Yeah, Rollercoaster Tycoon treats all brakes like skid brakes and when they fail it’s the equivalent of someone forgetting to raise them or them being worn out.
If the coaster has multiple trains, it means there's about to be a crash. If there's only one train, it means those guests are getting a free ride. Either way, it's terrifying.
Only if you didn't have trim brakes. Station brakes failures would cascade to any brakes immediately before the station, but if there is a gap of at least one tile, the before-station brakes will still work.
Which is why I *always* use block brakes. Period. This fear of brake failure even permeates into playing Planet Coaster. If it has multiple trains (sometimes even if not,) that coaster gets block brakes! *cue Oprah Winfrey meme*
I noticed the smooth transition of the black bars at 5:13 to accommodate for the smaller aspect ratio of the upcoming older clip, and I can just say this is such a nice quality of viewing feature that I really appreciated. Great video by the way
I'm glad you noticed, I've always been annoyed at these kinds of transitions in the past and wanted to make them smoother. Thanks for the kind words :)
@@coasterbot the colour/b&w transitions happen so fast it's nearly subconscious, but they're super effective at blending between what would otherwise be jarring clips. very nice
The water brake used by Sheikra is actually pretty problematic all things considered. A year ago I got to travel down to Tampa to replace the two sections of track directly after the water brake due to corrosion.
@@CarlRencer probably because due to corrosion it has to be replaced fairly often compared to the rest of the ride. especially considering sheikra is a steel coaster which can normally go around 30 years without their track having to be replaced.
While they may never fail because of failsafes, when I was a kid my family were the last call for the Mean Streak at Cedar Point, and due to shutdown procedures, they disengaged all but the last set of brakes. They had a strict lowered age limit and warned us this last ride is gonna be fast and painful. They weren't lying, I grew up doing annual trips to Cedar Point and that was the fastest the Mean Streak ever was, the final steep banked sharp turn that ended the track was brutal. Everyone had headaches afterward from our heads bouncing off the sides of the head supports in the fast turns. It hurt that day and everyone regretted it in the moments after but I'm glad I got to ride the "brakeless" Mean Streak before it got torn down.
One thing that this video didn't mention is the fact that permanent magnets lose strength over time. So you still need to either (a) replace the magnets on the train or (b) re-strengthen the magnets on the train periodically.
That's the first thing I thought. Also, when eddy currents slow a train down, it produces a lot of heat. The magnets probably need very good heat sinks. Magnets are less effective at high temperatures, and if it hits the Curie temperature, about 700C, even for a second, it destroys the magnet completely.
still pretty sure that happens a LOT slower than the wear of the friction brakes (and by having said magnetics in right before the friction brakes to do the final stopping, it further reduces the wear on the friction brake, since the train is moving very slowly already into them)
@@iankrasnow5383 looking at those coaster cars, it doesn't look like a whole lot of effort has been put into heatsinks, but realistically I don't think it's necessary. The brakes only really get used for a small percentage of the ride time, the fins and magnets have a fairly large surface area to disperse heat from, and they should have quite a lot of thermal mass to dump heat into if the air cooling isn't fast enough.
I'm not _really_ interested in rollercoasters, but I have to thank you very much for using km/h alongside mi/h. It's great not having to apply x1.6 every time speed comes up. :D
Or you could go back like Billy Madison and actually complete you required elementary school education, either/or. 3mph is average walking speed, similar to 12inches can be divided easily in many ways. That's why it's called scientific metrics... mm, cm and 0s are only useful in a lab setting, why don't we just change minutes to 100 per hour? Because that's stupidity...
@@rmac3217 This is called the INTERNATIONAL system of units. Because every country had their own unit system we all got together and defined an common unit system. Miles, inches and yards were not even taught on the majority of schools around the world... I mean, why they would? They're used on what, 2 or 3 countries only? Everybody else uses the standard.
@@rmac3217 Never learn Imperial! Metric > Imperial Appendix: There are only 3 countries which use imperial because metric is superior in terms of conversion. It is just easier. There is no reason to use imperial. Appendix: Which do you prefer? 100 billion or 10000000000 tens? Which do you prefer? 0.5*7*4 C or 14 C?
@@rmac3217 How is metric only useful in a lab setting? Most of the world only uses metric. Instead of your 12s, use 10s; we're already using base 10; 1,2,3,4,5 etc. Look how easy it is. 100cm -----> 1m . I would say imperial just sucks. In fact, it isn't even useful; not useful in a lab setting, not in a casual setting and certainly not for anyone at anytime.
I drove buses briefly in college and found the concept of failsafe brakes really fascinating there as I was learning about air brake systems. In a bus with air brakes, unlike a normal car, but similar to these coaster brakes, pressure is required to keep the brakes _disengaged_. If the air brake system somehow fails and pressure is lost, the brakes become fully engaged and the bus comes to a stop. Pretty clever stuff.
We have the same thing in nuclear reactors. If we lose power the control rods are released and stop the nuclear reaction so it doesn't go supercritical while the power is out
12:00 For those of you who are unfamiliar, a block zone is a section of ride that only one train may occupy. At the end of a block zone is a method to stop the train in case the block zone ahead is still occupied.
The fins at the top of Velocicoaster I believe were actually added to keep the train moving and prevent it from getting stuck up there. On a very rare event it actually got stuck at the top, which led to a very tricky evacuation. Learned during the paddock tour.
Some skid brakes are still manually controlled! Twister and Phoenix at Knoebels for example are completely manually controlled. If a ride operator wanted, they could simply slide the train right through the station allowing riders to go on a second lap. Maintenance and the supervisors generally frown upon that though. I've been lucky enough that once or twice on the last ride of the night towards the end of the season the Twister ops will stop it in the station before parking it all the way, quickly ask if anyone wants to get off, and then slide it the rest of the way through the station for a round two! Seeing the clips from Twister in this video made me smile, not just because of how great the ride is, but because of how great the ops are too!
That's interesting to hear! Some rides at Blackpool Pleasure Beach are still manually operated too. Thanks for sharing this really interesting information :)
I remember one night probably about 10 years ago being sent through at least 3 times in a row on the Phoenix that is one of my favorite memories at Knoebels
Thank you for bringing up the fact that fins can only be installed on straight track. There are way too many people that feel Dragster is going to get boosters on the vertical twist, not understanding it's not possible.
Mostly, but not quite. Fins can be used on track with a gentle vertical curve, but horizontal curves or twists are out. Likewise, skid brakes can be used on track that curves horizontally, but not vertically at all.
Brakes are what keep you from crashing into another train, which is actually one of the two most common kinds of coaster accidents (the other is someone being struck by a train). Guide and upstop wheels are what keep you from flying off the track, brakes really have nothing to do with that.
