First time builder needs advice...

OK, I've decided to throw my hat into the coaster building arena and decided to start with something small, local to those from the PA area and never done before. Paul Drabek's work ( http://www.negative-g.com/ ) has really inspired me with some of his defunct coaster tracks and I finally decided to try my hand at recreating the Menlo Park Land Toboggan.



It seems simple and small enough to learn the tricks of coaster designing with. I've found a few other pics of this coaster and it seems to me the turn around spot halfway down the hill is not built up but rather rides along the hill side, but i digress.

So here comes the big question that has been asked time and time again... where do I find a good beginner's guide tutorial on how to do this project? Thanks in advance for the help.

Pat

Cool, but I would not recommend starting out with recreations. Get to know yourself as a builder. Try your own things first. Then advance to recreations.

I started with a recreation of the Shooting Star at Cincinnati's Coney Island. It's still posted on this sight. Well, I made a big mistake when making it because I didn't know much about how to make coasters with NO LIMITS. You have to make sure your NO LIMITS model is the same height and length as the real coaster, which I didn't do. I just went by looks. Also, very important, is how NO LIMITS auto-generates the wooden super structure. Most real wooden coasters use horizontal 2x6's on the side of the structure to connect the bent legs, and they are spaced exactly 6 feet apart. NO LIMITS, on the other hand, spaces the horizontal boards exactly 10 feet apart. The result is that even if your NO LIMITS model is dimensionally perfect, it will still not look exactly like the real coaster due to this difference in the spacing of those horizontal 2x6's. And this difference is especially noticeable in smaller coasters.
So, I agree with SFMM homie that you should build a few of your own designs first, then tackle the recreations.
P.S. If you want to see how I made my Space Rockt recreation look exactly like the real one, download it. I had to make all the wooden structure BY HAND!!!!!

P.S. again, When you get ready to build a recreation, go to rcdb.com and see if it is listed there. They usually give the stats on the ride. Beware though, because they have the wrong dimensions on the Screechin' Eagle, a.k.a. Space Rocket. It is really 70 feet high, not 78 and more like 2,100 feet long, not 2,640. I know because that's the coaster I worked on for nearly 10 years.

Well thanks for the technical advice guys. My family is actually planning on going out to Perkasie this weekend so hopefully I can get some more infor on this thing while we are there. If no, I've made a few emails and have a phone number for a historian out there who might be able to advise on it as well. Now hopefully, i won't get too itimidated by the editor. Any advice on that end for me?