In my youth my brother came up with the concept of a vertical drop water ride. Using the elements of Niagara Falls as a basis of the idea in 1980's.
People would get into barrel like boats and circle a rapids like course before going down several, if not one large vertical drop.
Daredevils of Niagara have been conquering the falls since 1901 with Annie Taylor being the first to go over the famous falls in a barrel.
The design that my brother put together was a hybrid of Splash Mountain and the modern vertical rollercoaster. I seem to remember that there were no rollercoaster elements other than a rapids ride style life. While I am unsure if any of the original drawing he did are still about but I seem to remember that metal rails would guide the boat to free fall over drops, through the station and to line it up for the lifts. Turners like you see on rapids rides were used to rotate boats to line up with drops and lifts.
A rapids ride, log flume were also built into the mountain with several overlapping elements where riders on the other water rides would unexpectedly get soaked by the passing ride. Sometimes running along side of each other on the more wider stretches of water.
I thought the concept would be an interesting design concept for Planet Coaster. We did make several miniature models in our back garden before we grew up and left home.
I believe the movie the Hobbit also takes up a similar theme for a barrel ride.
Let me know your thoughts guys.
People would get into barrel like boats and circle a rapids like course before going down several, if not one large vertical drop.
Daredevils of Niagara have been conquering the falls since 1901 with Annie Taylor being the first to go over the famous falls in a barrel.
The design that my brother put together was a hybrid of Splash Mountain and the modern vertical rollercoaster. I seem to remember that there were no rollercoaster elements other than a rapids ride style life. While I am unsure if any of the original drawing he did are still about but I seem to remember that metal rails would guide the boat to free fall over drops, through the station and to line it up for the lifts. Turners like you see on rapids rides were used to rotate boats to line up with drops and lifts.
A rapids ride, log flume were also built into the mountain with several overlapping elements where riders on the other water rides would unexpectedly get soaked by the passing ride. Sometimes running along side of each other on the more wider stretches of water.
I thought the concept would be an interesting design concept for Planet Coaster. We did make several miniature models in our back garden before we grew up and left home.
I believe the movie the Hobbit also takes up a similar theme for a barrel ride.
Let me know your thoughts guys.
