Hydralic Booster

I was just thinking about this yeasterday and if it could be possible to use the hydralic system in the middle of a ride instead of at the start.

Say maybe a train comes down a hill into a strait a way. The train could hit something on the track that activates the hydralics at a certain point and by the time the train gets to the bottom of the hill the sled could catch the train and boost it to a certain speed.

Does anyone think that this or something like this could be possible. I think it would be cool to get a boost like that during a ride. So much torque (spelling)

Thanks.

I would think that LIMs or LSMs would make more sense because you wouldn't need the car to catch anything.

ya but that takes the whole fun out of it

"fun" is a pretty bad mispelling of "stupid", there.

Speed: The Ride in Las Vegas uses LIMs to provide a second, mid-ride launch for the train. Its kind of cool.

But as stated earlier, you couldn't do a hydraulic launch because you would have to connect the catchcar to the train somehow, something that can't be done with a speeding train. LIMs, you just run over them and there's your speed boost.

I would think that if Vekoma can figure out how to get a catch car to synch up on an Invertigo, that Intamin could do it on a Hydraulic. In my mind, they would have to have the ability to stop the train in case of a miss and have the power to launch to the desired speed from a stand-still. It seems very possible, maybe not practical though.

'Catching' a moving, multi-ton train carrying dozens of people hundreds of times a day?

Lemme throw a 45-pound unabridged dictionary at you. Not only is it easier, it's much less painful...for us.

-CO

While I'm sure it could be done, it would be a major challenge to make it reliable. I think Coasterbuzzer is correct that LIM's would be both more reliable and more economical. LIM's already perform this exact function on Volcano and I think also on California Screamin.

Vekoma may have made it work on their Invertigos, but look at the DejaVu fiasco. And do the Invertigos use a catch car or a chain similiar to the standard Boomerangs?

It would be a wild idea, but not really feasible at this point. Maybe something like in Revenge of the Mummy where there is a point where the train comes to a stop on a turntable or something, then have the hydraulic launch... But a catchcar connecting to a moving vehicle doesn't sound logical right now...

Exactly .... it may not be feasible right now with what we know about the system. But his question was if it was possible.

Standard Boomerangs use a winch and catch car to raise it to the top of the first drop, and then a regular lift chain (that drops out of the way) for the second hill.

Vekoma Inverted Boomerangs use (I believe)two catch carts, one on either side of the train, to hoist it up the hills. Same with GIBs.

While I am echoing those with the opinion that it may not be reliable enough, I can invision a catch cart that is activated by a proximity sensor to launch. You just have to keep in mind that rides like Xcellerator don't catch on a cart, so much as they are pushed with one. So as long as the train is infront of the cart, you can use it to increase the velocity.

but Vekoma catches a train as it comes to a stop (heading up) it then takes the train up and releases it. That is what causes the "bump" as it engages...

To try and accellerate a moving train via a cable attached "sled" would be difficult at best, impossible at least.

Will anyone ever spell HYDRAULIC right? I mean, we've had these coasters now for, what, three or four years?

c'mon Jeff if people can't get brakes and breaks right, how do you expect them to get hydraulic right? ;)

I guess I just don't understand why people think it would be so difficult. We can figure out the speed the train is going. We can then calculate where it will be at a given time. If we can figure out that, we should also be able to figure out how to get the catch car going the same speed by the time it reaches that same point at the same time. Once they have (verifiably) met, accelerate. Sure there’s a lot going on, but it’s all mathematically possible.

Intamin already knows how to accurately control speed.
http://www.pointbuzz.com/Gallery.aspx?i=820

Those tiny teeth pass through an optical frequency counter. Put a set of those on the train and another set on the catch car and like I said, from there it’s just calculations. *** Edited 12/16/2004 7:59:56 PM UTC by JamesB***

there are literally hundreds of variables that can affect the speed of a train that would make the connection of the train to the launch sled hard to do when the train is moving at speed. Wind, temperature, passenger load and wheel condition are four of them - and those are variable between each and every train.

So many people are thinking about it as the Deja Vu type of connection. To make the example clearer, let me use this analogy...

DejaVu "catch" is like hitting a softball that is being pitched in a "groove" from the mound....

What is being described here is the pitcher, instead of standing on the mound is standing at the backstop, pitching towards the batter who still has to try and hit the pitch as it passes him into the outfield.

A catch car system is a bad idea when you have a fast moving train that it has to catch. LIM's/LSM's don't have any moving parts making it much easier to control. The catch car on rocket coasters take a while to position themselves and the train has to back into the catch car to connect. It be a waste to do this when LIM's do just as good of a job.

Using a hydraulic launch in the middle of the ride is about as practical as launching a train by hiring people to run behind the train and push it up to speed.

It can be done, but why ignore better methods?

As much as I thought that some of you were rude, CoasterFanMatt had a good, a little nicer approach to it, and I liked his reasoning much better than other responses :)

Well thank you Captain Happy Sensitive for your assessment.

(Missinig part of my thoughts here!) I would think that by the time someone figured out how to make a hydraulic launch good for this application, there will be a new technology out for launches. I wonder what the "next big thing" will be. Did anyone really see hydraulic launches coming along? Just a hypothetical to make ya go "hmm ..." *** Edited 12/16/2004 9:56:51 PM UTC by Impulse-ive***