Wooden Coaster Tracks

I have noticed on a few wooden rollercoasters that some of them have these strips, if you will, that sit in the middle of the track. I have always noticed them and have always wondered what their purpose is. Does anyone know what they are for? Here is a pic of Thunderhawk that shows this. Focus on the track in the background of the picture, that is what I'm referring to.

http://www.rcdb.com/installationgallery239.htm?Picture=13

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"You know its a good ride when you come into the final brake run wiping tears from your eyes."
*** This post was edited by DorneyDante 8/1/2003 8:39:05 PM ***

Brakes? I dunno...someone else take this one, Im not really that smart when it comes to coaster stuff...i just like riding em!

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Brakes would be the logical guess, but brakes wouldn't be such long narrow strips placed all over the track. My first guess is that it has something to do with keeping the coaster car "centered" on the track so the train runs more efficiently and doesn't shuffle.

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"You know its a good ride when you come into the final brake run wiping tears from your eyes."
*** This post was edited by DorneyDante 8/1/2003 8:45:29 PM ***
*** This post was edited by DorneyDante 8/1/2003 8:46:21 PM ***

I believe that is the anti roll back latches to stop the train if it doesn't make it up the hill. The trains should make the click click when going over them.

Here are some more on the right hand side of each turn around.

http://rcdb.com/installationgallery143.htm?Picture=2

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I think coasterpunk is right, thats what you usually see on rides that have been trimed so that in case the trim works too well there wont be a valley.

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Frequently on wood coasters you'll see anti-rollback strips on the uphill sides of hills. Unless it's a CCI coaster, in which case you'll see strips of wood that used to have anti-rollback strips attached until they found out that the coasters run so fast that the anti-rollbacks are not required. :)

Most steel coasters don't have these, with the notable exception of Schwarzkopf coasters and occasionally Arrow coasters on mid-course brakes.

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Yep...That's the anti-rollback strip alright. But just to correct you Touchdown, it really doesn't have any relation to if the ride is trimmed. It's just a device to prevent the train from rolling back on the taller/steeper elevations. We installed a set on the Dipper at Geauga Lake in 1980 after the train valleyed in front of the slow down hill a couple of times. Although you're right if there are trims, and they're on too tight, the anti-rollbacks would help.

Wood - anything else is an imitation

...yes, the ride is going uphill there, so...they're anti-rollbacks. If it was going downhill at that point, THEN they could be for a trim. No sense braking going uphill...

gravity is your friend...:)

and I need some Schmeck....hmmm....ThunderHawk....;)

What do they do when the train stops on the anti-rollbacks? Does everybody have to get out an push it over the hill?

Why not just let it roll backwards down the hill?
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The anti-rollback device catches the train and then brings it up the hill like a chain lift.

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Ah... there isn't any power on the anti-rollback devices I've seen. They've just been sawtooths, not actual lift chains.

Yeah, I'm not too sure I believe the whole thing about the anti rollback catching the train and bringing it back up the lift if the train valleys.
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"You know its a good ride when you come into the final brake run wiping tears from your eyes."

A while back (they might still do it) Conneaut Lake Park ran Blue Streak with chain-anti-rollbacks (instead of the teeth, the train would just catch on the chain), anyone know if they still do that?

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Shaun Rajewski
CoasterLine
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I thought that the Kings Island Racer had a chain lift on one of the hills. Can't find a picture to verify though.

I'm pretty sure that most of them do not. Are we still back to the "everybody gets out and pushes" idea? (I'm mostly joking but I've actually heard of that happening on the Wildcat at the defunct Bertrand Island park and I've seen it done with a cable car in San Francisco :) ).

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Forth hill out at the split Joe. Those are assist chains, and they usually only use them early and late in the season. Although I don't recall seeing them in the fall last year when I was last there. They may not use them anymore at all.

The problem with letting the train valley is it makes it a lot more work to get the train over the hill and back to the station. When the Dipper valleyed on us at Geauga Lake, we winched the train backwards onto the far turnaround thinking we could push it backwards to the highest point. The logic failed though because there was too much grease packed into the bearings from the night before.

What we tried to do was manually push the train with as many bodies possible around the turn to build up some speed and then jump onto the train as it went faster to add more weight/inertia when it went down the drop slope. The train failed to clear the next hill and valleyed again. The whole process was tried again with more people to help assost the train but it stalled a third time. Why we just didn't winch the train forward over the hill is beyond me.

We eventually ended up pulling the underfriction wheels from the train so it could be lifted from the track. The train green ended up sitting on the midway infront of the Zyclone(galaxy) the rest of the day roped off. That's why you have anti-rollbacks.

Wood - anything else is an imitation
*** This post was edited by Thrillerman 8/2/2003 11:20:42 AM ***

They can use a wench (sp?) to pull the train off the rollback and back onto the course where hopefully it will complete the circuit with only gravity! And yes the Racer had chain assist on the 4th hill for quite some time! I'm not sure if they still do today though?

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Rctycoon2k said:
A while back (they might still do it) Conneaut Lake Park ran Blue Streak with chain-anti-rollbacks (instead of the teeth, the train would just catch on the chain), anyone know if they still do that?
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Shaun Rajewski
CoasterLine
http://www.coasterline.com

They do that on Cyclone at SFNE. I guess that's where I got it from...
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Top 3
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The Grizzly at PKD has a chain -assisted anti rollback on the top of the second hill. Or it used to. It's been a while.

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Jeffrey R Smith said:
They can use a wench (sp?) to pull the train off the rollback and back onto the course where hopefully it will complete the circuit with only gravity! And yes the Racer had chain assist on the 4th hill for quite some time! I'm not sure if they still do today though?
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Give me wood! :-)
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A wench? That's one strong chick! *lol*

Just kidding....I just had this mental picture of some big butch biker chick with arms that could crack walnuts single-handedly pulling a train over a hill and then giving it a big push to make sure it completes the course...:)

As mentioned above, it's a winch, for future reference.

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