Subject:
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Re: Roller Coaster runs on Monorail Track
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.technic
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Date:
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Thu, 29 Mar 2007 23:08:50 GMT
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Viewed:
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10360 times
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In lugnet.technic, Jason J Railton wrote:
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In lugnet.technic, Chris Phillips wrote:
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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!
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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
together. A good Samsonite case helped.
Funny thing was, if I had tiles all along the straights, the cars would drag
against the sides. By having some tiles then dropping onto studs, there’s a
little jolt to keep them going. The same is true of the placement of tiles on
the steps in the corners.
The corners are where you get the most sticking though, and it’s hard to design
a smooth (and shallower) bed through the turns. If the cars pick up too much
speed, they will tip over the next corner as they are quite tight turns.
I couldn’t find any plastic wheels that would reliably take the corners. If you
look what I’ve done (a later picture shows some of my karts, based on old
Legoland town vehicles) I used thin tyres on studless wheels, to get a rounder
profile. But this is only because they’re running against an outer wall.
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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.
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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.
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Mine ran 8 hours a day for 6 days at Legoworld, but you did have to watch it
pretty much constantly for cars tipping on the lift or in the corners. I also
needed to completely service the mechanism and the karts every morning - wheels
off to dust the axles, brush the tyres and clear the plastic dust from the lift
gearing.
Still, I had mine working on the first day, whereas the other coaster in the
hall (a very large hanging one) was still being built on the last day!
At our Christmas party I didn’t bother, and a few people’s kids actually had
loads of fun with constantly having to rescue the karts and keep it going.
I’d love to do something more reliable. And I keep toying with the idea of
making GBC-style kart pumps and lifts. I don’t want something that involves
thousands of tiny segments of technic or cut pneumatic tubing though, as that’s
too much trouble.
Jason R
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: Roller Coaster runs on Monorail Track
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| (...) Samsonite! (...) Speed is your friend, and friction is your enemy. If the cars are tipping in the corners, you could try using thin Technic tubing (the stuff that can clip into a minifig hand) to build guard rails. I also use that stuff very (...) (18 years ago, 30-Mar-07, to lugnet.technic, FTX)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: Roller Coaster runs on Monorail Track
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| (...) 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 (...) (18 years ago, 29-Mar-07, to lugnet.technic, FTX)
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