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theabortionator
April, 2025

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New Rail Designs (HELP NEEDED)

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CameraWiz
Posts: 735 - Karma: 2,112
What up Newschoolers!

I'm a terrain park coordinator at a small single chairlift hill in Minnesota. I design and create all of the features for the hill.

I need help coming up with a few ideas on rails that you guys would enjoy riding. Can't be anything super difficult or huge. I'm thinking between a Shotgun, A frame, or Donkey rail. Open to ideas! Pictures help a lot!

So far I've built/had built: Flat bar (18ft long), flat bar DFD (~20ft long), Drop rail (22ft long), Street hand rail (18ft long), Normal hand rail(20ft long), Flat down box (24ft long), Flat box(16 feet long), Rainbow box (6ft tail at center of arch), 2 6in wide round butter tubes (16ft long), Z rail (24ft long), Flat box (14ft long)

Feature also cannot be too aggressive to require a snowcat to build a deck for it, we don't have the room or the ability due to our only snowcat being city owned.

Help me out NS!

Most upvotes after tomorrow night is getting their rail built (within reason)
7 years ago
5 0
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dubmasterskanka
Posts: 817 - Karma: 2,942
S rail?
7 years ago
16 1
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cheerio
Posts: 1032 - Karma: 3,415
Anything in tube form - may not be easy to make but definitely one of the funest to ride
7 years ago
19 0
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CameraWiz
Posts: 735 - Karma: 2,112
cheerioAnything in tube form - may not be easy to make but definitely one of the funest to ride


Currently looking for 8-10in diameter tubes just in case it goes that route
7 years ago
6 0
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270on420out
Posts: 7522 - Karma: 51,280
Medium-ish sized rainbow to down rail. Like the ones Whistler and Brighton have
7 years ago
3 1
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Plankton
Posts: 3226 - Karma: 6,840
down donkey wide tube. simple yet so fun
7 years ago
2 0
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Nicholas.Suchy
Posts: 166 - Karma: 1,178
Get yourself some pontoons or 12-16in wide tubes. simple easy to move snow for. easy to learn tricks on and so much fun
7 years ago
4 0
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iced
Posts: 3070 - Karma: 17,985
pick up some big pvc from a construction site. They are loads of fun to mix and match at the top of the hill

an up rail or battleship box would be cool
if you make a battleship dont make the poor thing tiny like my local hill.
7 years ago
2 0
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Young_patty
Posts: 3321 - Karma: 38,956
-Big tubes are good for progression and they are a ton of fun and easy to

- yeah it's important that features are beginner friendly but still make some harder rails like a big Dfd

- also I'm currently living in MN-what hill?
7 years ago
2 0
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TOAST.
Posts: 7725 - Karma: 39,278
If you cant make piles stay away from up rails. Up rails without landings suck.
The rainbow to down somebody suggested would also require a pile.
S rails are usually very expensive to get pipe bent for. We traded passes to a company to bend ours.

Large diameter tubes are always fun.
Donkey dick would be good to have.
One of my favorite rails we have we call the pontoon. It is two tubes with a box surface in the middle like this o_o. So you can drop down to the box and hop back up onto the tubes or a bunch of other things.
7 years ago
0 0
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.CJ.
Posts: 1509 - Karma: 3,671
Does a tap feature count? Those are pretty fun
7 years ago
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CameraWiz
Posts: 735 - Karma: 2,112
Young_patty-Big tubes are good for progression and they are a ton of fun and easy to

- yeah it's important that features are beginner friendly but still make some harder rails like a big Dfd

- also I'm currently living in MN-what hill?



Called Chester Bowl. It's in up in Duluth. We always have a pretty rad setup. Plus day passes are like $6
7 years ago
5 0
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CameraWiz
Posts: 735 - Karma: 2,112
Starting on the Donkey shotgun rail tomorrow! Hopefully going to get that finished up then possibly build a nice big fat tube setup
7 years ago
3 0
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aideey10
Posts: 42 - Karma: 100
In my opinion pills are dope and super versatile. You can set it up like a rail or sideways and stall on it. It doesn't take up much room either. If you don't know what it is it's basically one of those big propane tanks.
7 years ago
4 0
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Nicholas.Suchy
Posts: 166 - Karma: 1,178
CameraWizPlus day passes are like $6


6$ jesus christ that cheap, you mean 60?
7 years ago
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theabortionator
Posts: 52495 - Karma: 172,913
Flat rails and flat boxes are pretty versatile. You can never really have enough. A good donkey or df is a must if you want to have a solid rail park.

I wouldn't get too wild though. People will vote for loop de loop rails in a pole, but down and flat rails are the most sessioned features a lot of the time. Simplicity might be "boring" but functional is better than absurdly creative features that just sit there without getting hit. Especially at a small hill. And the mountains that build ridiculous features generally have at least 100+ other features probably 40+ of them flat rails/boxes.

Just built a 20' donkey at 12.5 degrees this summer though. .7m on the flats. Thing was pretty fun. Good rail that's different but not too absurd.

