63 replies to this topic

[Muzz135]

Professional train-on-lift- pusher-over-er right here
Was great to see this one working once we got the weighting sorted out! Once those last elements get raised it should be all good for the last corkscrew

[WSWAoasters]

golly gee wiz! This is absolutely unbelievable! Normally I would think that it can be huge but it can't look nice; boy did you prove me wrong! Because that is definitely not the case here. Fantastic job!

[BGTKing]

Wow, this thing is just gigantic! Very impressive.

[~stεεlspectrum~]

Wait...it makes the full layout? Mind blown!

[IOAgeek]

Looks amazing so far, but I think you should alter the speed of train just a bit, by playing around with the weights on the train probably by removing the one on the back car or maybe another one just for fun and do a test or two to see if it makes the layout with more realistic speed. If the train doesn't make it without that back car's weights or so, then just add some brakes on the mcbr to slow it down a bit. Are your trains lubed btw?

Edited by IOAgeek, 01 July 2016 - 11:58 PM.

[CW5X]

Professional train-on-lift- pusher-over-er right here
Was great to see this one working once we got the weighting sorted out! Once those last elements get raised it should be all good for the last corkscrew

 

#ProAtWork Thanks for all the help.

 

golly gee wiz! This is absolutely unbelievable! Normally I would think that it can be huge but it can't look nice; boy did you prove me wrong! Because that is definitely not the case here. Fantastic job!

 

Thank you .

 

Wow, this thing is just gigantic! Very impressive.

 

Yes it is. Thanks.

 

Wait...it makes the full layout? Mind blown!

 

And it makes it with too much speed earlier in the layout. That should be fixed now though. Thank you.

 

Looks amazing so far, but I think you should alter the speed of train just a bit, by playing around with the weights on the train probably by removing the one on the back car or maybe another one just for fun and do a test or two to see if it makes the layout with more realistic speed. If the train doesn't make it without that back car's weights or so, then just add some brakes on the mcbr to slow it down a bit. Are your trains lubed btw?

 

The trains are weighted and lubed pretty well so the performance was better than expected in some parts. The excess speed problem should be fixed now though. I even did a bit of work on the shaping of the entrance to the zero-g roll as well just for you . Thank you.

 

 

Many things have happened since the second test. So much so that everything is done aside from the tubing and final video, Catwalks and chains have been added. The station, which will feature automatic station gates as a first for me, has been completed with a piece-consuming but kinda awesome looking roof (inspired and created from the ideas and hands of Muzz himself and me of course) and a whole ton of the layout has been raised by a granite to help slow this crazy thing down. It actually makes everything look much more in proportion too. Plus some extra laterals and shaping fixes and the completion of the circuit. I took advantage of some scaffolding around my garage to get a nice aerial overview. Shame it won't be there when I film the final video.

 

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So close to finishing another big project now. All going well, the final video will be up in the middle of next week before I'm off on holiday. Hopefully the weather will be nice to me. Thanks,

 

 

Edit: If you're wondering why some of the pictures look bright, they were taken around 10pm or so it was beginning to get into the dusky stage of the day.

Edited by CW5X, 10 July 2016 - 07:01 PM.

[pkiknex25]

Geez. I understand why (since Scotland is pretty far north), but my mind is still blown that it's still that bright at 10 PM.

[Muzz135]

Great to finally get this thing running a full circuit!

[Mister Piglette]

This definitely hasn't gotten enough comments for this ride! It's beautifully put together and the station looks just as epic. I can't wait to see any of the videos!

Edit: Do you always have to put it back into the garage every day, or do you throw tarp over it? I remember having to detach the Racer every day I put it out, but this is so much larger in scale and I can't imagine doing it that way.

Edited by Mister Piglette, 11 July 2016 - 02:37 PM.

[CW5X]

Geez. I understand why (since Scotland is pretty far north), but my mind is still blown that it's still that bright at 10 PM.

 

On the longest days of the year such as now, I can look north and see the area where the sky does not get completely dark at night. I never realised I lived so close to that but it's kinda cool to see. To be honest, I could take those pictures around 10:30ish and you'd still be able to see stuff I reckon.

 

Great to finally get this thing running a full circuit!

