by Jeff Putz
posted 1/20/2001

Nothing keeps the cold winter warm like following the construction of the new roller coasters that are built in the off-season. Thanks to the Internet, photo documentaries of these giant projects are at our fingertips at all times. In the interest of humanity and the greater good, we want to train you to spot track and identify it like a pro. You’ll amaze and stun your classmates and co-workers with your knowledge and worldliness!

Identifying track isn’t that difficult, because chances are you can compare your existing knowledge of rides that you’ve been on with the visual ID of those track sections being unloaded from flatbeds and shipping containers. The whole process is about looking at the spine and ties. We’ll start our look in an alphabetical manner with Arrow.

Special thanks to our friend Keith "Badnitrus" McVeen for the beautiful graphics. You can see more of his work at http://badnitrus.coasterbuzz.com.

Arrow 4D
Arrow Dynamics, which seemingly dropped off the face of the earth following their building spree of loopers and hypercoasters in the early Nineties, has returned with a new product they’re calling the 4th Dimension, or 4D. On these coasters, two seats hang off either side of the track with the ability to pitch independently of the rest of the train. A small wheel assembly rides on an extra rail, which varies in distance from the main rail, pulling and pushing a tie rod that rotates the seats. It’s that extra rail that makes 4D track easy to spot.

Arrow Looper/Hyper
Probably the most familiar track there is. It has a round spine and very square ties that connect to the rails on the outside.

Arrow Suspended
This track is a bit more "beefy" than what you might normally see from Arrow. It has a thicker spine and shorter ties that connect to the inside of the rails. While some of the earlier rides were welded together, you can see newer rides like Top Gun at Paramount’s Kings Island that have bolted-together track.

B&M Dive Machine
The trademark box spine is attached to the rails by short ties that connect straight across between the rails. There are only two rides like this: Oblivion and G5.

B&M Inverter
This track also has the box spine, but the ties tend to have a bit of a curve to them.

B&M Regular
The rest of the B&M rides use the box spine with short, straight ties that have indentations in them at the middle.

Giovanola
It looks almost exactly like B&M’s standard track, but the distinguishing feature is the shape of the ties. The tops of the ties form a "V" shape between the rails.

Intamin
You would have to live in a cave to not have seen Intamin track in the last year or two. The smooth power of Intamin can be found in every park chain in the form of launched inverted rides, hyper coasters and the giant Millennium Force. It comes in three flavors, of which all three can be found on The Force. The track has between two and four rails. The more rails, the more rigid the track is, and the further you can place the supports apart. For example, Six Flags Darien Lake’s Superman has a support every few feet in the two-rail helices, while Millennium Force has an entire train length between supports using the four-rail track over the lagoon. The one common characteristic is that Intamin track has no spine, but rather a lattice of triangular ties that hold it together.

Wild Mouse
Mouse track looks almost universally the same regardless of the manufacturer, because the low speed and low weight of the vehicles requires a lot less support.

Vekoma
This track comes in two flavors with single or double spines. The single-spine track looks very much like Arrow track. In either case, it can be identified by the split rail ends where one section bolts to the next. It can be difficult to tell if the track is for a boomerang, suspended looping coaster (SLC) or Flying Dutchman.