This is our pinecar patterned after the Matterhorn Bobsled ride at Disneyland. Actually, this is closer to the old bobsled design from when I was a kid -- the newer one wasn't as easy to mimic.
This is the first design where it occurred to me to cut the pinecar block in half, and reassemble it with a piece of dowel. (The second was the Choo-choo.) You have to be really careful to get the two halves absolutely straight, so the car will go straight. The horizontal drill press mode of my ShopSmith makes this reasonably safe.
We found the little bears at a craft store. It was hard to cut their little legs off, what with them looking at me that way, but I had to to get them into the holes. It's cool that they're articulated, so they can hold their hands up like real roller coaster riders do.