasionally, but mostly in the ACE new letters and magazine and couple other mailings like MACC (Mid Atlantic Coaster Club) and WNYCC (Western New York Coaster Club). I studied pictures for days; wrote to parks and designers... Way before internet and all this fantastic stuff. Early 80's...

Most stuff is steadily learned over time; both from 'studying' pics and articles (the internet is your oyster) and from riding them too. And of course, hanging out with other people who like coasters. More specific questions - you will definitely find good answers here, especially from Dave (RideMan) as mentioned above.

I used to doodle coasters with track that abruptly ended high in the air and piles of broken trains and people on the ground below along the margins of my loose leaf notebook paper in grade school.

Hope that helps...

Coaster101 has a series of articles about specific aspects of roller coaster design, ranging from wheel material, to track fabrication, to safety standards.

I guess I could add that maybe you should just hang around here for a few years or so. Just reading about and participating in discussions about coasters will help a lot.

www.RCDB.com is a great site to check out, too!

That's the Roller Coaster Data Base. It's the online bible for coaster locations, types, etc. etc.. Most coasters on there have pictures and links to the park site, google and bing maps, etc. Hours and hours of fun!

Maverick00 said:
I know coasters are planned 4-5 years in advance...

That's not necessarily true. Unless it's a mega-project (Skyrush, for example) usually the summer before it's supposed to open is time enough for choosing, buying, installing.

kpjb said:

Maverick00 said:
I know coasters are planned 4-5 years in advance...

That's not necessarily true. Unless it's Flying Turns, usually the summer before it's supposed to open is time enough for choosing, buying, installing.

Fixed that for ya ;)

Well, yeah, that.

Kozmo is not your friend.

I would love to see how the fabricate the track. I know it is computer-driven pipe bending and such, but I would love to see it. Especially B&M track, with the way the spine is a series of triangles formed.

The only coasters I *expect* to be planned 4-5 years in advance are Disney rides....

Flying Turns is *special* in that they're trying to recreate something that existed in a far-less-litigious era...could possibly have gone with OTSRs and had it running a couple years ago...

kpjb said:
Well, yeah, that.

Kozmo is not your friend.

That's okay..I still like him anyway.

No, they couldn't. Until recently, they didn't have a *chassis* that ran the way they wanted.

My understanding is that, at least for the Cedar Fair parks, there are long-term plans in place, but those plans are of decreasing specificity as you get to the further-out years. Even at that, sometimes those plans change rapidly. Rumor has it that Shoot the Rapids was supposed to come a few years earlier than it did, but as the time came for the ride to be built, maXair and Maverick got built first. But as early as 2003 or 2004 it was clear that White Water Landing wasn't going to last much longer, so clearly that space was already in the planning stages for development. They might not have known what Maverick was going to look like yet (or they might have been planning to put Shoot the Rapids II there), but the space was planned for some kind of improvement.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Well i was able to find this video.

"http://www.youtube.com/v/QSl5MMlJIho&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3"

That's a pretty awesome video!