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Hydraulic restraints question

ECG

East Coast(er) General
Staff member
Administrator
I've been asked if I have any information on the history of the hydraulic restraint and the "breakthrough" of it’s use on roller coasters? Didn't think there were any aspects of coasters that I wasn't familiar with, but I never happened to read or hear about the advent of hydraulic restraints. Anyone happen to know how they came about, when and which manufacturer/coaster was the first to use them, etc.?
 
Here is a writeup that mentions hydraulic restraints going as far back as at least Corkscrew (CP), but whether that was common back then, I cannot say.
 
Cedar Point Corkscrew is most certainly not a hydraulic restraint. It might have a hydraulic release, but it is definitely a ratchet system on the OTSR itself.

Superman at Magic Mountain with its original cars were probably the first coaster (I can think of) Intamin definitely didn't have ratcheting -lapbars- after that.
 
Superman sounds like a solid guess. The Mega-Coasters as we know them started 2 years later in 1999. I was just trying to think what my first rollercoaster with hydraulic restraints was, but Colossos is certainly not the first one.
 
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