You’re driving down the road. Suddenly, you see a gargantuan piece of steel track on the back of a big, flat bed truck. You ask yourself if you are thinking clearly. Then, you follow the truck to the amusement park twenty miles up the road, your home park! As you follow the truck, you begin to ponder what type of track is in front of you. Is it a Bolliger & Mabillard floorless coaster? Is it an Intamin Rocket Coaster? Or a Vekoma Suspended Looping Coaster? Who knows, it could be just about anything; however, this article will help you narrow down the possible types of coaster track you are witnessing.

    Is it an S&S 4th Dimension coaster? The easiest way to figure out whether it is a 4th Dimension coaster is to see if there are two rails on both sides of the track. If there is only one rail on either side of the track, it is not a 4th Dimension coaster. X, is an Arrow-built 4th Dimension coaster; however, when Arrow fell into bankruptcy, S&S purchased them.

    Is it a Bolliger and Mabillard invert/hyper/sit-down/flying/floorless coaster? B&M uses a square spine with “curved” ties connecting to the outside rails. All B&M coasters ride on the outside of the track’s rails. Shown to the right is a picture of a B&M hyper-coaster known as Apollo's Chariot.

    Is it a B&M dive machine? The B&M dive machine uses a track which looks similar to the standard track used by Bolliger & Mabillard; however, the dive machine has a track with larger square spine and the ties are flat, rather than being curved. Shown to the left is a picture of Shiekra, one of three Bolliger & Mabillard dive machines.

    Is it a Giovanola invert or hyper? The Giovanola track looks nearly identical to the standard B&M track; however, the ties are a “V” shape between the rails. One of the most popular Giovanola coasters is a hyper coaster, known as Goliath.

    Is it an Intamin coaster? Intamin has the most unique, and therefore obvious track styles which make them easy to recognize. There track has either two or four rails for all styles of coasters. The more rails, the more rigid the track is; therefore you can place supports farther apart; however, whether the track has two or four rails, the one commonality is that they don’t have a spine, instead they have triangular ties that hold the rails together. Shown to the right is Millenium Force, the only Intamin giga coaster in the world.

    Is it a Morgan hyper-coaster? Morgan hyper-coasters use a round spine and incredibly square ties made of solid steel which connect to the rails on the outside. Shown to the left is Steel Force, a Morgan-built hyper coaster.

    Is it a Morgan giga-coaster? The main difference between the Morgan hyper-coaster track and giga-coaster track is that the square ties connect to the inside of the track on a Morgan giga-coaster. Additionally, the round spine is larger. Also noteworthy, is the fact that on Morgan giga-coasters, the wheels wrap around the outside of the rails instead of the inside. The only current Morgan giga coaster is Steel Dragon 2000 which has been standing, but not active (SBNO) since 2003.

    Is it a wild mouse? All manufacturers use a track which looks nearly identical. The standard style is a spine-less track with two rails. Shown to the left is Ricochet, a Mack-built wild mouse.

    Is it a Vekoma SLC, Boomerang, Flying Dutchman coaster? These Vekoma coasters use either a single spine track, similar to the Morgan track, or a double spined track, which is unique to Vekoma. Shown to the right is a picture of Batwing, a Vekoma Flying Dutchman coaster.

    So maybe this track does not fit the description of any of the above types of track. However, this may mean your home park is about to get a newfangled design about to take the world by storm! I certainly hope it is and I’m sure you can agree. Only time will tell, but until then, we can only wait in suspense as the 2006 park season approaches...