Shuttle Coaster
A shuttle coaster is a roller coaster whose route does not describe a closed circle, but in which the train stops at a certain point and travels backwards along the route. An example of this type of roller coaster is the butterfly roller coaster installed in numerous German amusement parks .
variants
Launch
One variant of Shuttle Coasters are Launched Coaster . With this type, the train is usually accelerated out of the station by means of LIM , friction or flywheel drives . Once the roller coaster route has been passed, it goes up a hill that is so high that the train stops at the top, rolls backwards and drives through the roller coaster route again. The train is either stopped directly in the station or first drives up a second hill and is only braked the second time it passes through the station.
An example of this version was the turbine in the Belgian amusement park Walibi Belgium , where a flywheel drive was used for launch.
Rocking up
The rocking is a variant of the launch start. The mostly U-shaped route is not traveled once, but several times and the speed is increased with each pass. This is achieved by linear motors that shoot the train first and then accelerate it further with each pass.
An example of this version is the Wicked Twister in Cedar Point and the halfpipe roller coasters from Intamin .
Reverse lift
With the second type, the train is first pulled backwards up a lift hill with aids and notched at the top, then drives through the station and then through the actual roller coaster course. At the end of the route, the train is pulled up a lift hill the part that it has not yet driven on its own, in order to then reverse the route. The train is then braked at the station.
The best known and most common roller coaster model of this type is the Boomerang of Vekoma . A slide is used as the reverse lift, which is pulled up on a wire rope, a modified chain lift is used for the second lift.
The Invertigo and Giant Inverted Boomerang systems from Vekoma are very similar to the Boomerang . In the "Giant" version of this Inverted Coaster , the liftills are vertical.
High station
With this type of shuttle coaster, the station is at the highest point. The train accelerates out of the station and then descends a hill to pick up further speed. On the other side of the route, the train returns to the same level and from there backwards back to the station.
An example of this type is the Irn-Bru Revolution , built by Arrow in 1979, of the Launched Loop model in Blackpool Pleasure Beach . The train is accelerated here with a slide pulled by a steel cable.
