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Subject: 
Re: Roller Coaster runs on Monorail Track
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.technic
Date: 
Thu, 29 Mar 2007 17:11:30 GMT
Viewed: 
9627 times
  
In lugnet.technic, Jason J Railton wrote:
   In lugnet.announce.moc, Chris Phillips wrote:
   I have designed a minifig-scale roller coaster that can run on standard monorail track.
It’s a neat design, and I like the idea of using monorail track to do smooth loops.

Thanks! I actually got the idea when I displayed a not-yet-working prototype coaster on the NELUG train layout last weekend. We posed the “broken” coaster in our amusement park with a working monorail (Airport Shuttle) running through the center of the loop-de-loop. This is a complete re-design since then.

   4ft is a hell of a lift to make out of LEGO though! I’d be happy with something smaller, even if it meant going without the loop.

If you do away with the loop then you don’t need much vertical lift. You also don’t need any monorail track, either. The pin-in-tube method is good for doing curves, and the SNOT tiled stack of 3 1x’s is an economical, sturdy, and low-friction way to synthesize straight track.

   Have you thought of fitting more wheels on the vertical spigots to act as rollers? I suppose you could have wheels underneath the rails too, using this method. It gets a bit bulky for minifigs, but I don’t know if you could get round the loop at a lower speed.

Yes, I’ve tried things like this, but simplicity has serious advantages. I first tried to do something like Nico Bestanpouri, and could usually do a couple loops before the track broke apart somewhere. A more recent design had a third wheel directly beneath each rear wheel by about 1 brick height. But ultimately, I found that not having that third wheel eliminated so much friction that it wasn’t worth the drag.

I’ve been toying with the idea of doing this ever since I saw pictures of Matt Chiles’ coaster several years ago, so I’ve tried a lot of different techniques.

Once I had a reliable slope and loop (which wasn’t changing shape with every trial run) I learned a lot from repeated experimentation. One thing I noticed is that a heavier car can loop from a lower starting point. I haven’t tried to load a weight element onto the car- yet, but the track could probably support it.

One consideration that really drove this design was a desire to make it true minifig scale, suitable for use in our club layouts. I’ve discarded a few “superior” wheelset designs, for example, simply because I couldn’t reconcile them with a proper-scale passenger compartment for four. Whatever else you do, you’ve got to maintain a low center-of-gravity.

I also plan to do a variation on this design as a GBC module for a club-sponsored event coming up this summer.

   I’m interested in anything that can reduce the size of a roller coaster and make it more reliable. This was my mini one from LegoWorld last year. Whoever took these shots got a good close-up of the lifting mechanism:

http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=2179993

That is a cool design! Definitely the most compact working design I’ve seen. I’m surprised that I never noticed this before. I bet you could eliminate a lot of friction by using a layer of SNOT for the rail bed. I also used plastic wheels (no rubber) because I don’t mind if the wheels skid all the way down the hill. All the better if they do!

   I tried using pneumatic tubing for the rails, but it just kept giving way. It was a bit too sticky too. Track System isn’t flexible enough to maintain a gradient, so I had to resort to making my own rickety stairs, which jam up quite often.

I actually have considered using a loop of pneumatic tubing as a conveyor to pull the cars up the incline. I would prefer to use string, but I think it’ll just slip over the pulleys. I’ve also tried building chains out of discrete Technic parts.

I want this to be very reliable. Our amusement park displays are expected to run continuously for at least six hours at a time, and I don’t want to spend the whole weekend picking up after derailments and answering minifig lawsuits.



Message has 1 Reply:
  Re: Roller Coaster runs on Monorail Track
 
(...) It was designed to be modular - each section is 16x16, and drops either 2 bricks (straight) or 4 bricks (corner). I carried it all in flight luggage, each part wrapped in tight cling-film (plastic food wrap) and I'm amazed the curves held (...) (18 years ago, 29-Mar-07, to lugnet.technic, FTX)

Message is in Reply To:
  Re: Roller Coaster runs on Monorail Track
 
(...) It's a neat design, and I like the idea of using monorail track to do smooth loops. 4ft is a hell of a lift to make out of LEGO though! I'd be happy with something smaller, even if it meant going without the loop. Have you thought of fitting (...) (18 years ago, 29-Mar-07, to lugnet.technic, FTX)

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