Sky Wheel

Like the nearby Sky Spin, Sky Wheel was built by Maurer AG.  It is incredibly compact and only has 150 metres (490 feet) of track.

The train is lifted up the vertical tower on the right, passes through the twisted track in the middle, and drops down the tower on the left.  At the bottom of the drop, the cars quickly pass through the station (which is hidden by the trees), then proceed to climb up the lift tower again.  Instead of being slowly pulled up the lift by the chain, the train's inertia quickly propels it most of the way back up the tower until gravity stops the train.  It then falls backward down the lift, passes trough the station yet again, and climbs backward up the leftmost tower.  Gravity wins yet again and pulls the train down and through the station for the third time.  Aerodynamic drag and rolling friction have been gradually slowing the train during all of this travel, so each successive pass through the station has been slower than the previous ones.  The nearby Butterfly coaster does a similar back-and-forth travel that takes a long time for friction and drag to stop, but Sky Wheel's lift catches the train during its second zoom up the tower and brings the cars to a halt about half way up the tower.  The chain lift then gently lowers the cars backward down the lift and into the station.

©2019 Joel A. Rogers.