The Alpine Roller Coaster

Technical Description

Concept and Development

The Rolba Bob is a further development of the Trans Mobil Monorail, which we have been offering on the world market for 20 years. The principle ideas of the Trans Mobil System are individual cars with up to 2 passengers travel uphill and downhill on a rail in heights between 2.0 ft. and 18 ft., powered by a 42-Volt electric motor. Every car can be individually started and go round its course at a fixed speed. In principle, we have used this construction system as the basis for a completely new summer Alpine Slide system, one that is rather comparable with a Roller Coaster, and to be used in a setting of mountainous country.

The Technology

Instead of the electric motors, we now use gravity. The cars, which look like bobsleds in their ice channel, are fixed onto a double rail that takes them down to the valley. The track consists of two parallel steel tubes, in which special braking elements are integrated. This steel-tube construction is mounted on supports at a spacing of 12 ft. that have their feet anchored to the ground using steel anchors for ground attachment. This simple but robust design renders foundations superfluous. The height of the supports over ground level is between 2 ft. and 20 ft. This bridge-type design means that all irregularities in the terrain can be avoided.

Streams, small ravines, and very steep slopes can be overcome effortlessly - and without any leveling or other earthworks worth mentioning. The complete tube system is of the plug-in type, the parts being bolted together. There are no problems with height adjustment or the setting of the slope angle. The average slope is 10%, with an adjustment range of 5% to 16%. This means that in addition to steep curves, jumps and calmer stretches, slower and faster parts are possible. This increases the attractiveness of the Rolba Bob.

The Uphill Transport

At the valley end of the track, the Bobs are taken over by a braking and transport system. This system corresponds to the chair lift stations with roller batteries which can be linked into the transport line. In the valley station (or mountaintop station), the passengers get out, and new ones get in. After that, the bob is automatically fed onto a double lifting rail, and fully-automatically transported by a lifting mechanism beneath its floor until it reaches the mountaintop station. Here, the detachable grip automatically releases the lift cable, the bobsled slides onto the downhill rail, and the trip to the valley starts again. In contrast to the chairlift, the transport cable runs through the rail system beneath the bobsled.

On request, the cable-lift system can be coupled to twin downhill rail systems (running parallel or separately). The lift capacity is sufficient for the supply of both rails. A computer-controlled points system takes the bobsleds alternately from one rail or the other to the lift. The additional rail system can be upgraded without any problems.

The Safety

The great difference between the summer Alpine Slide with slide tracks and its sled is that: the bobsleds are firmly connected to the rail system.  This means that even when force is used, they cannot be separated from the rails. Additionally, for their own safety, the passengers are also belted in. The cars have two separate braking systems. Using a control lever, the passengers can control the speed exactly as they wish. And even if it is pouring rain, the powerful brakes guarantee a short, safe, braking distance. A second fully-automatic braking system keeps the top speed of the system down to 22 miles/h, even if the passengers want to go faster.This limit is imposedin the interest of their own safety.

Operation All Year Round

Compared with the conventional Alpine Slide systems, this safety package deal offers great advantages: The track with the integrated dual-circuit braking system can be operated throughout the year, independently of whether there is sunshine, rain, snow or frost. This means that it can also be used in skiing resorts in the winter season - an additional attraction for big and small kids, as an alternative to skiing, after skiing, and in the evenings by floodlight.