Here are some ideas regarding the question how the maintenance access could be done.
Certainly some special effort would need to go into designing the graphics for those, if they are meant to look realistic.
My first, simpler suggestion would be to "take some artistic licence". Keep the normal side-mounted platform for every angle below ~75°.
When the angle becomes steeper than that, turn the platform into a simple ladder.
This would definitely be better than no vertical lifts at all, in my oppinion.
Example:
For a bit more realism, another idea would be to have a triangular shaped base area, with the track mounted to one corner, a ladder mounted to one of the sides, and maintenance platforms at regular intervals.
My reasoning is that this could be created in a "scaling with height"-manner more easily than an actual staircase (see the real world images from the "Oath of Kärnan" construction site below).
Top view:
Attempt at perspective view, looking from the opposite side of the track:
A picture from a construction site of such a lift.
From this I got the idea of the triangular shape.
It looks to me as it was in fact rhombus shaped, instead of triangular, and also, there is no ladder visible.
The track would be mounted to the square flanges in the bottom half of the picture.
One "layer" of the lift / platform is being lowered into the tower on this picture.
The more comfortable staircase at the tower wall in the right half should be ignored here.
This is the forum where I found this picture:
http://www.coastercrazy.com/forums/...d-s-first-gerstlaur-hyper-coaster-t34652.html
This is probably the source:
(Change the number in the URL to easily access all pages.)
http://www.xn--krnan-gra.de/de/baublog/bilder/bauabschnitt-4/
Certainly some special effort would need to go into designing the graphics for those, if they are meant to look realistic.
My first, simpler suggestion would be to "take some artistic licence". Keep the normal side-mounted platform for every angle below ~75°.
When the angle becomes steeper than that, turn the platform into a simple ladder.
This would definitely be better than no vertical lifts at all, in my oppinion.
Example:
For a bit more realism, another idea would be to have a triangular shaped base area, with the track mounted to one corner, a ladder mounted to one of the sides, and maintenance platforms at regular intervals.
My reasoning is that this could be created in a "scaling with height"-manner more easily than an actual staircase (see the real world images from the "Oath of Kärnan" construction site below).
Top view:
Attempt at perspective view, looking from the opposite side of the track:
A picture from a construction site of such a lift.
From this I got the idea of the triangular shape.
It looks to me as it was in fact rhombus shaped, instead of triangular, and also, there is no ladder visible.
The track would be mounted to the square flanges in the bottom half of the picture.
One "layer" of the lift / platform is being lowered into the tower on this picture.
The more comfortable staircase at the tower wall in the right half should be ignored here.
This is the forum where I found this picture:
http://www.coastercrazy.com/forums/...d-s-first-gerstlaur-hyper-coaster-t34652.html
This is probably the source:
(Change the number in the URL to easily access all pages.)
http://www.xn--krnan-gra.de/de/baublog/bilder/bauabschnitt-4/
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