Got to see the braking by default in action when I worked at expedition everest at disney. Our brakes zone 3 would open half second or less before the train came through and close just barley after it went passed. Was crazy how close it was.
@@TemporalWolf yep little late but now seeing this. Brake zone 3 isn't used to much only when we fall behind unload or loading. Brake zone 3 was brakes u didn't want to get stuck at it brakes hard.
You should see the system of emergency brakes used by trains. The brakes are still friction brakes, but they can be activated by permanent magnets on the track. Wire is wrapped around the permanent magnets on the track, and energizing the wire creates a field in the opposite direction of the permanent magnet, thus creating no net magnetic field, and this allows a train to pass over that track. If the wire is not energized because something has failed or because the train does not have authorization to enter that section of track, the permanent magnets on the track will pull the emergency brake on the train and bring the train to a screeching halt. I just wanted to mention that because I think it's interesting that magnets can be used for multiple things. We don't just use them for induction braking. They can be used to activate regular friction brakes too.
I've never ever even thought about them just not working, like even on the first time I went on a rollercoaster myself, I was scared because I didn't know how it felt like, I really didn't think about anything that keeps it together breaking.
Hey, I see Great Yarmouths old coaster in the bit about brake men! As a local, it's one of me faves. Nothing quite like a coaster that has to be pushed by hand to start, and requries a brakeman sitting on the cars to slow it.
I know that vekoma had stange friction brakes. They use air to close, and springs to open. They all have a sepred buffer tank that can stop a train 1 time if the air suppley is lost. Its stanges but still used on the older vekoma's. Python at Efteling uses brakes like this.
On rollercoasters a block zone is a section of ride that only one train may occupy at a time. At the end of a block zone there is a method to stop the train, in case the block zone ahead is still occupied. This is the safety system that prevents rollercoaster trains from colliding with one another.
knowing about the copper tube magnet trick I got excited at 00:50 bc I figured immediately modern rollercoasters use magnets to slow them down :) was not disappointed when I got to 6:43!
It was interesting to rewatch this video as yesterday we were at Alton Towers when the storm caused a park wide power outage. Super surreal watching Wickerman just turn off. Anyway, as the resident enthusiast among friends folks were asking me how it worked with rides being held with the power off. I couldn’t remember in detail but said that basically if the ride either knows there is an obstacle ahead or cannot say either way it will hold the train by default (which i think was essentially correct). Was very cool to see it happen in real time.
I never thought about roller coasters not having standby generators/UPSes(batteries) as all of them in Orlando & Busch Gardens do have them. Power outages at these parks are incredibly rare that you can count on your fingers the number of times they’ve lost power lol. So the generators/UPS systems aren’t really ever used apart from testing. I’m just glad they’re there so I don’t get stuck!
2:39 Twister!! One of my favorite coasters. Surprised to see it anywhere online considering its location, but I suppose Knobel's is fairly well known to anyone actually into wooden coasters. And Phoenix at 3:02. I know it's won so many top prizes for wooden coasters but no one I talk to knows what I'm talking about. Super cool to see these amazing coasters get recognition even though they're buried up in Amish country.
Phoenix was the first roller coaster I ever rode, and to this day I still haven’t rode anything like it, it gives you that fluttering stomach feeling on blast the whole time as you go up and down like you’re really flying somehow
I wish I could've been a brakeman when I was a ride operator at worlds of fun. Test rides were the highlight of any shift of course (as well as running the panel aka sitting down most often in ac) I suppose I was a brakeman when making the ferris wheel but that was not fun as I wasn't on it and it took a lot of concentration and finesse!
Most underrated IRL Rollercoaster UA-camr :) Most older Rollercoasters have gotten failsafe brakes. There's nothing to be worried about when riding Leap-The-Dips :)
Well, the entire concept of "fail-safe" means that the real reality is that the brakes ALWAYS fail, but their failure state is that they stop the train, and do not let it go.
I will say, Roller Coaster brakes will never fail to slow you down (as long as something does not lock them open, which is VERY unlikely to happen accidentally...) But they CAN fail ON, meaning they lock you in place where ever you are. That is how you get people stuck upside down at the top of a loop for 3+ hours in the middle of the summer until rescuers can get a ladder and harness properly set up to pull you out one by one. I have personally seen that happen twice...
great video! always love your high-quality and informative content. i noticed the neat transition in and out of the old black-and-white coaster footage, thought that was really smooth. the infomercial bit was also great ;) keep up the awesome work
The old L4 type friction brake introduced by Arrow, inherited by Vekoma and copied by various chinese companies doesn't meet the definition of fail-safe. If there is a loss of air pressure after the control valve, the brake will open. The retractable fins used by Intamin use air to move in both directions but there is also a spring inside the cylinder that will push the fin up if there is no air holding it down.
The braking by the magnetic fiel is very good and some new lorries have them as standard braking they are good if you're going 30mph> (because stopping 40tons with disk brakes is harsh (they dont last long) ) but for braking at slow speed they don't work. Also the magnets cant always by active because the lorries couldnt move so lorries can still have braking fails.
Semi trucks use a similar failsafe, where the brakes default to engaged. It's so simple and elegant when you think about it, but never even occurs to most people since we're so used to brakes in our cars only engaging when you choose to engage them.
I've been interested in coasters after my first one last summer and I'm going to get on more later I just wanna say you're videos helped me get into coasters and keep up there's amazing vids
Something i found really cool was the waiting line for the second track of the wooden coaster "Le Monstre" at Six Flags, La Ronde in Montreal. The line goes along side the holding track and you have a full view of how every part of the brake mechanism works.
Velocicoaster actually doesn’t have a trim, that is I believe a couple LSM fins, and they are used to aid the train out of a stall at the apex of the top hat.
@@coasterbot Go for it! its even just a nice place to hang out (though id guess you'd be riding the rides lol). also if you are doing site seeing check out the Vor Frelsers Kirke. in my opinion, it has the best views of the city and it usually gets less traffic than some of the other towers in the city.
On rollercoasters a block zone is a section of ride that only one train may occupy at a time. At the end of a block zone there is a method to stop the train, in case the block zone ahead is still occupied. This is the safety system that prevents rollercoaster trains from colliding with one another. Let’s look at the block sections on ...
Used to go to Lakeside Amusement Park in northern Colorado with some extended family every summer. It's an older park with a wooden coaster called the Cyclone. One year it rained part way in the day and they had to close the Cyclone because it was going fast enough that they were having trouble stopping just the empty trains during testing and they were concerned about a potential derail on a few of the turns.
I think the best brake is the idea that the roller coaster can't be a perpetual motion machine, if you pull the car up to the first hill and it goes all the way around the track, it can't make it up to the same point again because it's not 100% efficient. In other words, the coaster will never do more than one loop on the track unless you add more energy in. The last hill will always stop it.
