Vekoma looks at wheel assemblies and wonders

According to Screamscape (yes, I know...) Disney´s Expedition Everest will feature some revolutionary innovations from Vekoma. No, I don´t mean the backwards part. Apparently they have compared their wheel assemblies with those of other manufacturers and found a significant difference.

Just imagine the confusion in the hazy clouded Netherlands when they finally realized that it IS possible to place the guiding wheels on the outside of the track. Could this mean that maintenance workers could actually reach the wheels without crawling underneath a train? Is the reason for the Vekoma roughness detected, since outside guiding wheels travel a shorter distance in curves (whereas the inside wheels always take the longer route when they have contact to the track)?

Alledgedly the trackdesign will also closer resemble the B&M boxbeam design. I wonder the which role Disney played in that decision. Or was it all Vekomas idea? After 24 years?

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it´s a world of the beautiful and the bizarre

Maybe I'm just dreaming here, or maybe Disney wants their second larger coaster attraction to be as family friendly as possible and has taken complaints by GP and enthusiasts to heart and put it in their scope to Vekoma to investigate the roughness of their rides. I'd be willing to bet Vekoma charged a pretty penny to research those new wheels, so since most Vekomas except Disney rides are pretty much plug-and-play and market their low cost for what you get since they're all clones, no one has wanted to cough up the bucks to get them to revisit technology that probably dates back to before computers were in general use.

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Brett
Resident Launch Whore

Vekoma has already used it on their smaller coasters for a long time.

They are now working on a bigger version of that track for the looping coasters, minetrains and flying dutchmans (new trains for this one too). Forbidden Mountain / Everest will be kind of a prototype. Maybe Disney got discount if Vekoma could try out their new track.
The trains will look like those on Big Thunder, 3 rows with 2 people for each coach.
Another thing, during some parts of the ride, the backbone will be very far away from the rails because of the Disney theming.

Other news from The Netherlands, they will soon offer a new product range, including new rides such as a 10-inversions LSM coaster, a motorbike coaster, a family flying, a family inverted, a family launched, a so-called "Thrill Lift" and a so-called "Pretzel Coaster".

Click here to get a topic with pictures of the latest Vekoma product slideshow.

Enjoy !

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Roarrrr...
*** This post was edited by Belgian 10/31/2003 9:47:14 AM ***

is it just me, or does that site's logo seem to have some resemblance to coasterbuzzs'?

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I am one.
I am Turbo.
Top Thrill in the front row... anything else is lame
X...Whoa

Anyone else get that feeling of industrial espionage looking at those pictures as interesting as they are? I'm lovin the way they show parabollic (sp?) transitions and such ... and I want a piece of that motorbike launcher! Well if any of this stuff works as well in real life as it does in a powerpoint, I think Vekoma will be doing some good business in the coming years.

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Brett
Resident Launch Whore
*** This post was edited by Impulse-ive 10/31/2003 10:13:43 AM ***

Mmmm . . Motorbike Coaster . . me likee.

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Rich Genthner / PTC99

I tend to get a bit skeptical about coasters that offer trendy new positions for the rider--i.e. stand-ups, flying etc.--as I think the novelty wears off before long (at least in my case). I don't think the motorbike coaster will be any different, honestly, but that rider position looks much more appealing than both standing or laying down. With interesting and intense layouts, this particular idea could be quite effective.

Plus, it's that much closer to my ski-coaster (or rollerblade-, skateboard-, etc., coaster) idea! ;)

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-Mike
Say hello to all the apples on the ground--
They were once in your eyes but you sneezed them out while sleeping -MJK
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What I never understood was why the trains on flyers were way too close to the tracks. I thought something like the arrow suspended would be cool, where you feel like you are flying around.

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Love,
The Mole