Paint and Protective coatings: Wooden coasters will rot, and steel coasters will rust unless some form of protectant is applied. Old wooden coasters are generally painted white (other colors do exist, however), while steel coasters come in every color possible and use a resin coasting. Lately to save on the expense of painting wooden coasters, they are built of pressure treated lumber, with long life preservatives, resulting in a brown or green look.
Parabolic: A coaster hill that contains a lot of curve track and little straight track, if any.
Pay One Price: An amusement park admission ticket/package which includes all rides or shows, as opposed to a pay-per-ride scheme.
Pay Per Ride: An amusement park admission package, requiring you to pay a separate fee for each ride or show. These parks may charge little or no up-front grounds admission. Some parks are more flexible with this and will sell a Pay One Price wristband or handstamp at an additional price.
Planning Permission/Building Permit: Legal document that must be obtained from a local authority before building a roller coaster, or other building. Sometimes, these are hard to come by for environmental, or noise reasons.
Pipeline Coaster: An as-of-yet unopened coaster style. It promises a ride between the rails where true barrel rolls and flips can be produced.
Queue: The wait in line to board a coaster
Queue-to-Ride-Ratio (Q.R.R.): Coaster stat invented by Alan Baldwin to determine what ratio of your time do you spend waiting for a coaster, as opposed to riding it. It is arrived at by dividing wait time by ride time. The higher the Q.R.R. the worse the wait, the more unbearable the wait is going to be due to slow lines.
Racer: A coaster with two parallel tracks designed so that two trains can leave the station at one time and race each other. Note that not all racing coasters actually race.
Rakers: The diagonal beams that buttress the banked turns on a roller coaster.
Ratchet: A claw tooth bar located on the track (most often on the lift hill) into which the anti-rollback device, or ratchet dog engages that will prevent the train from rolling backwards.
Set-Up: When a train is purposely stopped before completing the circuit. This can be caused by either the operator, or the computer. It is usually done for safety reasons.
Serpentine Curves: A series of flat (unbanked) curves in opposite directions, creating several rapid direction changes. This looks like a zig-zag pattern that generates severe lateral forces. This is the key element on 'Wild Mouse' style coasters.
Shuttle Coasters: A style of coaster where after the train leaves the station, it rides forward out to some distant point, then stops, and rolls backwards through the same section of track to the station. These almost always involve a vertical loop, and on Boomerang coasters, a boomerang element as well. Where the early shuttle loops were one straight piece of track, the Boomerang version is a U-shape ride. Currently. a version without the looping element is being tested at Six Flags Magic Mountain.
Track Gauge: The distance between the centers of the running rails. A wood coaster gauge is usually 42-44 inches, and a steel coaster is approx. 27.5 inches. up to 47.5 inches, on the 4-abreast models.
Track Sensors: Devices that determine the position of the trains on the circuit, and usually speed as well. Modern coasters have numerous sensors, linked to the computer, that can pinpoint just where everything is, and how it is operating. These come times were used on older coasters, as just a trip switch, witch would sound a bell to warn the brake attendant.
Traditional Amusement Park: A park that is still operated in the 'traditional' sense. These parks often have long histories as being 'picnic parks', or 'trolley parks'. They often run older, classic rides, don't have themed sections, and often use pay-per-ride pricing schemes.