A Suspended Family Coaster is a

steel Steel is an alloy made up of iron with added carbon to improve its strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron. Many other elements may be present or added. Stainless steels that are corrosion- and oxidation-resistant ty ...

inverted

roller coaster A roller coaster, or rollercoaster, is a type of amusement ride that employs a form of elevated railroad track designed with tight turns, steep slopes, and sometimes inversions. Passengers ride along the track in open cars, and the rides are o ...

built by

Vekoma Vekoma Rides Manufacturing is a Dutch amusement ride manufacturer. Vekoma is syllabic abbreviation of Veld Koning Machinefabriek (Veld Koning Machine Factory) which was established in 1926 by Hendrik op het Veld. History The company originally ...

designed for families with no inversions. Just like all inverted roller coasters the train runs under the track with the seats directly attached to the wheel carriage. This latter attribute is what sets it apart from the older suspended swinging coaster, which runs under the track, but "swings" via a pivoting bar attached to the wheel carriage.

History

The Suspended Family Coaster debuted in 2001 with the Rugrats Runaway Reptar opening at

Kings Island Kings Island is a amusement park located northeast of Cincinnati in Mason, Ohio, United States. Owned and operated by Cedar Fair, the park first opened in 1972 by the Taft Broadcasting Company. It was part of a larger effort to move and expan ...

in Ohio, USA, and Silver Streak at sister park

Canada's Wonderland Canada's Wonderland, formerly known as Paramount Canada's Wonderland, is a amusement park located in Vaughan, Ontario, a municipality within the Greater Toronto Area. Opened in 1981 by the Taft Broadcasting Company and the Great-West Life As ...

.Wonderland has 4 new thrills

Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part ...

, Jim Fox, 5 May 2001 Several clones and variations have opened since. The original designs featured trains with a safety system consisting of over-the-shoulder restraints. These restraints would lock into place with a belt-type connector which would be attached the seat base. All of the original track designs were of the 342m model with concrete footers. In March 2007, Vekoma debuted a new version of the Suspended Family Coaster, the 294 m model. The first installation of this was Jimmy Neutron's Atomic Flyer at

Movie Park Germany Movie Park Germany is a theme park in Bottrop-Kirchhellen in western Germany, north of Düsseldorf, with an area of . It consists of 7 areas based on movies and TV series. Nearby the park are several film studios. History The park originally ...

. The ride differs from previous Suspended Family Coasters because it has a portable base-frame beneath the track rather than concrete footers and features a new train style with fully padded seats that use lap bar restraints. One month later in April 2007, the 395 m model was launched at

Gröna Lund Gröna Lund (; "Green Grove"), or colloquially ''Grönan'' (), is an amusement park in Stockholm, Sweden. Located on the seaward side of Djurgården Island, it is relatively small compared to other amusement parks, mainly because of its central l ...

in Sweden. The ride, which was named Kvasten, features the same redesigned trains as Jimmy Neutron's Atomic Flyer. The ride also features a larger layout with a peak height of and a length of .

Models

All models have one

train In rail transport, a train (from Old French , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicles that run along a railway track and Passenger train, transport people or Rail freight transport, freight. Trains are typically pul ...

, which has 10 cars with 2 seats on each car. This caters for up to 650 riders per hour. All of the models feature

lift hill A lift hill, or chain hill, is an upward-sloping section of track on a roller coaster on which the roller coaster train is mechanically lifted to an elevated point or peak in the track. Upon reaching the peak, the train is then propelled from th ...

s powered by tires and magnetic

brake run A brake run on a roller coaster is any section of track meant to slow or stop a roller coaster train. Brake runs may be located anywhere along the circuit of a coaster and may be designed to bring the train to a complete halt or to simply adjust ...

s. * 294 m — features a compact footprint where riders rise to before completing a 48-second ride of turns and drops. * 342 m — riders are taken up and go through a tight helix, followed by a series of small turns and drops for a one-and-a-half-minute ride. * 395 m — This model stands above the ground and reaches speeds of up to .

Installations

Gallery

File:Runaway Reptar Roller Coaster.jpg, Escape from Madagascar at Dreamworld is a standard model. File:Vekoma-otsr.jpg, A car from Swamp Thing at Wild Adventures. File:The bat coaster train Lagoon utah.JPG, Roller coaster train for the Bat at the Lagoon Amusement Park. File:Kvasten at Gröna Lund 2007.JPG, Kvasten at Gröna Lund is the first 395m model in operation.

References

External links

Official website
{{Vekoma Mass-produced roller coasters Vekoma