Worlds of Fun announces Zambezi Zinger, a wood roller coaster borrowing from the original steel ride

Would someone who has a stronger understanding of the Infinity Flyers explain something to me: my understanding of the trailered design was that each car effectively "steered" itself. Wouldn't having a steering assembly, in addition to that, only make it wobbly/unstable on the track? I would imagine the mechanism would ricochet and twitch along the track underneath the train.

This ride looks like a win for GCI and the park.

Dave can almost certainly do a better jon explaining this, but with trailered cars that don’t steer, the axle is always pointed at the trailer point (the ball and socket) even if that’s not the precise direction of travel of the axle at that moment.

If you imagine a very sharp turn, the trailer point will be to the inside of the turn, so the axle will be pointing more to the inside of the turn than it is actually traveling.

I assume the axle is stabilized for yaw by having a guide wheel in front of the axle abd one behind on each side.

You're right Andy. Trailered cars still need a non-trailered car to follow behind. The front axle on a Millennium Flyer is attached to the second axle via a joint that rotates only in the roll direction, therefore the first and second axle have no relative yaw or pitch. Each subsequent car is attached via a ball hitch, so as you described the axle will always point to the ball in front, which will not be perfectly in the direction of the curve. As a result, Millennium Flyers always have some amount of lateral skidding, which is why GCI requires the tracks to be lubricated.

By allowing the wheel carrier to pivot, you still have the axle pointing toward the hitch and therefore slightly askew from the direction of travel, but now the road wheels themselves can point straight forward as the guide wheels are steered by the inside rail. So the road wheel can roll straight ahead with essentially no lateral skidding. This is the same arrangement as pretty much all modern steel coasters as well. The stability of the cars is still maintained as it was before by the hitch arrangement, but now the wheels can pivot independent of the axle.

ApolloAndy:

Dave can almost certainly do a better jon explaining this

I actually saw that and decided to leave it in explicitly to see what you would come up with.

ApolloAndy:

Though who knows at this point whether Lightning Rod is wood or steel or refuses to be shoehorned into our social constructs.

It's not just Lightning Rod. People haven't really picked it up because it's in the middle of nowhere, but the two coasters at Silversteel in Idaho are also now firmly in the non-binary category. Here's my trip report with a picture.

The_Orient_of_Express:
The original coaster is still in operation. In Columbia

I think you mean Colombia. No Schwarzkopfs of any kind in South Carolina unfortunately.

I think you mean Colombia. No Schwarzkopfs of any kind in South Carolina unfortunately.

heh, funny. I meant Colombia of course.

Some more info about the new Titan track and Infinity Flyer trains

https://skylineattractions.com/portfolio/titan-track/

https://skylineattractions.com/portfolio/infinity-flyer-train-design/

As a BIG lift hill fan, I'm very happy to see they are doing something different... the ride seems to be a distant tribute to the perfect family thrill ride that took up that entire area.

I was lucky to ride the original Zambezi Zinger a bunch of times. We called it "Whizzer's smaller more rambunctious brother." Little pops of air in those seats was heaven. It was an everyone ride, and so loved. The hidden suprises, larger 3rd drop, topography and wooded setting surpassed that of Revolution at Magic Mountain. I hope to make it way down south to ride it again!

I'm very grateful we still have Whizzer at SF Great America, I rode it last week. It may be at a SF park, but they take particular care of that ride. The 5 trains are regularly taken apart for rebuilds, with 2 or 3 always on the track. Even the green upholstered padding looks new. The ride is more popular than ever.

Amazing how Skyline can do such great work for GCI and yet their own rides are hot garbage.

Those new trains are cool, but they appear to be very heavy. Look at all of those big solid metal pieces. Compare that to a TGG train, which looks like a skeleton when you pull off the outer panels. Weight is the enemy of wood coaster track and maintenance costs.

“I was lucky to ride the original Zambezi Zinger a bunch of times. We called it "Whizzer's smaller more rambunctious brother." Little pops of air in those seats was heaven.”

rode the original many times growing up It was such a great ride. Loved how it went back out into the woods.

Just a great family coaster and no seatbelts. In fact the seating layout could get sorta awkward if you got seated with a stranger. The way the person in the back sorta hugged the person in the front with nothing in between you.

^I've heard Lagoon will still put 2 strangers together for their Schwarzkopf Jet Star coaster, as they don't allow single riders. Hey, whatever it takes to keep the ride going as is.

I remember Whizzer, Zambezi and Tig'ger at Indiana Beach used to be "3 in a seat if you can fit." Good times!

Minus the new Ghostrider, GCI coasters are usually a one and done for me. Not a fan of that pinned-in feel.

Schwarzkopf76:

As a BIG lift hill fan

I completely love this. I was trying to think of the sports equivalent, and have decided it's like baseball fans who get to the game early to watch batting practice. Which I do.

(And: yes. A good lift hill provides its own thrills. In particular emerging from under the supports on those Schwarzkopf spiral lifts can be a moment where the anticipation increases.)