Slashdot Mirror
The Biggest and Baddest Backyard Roller Coaster
BoomZilla writes "Following on the heels of previously reported backyard roller coasters (here
and
here), I'd like to add Jeremy Reid's
wondrous beast to the list. This behemoth certainly takes the award for the
largest, fastest (and most likely the most expensive) labor of coaster love.
Located in Newcastle, Oklahoma, it has an initial drop of 20ft, pulls max
positive G's of 3.5 and max negative G's of -0.2. Overall it's a stunning 444
feet in length. Total cost is estimated at $5.5k. Jeremy is, clearly, a man with
too much time and money on his hands!"
Since this was a Slashdot article, I figured it must have been about a guy who built a 9-monitor roller coaster simulator running across 3 PC's.
I hope he has a lot more time on his hands - to maintain it. Maintaining a rollercoaster is not easy.
--a Cedar Point employee
Pretty slick, but you just KNOW some kid is gonna climb his fence, ride the coaster, fuck it up, hurt himself and sue the guy.
So... $5.5k + $1million lawyers fees + $5 million per kid that parents let run loose unattended.
Technical Info: Style: Out and Back Height: 17 feet First Drop: 20 feet Top Speed: 20 mph Track Length: 444 feet Max Positive G's: 3.5 Max Negative G's: -0.2 Material: Pressure Treated Southern Yellow Pine Number of Drops: 4 Lift hill angle: 26.6 degrees 1st Drop: 54 degrees 2nd Drop: 43 degrees Curve banking: 50 degrees Duration: About 1 minute Cart: Single Car, Wood and Steel Construction Capacity: Single Rider Chain Lift: 1HP Motor, 3/4" Pitch Roller Chain/Sprockets Overall: 9,500 lbs (4.75 Tons) Lumber 7,000 Screws/Nails 2,900 board feet of lumber Investment: $5.5k Started Construction: September 1997
what? no loops? ;) (i'm hoping some crazy guy will take this challenge so i can see another article entitled "bigger badder roller coster")
R.I.P.
So, do slightly crazy folks in other countries build homemade roller coasters as well, or have the slightly crazy Americans got a monopoly on this?
old wood means nothing, as long as its not rotten, wood can easily stand up to the elements for many many years. trees are designed that way, to survive against rain and tornadoes and whatnot. altho i doubt a high quality wood was used in the production, i also doubt that its 'fragile' i mean its a roller coaster for cmndrtaco's sake. fragile is not a term to be used lightly.
consolevision roxors
I'm looking at it and thinking that I will be reading about this guy when he gets a Darwin award...
Anyone read the title and think that AOL switched from CD-ROMs to Laserdiscs? :)
He should spend some hours on HTML when he's done with the roller-coaster.
The roller-coaster is something really cool... can't say the same about the site though!
Welley Corporation - SLM Scammers
bag of popcorn: 3$
300 yards of lumber: 5.5K
labor to assemble: 6.7K
watching the neighbors annoying kid puke his guts out: priceless
If the poster read his resume, he'd see:
"Oklahoma EPSCoR Stipend Recipient - Personal roller coaster project - 1999"
So, he doesn't necessarily have too much of his own money on his hands...
I dunno, but I'm still trying to get over the fact that an AOL customer built this thing.
Soon he will have to let in two people to pay for the security guard. Then two more to pay for the upkeep. Then more for candy sales. Then he'll get all pissed off because he doesn't have it all to himself anymore and sell it back.
End of story.
I'm really tired of hearing normative statements like that. If someone has earned that money and/or time to pursue a hobby, no matter how unconventional, it is their absolute right to do so. Before we humans started generating agricultural surpluses above what we could hunt and gather, one person's idle pursuits could impact the ability of a whole community to feed itself. We don't have that situation now, and shouldn't feel the need to criticize anyone's idleness, if they have earned the right to it.
Ah to be young and bored in Oklahoma again... this reminds me just how little there is to do there. You either work yourself to death, drink the boredom away, or find a hobby like this guy (which I assume involves both).
"Do not be swept up in the momentum of mediocrity." - anon
Since nobody else has said it,
"Great job!"
