[HN Gopher] Backyard Roller Coasters
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Backyard Roller Coasters
Author : this_was_posted
Score : 111 points
Date : 2021-07-25 11:47 UTC (2 days ago)
(HTM) web link (backyardrollercoasters.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (backyardrollercoasters.org)
| jesboat wrote:
| Amusing this hits the front page the same time as
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euthanasia_Coaster
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27970824
| thanatos519 wrote:
| I wish I had a backyard big enough for a Euthanasia Coaster!
| avhb wrote:
| "Subsequent inversions or another run of the coaster would
| serve as insurance against unintentional survival of more
| robust passengers." - This sentence just cracks me up
| mr_gibbins wrote:
| Why is this here? It is a sales link to an e-Book.
| hoppyhoppy2 wrote:
| HN allows sales links to subscription-only services from tech
| startups, I'm not sure why a book would be off-limits
| dang wrote:
| There's some backstory there, and some photos, and links to
| other things like
| https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCogxwyWHLKCTnBXRGQXbnYg. I
| think it's ok. It's a hell of a topic after all, and better
| yet, seems to pass the "can't be predicted from any pre-
| existing sequence" test, which is the gold standard for HN
| topics.
|
| https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sor...
| stevespang wrote:
| CLICKBAIT ! Throws the send us money right in your face !
| gorgoiler wrote:
| I actually need to build a short (500 yard) railway at some point
| in the next few years. Disease is spreading into my ash woodland
| and a very large amount of timber needs to be harvested before it
| dies. It's the excuse I need to have a site railway.
| drewzero1 wrote:
| If you haven't seen it yet, Tim over at the Way Out West Blow-
| In Blog[1] has been building a cartway to do farm work where a
| tractor wouldn't serve the purpose well. I haven't watched
| recently but last I checked he had built a wagon or two and a
| boom-mounted trenching wheel. It looked like a neat project!
|
| [1] https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSViWfOV4pEcYnzpV6w548Q
| dehrmann wrote:
| Using plastic pipes you can get at any home improvement store for
| the track is pretty smart. It's all very approachable; you don't
| need any expensive tools to build one.
| Wowfunhappy wrote:
| This one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbTQoFjOAdM looks like
| something simple enough that you could maybe sell it to families?
| Like, instead of installing a playground, install this coaster.
|
| I'm not sure what the safety/liability situation would be like,
| but the coaster is close to the ground--if the child wears a
| helmet I don't _think_ this would be more dangerous than a set of
| swing set or jungle gym?
| Magi604 wrote:
| This seems like the type of thing that could be a liability
| nightmare. If my child told me someone in the neighborhood had
| built a backyard roller coaster, I would forbid them to ride it.
| misterben wrote:
| I misread that as backward roller coaster. That'd be fun.
| cameron_b wrote:
| Carowinds, in the Charlote NC area, had a design based on the
| Rebel Yell / Racer 75 called Thunder Road. two tracks mirrored
| each other and one side ran the train backwards.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunder_Road_(roller_coaster)
|
| It was a tough call between riding in the last car on the
| forwards side or anywhere on the backwards side, but on slower
| days when everyone was standing in line for the stand-up
| coasters, you didn't have to choose. Those were good summers.
| dwater wrote:
| There was a coaster at King's Dominion in Virginia called Rebel
| Yell (since renamed Racer 75) that ran backwards on one of the
| 2 tracks from 1992 to 2008. I remember it being fun but I
| preferred the forward facing ride.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racer_75
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adES4jZpAHk
| js2 wrote:
| Kennywood used to have a ride where you were launched forward
| through a loop and then up an incline till gravity
| counteracted momentum. You'd then fall backwards down the
| incline, back through the loop, through the station, and
| backwards up an incline, then roll down and forward back into
| the station.
|
| It was a fun ride.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuttle_Loop
| mikepurvis wrote:
| Canada's Wonderland has a forward-and-back ride called The Bat:
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_UF0ozd2ns
|
| The real issue with it is that capacity is severely limited
| since you can only have the one train. So there's none of the
| usual 3-train flow where one is always loading, one's climbing,
| and one's waiting to load.
| maverick2007 wrote:
| There's a surprising amount of coasters that run backwards
| nowadays! You have a handful of wooden coasters that generally
| run (or did run) backwards as part of a Halloween event (Racer
| 75, Thunder Road (RIP), Racer at Kings Island and Viper at Six
| Flags Great America) but a lot of modern steel coasters
| actually do it by design. Like Hagrid's Magical Creatures
| Motorbike Adventure at Islands of Adventure in Orlando has a
| decently lengthy backwards section (plus some other surprises I
| won't spoil) or Mr Freeze at both Six Flags Over Texas or Six
| Flags St Louis both go through their courses both forwards and
| back. And that's not even counting Boomerangs like Bat at
| Canada's Wonderland that another sibling commenter mentioned
|
| (PS glad to see my favorite hobby being mentioned on HN, I
| could literally talk about this stuff all day)
| redshirtrob wrote:
| The Racer at KI originally ran forward on both sides, then
| switched to one forward, one backward in '82.
|
| I have fond memories from the 80's and 90's riding both
| sides. There was always some good-natured trash talking
| between the two tracks as they headed out from the gate and
| up the first hill (think "Great Tasting" vs. "Less Filling"
| and corny stuff like that). They eventually turned away from
| each other, but came back together for the finish line.
|
| Sadly they flipped it back to the original configuration a
| while ago.
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(page generated 2021-07-27 23:02 UTC)