HEYY YOU SHOWED THE COMET!! MY MOM AND I LOVE THAT ROLLERCOASTER!! I influenced her to get on with me because she hates wooden coasters to death and when she got on with me and road it with me the first time, yes she was scared however she also told me that she had the most fun riding that ride than she has had in ages. I will always cherish the memories I made with her and I hope to continue to be able to make more of those memories especially being a father myself now.
They never fail for the same reason the brakes in your car never fail: maintenance. (And also because they required energy applied to them to *disengage* rather than engage)
Block sections are such an effective way to manage multiple trains that modern trackless dark rides actually have virtual block sections programmed into them.
@@eyebrowse Yet, every year there are dozens of circumvention where coaster and theme park accidents occurs. Something as simple as letting a giant 15 year old sit in a chair that will thrust him 100s of feet in the air and let him fall to his death, as one easy example, where numerous redundant systems failed and he died a horrific death. Plenty of other examples where that came from too. Don't be too proud of this technological terror you've constructed.
In Roller Coaster Tycoon 2 I always design rides to feature an upwards incline at the end to lower the train's momentum, brakes can absolutely fail in that game, even with block brakes being a gift from God the station brakes can still fail. I guess that is one of the most unrealistic elements of that game.
0:02 That guy riding the kiddie coaster with a mask on with nobody sitting next to him has probably never done something fun or exciting in his entire life.
Someone looking after hygiene and no one can even sit next to each other “not fun” don’t judge people over one little thing now you just made yourself look like a jackass and makes you not do anything fun or exciting
@11:30 - To be clear, what's described here is actually something roller coast junkies pray for. They would PAY for it. It's called a "rollback" and the OG Top Thrill Dragster is (was) known it. If the weight was right and the wind was right, the car would stall out before cresting the top of the arc, allowing it to free fall backward to where it started. It's one of those super rare events that people prayed for b/c it was such a unique and thrilling moment. Cedar Point listened to them and when they made Top Thrill 2, they designed it to purposely incorporate a rollback as part of the ride. For those who don't know Top Thrill 2, it's a mag launch coaster. You get launched forward with enough speed to get 1/2 way up the main tower. You then free fall backward to where you started and while going backward they activate the mag launch *in reverse*, increasing your negative velocity to 100 mph. This shoots you up another tower behind the coaster that goes straight up so you're facing the ground. Gravity stops you and you free fall forward back to where you started, where they mag launch you a THIRD time, this time shooting the cart 120 MPH down the rail, sending you over a 420 foot crest with a bunch of twists. You go shooting straight down the other side and eventually end up back where you started. It...looks...amazing!!!
I love the couple of coasters with hyrodynamic breaks. They look really cool and could be used to fully stop the coaster, but no-one ever does that since it would require a recovery mechanism and or the guests to swim,
From personal experience working ops on coasters I can say for a fact that sometimes breaks do fail. I've seen cars/trains blow right through breaking sections that were supposed to be active.
Funny enough I was at Indiana beach yesterday and I think they had to close the ride for like half the day because the brakes failed. 1. I could be wrong. 2. No one went on it before they closed it, it happened before while they were testing before opening.
The amount of coasters from KI that this features makes my heart happy. I used to scrounge for any video of KI when I was little, and now it's commonplace. Also shoutout Busch Gardens Tampa cus it's one of the other parks I've been to, and I recognized a lot of coasters from there in the video as well.
Superman The Ride @ SF New England has the most exciting brake run I've ever experienced. Slams to a stop from ~40 or ~50 mph about 10 yards from the train in the station. So awesome
1 smoll thing... Even magnetic breaks require maintenance, as the magnets can fail over time :) But its nowhere near the maintenance required on skid-break systems :D
Magnetic brakes are essentially the opposite of magnetic launch systems in roller coasters, magnetic launch systems are just linear induction motors, where magnetic brakes are basically just linear generators, the difference is magnetic launch systems convert electrical energy into kinetic energy, magnetic brakes do the opposite, they convert kinetic energy into electrical energy, kinda like the dynamic brakes on trains
The Superman located at Darien Lake in NY is called The Ride Of Steel now for copyright reasons, it has been called The Superman since Six Flags dropped the park over 15 years ago. (Source: I live here and used to do Ride Ops for darien lake back in 2012)
i had a sort of break fail while i was on a roler coaster. it was slowed down but not enought, we just drove throught the start (maybe 15kmh/9.3mph) and had a second round without waiting. glad that it was a soft one.
Unforutnately, the Schwarzkopf systems still face similar issues to skid brakes; Skid brakes still have issues even with cover during inclement weather. I've had instances where trains overshoot because of wet brakes (mind you this is over a decade ago at this point, and I know my personal example of the Schwarzkopf has been updated to magnetic system so I have no reference for anything on it since... but still). Water will still get carried into Skid brakes, as will water on the Schwarzkopf systems, still causing partial overshooting of the station or a brake section. While I've never seen a train manage to land back on a lift, I've seen them come close (at least to a point people had to re-ride) on both skid and side mount fin brakes. All it takes, is an efficient team of operators to get cars out in what would normally be good time where you can dispatch and let the next train nearly bypass a holding brake. All that said, a little cognizance by the crew and they can time just enough overlap to allow that holding brake to be needed, but for the computer to then cancel after slowing the incoming train a little more. So yes, while the brake systems will fail in an on position... everything else is still a factor.
6:45 wrong name. It's Elecromagnetic brakes. The linkage between electric fields/currents and the magnetic fields are important (as stated a bit later). edit: Eddy Current brakes would be the technical term
@@coasterbot elecromagnetic doesn't mean powered. What happens, is that a conductor travels through a static magnetic field (the other mechanic would be a (static) conductor and a changing magnetic field, witch is how LIM's work) . If you are looking at the maxwell equations you will see (changing area), that this implies an electrical current (called eddy current) inside the conductor. This current induces a magnetic field opposit of the magnetic field provided from the outside, therefore we have a force, "braking" the conductor. The english wiki-artical of the "eddy current brake" does a good job "imaging" those fields. That's why we have and need an electric field here, witch makes it an electromagnetic device. This shows furthermore how those fields are working and inducibg eachother.
Arrow/Vekoma/Morgan coasters with pneumatic friction brakes fail open. You will see that each brake has an air tank usually positioned on the catwalk handrail next to it. Each tank contains enough air to open/close the brake fully 3 times. There are multiple pressure sensors on each which will E-Stop the ride if it reaches a lower limit, way before the air runs out and the brakes open. This is how they’re effectively made “fail safe” even with a fail open design. You also mentioned that that fin brakes can only be positioned on straight track. Enigma at Pleasurewood Hills proves this not to be the case! Plenty of fin brakes on corners on that coaster.
