What makes the Boomerang at Wild Adventures stay on the tracks?

Answer 1

The Boomerang at Wild Adventures in Georgia is a shuttle roller coaster that works the way almost all coasters do to keep its cars on the tracks. The railways are aligned in 3D space so that the forces acting on the cars actually force the cars down onto the trackway throughout the ride. If we look an an example, it may be a little clearer. First, the two forces acting on the cars are gravity and the inertia of the cars themselves. Let's jump. If a coaster track carries the cars down and into, say, a left hand turn, the plane of the trackway is tilted to the left as well. This makes the cars tilt to the left. And as the cars are vectored around to the left, they are pushing down and to the right to make the turn. That is, to change their direction from down and straight to down and left, they push down and right. Focus on this. The track must push back on the cars as much as the cars push on the track or something bad happens. As the cars are going down and left, they are pushing down and to the right. The track must push up and to the left to make the cars go left. So the cars are being forced "down" onto the track at all times. If you've ridden this coaster, when it makes a loop, the cars and passengers are upside down. But the cars have their wheels pressed onto the track, even upside down. The cars are pressed "up" onto the track. And the riders have their butts pressed into the seats when the cars are making the upside down loop. So the cars are being pressed onto the track at all times. The cars usually have a couple of small safety wheels that reach down under the tracks, but the track is routed and tilted to cause the cars to be vectored "down and onto the track" throughout the ride.