If you had planned to ride S:ROS at SFA...

If you were coming to the park to ride S:ROS one last time on Sunday, you may be out of luck. I recommend you call ahead to see if it's open. That's all I can say.
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Did anyone ever bother trying out the seats on the KMG Tango? And if so, were they male?

SFDL's superman shut down today at aprox 9:00 PM, right before we got on. (after appearing to have no mechanical trouble whatsoever, and a train had just been released -- the phone rang, and they told us we all had to get out), we overheard that the employees didn't know why exactly but they just told everyone to leave the line and station. They gave no reason, but in the station we overheard an employee tell another employee that corporate called to close the ride... -- all the supervisors and officials had come to the ride and were all grouped in the station, talking about something... who knows what...

... hmmmmmm, something tells me there was an accident somewhere by what happened, and by your tone of voice and not telling us why ["that's all i can say" target="_blank">; and knowing their "hush hush" policy -- i'm only assuming, of course; but that's what everything seems to point to...

... did SFNE's S:ROS close tonight as well? I would think so -- anybody have any details on anything as to why? Sucks i hadn't been to SFDL in like 4 months, was finally going to get a back seat ride, and then right when we were about to get on it gets shut down...
*** This post was edited by SFDL_Dude 11/2/2003 12:57:38 AM ***

Go to item two here: http://aceneregion.blogspot.com/

Seems there may be something wrong with the Intamin RoS that is common to all three, or at least something where they need to be checked out. Is there anything up with MF?

Hope everyone got in their last Ride of Steel rides for the season....

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Mistakes were made, others are to blame...

Gut instinct says something about the brakes... but hey, what do I know. I hope they get it running again before the very end.

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« adix@nedesigns.com »
Raging Bull is best when you're first - 6/16/03
Deja Vu junkie since 10/19/03

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" The train (full of people) made the full circuit but did not stop in the braking area. In fact, it flew ALL THE WAY THROUGH THE STATION, around the tight curve, and back up the hill. It apparently did not collide with the second train (empty) because it was allready halfway up the hill."

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I found that in a post over at ultimaterollercoster, so I'm not sure if it's true or not, just thought I'd throw it in. (It's in reference to the SFA ride)

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"Is this a rollercoaster?"
*** This post was edited by Vortexguy 11/2/2003 3:04:18 AM ***

We don't even know what happened, so we shouldn't really speculate. Anyways, the breaks work like this. They can go in two positions- one close enough to stop the train, one far away enough so the kicker wheels can push it into the station. After the train stops, they go back in allowing the train to go into the station. It could possibly happen that they were in the far-away postion when the SFNE incident happened (which was the problem) the brakes themselves are fail-safe, but the things that push them in and out are not.

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"If you're thirsty, it's too late to go get a drink." Chinese Proverb

That's exactly what happened...the brakes did indeed fail.

I was in line for Batwing when it happened,everything there was going fine 2 train operation,no breakdowns,we were just about to go through the last turn before the station steps & I saw what looked like S:ROS's red train stuck on the lift,a few minutes later I looked further up the lift & thought I saw the blue train as well.

I thought there's no way both trains could be on the lift at the same time,minutes later Batwing was shut down & everyone ordered to leave the queue,that's when we saw it as we were walking towards & under S:ROS...both trains were on the lift.

I was thinking how on earth could it happen...I thought the blocking system was supposed to prevent this sort of problem but I spoke to some one over at Wild one who was on S:ROS at the time & he said the red train just went flying through the brakerun & station without stopping at all.

When we left the park the ride was still stuck,I'm pretty sure it will not re-open today & will remain shut down while they try & figure out just what caused it to fail like that.

I know they had a hell of a time getting the ride up when we first got to the park,I noticed during testiing that maintenance workers were standing at the base of the lift watching the trains as they went out as if looking for something & I'm really suprised this hasn't made the local news yet because as we all know when two face got stuck there was live coverage of the entire 2 hour ordeal.

I'm sure the park doesn't want that kind of negative publicity anymore this season.

Yeah, I am surprised we haven't heard about this on the news yet. Not to mention the fact this might turn into a whole overhaul of the breaking system.

I can't begin to imagine how scary it must have been being on that train. It's good thing no one was hurt, physically at least.

