Austrian Alpine Coasters and Sommerodelnbahns

[CoasterCrazy]

I couldn't do any major foreign parks this year, but instead, I was lucky to be staying at fairly close proximity to four 'creds' in some of the world's most qwerky and unique Alpine coasters. Before I start, here is a little background on these rare constructions...one of which I rode earlier this year at viewtopic.php?f=31&t=35767

Firstly, there are numerous types of Alpine coasters, although they can be classified in two groups:

Alpine 'Coaster' - Any Alpine coaster with at least two sets of wheels and a steel track
Sommerodelnbahns - More traditional and prevalent 'bobsled - like' coasters running in a metal or plastic trough (eg. The one at Oakwood)

And two features which ruin them:

1)Extortionate prices - For a single (junior) ride on a coaster you could pay in excess of 10 euros. For one go, ONE GO!
2)Secondly, the ability to control your speed inevitably leads to people spoiling the fun for others. Incredible slowness exacerbates operations and provokes the ride experience to be incredibly dull.

From an enthusiasts point of view - BRAKES! It's a shame that sometimes you feel you need them.

Sommerodelnbahn at Freizeitpark Zahmer Kaiser

Before I'd even reached my holiday destination, I stumbled across this short, yet relatively thrilling sommerodleln (or "summer toboggan run" as translated from German) in Freizeitpark Zahmer Kaiser.

The sommerodleln features copious turns, able to be quite well banked, bumps and riders are able to control the action with a simple lever to send them flying or lethargically trundling at their pleasure.

As you can see, the views it offered were spectacular, and the turns were surprisingly forceful, with a noticeable dueling effect and even a few negative G's if you had attained a good speed (I believe some Alpine coasters are capable of 40km/h) - And yes, there is a POV!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84ljtUDp3NE[/youtube]
(I apologise for a few random noises)

The park also contains an assortment of flat rides, a Nautic Jet and a butterfly shuttle coaster. Unfortunately I didn't have time to ride them...but I took some photos.

Quite unorthodox....

So there is a credit after all!

It's a boat...on a rope!

Nobody ever rode it....

Now this odd contraption....a 'Space Walk' which I never saw running

It's apparently a little like a mouse wheel crossed with a swinging inverter!


That's the end of part one - Stay tuned for more.....

 

[Ian]

I do like a good bobsleigh and Sommerodelnbahn looks epic. How come you slowed down on the straight bit under the bridge? And I'm disappointed you didn't get the Butterfly cred.

 

[TilenB]

Looks fun!


I (still) can't believe that I haven't really ridden much Sommerrodelbahns so far, considering that I live right beneath the mighty Alps

 

[furie]

I've done a duelling one in Austria, about, erm... 27 years ago. Pretty sure I still have the scars actually :lol:

It was fantastic. I paid for this fat kid to ride tandem with me so we could really get some speed up; when we bailed, it was proper high speed, bone breaking, friction burns to the bone kind of stuff - loved it.

The best bit was the airtime hill at the end though, if you could sustain your speed, you could leap off that thing and into the bails at the end. Such a massive buzz.

I've no idea where it was (we stayed in a town called Villach/Villak/Villack I think) which was a short coach drive away.

I think the best thing about them is the fact that (with the long fast ones, not really Oakwood's :lol: ) you really are in control of your own ride. You can't just go flat out or you WILL turn the thing over (or go right over the top as I managed on one run), so there's the added thrill heading into a corner of not knowing if you've bled off enough speed or not. It's great fun if you get it right and can feel the sled on the edge of going over, almost as good fun if you trash it and skid for 20 yards on your elbows flensing your arms.

 

[Gazza]

You can't just go flat out or you WILL turn the thing over (or go right over the top as I managed on one run)

Depends on the type. Some, the one at Jamberoo Action Park uses the sleds where there are two worn plastic blocks instead of the back wheels. Only runs with a steep gradient can operate these, but the blocks mean the back end of the sled can shift sideways on the turns.
The result is that you can literally do the run with no brakes and it's virtually impossible to flip over.

Of course, you still get people who think they need to brake ruining it for the people behing, but I went on a quiet day and had a few uninterrupted runs.

 

[CoasterCrazy]

Thanks for the replies!
Does this ring any bells Furie? http://www.tv.55plus-magazin.net/php/so ... 18823.html

Ian, the reason why I slowed under the bridge was due to me confusing the brake and accelerator briefly
In addition to that, the gradient wasn't too steep to provoke much speed and having the camera with me deterred me from going recklessly fast like I am naturally inclined to as an enthusiast....

