NL2 Riverview Bobs

[Coasterkidmwm]

Just fudge it a tiny bit. If you didn't post this no one would ever know.

More "in progress" photos will absolutely get you far!

It's fixed. Dirty, but fixed. The coaster now has a 262 degree first turn (correct) and a more or less correct everything else. Tomorrow will include the making of three "pieces" and then hopefully I'll be able to put it all together and start raising some height marks and posting some photos.

"Fixed" turned out to be broken in a different way, and various experiments to solve that proved futile. Back to how it was on Friday night...

^ Yours is, to be honest, better than my "current" coaster project, which got stuck in the process of smoothing awkward sections out. I've been struggling with minor pumps for a long time that I literally find nasty!

We'll keep saying "You can do it!" We're on your side!

The ride is about half built. There is one moment where the train hits the track above...but it's a battle I simply cannot fight any longer. I have wrestled with that turn long enough. I may be able to remove the guilty board, but we'll see. The train crosses the first midcourse at about 18 mph and the second at about 16 mph, so there should be enough energy to get back home.

^ You look so happy about the progress! I'm glad to hear that!

pic of your problem spot? P&C used some interesting bents in places, I was fascinated by it when I rode the SCBB Giant Dipper. Like 6 of my rides on it were focused on looking at the structure more than anything. In any case, it might be something elaborate that isn't in your plans. What I assume you have are preliminary/not for construction or initial plans, but they go back and revisit a lot of things when construction is actually underway. The amount of stuff that was changed on Boulder Dash even after the footers was poured is nuts, and it makes a lot of what actually got built not make sense, like 4' 6" bents on straight aways, 9's in valleys, batters that go diagonal and share the same footings...i could go on and on.

Freddie wrote:

pic of your problem spot? P&C used some interesting bents in places, I was fascinated by it when I rode the SCBB Giant Dipper. Like 6 of my rides on it were focused on looking at the structure more than anything. In any case, it might be something elaborate that isn't in your plans. What I assume you have are preliminary/not for construction or initial plans, but they go back and revisit a lot of things when construction is actually underway. The amount of stuff that was changed on Boulder Dash even after the footers was poured is nuts, and it makes a lot of what actually got built not make sense, like 4' 6" bents on straight aways, 9's in valleys, batters that go diagonal and share the same footings...i could go on and on.

I'll post some pics tonight. I think it's partly a losing battle with the autosupporter: Church's bents were nine feet wide on the curves and eight feet wide on the straight tangents. That's how he was able on some rides to stack up to three turnarounds directly over each other without lateral clearance issues. On the other hand it could be a misunderstanding of what I'm seeing in the prints because for some reason in the game when curves are banked the lateral clearance is much narrower, even if both sets of tracks bank in the same direction. But what I suspect is happening is that the autosupporter is trying to maintain the 10 foot width it uses on the straight sections while trying to navigate curves, and thus I get clearance issues. Or it could be that I've incorrectly measured the length of a straight section.

I went back and revised TA3. It now sits perfectly within TA1, with a nine foot space between the track centrelines. This is as marked on the blueprint: an outer turnaround of 39 feet and an inner turnaround of 30 feet. I'm going to see what an extra 0.25 of a degree can do to the positioning, but otherwise I think I'm simply going to have to put up with the collision. I don't know how to avoid it.




Here's a new shot from the top of the lift:



And a shot from ground level showing how tight the track is. TA5 was directly under TA1.

Please do not abandon this track as I am hoping for your best results!

I'm out of hibernation, but still stuck with the problem of the TA3 exit going through the catwalks of TA1. I think what I'll do tomorrow is test the curves by building them in a separate park where I have greater control over the placing. It may in fact be impossible to build them correctly in the sim.

^ Have fun "re"creating on your own! Don't be too serious!

Finally I've got around to building the two curves in a separate park to get the spacing completely correct. As you can see, the inner horseshoe collides with the outer one. The reason for this is that the width of Church's tracks, including the catwalks, is narrower than NL2's. Given that I have neither the time nor the skill to make narrower tracks, I have to make a difficult choice: either I change the radius values of the turns, thus gaining the necessary clearance while sacrificing accuracy, or I maintain the radius values and just hope that everyone would rather the track was true to the design than looked pretty, and forgive me in the comments and ratings.

After mulling it over for a while I decided to keep the radius values as they are. My intention since the start has been to get the recreation as close to Church's blueprints as possible. Except for correcting a couple of obvious height errors, every radius, height and banking marking is exactly as written on the blueprint. It would make no sense for me to sacrifice accuracy now, as the first questions people are going to ask will be, "How high, fast and intense was it, and what were the forces?" I want to know as well! So the apparent error will stay for the sake of design accuracy. I've also attached a few photos taken around the turn so you can see how tightly they fit together.

Lobster wrote:

My intention since the start has been to get the recreation as close to Church's blueprints as possible.

We'll try not to ask too much so you can keep working on. We know how much you give so much love to his terrific works. You should still keep this thread active!

Keep going!

I'm going back to the 265 degree fan turn. It's just too hard otherwise.

^ Okay don't rush.

So the high front turnaround (TA2) is now smack in the right place, and the inner fan turn (TA3) is about 9.6 feet instead of 9 feet away from the outer turn of TA1. I reckon that's close enough.

Oh by the way, every time I make a new post I get a point. What are these points for?

Lobster wrote:

every time I make a new post I get a point. What are these points for?

they are for downloading tracks from the Exchange.

I hope that's the last time I have to play with the TA1 fan turn. I've rebuilt it so many times!

I have finally solved the mystery of the entrance banking, and the sequence is as follows: 6 degrees, 12 degrees, 28 degrees, 48 degrees. On the blueprints, Church wrote the banking values inside little circles, with a line going from them to the appropriate ledger board. Because the three curves are very tightly packed together, so are the banking labels. This, combined with the small size in the reproduction and slips with the pen obscuring the correct value, made it hard to work out what the sequence should be. You'll recall that earlier in the thread I worked out a more plausible combination, but in the end closer inspection showed I had simply misread them.

^ You "DID" find the real solution! Can I expect anything?

Hey everyone and Happy New Year!

There is good news and bad news with my recreation. The good news is the track is complete! Landscaping for a couple of the dips is the final thing which needs doing. The bad news is the roll out to the lift doesn't work. While I sort that I'm trying to make a movie of the bit from the top of the lift to the brakes. It plays but you can't see anything and I don't really want to upload a sound track only to youtube! Any ideas for a better app? I have Film and TV, Movie Maker is broken, and Windows Media Player.

Edited to add:

Vertical maximum = +2.9g

Vertical minimum = +0.5g

Lateral maximum = +1.6g

That famous shot from the top of the lift:

[Coasterkidmwm]

VLC Player work to view the movie? Have you tried having NL2 export in a different format?

I discovered I was missing a node in the station and had given one of the others an incorrect value. Correcting those mistakes was the only thing I needed to do to make the roll out work! So once again, Church was right and I was wrong.

^ You've obviously made "awesome" progress so far!