Enigma has side mounted fins. this does make it possible as i would imagine are built much wide that normal to account for the turn, however i can also see this causing uneven wear. For coasters with fins under the train/ between the rails. it is not possible unless on a straight section of track. So for those hoping Dragster is going to have boosters install on the vertical hill, it wont happen.
I already knew that, and I hoped to learn something additional that keeps the brakes failsafe. But I guess it works, since we don't hear of block brakes failing. But I can already think of many cases of failures during the video: What if the magnet brake fins don't come up, because there's a problem with the electric system, for example the specific cables that wire the motors? What if the springs fail? I already knew that springs are used to ensure a default state, it's the easiest way to do that. But it all depends on the springs not breaking. It is not an ideal failsafe system, but it seems to be the best so far, and as long as maintenance is fine, it will be fail-safe. Maybe that's the idea: If maintenance is neglected, the ride won't be safe anyway. In parks with good maintenance, the brakes are truly fail-safe, since they are always inspected and kept in their best form. In parks with neglected maintenance on the other hand, other problems come up that are severe to safety. So for all purposes, good maintenance is key to safety, and if it is neglected, it all falls apart anyway since it's a moving system that remains safe for some time, but eventually fails if it is not kept up well. So: Rollercoaster brakes are just fail-safe enough for all practical purposes, they are already more failsafe than other systems, and the whole system is only as safe as the weakest link in the chain.
The biggest problem with magnet brakes is their inability to cope with derailment. If the carriage derails, the braking device may be misaligned and cause a collision, which often results in the carriage completely detaching, or the brakes being damaged and failing, causing collisions with other car. A roller coaster that uses magnetic brakes must ensure that derailment is an event that should never occur in the system.
If you enjoyed this video it would mean a lot to subscribe to my channel! We're slowly making our way to 100k 😍
You really deserve it, man!
Fancy doing a video about roller coaster safety during power cuts?
Already have subcribed
@@Beanie1984great suggestion, I'll make a note of it for future consideration!
This was a geniunely interesting video, thank you for teaching me about brakes on roller coasters :) I love these kinds of videos
Tell that to the 23 guests that died on Roller Coaster 1 in my Rollercoaster Tycoon 2 save file
Yeah, Rollercoaster Tycoon treats all brakes like skid brakes and when they fail it’s the equivalent of someone forgetting to raise them or them being worn out.
Only 23 deaths? That's one hell of a safe park!
23 deaths in the words of Greystillplays " *those are rookie numbers* "
Let's game it out: "Looks like they forgot my existence."
Lol
As informative as this video is. It will never eradicate the fear of seeing a station break failure in the original rollercoaster tycoon
If the coaster has multiple trains, it means there's about to be a crash. If there's only one train, it means those guests are getting a free ride.
Either way, it's terrifying.
Only if you didn't have trim brakes. Station brakes failures would cascade to any brakes immediately before the station, but if there is a gap of at least one tile, the before-station brakes will still work.
bro got traumatized by rollercoaster tycoon 💀
@@CarlosAM1 Failing a difficult scenario because the RNG decides to fuck you over is definitely fear-inducing.
Which is why I *always* use block brakes. Period. This fear of brake failure even permeates into playing Planet Coaster. If it has multiple trains (sometimes even if not,) that coaster gets block brakes!
*cue Oprah Winfrey meme*
I noticed the smooth transition of the black bars at 5:13 to accommodate for the smaller aspect ratio of the upcoming older clip, and I can just say this is such a nice quality of viewing feature that I really appreciated. Great video by the way
Ain't he a wizard with editing!
I'm glad you noticed, I've always been annoyed at these kinds of transitions in the past and wanted to make them smoother. Thanks for the kind words :)
@@coasterbot that editing almost made me cry with joy,, thank you coaster bot
@@coasterbot the colour/b&w transitions happen so fast it's nearly subconscious, but they're super effective at blending between what would otherwise be jarring clips. very nice
It’s literally one key frame required but it’s tastefully done
The water brake used by Sheikra is actually pretty problematic all things considered. A year ago I got to travel down to Tampa to replace the two sections of track directly after the water brake due to corrosion.
I'm guessing you're a roller coaster mechanic? That sounds like an exciting job as far as being a mechanic is concerned.
Interesting to hear!
@@Aaron-cs3xl nah he was just bored and owns a welder
why do you think that is problematic? The engineers know it will corrode. Replacing those sections is maintenance, not an unexpected repair.
@@CarlRencer probably because due to corrosion it has to be replaced fairly often compared to the rest of the ride. especially considering sheikra is a steel coaster which can normally go around 30 years without their track having to be replaced.
"We've already made a whole video about block sections"
Ok but ElToroRyan made a whole CHANNEL about them.
True, I'm not as dedicated to the block section god as Mr ElToroRyan!
@@coasterbot I was gonna comment, you should have had Ryan speak in when u talked about block sections haha
What are the FUCKING odds I run into the one and only CZsWorld!!! Bruh I love ur saw breakdowns and other shit lol.
While they may never fail because of failsafes, when I was a kid my family were the last call for the Mean Streak at Cedar Point, and due to shutdown procedures, they disengaged all but the last set of brakes. They had a strict lowered age limit and warned us this last ride is gonna be fast and painful. They weren't lying, I grew up doing annual trips to Cedar Point and that was the fastest the Mean Streak ever was, the final steep banked sharp turn that ended the track was brutal. Everyone had headaches afterward from our heads bouncing off the sides of the head supports in the fast turns. It hurt that day and everyone regretted it in the moments after but I'm glad I got to ride the "brakeless" Mean Streak before it got torn down.
One thing that this video didn't mention is the fact that permanent magnets lose strength over time. So you still need to either (a) replace the magnets on the train or (b) re-strengthen the magnets on the train periodically.
That's a great point! I'm a and b would be covered during maintenance of roller coaster trains :)
Oh yeah i didn't think about it, still better than electromagnets that would stop working without power
That's the first thing I thought. Also, when eddy currents slow a train down, it produces a lot of heat. The magnets probably need very good heat sinks. Magnets are less effective at high temperatures, and if it hits the Curie temperature, about 700C, even for a second, it destroys the magnet completely.
still pretty sure that happens a LOT slower than the wear of the friction brakes (and by having said magnetics in right before the friction brakes to do the final stopping, it further reduces the wear on the friction brake, since the train is moving very slowly already into them)
@@iankrasnow5383 looking at those coaster cars, it doesn't look like a whole lot of effort has been put into heatsinks, but realistically I don't think it's necessary. The brakes only really get used for a small percentage of the ride time, the fins and magnets have a fairly large surface area to disperse heat from, and they should have quite a lot of thermal mass to dump heat into if the air cooling isn't fast enough.
