SFA S:ROS Chain Break! (6/2/00)

Let me just cut to the chase. Superman’s chain at Six Flags America broke today while I was on it. There was something very cool about it, but now I’m a little bummed I didn’t get to ride it. Here’s what happened…

I was excited to ride with Stephanie (my fiancée) because she hasn’t been on Superman’s mirror at Darien Lake. I love Intamin’s trains, the giant floater airtime and the smooth ride. We climbed in to seat 6-1 and found that the trains appear to be a little narrower than MF’s. They also had the nylon wheels on most of the train and added the rivets to the covers at the front and back of each car to stop the noisy vibration.

We were about 120 to 140 feet up when all of a sudden the train stopped. It rolled back perhaps a foot as the anti-rollback engaged. That was a little creepy, even knowing the way that the rollbacks work. The first thing through my head in that first second of motionlessness was that someone leaned on the E-stop button since there was only one train on and it wasn’t a blocking violation.

Then the vibration of the chain dog and the noise at the bottom of the hill became evident. Broken chain! It took a long time to slide out from under the train, so the break must have been somewhere on the underside of the run. What a mess at the base of the lift. It covered at least 25 feet of track and was all over the ground. Within 30 seconds I saw a ride op come around the station. He looked up the lift and was about to come visit, until he noticed that the chain was in a huge pile. Even though we can all visualize what it looks like to see the chain pile up, it’s crazy to see it for real. I forget how many tons Magnum’s chain weighs (because it’s roughly the same height), but I remember it was several, yet it looks like a rope as it piles up.

Within five minutes, what looked like most of the park’s management was on site, and they had the entire chain covered. Apparently they didn’t want the public to see the mess.

[corrupt data]

d, as was the water park. That’s probably why the two open water rides were the only rides that had lines, because it was about 95 F today. If I had to pay to get in I would have been irritated. As it is, the $8 to park and $3 for a fountain soda is ridiculous. As the third Six Flags park I’ve been to, I just don’t understand this mentality where it’s OK to half-open the park. Food and games were scarcely open as well.

Oh well, the chain break experience was almost surreal, and I only spent $28 total. I wasn’t expecting much, but I was a little bummed I didn’t get to ride Superman all the way around. This one hugs the ground on the first turn. BGW tomorrow and PKD Sunday…

Live from Williamsburg!

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Jeff
Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com

*** This post was edited by Jeff on 8/30/2002. ***

Sorry about Superman, but I'm glad someone finally agrees with me that GCI's are very good rides. Yes the drop ride is a small intamin Giant Drop. Did you get a chance to ride the flume ride (also by Intamin)? I would be intrested to know what you thought of it becuase I thought that it was one of the most intresting flumes and shows that theming on the cheap side can be made to work (even though at times the pacing is so bad I almost pulled my hair out).

I guess we lucked out going to SFA this past Tuesday. I though Roar was running crappy the day I visited. It could have used some grease. The Wildcat at Hershey would have blown it away. A little grease goes a long way. the park was virtually abandoned the day we visited as well.

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Parks hit for 2000!
PKD,BGW,Knoebels,Dorney,Hershey,PKI,HW,SFKK,SFA, Camden

So that is what happened! I was at SFA today(6/3) and Superman was closed all day! I was so mad. There were guys standing on the top of the lift and they didn't seem to be doing much. The train is still on the lift about 140-150 ft. up there. It was really crowded and the loading for everyride was slow because of those stupid seat belts on Roar and Wild One as well as people bringing these big packages on the coasters and it took them 5 minutes to put them on the side of the station. At least this wasn't one of the parks I was planning to go to. I only went because my dad's company had their picnic there and I thought I'd come along for Superman. I thought Wild One was actually running awesome today and so was Roar, but that's about it. You can get an awesome view of Superman from Roar's lift man does it look awesome. *** This post was edited by B&MAaron on 6/3/2000. ***

Do you mean the flume that passes over Wild One? No, that was closed too. Not a whole lot of anything was open that day.

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Jeff
Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com

Missed you at Coastermania, Jeff! ;)

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Neil
Pittsburgh, PA

Yeah that one sorry it was closed.

Jeff, You were just at the wrong place at the wrong time (not Coastermania) LOL!

Hmmm... let me think... attend a coaster event where the "E" was missing from "ERT" or by chance get stuck on a hyper coaster when the chain breaks. How often does that happen?

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Jeff
Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com

Wow, I'm sorry to hear about that. I almost went to SFA June 3, but I had to catch up on some work instead. I'm kinda glad cause I am so looking forward to riding S:ROS that to be that close and not ride would get under my skin. NE1 know if they have fixed things yet?