Rotor rides still in operation?

I remember back in the 70s when i used to ride the one at Riverside Park and used to go upside down on the wall. here is a pic of the one there.

http://i280.photobucket.com/albums/kk164/sros1fan/LC%20Today/Riversidepark2.jpg

There's one at Luna Park Sydney, and another that travels the fair circuit here in Ireland.

The one at CP is called the "Turkish Twister" and looks really cool from the outiside.

Hopefully someone here has some input on this. But when I was young, I remember the Rotor rides I went on where the floor went all the way down, like at least 10 feet or so. Then as I got older it seemed like the floor only went down like 3 feet. Can anyone verify this or is it just me having distorted childhood memories of the ride. Specifically the Riverside Rotor comes to mind as going all the way down, but also remember the Great Adventure one doing this as well.

I think one of the reasons these aren't around so much is because of insurance issues as well. Remember specifically hearing in an operations meeting at another park that around 2000 there was a very serious injury on the Magic Mountain Rotor. A kid very quickly climed up to the top and got his head mangled up in the fencing up there. There was a question as to how the operator should have handled it. There's an e-stop that actually puts a break on the cylinder but the other riders will fall down which could have resulted in multiple injuries. The operator chose to do a ride stop which brings the cylinder to a more gradual stop kid didn't listen and kept climbing up, and had had to be taken away in an ambulance.

I remember at the Riverside rotor in the late 80s there were a bunch of new rules in place that restricted what riders were allowed to do. Also remember that it wasn't quite as fun because you couldn't do as much, but also that they'd always have to stop the ride,remove people that wouldn't follow the rules. This was kind of a buzz kill because the ride takes so long to cycle down and also made for excessive wait times.

The best rotor type of ride I ever rode was at Martin's Fantasy Island outside of Niagara Falls NY. It was called the Devil's Hole and seemed to go very fast. It was very deep also. When the floor dropped out it went to almost twice as deep as the ride was. It had a viewing deck on top along with a rider deck. I think they closed it because someone fell out of it or something. It had metal pieces that you could not stand in front of.

They were really cool rides, but a bit painfull also. I know MFI removed theirs when they added their new wooden coaster about 10 years ago or so.

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Cropsey said:

Remember specifically hearing in an operations meeting at another park that around 2000 there was a very serious injury on the Magic Mountain Rotor. A kid very quickly climed up to the top and got his head mangled up in the fencing up there.

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A lot of us were around in 2000 and never heard of it. Can you verify this with a news account?

-CO
(who's putting his money on 'no')

The only *verified* incident I know of was on Cajun Cliffhanger. Not saying there weren't others, just that's the only one I know off the top of my head.

I doubt we woulda missed a 'mangled head' story...

While Queue Line Fairy Tale season has begun most everywhere in North America, they're best saved for gullible grade-schoolers. Well, mostly. Even 5th-grade Midget would call Cropsey out on that piece...

-CO
(who misses Cajun Cliffhanger quite a bit)

^I can't find any documentation to support the story. I can't imagine why the story would be made up, but it sparked a debate at the meeting. Which was basically it came down to a double jeopardy judgement call on the part of the operator. In the eyes of an insurance company this would be seen as too much wiggle room for guest injury that could be blamed on an operator judgement call. I've never worked on the ride personally but that seems like a lot of specific detail about the operation of the ride to be made up. However the incident could have been fabricated to prove a point or spark debate.

So the incident wasn't shared not to entertain, shock or impress you, but came to mind as a reason why the rides would be becoming extinct from parks. Whether you choose not to believe the story or not, doesn't really matter to me. But I really would hope you'd make an effort to get over yourself.

There were more instances of people getting their feet caught between the floor and the barrel when the floor came back up at the the end of the ride. As I recall the individuals involved in most of those cases were wearing sandals and did not have their feet in the proper orientation when the floor returned to the upper position.

As I recall, the older versions of the ride, including the European built ones the lowering and raising of the floor was totally under the control of the operator (right Agent J?).

*snork* It's not about me or getting over myself. I'm just here for a break now and then between what I do during the week.

If I didn't call you out on a story that didn't happen, someone else would. After all, it is the 21st century and along with your RCDBs of the world are sites (of varying objectivity) that meticulously document amusement ride accidents.

Anyhoo...on to the real-world examples...

In 2000 at another SF park (SFGAM) two young girls suffered injuries to their feet in the former Cajun Cliffhanger. There was some dispute whether or not their injuries were due to their own negligence or the rideop's...but when all was said and done, the Cliffhanger was dismantled and SF made modifications to the remaining models.

And I'm sure the 1995 Hell Hole accident (13 injured, 2 critically) didn't help things, either.

