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Braking on Roller-coasters


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After reading through a thread in the Seaworld forum, I read that the Corkscrew is parked manually. So I was just wondering are there still roller-coasters that are manufacturerd today that have to be parked manually, and if so, what safety devices do they have to prevent ride operators going crazy and letting the train fly through the station, if any? Also, on the subject of braking, are the magnetic brakes that they use on rides such as Xcelerator the same as they use on drop rides and high speed trains (something about eddy currents I hear, we were learning about it in Physics)?

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The ones on the TOT are still electromagnets and the brakes on GD are still permanent magnets, and the types of magnets they are hasnt changed since the last time the magnetic brake/launch topic was brought up. Have a dig through the forums and you will find explanations of how the magnets work. This topic has been discussed ad waaayyyyy too many times.

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Read between the lines buddy, my main question was about the safety of the standard brakes on roller-coasters, and the amount of roller-coasters that utilise magnetic braking, not the elecrtomagnetic brake crap on the GD & TOT. As for Scott's question, I was quite sure that the brakes on the GD are always on, or they don't require power or summat like that.

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I am guessing that you are talking about parking the ride at the end of the day. I can't remember the layout of Corkscrew but is there an area where the train can be put on a side track? The other thing it might be is the train is parked just outside the station at the end of the day and therefore requires it to be done 'manually'. Bush Beast could be run in manual braking mode which required the operator to press the four brake buttons in sequence to bring the train into the station. I heard a story about the maintenance guys nearly crashing the train by holding down all the buttons as the train came into the braking area and then into the station. The maintenance guy applied the brakes at the last minute so it slowed enough to get around the corner at the end of the station. If the brakes hadn't been applied the train would have de-railed and probably ended up in the entrance path for the beach. The words "instant dismissal" come to mind. The brakes on the majority of coasters are the standard fin brakes. The magnetic brakes on GD will be the same as the ones on SP. They are not electromagnetic and therefore will still operate when there is a power failure. "The Bus is now leaving for Cane Brake Creek, Western Australia"

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The way i understand it is that the ride op parks the train, The train goes around then stop outside the station at the end of the circut(by computer controlled) then it release the train (brakes) then the ride op controls the braking to park it into postion for unloading and loading. Thats the way i under stand it.

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from what i understand, the first in the series of "brake run" brakes before the station remain in the "closed" position at all times, but they are a decelerator brake, so the train doesnt just hit them and stop, but brings it to a stop within a few metres. These brakes remain closed, until the operator manually opens the brakes, and allows them to move forward. My understanding of this sort of system comes from operating Bush Beast. This system at Bush Beast did just as described above, and the operator would release the brakes in the brake run, and keep the brake release pressed until such time as it was in the correct position in the station. The same action was necessary to release the train from the station for dispatch. As soon as the operator removed their hand from the release button, the brakes would close and stop the train where it stood. I'm not sure how this worked in two-train operation, and whether there is a separate button for bringing in to the station and despatching, but on one train operation, i am fairly sure this is how it worked...

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my main question was about the safety of the standard brakes on roller-coasters, and the amount of roller-coasters that utilise magnetic braking.
One thing to remember about magnetic braking is that they are unable to bring a train to a complete stop. They are commonly used as "trim" brakes, but also have applications as main brakes (eg like before the station or on somthing like GD). In this case some or most of the speed of the train will be wiped off BUT some other sort of friction style brake will still need to be used to bring and hold the train at a complete stop.
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Dr Teeth: Yeah, I thought that was the case, the physics teacher was going on about some kind of currents not being able to bring anything to a complete stop, but rather, to slow it down a lot. Something about, if it stops moving the current stops flowing which doesn't induce the magnetic field to bring it to a stop or something of that nature, so it always has to flow. But thanks for all the answers about brakes on roller-coasters folks.

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Yep thats exactly right NEB. GD is proof of that in reality as youl note that the ride slows down quickly but dosent stop it still slides slowly down to the bottom. There is some sort of other brake that the gondola hits there to slow it and stop it in the station. The basics inducting electricty are pretty simple...faster movemnt = more induced voltage. Electricity always opposes the movemnt its creating force, so you could say with magentic brakes they work because its acutally trying to push the gondola or coaster train in the opposite direction to which it is actually moving . Of course as the train or gondola runs out of speed it also induces a lower voltage and therefore the resistance the brake creates is lower.

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from what i understand, the first in the series of "brake run" brakes before the station remain in the "closed" position at all times, but they are a decelerator brake, so the train doesnt just hit them and stop, but brings it to a stop within a few metres.
So these brakes are there to decrease the train's velocity and are never opened? Are these brakes designed to stop the carriage or slow it down so it can enter the station?
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So these brakes are there to decrease the train's velocity and are never opened? Are these brakes designed to stop the carriage or slow it down so it can enter the station?
Im not going to say anything - im just going to quote the next line after the one you quoted:
These brakes remain closed, until the operator manually opens the brakes, and allows them to move forward.
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ok well lets break it down...

So these brakes are there to decrease the train's velocity and are never opened?
These brakes remain closed
Are these brakes designed to stop the carriage or slow it down so it can enter the station?
(the train comes to a complete stop),
until the operator manually opens the brakes, and allows them to move forward.
(the text listed in italics above was left out due to assumed common sense, obviously, that was a mistake). When the line below it said "operator manually opens brakes to allow them to move forward, one would assume that they were not moving forward prior to the operator manually opening the brakes. I would also like to quote the following as well:
the first in the series of "brake run" brakes before the station remain in the "closed" position at all times, but they are a decelerator brake, so the train doesnt just hit them and stop, but brings it to a stop within a few metres.
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Bush Beast had a two button system (auto mode). One was to dispatch, it basically opened the station brakes, and it needed to be held down until the train was out of the station. The other button was for the four sets of brakes the led into the station. Again it was held down until the train was in the correct position in the station. If either button was released early the brakes would close, pressing it again would release them again. "The Bus is now leaving for Helder Inlet, Tasmania"

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