 

Relive those great (and slightly embarrassing) moments

 

This definitely hasn't gotten enough comments for this ride! It's beautifully put together and the station looks just as epic. I can't wait to see any of the videos!

Edit: Do you always have to put it back into the garage every day, or do you throw tarp over it? I remember having to detach the Racer every day I put it out, but this is so much larger in scale and I can't imagine doing it that way.

 

I don't even bother with the tarp. I just leave it out even when it's raining when it gets near the end like this. Earlier on, I was putting it in and out everytime I wanted to test it but now, it's too big to be worth it. I take the motors in of course but everything else stays. This will be the only night I leave the track on though since it does take around 2-3 hours to put it on by myself and I need that time to film now. Thanks.

 

 

Now that the track is on, I can thankfully say that the lift hill and all the other stuff work very nicely. The main drill lift, which was such a pain on Gargantuan, was designed and built in a significantly better way this time so it only failed the first couple of times when we were ironing out the weaknesses in the chain. From then on, it can just run continuously which is a nice change from my usual crappy lifts (truth be told, most of my later ones worked fine anyway). The train has a good amount of speed through the whole course so it easily makes it every time even with the longer seats installed which I think look better for this type of ride. The only things that were a little iffy were the bars on the train that make the station automation (sort of) work. They kept hitting the structure on fast bits of the ride and so had to be removed. In principle, the idea works. You'll probably see the simple system working in a different video but it just needs a bit of refining to make it properly functional. Maybe on a future coaster.

 

Enough talk. Some more pictures and tests now:

 

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I'll be filming this mostly tomorrow. I got the POV done tonight. I haven't actually watched it yet but it should be fine. I have all day tomorrow and the weather isn't looking too awful. This video probably won't be a 6 minute monster that I've done in the past since I haven't really had any time to really think about it as I've been so busy building. With Legend, Gargantuan and even Megahertz, I was building with the video in mind and I knew the songs I wanted to use right from the start. I think I'll be able to get some nice shots out of this anyway. Thanks.

 

And well done frank for finding the video before I posted it here

Edited by CW5X, 11 July 2016 - 06:22 PM.

[Rollerfreak987]

I know how hard it is to build a huge inverted roller coaster, and this is just... Wow. I can't even describe it.

Probably my favorite K'nex invert.

[REXENK]

This coaster is just incredible! It is absolutely fantastic in that it's size is equally matched by its flowing beauty. I am amazed at how well this huge coaster turned out. Very nice job, and congratulations on creating such a magnificent coaster.

[rgarner42]

I have to admit, earlier on I was a bit sceptical of this ride and some of the shaping, but now that it's fully supported and the tubing is on it looks fantastic (I like that funky station too). Definitely one of the best. As for the video, 6 minutes is probably a bit long anyway, my last video was 4 minutes and that was still a couple too long I think. 

Hope the weather holds out for you long enough to get the video done, looking forward to it

Edited by rgarner42, 12 July 2016 - 02:56 PM.

[Muzz135]

Not quite as embarrassing as I thought that video may have turned out...

[IOAgeek]

Looks awesome I love the pacing of the train through each layout! Also, you may wanna add some brakes on the brake run it kind of flys trough that IMO and if you want to you can add a train storage track next to the brake run on the right side, it will make it look more realistic but it doesn't have to work like I did for Omega! If you just set you fingers on the opposite sides of the chain and let it run through the whole lift a cycle or two,you can then check for any lose chains that could possibly snap, I do it for all my coasters especially when I am setting up the coaster at a show. I was frustrated by how many times the chain broke on my Montu recreation at one of my first shows I did, cause I never checked the chain after Trevor and I put it back together, so I have learned my lesson for sure, the chain never broke on Omega at any shows I did.

Edited by IOAgeek, 12 July 2016 - 04:23 PM.

[Batwing]

This thing really is a monster! The layout just seems to go on forever and, as expected, the pacing is perfect. Funky roof too.

Does your cat like your coasters?

 

Can't wait to see the final video soon.

[CW5X]

I know how hard it is to build a huge inverted roller coaster, and this is just... Wow. I can't even describe it.

Probably my favorite K'nex invert.

