Wooden Coaster Trains.

My short run down on wood trains:

G-trains: Seem to track well, but as stated above, not lateral friendly. Although The Legend was my favorite coaster even with the G-Trains, I can admit that it is a much less punishing ride with the PTCs

Morgans: Big, roomy, perhaps the plastic molding is a tad hard, but essentially, I have no problems with these.

Millennium Flyers: Pretty, good tracking comfortable. These would be the perfect trains, IMO, if the return springs on the lapbars were stronger. Great on Lightnng Racer!

Premier (SoB): restraints funky with the slanted floorboards. Otherwise, I have no personal problems with them.

PTC "Trailered": The worst abomination on the planet. For a technical desciption see Rideman's site. Bottom line, it is physically impossible for these trains to take a curve without shuffling and hunting. PoS! (see Predator @ SFDL)

PTC "Normal":good all around trains. Seatbelts often result in user sitting on them. Seat divider not wide-ass friendly. But overall, they seem the best suited to *most* coasters.

B&M: No personal experience.

NAD: are these the ones on KW's Jackrabbit? If so, meh! Not a fan of fixed position lapbars.

lata, jeremy

No one has mentioned B&M's attempt at a wooden coaster train.

That's surprising since we're talking about painful coaster trains. ;)

The B&Ms sit up so high that the cars rock around (so if the track is bad, you are in for a lot of lateral shaking even on straight track.) I think the trains on the Wood's Jackrabbit are in-house, but am not sure. Thunderbolt runs NADs, as does the Big Dipper at Geauga.

What's wrong with fixed position lapbars!? :)

The problem with B&M's wood coaster trains is that they run on two crappy wooden coasters with subpar maintenance.

Unlike Jeremy, I have a problem with Morgan coffin trains. The one position bar has a problem with my excess gut resulting in considerable discomfort.

---

Ride of Steel said: I remember when the Legend opened at Holiday World, HW acted as if enthusiasts gave them the suggestion of using g-trains.

---

That's not a correct statement. Although we added several features to The Legend's design as a result of enthusiasts' input, the G-trains were the recommendation of the now-defunct CCI.

Paula

Paula - What about the switch to PTCs? Did complaints - either from us geeks or the GP - play any role in the change? Or was is simply so that your maintenance department only had to work with one typs of coaster train?

I look at it this way. I have a lot better luck with coasters that have PTCs over coasters that have G-Trains, and I don't think it is ALL maintenance.

I may have seen some jackhammering over the years but nothing compared to the beating that the Hurricane gave me two weeks ago.

The only time that I ever remember getting a good ride on G-trains was on Cheeta .... and that was on it's opening day.

There is a reason that Legend's 2 G-Trains are sitting in Ohio, and I doubt it has to do with maintenance.

Legend never had 2 G-trains. It had one Gerstlauer when it opened. Two PTCs were purchased when they went to 2-train op.

Subjectivley speaking...when I ride on a g-train it feels very light. I'd compare it to the feel of riding a grocery cart on the blacktop! It just feels a bit weak to me!

On the other hand, the standard PTC feels much heavier and more sturdy. This would be like riding a freight train on the blacktop (if I knew what that really felt like)!

Anyhow, I believe I can "feel" the cheapness of the g-train. I could just be crazy though...

The trains can make a world of a difference in how you percieve a ride. I hate plastic molded seats and seats with little to no padding, even on the smoothest of rides. The track can be amazingly smooth but hitting your legs or back on a hard piece of plastic or having to contort to stay in the car (son of beast) just makes it uncomfortable to ride.

NAD trains are great because they have great big wads of padding in them and not the thin heavy duty foams some are using now. A mix of HD foam and the soft stuff will actually give you better shock absorbtion and durability. (From my experiences with ice hockey goalie equipment.)

A lower center of gravity helps, like in the regular PTC cars and millennium flyer trains. I have no issues with the trains on lightening racer, I think they are some of the most confortable of modern trains! Of course those don't need to shuffle like the straight trains do and that gives a smoother ride. I have no experience with B&M trains but if they have a high center of gravity I can imagine they run horribly. Mean Streak shuffles laterally because it's not going as fast as the track designer intended it to with the trims in place but I won't get any further into my beef with that.

I can't stand Morgans and G-trains. They are just uncomfortable for me because of the padding, or lack of. Raging Wolf Bobs became un-ridable for me when they put the G trains on. The ride felt even rougher then before it was retracked.

