Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/07/01/this-speedy-wooden-bobsled-coaster-looks-like-a-blast.html
…
3 Likes
It does look like a lot of fun, and I’ve seen videos of this one before. But I think that one limitation to this design vs. a more traditional tracked coaster is that it’s a lot harder to put in multiple safety brake zones throughout the track. That severely limits how frequently you can dispatch trains, because you can’t safely send a new train onto the track until the previous one has made it all the way back down. So a real constraint on ride throughput.
For comparison, a ride like the Matterhorn Bobsleds at Disneyland has around 11 safety brake zones, which lets you dispatch a new train every 24 seconds or so without risking collision.
2 Likes
Wooden coasters are fun, I think. I haven’t been on a coaster in awhile, but the last one I rode was Outlaw Run at Silver Dollar City in Branson, Missouri. It’s wooden, and it’s a wild ride. There’s some good POV videos of that one, too.
1 Like
The lift chains act as safety brake zones. And this particular one is quick enough that you can’t really send more than 2 through at a time anyways.
1 Like
While not wooden, Cedar Point used to have a bobsled style coaster (and it was enclosed, to give it that “Space Mountain” feel, too). It was called Disaster Transport and it was fun back in the day!
3 Likes
This coaster is pretty fun, the random oscillations of your run is kinda wild. Never really feels dangerous though.
And the slower frequency of launching the cars does indeed lead to some long lines, had to wait like an hour and a half on a not so busy day. Well worth it though.
There was a fiberglass bobsled coaster at Opryland park (RIP), that was pretty rough. There are only a few left.
Ridden Flying Turns (amazing park, Knoebels, btw) - it’s complicated. Was extremely messy and overly expensive to build, a real passion project by the park. As an as-faithful-as-possible recreation of an historic ride that would otherwise never be built today, I would not expect to see another one like it.
That’s quite the range of motion a thing without any controls apparently gets. You’ve really got to trust the physics (and the track) on this one, right? 