Of course, all of the early posts either talk about how much time it took, how boring Oklahoma is, how it can be dangerous, etc. People like Jeremy are actually DOING things instead of reading about them and being critical.
Well done!
A man with too much time on his hands builds a rollercoater? This is from people who spend all their spare time building kernels for a community developed operating system, pissing around with config files, fighting off RPM dependencies then telling the world how easy it all is?
Do you not think there's a little, y'know, irony in the whole thing? Maybe "Rolldot. News for people that make rollercoasters. Stuff that matters." runs the occasional story about people making operating systems in their back bedroom.
Dave
I write a blog now, you should be afraid.
Not one of the pics (or movies, I believe) has anyone actually IN the car (if you can call that little wooden box a "car") as the coaster is operating. One pic has a view of the top of the first hill, but he could have just climbed up to take it.
I have a feeling the first day he tested it out, it either :
A) Caused serious injury, or
B) Didn't work (couldn't make it up hill or around track)
Just my suspicion.
Dallas
All I can say is personal rollercoasters are a must-have for all true geeks . Check out www.speedcult.com For those of you who know about it, this will be on the esplanade at The Man this year (we were 2 streets off center camp last year) ((www.burningman.com)). If you're in the Detroit area and want to ride it, we can probably work something out. Oh, Free Spin is by FAR the best.
- Shameless Plug -
Riding Skins Extrodinare [mot
Check his resume and you'll see that he has some experience with Roller Coasters: Not only is he a mechanical engineer, but also once woked for Arrow Dynamics, which is one of the foremost Roller Coaster companies in the world.
It looks like the coaster is made of bare wood, without any sort of weather seal on it of any kind. It seems to me that unless he paints it or stains it, rotting is going to make it unsafe in a few years.
Don't label something "offtopic" unless you know the topic well enough to tell what's on topic.
The post immediately before yours said: Check his resume and you'll see that he has some experience with Roller Coasters: Not only is he a mechanical engineer, but also once woked for Arrow Dynamics, which is one of the foremost Roller Coaster companies in the world.
Just because the freaking thing isn't over-engineered in steel and concrete to last through Hurricane Andrew, doesn't mean it isn't properly engineered. As someone else said, wood rollercoasters have a distinct look/feel/sound to them that steel cannot hope to match.
If you're so smart, build one, or shut up. This guy has built a cool thing. What do you have to show for your life?
The Six Flags park I worked at (long ago) would give riders who were stuck walk-on ride access to either the ride you were stuck on or another ride if that one was down for the rest of the day. You know if you had played your cards right, you probably could have walked right onto a few rides after being stuck so long.
Also, thought I should mention that I find it kind of weird that they left you in the ride for so long. In my several years working major coasters, I don't recall leaving anyone stranded on a ride for more than 15 minutes or so.
Oh one last thing (heh heh), I remember occasionally stopping trains at the top of the 115' lift of a certain ride I worked because "I saw someone do something." I tell you it was 1) exhilarating to walk to the top of that 115' lift and 2) amusing as hell to see people, who are safely strapped in, start freaking out because they are afraid of heights. What were they doing on a "tall" coaster anyway?
Life moves pretty fast; if you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it. -FB
Like the article states it is made out of pressure treated yellow pine. Even if it was made out of untreated wood, it'd still be safe in 10 years time, provided he did the engineering right(no places where water can pool on the wood). (He is an engineer, and unlike you probably knows his stuff)
If wood stays dry, it will not rot, it just stands there. Like trees really.
This space is intentionally staring blankly at you
Me too!
This is possibly the best 'coaster in the entire world.
;)
I mean, 'coasters are all about causing exhilleration though fear induced adrenalin rushes.
The think that always spoils rollercoaster rides for me is the safety. Theres little or no chance of even getting injured on mordern 'coasters so the whole thing seems less scary; whereas this guys creation is a whole different story.
If you take a look at this image you realise that if you really were riding this; you'd have just worked out that there was an even chance of you not living to regret climbing aboard!
What a rush!!
Ripping an new rectum in the fabric of spacetime.