Hey guys. I'm finishing a diploma work about woodies and have a few things I'm not quite sure about. Any help is highly appreciated, and, if any possible, please post sources (=prove)!
1. Did I get that right that on steelies, the whole wheel assembly is constantly in contact with the rails (well, it can't be else because of the tubular track); but on woodies, there's a little space between the lower running rails and the underfriction wheels (so these are only in contact with the track while there's airtime)? Or is that BS?
2. Can we generalize that woodies are cheaper than comparable steelies? Voyage, which is huge, cost just 6.5 Million, bigger CCI's around 4, GCI's don't appear to be expensive. Just the Intamin Prefabs are in the luxus steelie range (=B&M level; 22 Mio Euro for Colossos). Can you list some woodie / steelie prizes you know, if possible also for manufacturers that are not mentioned above?
3. This may be a difficult one. The RCCA claims to be the first manufacturer to prefabricate track and support pieces. http://www.rcca.com/RCCA/manufacturing.html
Ok, now I was wondering - has that method become a standard after it was introduced by RCCA; thus, were CCI's, GCI's, GG's and all the other "traditional modern" woodies constructed out of prefabricated pieces (meaning not entire solid track pieces like on intamin prefabs, but, say, single layers or support beams that are readily cut)? OR would the other manufacturers still do everything from the raw wood on at the construction site, and only Intamin would later re-introduce a modernized variant of the prefabrication method?
Thanks in advance for any replies!