Griffon to reopen Aug. 5th

Well the subcontractors do matter on delivery times greatly. There is also the decisions to go with the ride manufacturer's recommendation on the chain to buy as opposed to finding your own manufacturer. These all affect time and the life of the chain after installation. Also in BGE's case, there is a warranty in effect which may limit their choices.

All I am saying is it is never as simple as CP = faster and BGE = slower so CP is better. Also there is far more that goes on behind the scenes that the general public isn't privy to. If BGE took over a week to get the chain on, there was probably a very good reason for that, and I'll guarantee they were doing everything they could to make it happen as fast as possible.

It's not a versus debate. I just think that if you're not prepared to keep your star attraction running with parts that are known to break, that's lame. You're going to replace the chain every couple of years anyway, so why wouldn't you have it on hand? And if B&M rides have interchangeable chains, why not have one when you can put it on three rides?

When did everyone become apologists for poor maintenance?

When people armchair quarterback what goes on without knowing the whole story, I feel the need. That especially goes when I also personally know the maintenance people we are talking about at not only CP and BGE but many other major parks. So in a case where I do know the real stories behind it all, I do my best to enlighten. I would think that people would be more interested in hearing some of the real life issues instead of conjecturing.

As for why not have one, again I'll say it is a huge amount of money to have tied up sitting in a warehouse when that same amount could be going toward yearly maintenance on several rides. Its also not exactly common to for chains to break on B&M rides.

I am curious where you heard the chains are replaced every couple of years though.

Wolf, I gotta beleive that there is an inspection & maintainance interval (be it every 100 hours the hain gets inspected, every 1,000, it gets lubed, ect). There must be a time when the chain must be replaced!

You haven't "enlightened" anyone. If you know the story, share it. It doesn't change the fact that they didn't have a spare.

Chains are moving parts that wear out. I didn't "hear" it anywhere, I've seen them replaced. What's so strange about that? I don't know what they look for or how often, but it hardly comes as a shocker that they get replaced.

Hopman: Several hundred thousand for a chain? Really?

Reality check: It broke, they are fixing it, downtime happnes, get over it.

No, i'm talking about the MAINTIANCE on the thing.(as in number of hours run)

Like every mechanical item, chains wear out. The question is how fast. Well, this is a whole area of engineering called reliability engineering, but I won't go into the details of that. But, suffice to say, chains are a wearable item, and they do need to be replaced. Typically they are fully inspected over the winter and a decision is made then to either replace the chain at that time or keep the old one. A lot of factors are involved (age, physical wear, etc.) That being said, even if a chain is inspected and found to be in good condition, metal fatigue can be strange in its behavior. It may be that a weak spot was missed in the inspection, or maybe some minor physical force was exerted in the wrong manner which slightlyly stressed the chain. This may cause what engineers call "premature failure" , i.e. the chain breaks unexpectedly. Does it make sense to have a spare chain on hand? For a park which runs 365 days a year, probably. For the rest, probably not. After all, even though we can talk of chains breaking, it is still rare. (i.e. how many coasters go down 2 - 3 times a summer for a broken chain?) As an amusement park operator, you keep spares on hand of parts which are expected to wear out and need to be replaced each year (wheels, maybe bearings, etc.) It is impossible to keep a spare of every part which might break, unless you built a racing coaster and only run one side with the other as a spare... :-)

Think of your car. You carry a spare tire, but do you have a spare battery?

^If I have a fleet, I just might...

Granted, four B&Ms in one park may not constitute a "fleet", and I personally have no idea about the interchangeability (hey, kpjb can make up words, so can I)....but it sure would be nice if my *star attraction* wasn't unexpectedly out of commission for an extended time.

Besides, if SFA, SFGAdv, SFNE are as close in proximity as they are, then you're talking about a more "chain-wide distribution center".

Walt, you forgot about seat belts, chain dogs, lightbulbs, and spare crew!

Well, if it makes anyone happy, they had it up at least by August 4th (yesterday) as I was there and got to ride it.

On the other hand, Loch Ness Monster was down the entire time I was there, and there was an empty train sitting on the lift.

Maybe they took its chains, connected them together to make it longer, then put it on Griffon :P

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rollergator said:
^If I have a fleet, I just might...

Granted, four B&Ms in one park may not constitute a "fleet", and I personally have no idea about the interchangeability (hey, kpjb can make up words, so can I)....but it sure would be nice if my *star attraction* wasn't unexpectedly out of commission for an extended time.

Besides, if SFA, SFGAdv, SFNE are as close in proximity as they are, then you're talking about a more "chain-wide distribution center".

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The big thing with this is interchangeability. While I am not an expert, I would assume that each chain is, to some extent, custom to the coaster which needs it. (After all, how many B&M's have exactly the same height lift hill, etc.) If you can assume that the chains are the same length for multiple coasters, and if each of the coasters uses the same type chain (I would bet that inverts and regular coasters have slightly different chains, but I could be wrong), then there might be an argument for keeping a spare for multiple rides.

Hopman, sorry, that was Wolfhound that mentioned the hundreds of thousands of dollars as a chain cost.

Boy I didn't know this was such a touchy topic. And here all I was trying to do is point out there is more to it than people think. I mean what would someone like me possibly know :). Go ride a coaster and have fun. That IS the idea of them you know. Besides the ride is up and running so I'm done with this thread.

Soggy, no big deal. I have little bit of knowledge I've gleaned on machienery, as my dad services utility trucks for a living.

Wolf, we were just trying to get the facts as straight as this crew can! :)

No one is "touchy." It's the Internet. If people think you're talking out of your ass, they call you out on it. Isn't that fun?

Get back to work Brian. You don't know what you're talking about anyways. ;)

You always have to pipe in with your inside baseball posts, don't you Rob? Half the time I find that you don't know what you're talking about either. "Look at me! I work at an amusement park! I'm gonna use winkies and show everyone how sweet I am by dangling carrots no one cares about on the Internet!"

Sandusky Steel did build the chain for Mean Streak as I recall. But, I am not sure if they have built any others.

As for Chang, it did break on opening weekend. It opened on Friday and it broke on Saturday. I have pics of it since I was on it when it happened. But, I don't have them handy. Was a fun experience! :)

I think many times they can fix the chain without replacing it. Why replace a whole chain if only a few links could be bad? I could be wrong, but I don't think they replaced the chain on Magnum when it broke the first season. It was down a couple days.

LOL, okie I have to break my own rule since this is getting funny. I've worked with B&M for over 10 years. I was also the sole programmer for the ride in question. I'd love to know how I am speaking "out of my ass" given all of this. I would love to know specifics. Honestly!

I don't understand the point of chastising Rob on "inside baseball posts" when I asked about the "inside knowledge" being touted that was contradictory to my information and never got a straight answer.

As for what you just mentioned CoffinBoy, although the chain could be fixed, often there is concern that other areas may have been damaged. Its really a case by case thing.

This is becoming a really funny pissing match. How far shall we go :)?