Alpine Coaster 2 - MaisFlitzer on Maiskogel Mountain, Kaprun

This was the only 'Alpine Coaster' of the trip, and was by far the most sophisticated of the ones I rode, with an automatic braking system and a lift hill as well as the largest queue of them all, despite the efficiency being actually quite efficient, with the operators dispatching one every ten seconds or so. This does create a giant problem though in that one slow rider can cause a pile up of about 10 cars (you'll see a 'procession' in the video'. My one problem with the ride is that the lift runs at 'Jet Coaster Speed' and it takes longer than SD2000 to reach the top. There were actually multiple (about five) separate lit hills altogether, offering some nice views. When you reach the first bend, it automatically stops you, which is somewhat of a blessing as you can wait for the slow people to get down before embarking.

As for the ride experience - it's noticeably faster than I perceived and extremely long (1220m), offering some decent forces in the helices and even pops of airtime:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j82IXWX4-kE[/youtube]

Extra fact: The manufacturer of both this and the Lucky Flitzer of earlier this year is Wiegand, who have helpfully listed all their installations here - http://www.wiegandslide.com/references- ... e6c0e.html

As far as safety is concerned, the operators and the plethora of signs dissuade doing it 'no brakes'. It is possible, however when I reached a certain speed vibrations really prompted me to brake out of caution (especially for the camera).

 

[ignace]

Nice to read about alpine coasters. I did Fisser Flitzet and Imst when I was in Austria a few weeks ago, awesome rides.

In the Netherlands, only a few kilometers from the park 'de valkenier', there is a Mobius Alpine slide, also .

 

[TilenB]

Ahh, Kaprun the ski resort of death. Btw, is 'the tunnel' still visible?

 

[furie]

Thanks for the replies!
Does this ring any bells Furie? http://www.tv.55plus-magazin.net/php/so ... 18823.html

Nah, but thanks for looking

It was at least duelling, if not triple duelling and had this airtime hill right at the end. It wasn't very long either.

I'll have to find it now won't I? :lol:

I suspect it was this one:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxq3L6TohJk[/youtube]

You can just about see the hill at the end, but it's not clear on the video. Taken at speed though, you could launch through the air, no worries

 

[CoasterCrazy]

^There are more jumps to come...

Ahh, Kaprun the ski resort of death. Btw, is 'the tunnel' still visible?

Ahhh that. I was trying not to think it about every time I rode a lift!
Actually yes it is. The structure is still intact and I'd go as far as saying it looked quite impressive. The track was degrading quite badly though and there's the surviving train has literally been abandoned at the bottom of the incline. I'm surprised it hasn't been scrapped yet to be honest....

 

[CoasterCrazy]

Unfortunately, I couldn't keep riding Alpine Coasters forever...so this is the last one.

Out of all of them, this one certainly had the most potential, therefore I was especially excited. Was I disappointed with the ride in the end? No - as usual with Alpine coasters, it's everything affiliated with them that ruins the experience.

After paying an extortionate price (around 25 euros for two tickets) the ride of the top was reasonably pleasant in fact and offered good views of the surrounding landscape and the ride itself.

Then we arrived at the top. Oh.

Typically, it was also quite inefficient, so it seemed like an age before we finally boarded sleds which seemed like they'd been very poorly maintained, which was just slightly worrying. Only slightly. Anyway, with camera in hand, I set off. However the knock - on effect of the queue was that there probably about 50 people traversing the 1.6km long track each with a varying speed. In the video below, I kept stopping in order to be able to subsequently build-up a decent speed, or wait for a group of naughty Arabs to retrieve a camera they had lost (and they all had to go on the ride in order to retrieve one item).

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5V581luPes[/youtube]

Anway, when I did get going, it was rather epic, being notably fast and attaining good banking on the turns, plus it seemed indefinite although the trough did seem to have quite a lot of friction. Overall - 7/10

As for the last one...we travelled to the alleged location only to find it was less than 1000 metres long and the cablecar ride wasn't included in the admission. :evil:

That really sums them up then....they all possess the potential to be incredible, however are spoiled by inflated cost and poor conduct of others onride.


Thanks everyone for reading this trip report - I hope you enjoyed it!
Please take the time to subscribe to my youtube channel, if you haven't already, to make my day and possibly get yourself another subscriber :--D http://www.youtube.com/user/CoasterCrazy014

Next time - Times Square Indoor Theme Park...featuring Malaysia's tallest, fastest coaster Supersonic Odyssey!

 

[caffeine_demon]

my word - looks like it was ruined by idiots! Best plan these things on off peak days!