The diploma work which I needed your help for, is now finished.
It is about the "history and development of the modern wooden roller coaster", from 1979 to today, quite complete and thoroughly researched. It's around 30 pages of text in a word document, complete with many great pictures (most of which you might know from the internet[;)]). If any one's interested in this detailed work about woodies, or parts or single chapters of it, I would gladly email the file to you; just post here or PM me.
It was written to be understandable for someone who has no idea about coasters, but there is certainly some information included that even enthusiasts don't know all about.
Here's the table of contents, so you roughly know what the work is about.
Foreword: Personal relationship with woodies and reasons for the choice of this topic
Introduction: Central questions, topic limits, documentation available at the moment 1
1. Wooden Rollercoaster Basics: General appearance; what is a woodie? 2
2. Differences to Steel Rollercoasters 6
2.1. General 6
2.2. Rarity and spreading 6
2.3. Ride feeling 7
2.3.1. G-forces 7
2.3.2. Atmosphere 9
2.3.3. Layouts 9
2.3.3.1. Out??????n??????Back 9
2.3.3.2. Twister 10
2.3.3.3. Terrain 13
2.3.4. Smoothness and Roughness 14
2.4. Aging 15
2.5. Technical differences 16
2.5.1. Construction in short 16
2.5.2. Maintenance 17
2.5.3. Cost 18
3. History and development 19
3.1. Brief summary of early history (before 1975) 19
3.1.1. The very beginnings around 1800 ?????? 1920 19
3.1.2. The ???????Golden Age of Roller Coasters?????? 1920 ?????? 1940 19
3.1.3. Roller coasters downtime and Renaissance 1940 ?????? 1979 20
3.2. New kinds of big projects (1979 - today) 20
3.2.1. Dinn & Summers 21
3.2.2. Early Intamin Woodies 22
3.3. Back to the roots with fresh twists and ideas (1992 - today) 23
3.3.1. Custom Coasters International, Inc (CCI) 23
3.3.2. PTC Wooden coaster trains 26
3.3.3. Great Coasters International, Inc. (GCI) 26
3.4. Modern Woodies ?????? Steel coaster approach (2001 - today) 28
3.4.1. Intamin AG ??????Prefabricated?????? Woodies 28
3.4.2. Ingenieurb?????ro Stengel GmbH 31
3.4.3. Gravity Group, LLC (GG) 32
3.5. Unique examples and marginal developments (1975 - today) 35
3.5.1. S&S Power, Inc. 35
3.5.2. Dennis Starkey 36
3.5.2.1. Rollercoaster Corporation of America (RCCA) 36
3.5.2.2. Stand Company 37
3.5.3. Vekoma 38
3.5.4. One-of-a-kind Woodies 39
3.5.4.1. The Rattler 39
3.5.4.2. Lost Coaster of Superstition Mountain 40
3.5.4.3. Son of a Beast 40
3.5.4.4. Flying Turns 41
3.6. What could the future of wooden roller coasters look like? 43
4. Conclusion 44
Introduction: Central questions, topic limits, documentation available at the moment 1
1. Wooden Rollercoaster Basics: General appearance; what is a woodie? 2
2. Differences to Steel Rollercoasters 6
2.1. General 6
2.2. Rarity and spreading 6
2.3. Ride feeling 7
2.3.1. G-forces 7
2.3.2. Atmosphere 9
2.3.3. Layouts 9
2.3.3.1. Out??????n??????Back 9
2.3.3.2. Twister 10
2.3.3.3. Terrain 13
2.3.4. Smoothness and Roughness 14
2.4. Aging 15
2.5. Technical differences 16
2.5.1. Construction in short 16
2.5.2. Maintenance 17
2.5.3. Cost 18
3. History and development 19
3.1. Brief summary of early history (before 1975) 19
3.1.1. The very beginnings around 1800 ?????? 1920 19
3.1.2. The ???????Golden Age of Roller Coasters?????? 1920 ?????? 1940 19
3.1.3. Roller coasters downtime and Renaissance 1940 ?????? 1979 20
3.2. New kinds of big projects (1979 - today) 20
3.2.1. Dinn & Summers 21
3.2.2. Early Intamin Woodies 22
3.3. Back to the roots with fresh twists and ideas (1992 - today) 23
3.3.1. Custom Coasters International, Inc (CCI) 23
3.3.2. PTC Wooden coaster trains 26
3.3.3. Great Coasters International, Inc. (GCI) 26
3.4. Modern Woodies ?????? Steel coaster approach (2001 - today) 28
3.4.1. Intamin AG ??????Prefabricated?????? Woodies 28
3.4.2. Ingenieurb?????ro Stengel GmbH 31
3.4.3. Gravity Group, LLC (GG) 32
3.5. Unique examples and marginal developments (1975 - today) 35
3.5.1. S&S Power, Inc. 35
3.5.2. Dennis Starkey 36
3.5.2.1. Rollercoaster Corporation of America (RCCA) 36
3.5.2.2. Stand Company 37
3.5.3. Vekoma 38
3.5.4. One-of-a-kind Woodies 39
3.5.4.1. The Rattler 39
3.5.4.2. Lost Coaster of Superstition Mountain 40
3.5.4.3. Son of a Beast 40
3.5.4.4. Flying Turns 41
3.6. What could the future of wooden roller coasters look like? 43
4. Conclusion 44
And the title page picture, just to show you guys. [:)]
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