Reminds me of the two train issues on Orient Express, although that was caused by human error, the brakes were controlled manually on it. Nothing works better at getting maintanence angry than putting two trains on the lift. Sad part is the same individual did it twice. We named him "two train" after that.

SFNE's S:RoS was closed on Friday but I'm pretty sure it was open Saturday.

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1-S:RoS @ SFNE
2-Boulder Dash
3-Yankee Cannonball

I was at SFNE all Saturday afternoon into the EARLY evening and S:ROS was running nominally - 2 train operation all day. There was an incident in the early evening where a young lady in the back of the blue train returned to the station with her face covered in blood. It seems a cellphone went flying on the coaster (they had already lost nearly 2 dozen of them on the ride that day) and struck her in the forehead, causing a bad gash. Why don't people just listen to the ride ops' instructions and keep cellphones and other potential projectiles off the ride???

As to whether the coaster was later shut down due to the SFA brake failure incident, I really don't know. I left around 7pm. Anybody else out there know if they shut down the one at SFNE after early evening Saturday?

Ok I don't post much but wanted to comment on the Orient Express issue. I don't know where this rumor started but the ride has always had computer controls. That was not caused by human error.

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Jeff Mast
www.themeparksonline.org

Shouldn't be too hard to correct? It's not like you can just duct tape the problem. This is a complex system with tons of moving parts interacting. I'd be surprised if they don't have to redo the entire braking system. Heck, I'd be suprised if they can even isolate the cause of the problem.

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Be polite and ignore the idiots. - rollergator
"It's not a Toomer" - Arnold Schwartzenkoph
"Those who know don't talk and those who talk don't know." -Jeff
*** This post was edited by ApolloAndy 11/2/2003 2:16:40 PM ***

What doesn't make sense to me is, shouldn't the brakes default into the closed position? For instance, when there is no power applied to the brakes, the magnets should default into the upright, stopping position. If they do not, that is a design defect. If they do, that means there was a defect causing power to be applied to the brakes inadvertantly, most likely a sensor or computer error. It may not be a quick fix.

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The Phoenix, its Schmecktacular!

I wouldn't be a bit suprised if the source of the problem is the same as what caused SFNE's ride to crash back in 01.

As we all know a PVC brake line that was used in all 3 of the S:ROS designs as well as MF failed causing the brakes on SFNE's coaster to function at only 60% power,as a result they switched the brake supply lines with a new type to replace the faulty PVC lines that were originally used in order to prevent that incident from happening again.

My guess is the same thing must've happened at SFA last night,I'm wondering if anyone that was standing in line near the brakerun might've heard or seen anything unusal at all? if the brake line ruptured then I'm sure someone might've heard air escaping from the damaged line.

Luckily no one was injured & it could've been a lot worse if they weren't testing the blue train at the time,had they been loading it then we would've had a crash exactly like what happened at SFNE.
*** This post was edited by BATWING FAN SFA 11/2/2003 3:14:27 PM ***

Thing is, if a brake line ruptured, wouldn't the brake stay in the closed position? With safety being concern number one, I am pretty sure they are designed to be closed when there is no power to them.

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The Phoenix, its Schmecktacular!

Yes. They were are designed to default to the closed position. Always have been, always were. Rideman has a really detailed description of what happened on his site:
http://capital2.capital.edu/admin-staff/dalthoff/

The brakes did not "function at 60% power." They failed part way through the braking process of the train. They functioned at 100% and then at 0%.

BTW, nice sig Nathan.

But the main brakes on Millennium Force are fixed-position... so it's not likely that it would be having these problems...

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« adix@nedesigns.com »
Raging Bull is best when you're first - 6/16/03
Deja Vu junkie since 10/19/03

The last two or three brakes on MF are the retractible type....don't know if it's the same system, though.

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- "I used to be in the audio/visual club, but I was kicked out because of my views on Vietnam........and I was stealing projectors" - Homer Simpson

I was observing the brakes on S:ROS at SFNE yesterday and they seemed to be always locked in the active position except when the trains were eased forward into the station.

I just though that is was normal for brakes to be up and ready to stop the train at all times except for when it goes forward (after completely braking) into the station...??