4 replies to this topic

[W-e-s-l-e-y]

Hey! Long-time leecher here who surprisingly has never posted a single built in my early years of building. The Netherlands is still in lockdown which is likely being extended, so when I stumbled upon my K'nex in the attic I wanted to give it another try.

 

This coaster is going to be a bit of twist; its designed after Vertigo in Walibi Belgium (https://rcdb.com/3457.htm), an experimental rollercoaster manufactured by ropeway manufacturer Doppelmayr that did not manage to live a long life in the park. 

 

 

Whether I'll be able to make this work is to be seen, but it's keeping me busy so I can't complain too much about the technical challenge.

Starting out, after a bunch of revisions this is the cart I've settled on. There's two wheels connected with hinges to allow turning, and free swinging seats from the "Starburst Spinner" set that I figured would fit well for this purpose. The figures are also identical to the K'nex figures included in the Musical Ferris Wheel and Pirate Ship Park sets, so I have a whole bunch of full size figures to place around the station later which will fit in nicely 

 

Major flex in the rails; at the time of building this test section I did not have a sufficient number of Classic>Micro connectors needed to build a spline. I do have them now. The bulk next to the tires is mainly there to allow a tire drive to push the cars along flat sections of track such as the station and brake runs.

 

So far I've built two tower bases (one of which is an upgraded version of the first) and started out the vertical elevator shaft.

 

 

And some detail shots of the elevator system I had in mind, the plan is to have 2 chain runs running on each side of the elevator with rods hanging in-between the runs to push the elevator carts up and down. Multiple of these rods will be used so that the cart will "hang" at the top for a second without having to stop the chain from running. Chain speed might be an issue with that plan though, we'll have to wait and see once its build!

 

 

 

 

 

That's it for now! Time to stow the boxes of K'nex away for the day and continue building in a couple of days 

 

 

[DDRman732865]

I already love it. Have you had any issues with the cars staying on the track? It looks like you balanced it well.

 

For the elevator lift, you could attach the chain to the SS coaster car for ease of use. 

 

Or, here's an elevator lift that automatically reverses. 

https://www.youtube....h?v=9Amieeyb9Cg

[W-e-s-l-e-y]

The cars stay on the track quite well! I built a small test section with a curve radius much tighter than I plan to use on the ride, and it wouldn't fall off the track despite being pushed in with some speed. Since most of the weight is below the track the wheels appear to stay put and afterwards the car balances out quite nicely. 

 

It's good you brought up that video, right after posting the photos of my elevator in a Discord channel, I immediately talked it through with Austron and he suggested I attempt to make my lift work with that reversing design as well. Having looked at it in detail, I think that would be a great way to make it work much more reliably!

So that's what I'm doing next; building a new elevator shaft based on Austron's. I just hope it will be possible to keep the car at the top long enough for the cars to roll out of the elevator, but if that is a problem I'll hook up some reed switches and add a magnet to the elevator carriage.

[Steelwheels33]

Man I love the creativity and just completely different aspect this ride brings to the SS build community.very creative and ingenious I'm not even fully understanding how the lift operates at this point I'd have to do more research or see more videos and pictures. But I hope that you make good progress with this!

[CrayCray for coasters]

you could extend the chain a little on the top, bc that would keep it there for longer and wouldn't be too impractical