It's time for another back-from-the-dead construction update! Whilst it's safe to say the World has changed drastically since I last updated this thread, I've been relishing spending some more time at home over the last few months. In other words, the coaster is very nearly complete! Hope everyone's staying safe and on the road to returning to normality.
After almost 3 years (!) of building, I'm excited to announce that track is complete! I'm currently in the test and adjust phase, working on the electronics and tweaking the trackwork for both shaping and momentum conservation. I achieved the first full circuit test about a month ago, and now have 6 modified cars capable of completing it! 2 run reliably in all conditions, whilst the rest seem to be much more temperature-dependent, and only work in cooler weather (typically less than 20 degrees Celsius, which it often is here in the UK!). I managed to sneak in 3 more inversions since the last update (including one I hadn't planned), taking the total to 7! Here's the completed layout:
And as it's tough to fit in the camera, have another overview:
The two parabolic overbank turns:
It's very difficult to time, but these two elements are designed to duel!
I decided to focus more on airtime than inversions on the lower sections:
And no, your eyes don't deceive you...it's a TRIM (so sorry). My excuse: I was running very low on pieces and space by the end of the layout. The entrance to the final overbank is probably the fastest point on the ride, so I had problems with overspeeding into the final brake run. This is the most noticeable trim, but there are also a few right before the brakes if you look closely!
I made a little transfer track underneath for naughty trains.
You can't really see from this perspective, but the brake run and holding block are both connected to the green motor!
I've made a couple of quite significant changes to the spiral lift - hopefully it'll be able to accommodate multiple cars (haven't quite tried yet). There's quite a lot of warping, but I imagine this is unavoidable for a coaster of this size!
I'm quite proud of the amount of outer-banking I managed to achieve on the off-axis airtime hill! Station still needs quite a lot of work, but the station flyover should be enclosed by my next update!
At the end of the last update, I'd just finished the roll over, so I'd yet to install most of the layout's second half. Although the lighting isn't quite right, the next element I added was this airtime hill:
Whilst the very first airtime hill is a drawn out speed hill delivering floater, this is much more of an ejector hill! After this strong negative-G moment, the track then dives into a high speed turn with strong positives:
And for the next element...
I eventually went for a vertical loop which was somewhere between clothoid and circular, in order to give a little bit of hangtime at the top. I didn't have much choice with the space available, but after a few attempts, I'm really happy with how it turned out!
Eagle-eyed observers will notice the speed hill is now slightly flatter.
It's a tight fit!
Before completing the layout, I really wanted to see if I could build a couple of elements inside the tower itself, using the sides as supports. I eventually settled on this inclined loop:
From above:
And for the final inversion:
The diving corkscrew was mainly inspired by the Smiler's two main drops, although this version is more drawn out! Here's my favourite angle of it:
The last three inversions are deliberately very similar to one another - giving the impression of spiralling downwards.
The diving corkscrew then leads straight into the overbanked turn. This is by far the most drawn out element on the ride - I thought it would be a nice change from the tighter, more compact elements around the tower.
Another overview shot showing the length of the pullout:
Before I finish, I'd just like to point out one last feature of this model: for the last few weeks, I've been experimenting with a brand new spine design, and I've converted a small track section into a prototype! For reference, this is the small bunny hop before the vertical lift.
Designed for improved strength and malleability, this new spine is effectively double-stacked version of the customary design found on most modern VV coasters and the rest of Vertigo's layout. It's heavily based on the standard VV spine, but is slightly taller, uses different connectors to bind the track and features 6 rods, rather than the original 4. I consider it a natural evolution of the standard design - "spine 2.0" if you may. The original was roughly triangular, so the name "micro box spine" is probably appropriate too. I'm not aware of any other models featuring this structure - but if they exist, let me know!
It's a little harder to build than the original, but as it's much beefier, it holds its shape much better. In practical terms, this means tight sections of track can be shaped first, then supported later. I often find myself creating draft supports to hold the track in place whilst shaping - much less of this is necessary with the new style.
To build it, you'll need twice as many red half moons per track piece. The bottom layer of the spine is identical to the bottom part of the standard spine, but is topped with a purple double ended connector rather than a quarter snowflake. Because the purple connectors are vertical, they apply force/stress directly onto the spine. This caveat also makes it easier to position the red half-moons, since they are directly under the track rather than being staggered.
The next part of this track is an original spine, without its black rods or yellow connectors, placed upside-down on top. Two orange rods threaded at 45 degrees through the two sets of red half-moons connect the two parts of the track.
The inverted half-moons create support attachment point within the spine itself, rather than on the outside. Getting supporting rods into the spine is a little fiddly, but the key thing is that this attachment point is a little more rigid - all of the other 4 slots on the inverted red half moons are connected to orange rods.
From my experience, one of the big problems with the original spine is that it can be quite irregular, since connecting the orange rods isn't always possible. I'm finding this quite difficult to describe, but basically, the locations of the purple connectors are "dead spots" where you can't connect supports by clicking in a red half moon nor make a connection to the track. This means you sometimes have to omit the connections, or place yellow quarter moons backwards. If you have to do this frequently then over time, the two sets of staggered orange rods can catch up with each other, breaking down the staggering and throwing your shaping off. Because there are twice as many red half moons, these rod connections are unnecessary for "Micro spine 2.0"; rod ends touch and don't stick out at weird angles. As a result, the spine can be way more regular, and the relative positions ("the stagger") will change less over the length of the track. The rods themselves can also be used as attachment points for lateral supports, just like the standard spine style. In the prototype, all 6 rods are staggered so to further stop rods from sticking up, you could use horizontal purple connectors to join parallel rod pairs (if that makes sense?)
I realise that was basically a sales pitch, but I hope I've managed to clearly communicate the advantages of this new spine to all of you! If it would be helpful, I'll make a building tutorial at some point soon? Having run cars on it for a couple of weeks, its performance has been really promising! Because I'm officially moving out of my childhood home this autumn, I'm not quite sure exactly what I'll be building next, but whatever it is I intend to use this new spine for the entire layout. I'm really interested to see what the speed loss will be like!
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TLDR: Trackwork is complete, and after a bit of tweaking and station work, I'll soon be clearing the spare pieces away to make the final video!
Until then, stay safe and please comment!
Edited by Batwing, 16 June 2020 - 10:03 AM.
I haven't been able to avoid them in this update either, so I'll apologise in advance! 