I'm not _really_ interested in rollercoasters, but I have to thank you very much for using km/h alongside mi/h. It's great not having to apply x1.6 every time speed comes up. :D
No worries! People from a range of countries watch my videos so I thought it'd be nice to make them friendly for everyone :)
Or you could go back like Billy Madison and actually complete you required elementary school education, either/or. 3mph is average walking speed, similar to 12inches can be divided easily in many ways. That's why it's called scientific metrics... mm, cm and 0s are only useful in a lab setting, why don't we just change minutes to 100 per hour? Because that's stupidity...
@@rmac3217 This is called the INTERNATIONAL system of units. Because every country had their own unit system we all got together and defined an common unit system. Miles, inches and yards were not even taught on the majority of schools around the world... I mean, why they would? They're used on what, 2 or 3 countries only? Everybody else uses the standard.
@@rmac3217 Never learn Imperial! Metric > Imperial
Appendix: There are only 3 countries which use imperial because metric is superior in terms of conversion. It is just easier. There is no reason to use imperial.
Appendix: Which do you prefer? 100 billion or 10000000000 tens? Which do you prefer? 0.5*7*4 C or 14 C?
@@rmac3217 How is metric only useful in a lab setting? Most of the world only uses metric. Instead of your 12s, use 10s; we're already using base 10; 1,2,3,4,5 etc. Look how easy it is. 100cm -----> 1m . I would say imperial just sucks. In fact, it isn't even useful; not useful in a lab setting, not in a casual setting and certainly not for anyone at anytime.
I drove buses briefly in college and found the concept of failsafe brakes really fascinating there as I was learning about air brake systems. In a bus with air brakes, unlike a normal car, but similar to these coaster brakes, pressure is required to keep the brakes _disengaged_. If the air brake system somehow fails and pressure is lost, the brakes become fully engaged and the bus comes to a stop. Pretty clever stuff.
Why are runaway trucks a thing then?
@@tbird81Brakes overheating and becoming ineffective is the most common cause in mountains
We have the same thing in nuclear reactors. If we lose power the control rods are released and stop the nuclear reaction so it doesn't go supercritical while the power is out
Trains have the same
12:00 For those of you who are unfamiliar, a block zone is a section of ride that only one train may occupy. At the end of a block zone is a method to stop the train in case the block zone ahead is still occupied.
This is the safety system that prevents roller coaster trains from colliding with one another.
hahahahaha
Ryan is that you?!?!!
ElToroRyan has been spotted
OK THAT IS ENOUGH wanna be problematic roller coaster
yeah but what if they are sleepy or the sun makes it difficult to see when the train is coming? checkmate
brakes deserve better work conditions
@@a_cowwithlegs they deserve a break 👌🏻
@@HaroldKuilman they get it half the year
@@GreenIcing1 depends on the park, some European parks are open all year 😉
@@HaroldKuilman please tell me which parks in europe are open all year because I wanted to go to one but all parks are closed or way too far away
8:38 the unforgivable pun.
The fins at the top of Velocicoaster I believe were actually added to keep the train moving and prevent it from getting stuck up there. On a very rare event it actually got stuck at the top, which led to a very tricky evacuation. Learned during the paddock tour.
That's very true!
Couldn't the passengers just simultaneously shift their body weight back and forth? Surely there's not that much friction
i always thought they were more LSM launches just in case the train was going too slow
@TheCarpenterUnion i dont think the restraints give you enough freedom of movement to do that.
@@Thestuffnope Also those trains are very heavy.
Some skid brakes are still manually controlled! Twister and Phoenix at Knoebels for example are completely manually controlled. If a ride operator wanted, they could simply slide the train right through the station allowing riders to go on a second lap. Maintenance and the supervisors generally frown upon that though. I've been lucky enough that once or twice on the last ride of the night towards the end of the season the Twister ops will stop it in the station before parking it all the way, quickly ask if anyone wants to get off, and then slide it the rest of the way through the station for a round two! Seeing the clips from Twister in this video made me smile, not just because of how great the ride is, but because of how great the ops are too!
That's interesting to hear! Some rides at Blackpool Pleasure Beach are still manually operated too. Thanks for sharing this really interesting information :)
I remember one night probably about 10 years ago being sent through at least 3 times in a row on the Phoenix that is one of my favorite memories at Knoebels
Skid brake it's the worst name ever
In RCT a water splash just before the station on a wooden coaster is a great way to prevent Station Brakes Failure from causing an accident.
I normally have a couple of independent brake runs before the station plus a final block brake just before the station to improve ride throughput
MGLN avatar salute o7
Thank you for bringing up the fact that fins can only be installed on straight track. There are way too many people that feel Dragster is going to get boosters on the vertical twist, not understanding it's not possible.
Well they can also be installed on slopes too, as you can see with Kingda Ka. But that just depends on the ride tbh.
Mostly, but not quite. Fins can be used on track with a gentle vertical curve, but horizontal curves or twists are out. Likewise, skid brakes can be used on track that curves horizontally, but not vertically at all.
Imma show this to my friend who’s deathly afraid of rollercoasters because she thinks the brakes won’t work and we will fly off the track
Hopefully it helps!
@@coasterbot i hope so too im taking her to thorpe park this year
Brakes are what keep you from crashing into another train, which is actually one of the two most common kinds of coaster accidents (the other is someone being struck by a train). Guide and upstop wheels are what keep you from flying off the track, brakes really have nothing to do with that.
@@KingdaToro I know but when I explain that to her she just doesn’t want to know
You might want to explain up-stop wheels to her also. 😊
Video: Roller coaster brakes NEVER fail
RollerCoaster Tycoon: *Train blows up.*
Got to see the braking by default in action when I worked at expedition everest at disney. Our brakes zone 3 would open half second or less before the train came through and close just barley after it went passed. Was crazy how close it was.
That's pretty awesome!
That's good to hear. I would assume they are designed such that even if two trains are touching entering the brake zone the 2nd train will stop.
@@TemporalWolf yep little late but now seeing this. Brake zone 3 isn't used to much only when we fall behind unload or loading. Brake zone 3 was brakes u didn't want to get stuck at it brakes hard.
@@madbirds I'd assume it's the same situation as airbags: It's not pleasant to get hit with an airbag, but it's miles better than the alternative.
You should see the system of emergency brakes used by trains. The brakes are still friction brakes, but they can be activated by permanent magnets on the track. Wire is wrapped around the permanent magnets on the track, and energizing the wire creates a field in the opposite direction of the permanent magnet, thus creating no net magnetic field, and this allows a train to pass over that track. If the wire is not energized because something has failed or because the train does not have authorization to enter that section of track, the permanent magnets on the track will pull the emergency brake on the train and bring the train to a screeching halt.
