Ride transportation-station hardware (granted).
A ride system adapted to eliminate delays caused by variances in loading or unloading through the inclusion of an infinite ingress/egress station within the ride path. The station provides a system to circumvent the vehicle in series design methodology, which allows the station to operate to pull a vehicle out of the line or series of vehicles if an issue arises during loading or unloading. This is achieved using a circular turntable that is rotated with a series of vehicles attached to the outer edge of the rotating turntable so as to be moved along the ride path by the turntable during loading and unloading operations. The station is configured to allow a vehicle identified as having load or unload issues to continue to travel with or around the turntable instead of being released into the attraction along the ride path as would be the case for properly loaded/unloaded vehicles.
BACKGROUND 1. Field of the Description (1) The present description relates, in general, to loading and unloading stations of rides of amusement parks, theme parks, and water parks and other applications, and, more particularly, to a ride station configured to provide extended or even unlimited (or “infinite”) passenger ingress and egress time of one up to many passenger vehicles while allowing ongoing dispatch of other passenger vehicles at or near desired throughput rates for a ride. 2. Relevant Background (2) It is often desirable for transportation systems such as rides at theme parks, amusement parks, and other mass transit systems to be operated to provide a continuous flow of visitors at a known rate. Often, it is one goal of ride designers to provide high throughputs to try to increase the number of park visitors that can enjoy a ride and to shorten wait times. An ongoing challenge for designers of these higher capacity rides is how to handle variations in load and unload (or ride ingress and egress) times between varying groups of vehicle passengers and what to do about interruptions to the load and unload process for a ride. (3) Most high capacity attractions are designed to have the vehicles travel along a single, continuous path or in a “vehicles in series” configuration. This goes for most attraction types regardless of if they have a track, flume, or pathway. For the vehicles in series configuration, the attraction timing and efficiency are tied to every single v
1. A ride system, comprising: a plurality of vehicles; a main track for guiding the vehicles in a series along a ride path; a turntable rotating in a continuous manner about a center axis while the ride system is operating; a station track extending about an outer edge of the turntable to define a circular loop around a periphery of the turntable, wherein the main track includes a turntable inlet that directs the vehicles in the series toward the station track and a turntable outlet providing an exit for the vehicles away from the station track; and a transfer guide track with an inlet portion configured to guide the vehicles from the turntable inlet of the main track to the station track and with an outlet portion configured to guide the vehicles from the station track to the turntable outlet of the main track, wherein one or more of the vehicles is guided to bypass the turntable outlet and continue to travel within the station track past the turntable inlet of the main track and back to the turntable outlet of the main track, and wherein the inlet portion and the outlet portion each comprises a pivotable track section that is acted upon by the one or more vehicles that are guided to bypass the turntable outlet to rotate out of a path of the one or more vehicles and to then spring back into place, thereby allowing the one or more vehicles to continue to travel in the station track without binding with the transfer guide track. ||
9. A transportation system, comprising: a plurality of uncoupled roller coaster vehicles; a main track for guiding the vehicles along a ride path; a turntable rotating about a center axis; a station track extending about an outer edge of the turntable to define a circular loop around a periphery of the turntable, wherein the main track includes a turntable inlet that directs the vehicles toward the station track and a turntable outlet providing an exit for the vehicles away from the station track; a transfer guide track with an inlet portion configured to guide the vehicles from the turntable inlet of the main track to the station track and with an outlet portion configured to guide the vehicles from the station track to the turntable outlet of the main track; and a vehicle capture system coupling each of the vehicles arriving from the turntable inlet of the main track to the turntable, whereby the vehicles are driven in the station track by rotation of the turntable, wherein the vehicle capture system includes a release mechanism adapted to decouple a first set of the vehicles when in the outlet portion of the transfer guide track and to retain in a captured state a second set of the vehicles that are guided to bypass the turntable outlet, and wherein the inlet portion and the outlet portion each comprises a pivotable track section that is acted upon by the vehicles in the second set to rotate out of a path of the vehicles, thereby allowing each of the second set of vehicles to continue to travel in the station track without binding with the transfer guide track. ||
15. A ride system, comprising: a main track defining a ride path; a plurality of vehicles each adapted to rollably engage the main track; a turntable rotating in a continuous manner about a center axis while the ride system is operating; a station track extending about an outer edge of the turntable to define a circular loop around a periphery of the turntable and to provide one or more surfaces for vertically supporting the vehicles, wherein the main track includes a turntable inlet that directs the vehicles in the series toward the station track and a turntable outlet providing an exit for the vehicles away from the station track; a vehicle capture system including a vehicle-to-turntable coupling mechanism independently coupling each of the vehicles arriving from the turntable inlet of the main track to the turntable, whereby the vehicles are driven in the station track by rotation of the turntable; and a transfer guide track with an inlet portion configured to guide the vehicles from the turntable inlet of the main track to the station track and with an outlet portion configured to guide the vehicles from the station track to the turntable outlet of the main track, wherein one or more of the vehicles is guided to bypass the turntable outlet and continue to travel within the station track past the turntable inlet of the main track and back to the turntable outlet of the main track, and wherein the inlet portion and the outlet portion each comprises a pivotable track section that is acted upon by the one or more vehicles that are guided to bypass the turntable outlet to rotate out of a path of the one or more vehicles and to then spring back into place, thereby allowing the one or more vehicles to continue to travel in the station track without binding with the transfer guide track.