Hydralic Booster

I'm going to agree with CoasterFanMatt.

A mid-ride hydraulic booster is *possible* but in no means (with existing methods) would it be *practical*.

Think about trying to match the speed of the sled to the speed of the train when it engages the sled. How much of a nightmare would that be? I'll tell you- a big one.

Nope, this one's best left on the drawing board. Hopefully it's a dry erase one.

If we're talking hydraulics, then you need liquid to clean off the board. :)

The basic problem is, as has been stated several times, that you can't accurately catch the train and launch it. If you miss, the penalty is pretty severe. It could perhaps be done with a pusher that pops up from the under the track as the train goes past, but at some point that pusher is going to bang pretty hard into the train, and you run the risk of producing undesirable shocks in the drive system, and in subjecting riders to undesirable accelerations.

No, the answer when you have a moving train is to connect the train to something continuous, that is, to use some kind of a clutch. Uniersal's tire drive system would work, in fact that has been done. You could do it with a moving chain, as on standard chain lifts. LIMs would be the obvious choice because they are easy to control.

I suppose you could use a fast-moving drive chain that engages with a clutch on the train, then accelerate that drive once the train connects...but what are the limits on how fast you can safely run a chain hoist? There has to be a reason that we don't see chains on launched coasters.......

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

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Impulse-ive said:
Well thank you Captain Happy Sensitive for your assessment.

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Ha, the funny part is that it didn't apply to you because you hadn't reponded to this thread yet.

Jeff- I spelled it right...

Artificial gravity is the best solution. Generate a field where down is the direction the train is traveling and set the force for whatever acceleration you need. Riders and train will be under very little load (free-fall) since all the mass is being "pulled" at once but the non-moving structure will have to be strong enough to endure the on and off "tractor" force. I'll get to work on it as soon as I figure out how to generate and handle large quantities of anti-matter for the power supply.

Emgee? Me?

Mike - step away from the keyboard - you're scaring me man ;)

-Jim

Lift chains are heavy, and would necessitate a substantial increase in HP to overcome the weight of the chain before you even consider lifting a train. It may have been a consideration in the developement of MF's lift. *** Edited 12/17/2004 6:04:45 AM UTC by Dutchman***

Perhaps not in a moving mid-ride hydraulic launch, but I've always thought it'd be pretty cool to have, in essence, a "2-for-1 ride" - that is, you have the launch, a few elements, brake the train to a [gentle] complete stop, possibly even 100-200 ft. in the air, and then "start over" with another launch.. heck, TTD could easily be 700 ft. tall with that approach.. one launch to 120 taking you up 420, back down to 300, then another launch to 120 cresting 720 ft. off the ground.... and imagine re-entry... :-D

(Ok, if I were a coaster designer in the real world, I'm probably the only one that would ride my own coasters)

that a pretty sick idea there dann. Out ragious, but very sick. I think to build enough track at 300' to do a launch. the ride would cost more then what its worth. 720' would produce a very sick re entry.

Would it be possible for the catch car to have a very strong magnet on it as well a strong magnet on the front car? That way you can get the best of both worlds.

that seems too unreliable since you'd still have to sync the cars and provide a way to make sure the magnetic fields caught. Plus, if you're going to use magnets, you might as well just use simple LIMs and forget about the hydraulic propulsion to begin with.

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RideMan said:
Some technical stuff...but what are the limits on how fast you can safely run a chain hoist? There has to be a reason that we don't see chains on launched coasters.......

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

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You obviously have never played RCT 1 or 2 with a Trainter very much, Dave;).

Even if you had magnets strong enough to reliable catch each other, they would also need to release. Granted you might be able to use an Electro-Magnet, but getting the electricity to it, at what speeds? and with what consequences on the wires?

Simple solution: wireless electric power.

Simpler solution: JATO bottles.

Anything is possible. It's just a matter of how much you want to spend. Name any problem and, if you have the money, I can engineer the solution. I'll even let you spell common words incorrectly.