I just wanted to mention that because I think it's interesting that magnets can be used for multiple things. We don't just use them for induction braking. They can be used to activate regular friction brakes too.
I've never ever even thought about them just not working, like even on the first time I went on a rollercoaster myself, I was scared because I didn't know how it felt like, I really didn't think about anything that keeps it together breaking.
Hey, I see Great Yarmouths old coaster in the bit about brake men! As a local, it's one of me faves. Nothing quite like a coaster that has to be pushed by hand to start, and requries a brakeman sitting on the cars to slow it.
I know that vekoma had stange friction brakes. They use air to close, and springs to open. They all have a sepred buffer tank that can stop a train 1 time if the air suppley is lost.
Its stanges but still used on the older vekoma's. Python at Efteling uses brakes like this.
Aren't those brakes replaced with newer versions with the revision of Python?
@@Robbedem no.
On rollercoasters a block zone is a section of ride that only one train may occupy at a time. At the end of a block zone there is a method to stop the train, in case the block zone ahead is still occupied. This is the safety system that prevents rollercoaster trains from colliding with one another.
Hmm. I'm still not sure what block zones do. Could you explain?
knowing about the copper tube magnet trick I got excited at 00:50 bc I figured immediately modern rollercoasters use magnets to slow them down :) was not disappointed when I got to 6:43!
Hell yeah!
man, its nice to know the answer to the title of a video and STILL get educated on the topic, great job
Thanks for this very kind comment ☺️
It was interesting to rewatch this video as yesterday we were at Alton Towers when the storm caused a park wide power outage. Super surreal watching Wickerman just turn off. Anyway, as the resident enthusiast among friends folks were asking me how it worked with rides being held with the power off. I couldn’t remember in detail but said that basically if the ride either knows there is an obstacle ahead or cannot say either way it will hold the train by default (which i think was essentially correct).
Was very cool to see it happen in real time.
It sounds like you put their minds at ease!
I never thought about roller coasters not having standby generators/UPSes(batteries) as all of them in Orlando & Busch Gardens do have them. Power outages at these parks are incredibly rare that you can count on your fingers the number of times they’ve lost power lol. So the generators/UPS systems aren’t really ever used apart from testing. I’m just glad they’re there so I don’t get stuck!
@Lazy2332 I guess in the UK we get far less storms
2:39 Twister!! One of my favorite coasters. Surprised to see it anywhere online considering its location, but I suppose Knobel's is fairly well known to anyone actually into wooden coasters. And Phoenix at 3:02. I know it's won so many top prizes for wooden coasters but no one I talk to knows what I'm talking about. Super cool to see these amazing coasters get recognition even though they're buried up in Amish country.
Both of those wooden coasters look great! As you said, there's a lot of history surrounding them
Phoenix was the first roller coaster I ever rode, and to this day I still haven’t rode anything like it, it gives you that fluttering stomach feeling on blast the whole time as you go up and down like you’re really flying somehow
Knoebels is legendary, don't sell it short.
I never knew I wanted to know about roller coaster breaks for 12 mins straight. But i am happy
Ah yes, one satisfied customer
I wish I could've been a brakeman when I was a ride operator at worlds of fun. Test rides were the highlight of any shift of course (as well as running the panel aka sitting down most often in ac) I suppose I was a brakeman when making the ferris wheel but that was not fun as I wasn't on it and it took a lot of concentration and finesse!
missed opportunity: brakes that brake but don't break
Most underrated IRL Rollercoaster UA-camr :)
Most older Rollercoasters have gotten failsafe brakes. There's nothing to be worried about when riding Leap-The-Dips :)
Well, the entire concept of "fail-safe" means that the real reality is that the brakes ALWAYS fail, but their failure state is that they stop the train, and do not let it go.
We should be calling them goers. If the goer doesn't work, it doesn't go.
If roller coasters are fail safe, then aircraft are fail-danger
I will say, Roller Coaster brakes will never fail to slow you down (as long as something does not lock them open, which is VERY unlikely to happen accidentally...) But they CAN fail ON, meaning they lock you in place where ever you are. That is how you get people stuck upside down at the top of a loop for 3+ hours in the middle of the summer until rescuers can get a ladder and harness properly set up to pull you out one by one. I have personally seen that happen twice...
great video! always love your high-quality and informative content. i noticed the neat transition in and out of the old black-and-white coaster footage, thought that was really smooth. the infomercial bit was also great ;) keep up the awesome work
Thanks for the kind words, and for noticing the transition! :)
The old L4 type friction brake introduced by Arrow, inherited by Vekoma and copied by various chinese companies doesn't meet the definition of fail-safe. If there is a loss of air pressure after the control valve, the brake will open.
The retractable fins used by Intamin use air to move in both directions but there is also a spring inside the cylinder that will push the fin up if there is no air holding it down.
The braking by the magnetic fiel is very good and some new lorries have them as standard braking they are good if you're going 30mph> (because stopping 40tons with disk brakes is harsh (they dont last long) ) but for braking at slow speed they don't work. Also the magnets cant always by active because the lorries couldnt move so lorries can still have braking fails.
Semi trucks use a similar failsafe, where the brakes default to engaged. It's so simple and elegant when you think about it, but never even occurs to most people since we're so used to brakes in our cars only engaging when you choose to engage them.
That's why trucks never crash?
I've been interested in coasters after my first one last summer and I'm going to get on more later I just wanna say you're videos helped me get into coasters and keep up there's amazing vids
That's awesome to hear, I hope you get to ride more this year too! Have fun ☺️
Brakes may not fail, but seatbelts sure do 😊
It's pretty crazy how much trust is leveraged on many of the older rides still in operation.
Can you imagine getting a job as a brakeman?
Back in like 1990, there was a brake failure in thunderbolt at kennywood where 2 trains collided with each other
5:39 never heard "clear" pronounced like this
British
@@coasterbot ua-cam.com/video/e5N-kPCYuIE/v-deo.html&ab_channel=EnglishwithCollinsDictionary
sounds nothing like this
@@coasterbotyuck
Something i found really cool was the waiting line for the second track of the wooden coaster "Le Monstre" at Six Flags, La Ronde in Montreal. The line goes along side the holding track and you have a full view of how every part of the brake mechanism works.
That's awesome!
Velocicoaster actually doesn’t have a trim, that is I believe a couple LSM fins, and they are used to aid the train out of a stall at the apex of the top hat.
You're 100% right!
Would LSM fins not have a breaking effect anyway when they are turned off?
@@Dan-uy2ld they could if universal chose to use them like such
@@sqoomsh
Do you know how they would do this? Just not run any current through the fins?