Also if you ever set that z tube into the donkey dick rail, call me cause I wanna come spin some laps and break myself.
7 years ago
3 0
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theabortionator
Posts: 52495 - Karma: 172,913
aideey10In my opinion pills are dope and super versatile


7 years ago
8 0
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cozzey
Posts: 1353 - Karma: 1,814
flat downs rails are a fan of mine
7 years ago
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.CJ.
Posts: 1509 - Karma: 3,671
A triple barrel dfd or an 8 inch wide dfd box would be dope too
7 years ago
1 0
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.FRY.
Posts: 5686 - Karma: 22,820
penis rail... someone would ride it lol
7 years ago
0 0
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CameraWiz
Posts: 735 - Karma: 2,112
Nicholas.Suchy6$ jesus christ that cheap, you mean 60?


Day passes are indeed $6. Season passes are like $80. All of the park has been funded through grant money and was volunteer work for a few years (by me) Now I run the whole terrain park program. I'll try to post up a few pictures today and tomorrow.
7 years ago
2 0
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CameraWiz
Posts: 735 - Karma: 2,112
In progress of finishing everything up. I'll let ya guys see the rails that we have stashed at the top of the hill tomorrow. Just finished painting all the old ones today. Our hill hasn't spent a dime on these. Just grant money
7 years ago
3 0
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theabortionator
Posts: 52495 - Karma: 172,913
CameraWizDay passes are indeed $6. Season passes are like $80. All of the park has been funded through grant money and was volunteer work for a few years (by me) Now I run the whole terrain park program. I'll try to post up a few pictures today and tomorrow.


That's sick man! A park I worked at 4 and 5 years ago was like that. Got donations to buy steel to build stuff. Also got a little bit of steel and 2 smaller rails from friends old backyard setups(metal of course though). I got paid the second season but I volunteered the first year.

It's dope when people care enough about parks to get things done regardless of budgets or pay. Some people get paid decent, have a solid budget, and the parks are still horrifically neglected.

Def curious to see some pics of what you build both in rails and setups this season. Good luck man!
7 years ago
2 0
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lil.Boye
Posts: 2778 - Karma: 12,617
CameraWizIn progress of finishing everything up. I'll let ya guys see the rails that we have stashed at the top of the hill tomorrow. Just finished painting all the old ones today. Our hill hasn't spent a dime on these. Just grant money


dude, if i ever get my ass out of Norway, i would loved to go shred there!
7 years ago
1 0
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CameraWiz
Posts: 735 - Karma: 2,112
theabortionatorThat's sick man! A park I worked at 4 and 5 years ago was like that. Got donations to buy steel to build stuff. Also got a little bit of steel and 2 smaller rails from friends old backyard setups(metal of course though). I got paid the second season but I volunteered the first year.

It's dope when people care enough about parks to get things done regardless of budgets or pay. Some people get paid decent, have a solid budget, and the parks are still horrifically neglected.

Def curious to see some pics of what you build both in rails and setups this season. Good luck man!


I'll keep this post updated. Wont be any super crazy setups since we dont have a snow cat helping us push mounds or jumps. Just a nice chill park that is in the center of town. I got one picture of a setup from last year we had that I'll post up
7 years ago
0 0
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CameraWiz
Posts: 735 - Karma: 2,112
Nothing too crazy. Just some nice, mellow setups. All our rails are usually setup at once (theres about 14 of them) so the park isnt too bad, nice flow, tons of different lines. This year our park should be better but who knows, I dont have control over the snow guns haha
7 years ago
1 0
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theabortionator
Posts: 52495 - Karma: 172,913
CameraWizI'll keep this post updated. Wont be any super crazy setups since we dont have a snow cat helping us push mounds or jumps. Just a nice chill park that is in the center of town. I got one picture of a setup from last year we had that I'll post up


CameraWizNothing too crazy. Just some nice, mellow setups. All our rails are usually setup at once (theres about 14 of them) so the park isnt too bad, nice flow, tons of different lines. This year our park should be better but who knows, I dont have control over the snow guns haha



That's still a good amount of snow for not having cat help. Good work. Can you work with them on a plan of what you want for the park and get snow made where you need it? Also is there a cat at the ski area that could help a bit?
7 years ago
1 0
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Ghetto_Mondays
Posts: 52 - Karma: 164
https://vimeo.com/218407337

Edit from Chester last year!
7 years ago
3 0
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CameraWiz
Posts: 735 - Karma: 2,112
theabortionatorThat's still a good amount of snow for not having cat help. Good work. Can you work with them on a plan of what you want for the park and get snow made where you need it? Also is there a cat at the ski area that could help a bit?


Yeah the ski hill has a cat and i mean we get jumps every now and then pushed for rails but for the most part its just us. All the rails are moved just by us
7 years ago
0 0
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CameraWiz
Posts: 735 - Karma: 2,112
Plochhttps://vimeo.com/218407337

Edit from Chester last year!


Where'd this come from?!?! This is sick!
7 years ago
0 0
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R*BN
Posts: 3 - Karma: 19
Plochhttps://vimeo.com/218407337

Edit from Chester last year!


fuegooo
7 years ago
0 0
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