Abstract: An amusement ride has rails defining a longitudinal travel direction along which a car is displaceable. A longitudinally extending drive member secured to this car is engageable by drive members which rotate to displace the car along the rails in the longitudinal direction. This member comprises at least two generally parallel, longitudinally extending, and vertically spaced chains each formed of a longitudinal succession of links and a plurality of longitudinally succeeding rigid segments each having a pair of transversely bolted-together halves flanking the chains. The halves of each segment are complementarily formed to and encase a respective plurality of the chain links.

Abstract: A roller-coaster track includes a vertical loop and terminates in two steep rises, with a loading and unloading station disposed along a horizontal stretch of track between the loop and the lower of the two rises. An endless belt underneath that horizontal stretch entrains a carriage which, when moving along an upper run of that belt, accelerates a passenger train at the station from standstill to a velocity sufficient to let that train pass through the loop in one direction, ascend the higher rise, descend that rise and pass once more through the loop in the opposite direction before ascending and descending the lower rise, eventually coming to rest at the station. The accelerating force is derived, at the start of the ride, from stored potential or kinetic energy such as that of a weight dropping inside a guide tube or a flywheel intermittently coupled with the belt.