 

Thank you

 

This coaster is just incredible! It is absolutely fantastic in that it's size is equally matched by its flowing beauty. I am amazed at how well this huge coaster turned out. Very nice job, and congratulations on creating such a magnificent coaster.

 

Thank you as well

 

I have to admit, earlier on I was a bit sceptical of this ride and some of the shaping, but now that it's fully supported and the tubing is on it looks fantastic (I like that funky station too). Definitely one of the best. As for the video, 6 minutes is probably a bit long anyway, my last video was 4 minutes and that was still a couple too long I think. 

Hope the weather holds out for you long enough to get the video done, looking forward to it

 

The weather did hold fortunately so the process was pretty quick in the end. I usually like to make long videos with my big rides but I don't think it would really suit this anyway. Definitely some of the shaping earlier on was a bit iffy. There are still spots here and there that show up and I have no doubt you'll see them because I ran the train round so many times and the track does tend to warp a bit but I am much happier than I was with most of it. Thank you

 

Not quite as embarrassing as I thought that video may have turned out...

 

Hmmm. Can't have that. Maybe I should make one just zooming in on you repeatedly jumping

 

Looks awesome I love the pacing of the train through each layout! Also, you may wanna add some brakes on the brake run it kind of flys trough that IMO and if you want to you can add a train storage track next to the brake run on the right side, it will make it look more realistic but it doesn't have to work like I did for Omega! If you just set you fingers on the opposite sides of the chain and let it run through the whole lift a cycle or two,you can then check for any lose chains that could possibly snap, I do it for all my coasters especially when I am setting up the coaster at a show. I was frustrated by how many times the chain broke on my Montu recreation at one of my first shows I did, cause I never checked the chain after Trevor and I put it back together, so I have learned my lesson for sure, the chain never broke on Omega at any shows I did.

 

Yeah. Even through the whole day of filming today, the chain didn't break once and it ran a lot so we definitely found all the weak spots, unsurprisingly using your method here . There's always that uncertainty that keeps you on edge though. Also, I would've done all of the things you've suggested here but I'm on a very tight timescale so unfortunately, I can't really add anything else but to be honest, I'm pretty happy with everything as it stands. I might do some fiddling tomorrow just to show off a couple of other things that we did but the important, more exciting part (for me at least) is finished and done. Thanks for all your much appreciated suggestions throughout.

 

This thing really is a monster! The layout just seems to go on forever and, as expected, the pacing is perfect. Funky roof too.

Does your cat like your coasters?

 

Can't wait to see the final video soon.

 

My cat doesn't seem to mind them although I think she just likes hanging around people in the garden. Thanks

 

 

Well, well, well. What have we here? I had to film it on my phone which at least has a decent camera because both the iPad's are getting a bit short on memory and I've kind of used them for more music-y purposes. There are a couple of minor focusing issues but nothing to scream about. I did the best that I could with the angles and stuff and trying to put everything together coherently and in time. Youtube always seems to move the sound a little bit from where I have it on my computer but it's not too bad this time. Hopefully the fact that I've had to do it all so quickly doesn't show and I hope you enjoy as well. You may see a couple more videos appear with full shots just running on its own. It's just not as fun editing whole clips of the train rounding the full course and harder to watch too.

 

 

I can relax a tiny little bit now. Until I realise that I have to take a significant amount of this down before Saturday... Thanks for all the comments. Always read and appreciated

Edited by CW5X, 04 October 2016 - 07:26 AM.

[DDRman732865]

This is some of the best speed conservation on a coaster ever. Everything is shaped really well, and the pacing is great also.

[rgarner42]

Wow. That was a really nice video considering you only had your phone to film it on. Loved the POV aswell, and the shots from the moving train on the lift hill. POVs on k'nex coasters are often pointless and rarely do the coaster justice but because of the size of this it worked really well. 

( and I didn't spot any shaping errors eithers, it all looks great. I think the only thing I'm not throughly convinced of is the weird turn into the MCBR, and that's just personal preference other than that its fantastic)

[Muzz135]

Brilliant work on this whole coaster! Definitely the best Knex invert ever built!
Really enjoyed the video too especially the POV
I think you'll be struggling to top this model but knowing you you'll manage it!