-'Playa

The last couple of seasons Taz Twister at Gradv would lower the floor and then at the end of the ride the riders would have to slide down to the floor and then when it stopped they would stand in the center so the op could raise it back up.

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CoastaPlaya said:
*snork* It's not about me or getting over myself. I'm just here for a break now and then between what I do during the week.

-'Playa

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So essentially if you can't google it then it didn't happen.

Ride accident urban legends or made up stories almost always involve some sort of mechanical failure on the part of the ride, not guests being stupid. Since this was presented as a "do you have any suggestions on the best way to deal with this" rather than "ohh did you hear about this?!" I'm inclined to believe it happened. But I didn't see it, it's not documented on an accident website so then by your logic there's NO way it could have happend.

Anyway there's no sense in talking about rides, or parks or coasters, lets get back to what's apparently important here - insisting you're right, being obnoxius to people you disagree with and complaining. *** Edited 5/6/2008 10:37:53 PM UTC by Cropsey***

Meanwhile, I make factual mistakes in things I post here all the time. Ask 'gator. He'll tell you.

The difference between me and you? I say 'whoops!' and correct them. Cuz what happens on this board doesn't validate me. Cuz it's no big deal. That's why.

At least to me. *shrug*

-CO

Actually want to know the real difference between you and me? It's that I'm not so ignorant to think that because I havn't heard of an incident happening that it must be false. Pardon me for bursting your all-knowing bubble but not everything that happens in a theme park makes it into the news and eventually to those "meticulous" sites you mention. More so in the days before everyone had a camera in their cell phones. Ever wonder why all those accident reports from the Disney parks seem to have popped up in the last few years?

I can't validate the incident but do believe it happened. But that's not really important now at this point. I didn't mis-quote a fact, just have no way of validating something that came from a reliable source. I'm not impressed with your self-appointed watchdog status so don't feel the need to correct a situation because you don't approve of it.

Despite what you claim, what happens on this board obviously validates you on some level or you wouldn't bother calling me out as harshly as you did. Obviously it is a big deal to you or you wouldn't be so obnoxious about it. But that's just observational on my part, don't have a citation or proof of this, so nevermind.

Dutchman asked if you can manually raise the floor. The answer is yes, you can.

Sandals can get 'pinched', but no one can get the feet cut off. There is tolerance between the floor and the drum, but not enough to lose a body part.

You can also lower the floor to 'exit door' level. Its not rocket science on how they work.

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Cropsey said:

Obviously it is a big deal to you...

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...but not enough to burn the midnight oil in front of my PC over it. Sheesh.

CoastaBee's more exciting than anything all of you bastards can do combined and multiplied by 20. And that includes Gonch. Especially Gonch, in fact. :)

I'm not spending my nights worried about any of you people. Frankly, if my system wasn't forcing me not to work at the moment, I wouldn't be here either. I'd almost rather not be here. But I digress. Where was I? Oh, right.

For the forty-eleventh time, it's not about you. Never was about you. You don't matter. Never did. Never will.

But Rotors? Ohhhhh, do I love a good Rotor. Still not as much as CoastaBee. Or FKA CBaby. Or Midget. Or a buncha other people and places and things to do. But second to that freaky-good Herschell looper at the fair last summer, Rotors are my favorite flat. I miss Bob-lo Island's with the floor that seemed to drop to the center of the earth, CP's and any of the traveling models I used to ride. As for SFGAM's lost unit? I walked off my first B:TR ride more excited to have found a Rotor at the exit than I was to have just tried my 2nd B&M.

So a tale that a Rotor 'mangled somebody's head' can be just a twitch annoying. Not much more than a pebble in my shoe, mind you. But annoying nonetheless.

-'Playa

Wow between the deperate shout outs, the bastard calling, and the desperate justification as to why you bother to visit the site, (if it weren't for that tuna salad special at lunch today I wouldn't be here!) the last post was super entertaining. But since I don't matter, never did, and never will...nevermind. I'm sure you'll have something else to say next time you fabricate a reason to "bother" with the thread. (firedrill pehaps? no no how about unforseen spork shortage). Anyway back to the Rotors.

Yes, back to the Rotors. These were posted to Screamscape today.

http://www.screamscape.com/html/luna_park_2.htm

http://www.screamscape.com/html/luna_park_3.htm

Now, that's what I'm talkin about. "Professor E. Hoffmeister's World Famous Scientific Theatre"!! How cool is that?

There is still at least one travelling in Germany.
Sometime in the eighties the owner sensed that the good times were over for the Rotor. So he made it the center attraction of a huge, 3 story walk-through/funhouse attraction which he built around the Rotordrum.
You can still chose to ride or just watch from the upper balcony.