I'm not really sure how LSMs work but they fascinate me 😂
@@Dan-uy2ld LSMs are completely inactive, no current, powered off
8:53
that steel beam on the right of the cart looks super dangerous if you have your arm out for some reason :P
dont worry its too far away to touch it
12:04 for those of you who are unaware
Iykyk
"Roller coaster brakes never fail"
Crime documentaries: "UNTIL THEY DO"
🤣
blud just jinxed it
Those inductive breaks are so smooth it feel like magic. It being inductive makes a lot of sense as I always wondered how they made it so smooth
Him: starting to talk about blocks
Me: having flashbacks to ElToroRyan
At 10:13 you really see the brakes taking effect.
1:26 as a Dane, I thank you for this small clip!
Tivoli Gardens looks beautiful, I hope to visit someday! :)
@@coasterbot Go for it! its even just a nice place to hang out (though id guess you'd be riding the rides lol). also if you are doing site seeing check out the Vor Frelsers Kirke. in my opinion, it has the best views of the city and it usually gets less traffic than some of the other towers in the city.
Same
I just binge watched your roller coaster video series . great stuff. I love rollercoasters in general
Thanks for watching and enjoying our stuff 😊
I got ElToroRyan flashbacks hearing an explanation of block zones lmao
On rollercoasters a block zone is a section of ride that only one train may occupy at a time. At the end of a block zone there is a method to stop the train, in case the block zone ahead is still occupied. This is the safety system that prevents rollercoaster trains from colliding with one another. Let’s look at the block sections on ...
Used to go to Lakeside Amusement Park in northern Colorado with some extended family every summer. It's an older park with a wooden coaster called the Cyclone. One year it rained part way in the day and they had to close the Cyclone because it was going fast enough that they were having trouble stopping just the empty trains during testing and they were concerned about a potential derail on a few of the turns.
People in the late 1800s would have an immediate heart attack just walking up to a modern amusement park
imagine being the brake man and you have to ride the roller coaster every single day xD
Then again, you could treat it like the Jungle Cruise at Disney
I think the best brake is the idea that the roller coaster can't be a perpetual motion machine, if you pull the car up to the first hill and it goes all the way around the track, it can't make it up to the same point again because it's not 100% efficient.
In other words, the coaster will never do more than one loop on the track unless you add more energy in. The last hill will always stop it.
Instructions unclear, perpetual motion roller coaster is now constantly accelerating, and I am scared.
I love when my rollercoaster breaks!
HEYY YOU SHOWED THE COMET!! MY MOM AND I LOVE THAT ROLLERCOASTER!! I influenced her to get on with me because she hates wooden coasters to death and when she got on with me and road it with me the first time, yes she was scared however she also told me that she had the most fun riding that ride than she has had in ages. I will always cherish the memories I made with her and I hope to continue to be able to make more of those memories especially being a father myself now.
Very informative, Harry. Hopefully this will help ease people’s fears of roller coasters.
Thanks Cami!
2:40 Twister at Knoebels in Elysburg, PA
Ive you play RollerCoaster tycoon, they will break.
You got me there!
Glad to see everyone here remembers Roller Coaster Tycoon's infamous brakes failure ride breakdown.
Bullet coaster has left the chat
Man seeing the wooden coasters from Hersheypark and Knoebels just really made me smile
Why would people be riding the rollercoasters in the rain lol
“Roller coaster brakes NEVER fail”
Bullet Coaster: It might seem crazy what I’m bout to say
They never fail for the same reason the brakes in your car never fail: maintenance.
(And also because they required energy applied to them to *disengage* rather than engage)
Exactly!
3:43 VelociCoaster!! One of my all time favorites!! ❤️
i dont get people that think coasters are unsafe.
Well it feels more unsafe than walking on the sidewalk. It's just a mental thing
Block sections are such an effective way to manage multiple trains that modern trackless dark rides actually have virtual block sections programmed into them.
The only fail remains is the human error
Humans, why did there have to be so many humans?
Correct. Which is why I still get nervous every time I get on a coaster lol. Humans fail
roller coasters are designed around human error. it's extremely difficult to circumvent the numerous redundant systems in place.
@@eyebrowse Yet, every year there are dozens of circumvention where coaster and theme park accidents occurs. Something as simple as letting a giant 15 year old sit in a chair that will thrust him 100s of feet in the air and let him fall to his death, as one easy example, where numerous redundant systems failed and he died a horrific death. Plenty of other examples where that came from too.
Don't be too proud of this technological terror you've constructed.
In Roller Coaster Tycoon 2 I always design rides to feature an upwards incline at the end to lower the train's momentum, brakes can absolutely fail in that game, even with block brakes being a gift from God the station brakes can still fail. I guess that is one of the most unrealistic elements of that game.
0:02 That guy riding the kiddie coaster with a mask on with nobody sitting next to him has probably never done something fun or exciting in his entire life.
Adults can't ride next to each other on that coaster
Someone looking after hygiene and no one can even sit next to each other “not fun” don’t judge people over one little thing now you just made yourself look like a jackass and makes you not do anything fun or exciting
@@coasterbot why would you like the jackass comment?
you know, I wouldn't make up a story for a random person I have and will never meet, so that I can make fun of them.
pretty stupid not gonna lie
i've never heard this much about brakes ever before in a video (and it surprises me two every time i watch an episode of problematic rollercoasters)
Brakes are cool
1:16 the most important part of the job description for "brake men" was to not have any fun. Lol
@11:30 - To be clear, what's described here is actually something roller coast junkies pray for. They would PAY for it.
It's called a "rollback" and the OG Top Thrill Dragster is (was) known it.
If the weight was right and the wind was right, the car would stall out before cresting the top of the arc, allowing it to free fall backward to where it started.
It's one of those super rare events that people prayed for b/c it was such a unique and thrilling moment.
Cedar Point listened to them and when they made Top Thrill 2, they designed it to purposely incorporate a rollback as part of the ride.
For those who don't know Top Thrill 2, it's a mag launch coaster. You get launched forward with enough speed to get 1/2 way up the main tower. You then free fall backward to where you started and while going backward they activate the mag launch *in reverse*, increasing your negative velocity to 100 mph. This shoots you up another tower behind the coaster that goes straight up so you're facing the ground. Gravity stops you and you free fall forward back to where you started, where they mag launch you a THIRD time, this time shooting the cart 120 MPH down the rail, sending you over a 420 foot crest with a bunch of twists. You go shooting straight down the other side and eventually end up back where you started.
It...looks...amazing!!!
I love the couple of coasters with hyrodynamic breaks. They look really cool and could be used to fully stop the coaster, but no-one ever does that since it would require a recovery mechanism and or the guests to swim,
That would be cool but yeah as you've pointed out, very impractical!
From personal experience working ops on coasters I can say for a fact that sometimes breaks do fail. I've seen cars/trains blow right through breaking sections that were supposed to be active.