Another issue is track maintainence. The straight trains have to shuffle and will push on the track and maintainance has to be regular on them or the ride will get fairly rough. But a good padded train with a low center of gravity can sometimes cover that bad ride up somewhat and make it enjoyable. Grease is another story altogether, I want to cry when I see coasters like CP's blue streak without grease. It's hard on the track to run without it, and it's so easy to put on. Thunderhawk at Dorney needed a little love too the last time I was there.

This is my take on wood coaster trains, I wish I had the experience of riding in more of them! I have never been on trailed PTCs or B&Ms. My views may change in the future as I am learning more about how they work everyday.

My conclusion on all of this is that the track and car have to work together to make a good coaster. The layout has to compliment the type of car being used.

By the way, what coasters have B&M wooden coaster trains? I never even knew about this until now.

Yes 2000 was the year CCI went the route of recommending the Gerstlauer cars...

Like everything said above, a lot of people blame a rough ride on a coaster just for having Gerstlauers, but there's a few factors in it besides the trains. When Gerstlauers are maintained well they can run very good. The only thing that really can't be helped is the cushioning. Though I have to say that the G-train cushioning is a lot better (it gives a considerable bit more) than the molded cushioning that is taking over many PTCs (Georgia Cyclone, Great American Scream Machine, and Mean Streak (?) are prime examples). And naturally no kind of train can change an already rough ride that needs some TLC!

Yes 2000 was the year CCI went the route of recommending the Gerstlauer cars...

Yeah...because PTC would no longer work with CCI.

I'll give you that a well maintained G-train runs better than one not so well maintained. Just look to RWB at Geauga for that. The new train (for them) runs much better than the old train...probably because it's just been refurbished.

I'm sure RGB's retracking has something to do with the smoother ride, too.

I personally find that of the 4 or 5 of the G train coasters I've ridden half were decent half sucked the royal donkey balls! Mamoosh made the VERY valid point that if the coaster isn't taken care of the G trains suck, and if the coaster is taken care of they aren't to bad. In 2003 whe I rode Villain, I simply loved it, riding in the very front was a GREAT ride, it was almost glass smooth and gave about 5 moments of great air. While in the back, the airtime was decent but provided a rougher ride. I think there are about 3 things SERIOUSLY wrong with the G Trains, and a couple of positive attributes too.

What's Wrong:

1. The lapbars suck really bad, way to small and have basically no padding.

2. Seats and sides basically have NO padding.

3. They seem so much less solid and so much more plastic like than any other train, so I think when it goes over a rough patch instead of bouncing like some PTC's do, they just begin to shake and shuffle VIOLENTLY in every direction.

I'm going to use the great coaster GhostRider as an example of why I prefer the PTC's, Ghostrider has some pretty serious rough patches now (bottom of second drop, swooping turnaround, and bottom of 'the drop'), while the ride does shake and bounce pretty bad it doens't really 'shuffle' or bounce to violently, this could partially be because the seats are well padded, and it absorbs the blows so much better then the 1/4" of foam that the G trains have. Also the PTC's are so much more solidly built, thick wood, thick steel, compared to G's steel and plastic .

On the positive side of the G trains, they look great, cause PTC trains always look like a back, with G trains they have several differant styles, ie. open front, headlights ect.

As for Millenium flyers, they are very comfortable, but just don't think that those trains are good for wooden coasters that actually have finales and serious negative g's, they are just to elagent. It would be like a swan becoming a tiger, it just wouldn't work.

---

2Hostyl said:
NAD: are these the ones on KW's Jackrabbit? If so, meh! Not a fan of fixed position lapbars.

---

KW's Thunderbolt, actually. Good padding, no seat divider, single-position drop-down bar. Fabulous trains.

I think number 3 has a lot to do with how the train is maintained though! I've seen PTCs do a great deal of shaking and shuffling on rough track as well.

Thunderbolt could actually use some seat dividers. :) All of Kennywood's trains are pretty cool.

8.3

What fun is it for me to ride Thunderbolt with my wife and have seat dividers ;) Especially on a hot day where you are all sweaty and smelly, nothing like getting too close for comfort on T-Bolt. I'll take it without the seat dividers.

Moosh,

Since PTC didn't work with CCI as I have also heard in the past, it makes me wonder how parks like Lake Compounce and Indiana Beach we're still able to get PTC trains for their rides? I'm guessing they could purchase the ride system from CCI and then purchase the coach from PTC. Must have been a pain in the butt.

~Rob