Abstract: A chassis for rail-bound amusement vehicles including a vehicle frame with a bearing block connected to the frame and a bearing bracket elastically mounted on the bearing block via a ball-and-socket joint. Wheel shoes are provided for hinges with supporting pairs wheels such that the wheels may be adjusted against a rail in a hinged manner from the top and bottom as well as from the side. The bearing bracket is also connected to the vehicle frame by a ball-and-socket joint, connecting the bearing bracket to the connecting rod which extends at right angles to the direction of travel and which is connected to the vehicle frame.

Abstract: An amusement ride installation of a closed track figure eight configuration has passenger carriers suspended to swing from a plurality of support rods pivotally mounted to a single carriage. Each carriage has a frame made of transverse and longitudinal members with a lower longitudinal member having a raised middle part wherein the vehicle suspending support rods are pivotally mounted. U-shaped yokes affixed to the frame with universal joints, hold at least two wheel groups, which comprise running rollers and guide rollers riding on rails. Also connected to the frame are V-shaped struts which support drive spars having brake flanges, and damping cylinders which damp oscillations of the pivoting support rods using a toothed rack assembly. Elastic couplings are provided to connect adjacent carriages.

Abstract: An amusement ride has an endless path defined by a rail from which the vehicle is suspended by a strut which, at its upper end, is swingable in a deformable frame on a yoke which is likewise pivotal on this frame and carries stirrups by which brackets are pivotally mounted in the carriage. The brackets carry the running and guide rollers. A pair of air springs in the form of bellows cylinders is braced between the strut and the yoke.

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: An orbital amusement ride adapted to stand on the ground has a pair of spaced-apart posts standing on the ground and having respective upper ends defining respective pivot axes that are generally parallel and define a generally horizontal plane with the posts generally perpendicular to this plane and spaced apart thereon parallel to the axes. Respective generally parallel arms are pivotal on the posts about the respective axes and have respective diametrically opposite first and second arm ends. A drive in one of the posts rotates the arms jointly and synchronously about the respective axes with the first arm ends spaced horizontally from each other and the second arm ends spaced horizontally from each other also. A first passenger-receiving car is pivoted on and bridges the first arm ends and a second passenger-receiving car is pivoted on and bridges the second arm ends.

Abstract: A chain-type ascent system for a roller-coaster has an inclined track section having a lower upstream end and a higher downstream end relative to a predetermined direction of travel of a roller-coaster car therealong. Upstream and downstream wheels are provided at the upstream and downstream ends and a pair of I-beams define a guide slot extending between these upstream and downstream wheels and along the track section. A pair of substantially parallel and endless chains are reeved over these wheels and extend along the guide slot, and a multiplicity of shoes transversely bridge between these chains at spaced-type locations therealong. Each shoe is of I-section and is engageable in and guidable by the slot, so that the chains are supported from the shoes at the slot. In addition the chains carry at least one engagement element that can engage behind and push a roller-coaster car from upstream to the downstream end of the track section.

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.

Abstract: A lead vehicle is hitched to a semitrailer-type follower vehicle by a universal coupling including a pair of generally horizontal arms, rigid with the respective vehicle bodies, which terminate in interfitted knuckles with part-spherical surfaces. The outer knuckle forms a pair of prongs firmly embraced by inner wall surfaces of a surrounding split housing whose halves, meeting in a vertical plane, are interconnected by a bolt carrying a spherically convex boss supporting the inner knuckle. The vehicles ride on a track transverse to the bolt axis, two sets of wheels of the lead vehicle being mounted on a pair of wheel mountings that are swingable about that axis and have extensions forming the housing.