Funny enough I was at Indiana beach yesterday and I think they had to close the ride for like half the day because the brakes failed.
1. I could be wrong.
2. No one went on it before they closed it, it happened before while they were testing before opening.
The amount of coasters from KI that this features makes my heart happy. I used to scrounge for any video of KI when I was little, and now it's commonplace. Also shoutout Busch Gardens Tampa cus it's one of the other parks I've been to, and I recognized a lot of coasters from there in the video as well.
Kings Island look like a great amusement park! I recently went to Busch Gardens Tampa, it's a lot of fun :)
Superman Ride Of Steel at Darien Lake was my first coaster experience with side fin magnetic braking. So smooth!
Superman The Ride @ SF New England has the most exciting brake run I've ever experienced. Slams to a stop from ~40 or ~50 mph about 10 yards from the train in the station. So awesome
Sounds like a lot of force! Ha ha 😅
Excellent Video! Great work! Eventhough i knew most things already, i really enjoyed watching it.
Thanks for the kind comment ☺️
1 smoll thing... Even magnetic breaks require maintenance, as the magnets can fail over time :) But its nowhere near the maintenance required on skid-break systems :D
8:40 I guess you could say they began to lose traction? I'll see myself out.
Wheyo!
Magnetic brakes are essentially the opposite of magnetic launch systems in roller coasters, magnetic launch systems are just linear induction motors, where magnetic brakes are basically just linear generators, the difference is magnetic launch systems convert electrical energy into kinetic energy, magnetic brakes do the opposite, they convert kinetic energy into electrical energy, kinda like the dynamic brakes on trains
The Superman located at Darien Lake in NY is called The Ride Of Steel now for copyright reasons, it has been called The Superman since Six Flags dropped the park over 15 years ago. (Source: I live here and used to do Ride Ops for darien lake back in 2012)
Really interesting and informative video. I also really like the range of little rollercoaster clips you use - e.g. from Speed to Kingda Ka.
Thanks for the kind words!
i had a sort of break fail while i was on a roler coaster. it was slowed down but not enought, we just drove throught the start (maybe 15kmh/9.3mph) and had a second round without waiting. glad that it was a soft one.
Some smaller roller coasters do go through the station quickly to begin a second lap! Quite a few powered ones do that, for example
Unforutnately, the Schwarzkopf systems still face similar issues to skid brakes; Skid brakes still have issues even with cover during inclement weather. I've had instances where trains overshoot because of wet brakes (mind you this is over a decade ago at this point, and I know my personal example of the Schwarzkopf has been updated to magnetic system so I have no reference for anything on it since... but still). Water will still get carried into Skid brakes, as will water on the Schwarzkopf systems, still causing partial overshooting of the station or a brake section. While I've never seen a train manage to land back on a lift, I've seen them come close (at least to a point people had to re-ride) on both skid and side mount fin brakes. All it takes, is an efficient team of operators to get cars out in what would normally be good time where you can dispatch and let the next train nearly bypass a holding brake. All that said, a little cognizance by the crew and they can time just enough overlap to allow that holding brake to be needed, but for the computer to then cancel after slowing the incoming train a little more.
So yes, while the brake systems will fail in an on position... everything else is still a factor.
On some older arrow coasters like corkscrew cannot run 2 trains in the rain because they slip through the fin brakes
6:45 wrong name. It's Elecromagnetic brakes. The linkage between electric fields/currents and the magnetic fields are important (as stated a bit later).
edit: Eddy Current brakes would be the technical term
The brakes aren't electromagnetic though, they aren't powered at all. It's simply a metal fin sliding through a permanent magnet.
@@coasterbot elecromagnetic doesn't mean powered.
What happens, is that a conductor travels through a static magnetic field (the other mechanic would be a (static) conductor and a changing magnetic field, witch is how LIM's work) .
If you are looking at the maxwell equations you will see (changing area), that this implies an electrical current (called eddy current) inside the conductor. This current induces a magnetic field opposit of the magnetic field provided from the outside, therefore we have a force, "braking" the conductor.
The english wiki-artical of the "eddy current brake" does a good job "imaging" those fields.
That's why we have and need an electric field here, witch makes it an electromagnetic device.
This shows furthermore how those fields are working and inducibg eachother.
Arrow/Vekoma/Morgan coasters with pneumatic friction brakes fail open. You will see that each brake has an air tank usually positioned on the catwalk handrail next to it. Each tank contains enough air to open/close the brake fully 3 times. There are multiple pressure sensors on each which will E-Stop the ride if it reaches a lower limit, way before the air runs out and the brakes open. This is how they’re effectively made “fail safe” even with a fail open design.
You also mentioned that that fin brakes can only be positioned on straight track. Enigma at Pleasurewood Hills proves this not to be the case! Plenty of fin brakes on corners on that coaster.
Enigma has side mounted fins. this does make it possible as i would imagine are built much wide that normal to account for the turn, however i can also see this causing uneven wear. For coasters with fins under the train/ between the rails. it is not possible unless on a straight section of track. So for those hoping Dragster is going to have boosters install on the vertical hill, it wont happen.
0:47 I wasn’t expecting a clip from Kings Island and immediately had a “OH MY GOD THATS THE PLACE I GO TO” moment 💀
I really enjoyed this video. very clear, very informative. keep up the good work.
I already knew that, and I hoped to learn something additional that keeps the brakes failsafe. But I guess it works, since we don't hear of block brakes failing.
But I can already think of many cases of failures during the video: What if the magnet brake fins don't come up, because there's a problem with the electric system, for example the specific cables that wire the motors? What if the springs fail?
I already knew that springs are used to ensure a default state, it's the easiest way to do that. But it all depends on the springs not breaking.
It is not an ideal failsafe system, but it seems to be the best so far, and as long as maintenance is fine, it will be fail-safe.
Maybe that's the idea: If maintenance is neglected, the ride won't be safe anyway. In parks with good maintenance, the brakes are truly fail-safe, since they are always inspected and kept in their best form. In parks with neglected maintenance on the other hand, other problems come up that are severe to safety. So for all purposes, good maintenance is key to safety, and if it is neglected, it all falls apart anyway since it's a moving system that remains safe for some time, but eventually fails if it is not kept up well.
So: Rollercoaster brakes are just fail-safe enough for all practical purposes, they are already more failsafe than other systems, and the whole system is only as safe as the weakest link in the chain.
The biggest problem with magnet brakes is their inability to cope with derailment. If the carriage derails, the braking device may be misaligned and cause a collision, which often results in the carriage completely detaching, or the brakes being damaged and failing, causing collisions with other car.
A roller coaster that uses magnetic brakes must ensure that derailment is an event that should never occur in the system.