S:ROS Train Work?

I recently paid a visit to SFDL on 7/18 and was disappointed to see only the red train was running. The blue train was sitting on the side track with all of its lateral wheels laying on the ground. It was pretty neat, however, to see the wheel assembly and spring mechanism up close.

I also read in Intamin Fan's 7/22 SFA trip report that the same work was being done on the blue train at SFA. I found it interesting that the same work is being done on the same trains at both parks.

Does anyone know why this is going on? Is there really a need to replace all the wheels mid-season? Does this happen to other MF or other Intamin hypers?

That would irritate me in the middle of July. Don't they have third-shift mechanics? It floors me that some parks don't work their butts off to get rides up and running at full capacity while the park is closed, not during the day.

That Superman queue is not fun to wait in when the sun is beating down, and one train makes it even worse.

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Jeff
Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com

I'm going to SFDL on Friday I hope both trains are running by then! SFDL is in bad need of some more coasters - I call them the park that they forgot

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Jeff said:
"It floors me that some parks don't work their butts off to get rides up and running at full capacity while the park is closed, not during the day."

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I agree with that, but to clarify my earlier post, there was NO ONE working on the trains while the park was open!!! The train was simply sitting there with the wheel assemblies in pieces and the lateral wheels lying all over the ground.

I sure hope they finish the repair work on the blue train at SFA by the weekend of 7/4/01 because that's when I'm going to SFA and I don't want to have to wait twice as long to ride S:ROS,the wait time is long enough with both trains running.and Jeff is right about the maintenance issue,why should the park be performing wheel replacements midday when that work should be done by the overnight maintenance crews. *** This post was edited by BATWING FAN SFA on 7/24/2001. ***

This could've have been a safety bulletin from Intamin. I can't imagine why they would be doing a major wheel replacement midseason otherwise. It made for a cool picture though. Judging by the number of parks I've been to that had one train operation this year-Kennywood (Phantom's Revenge), Dorney Park (Laser, Thunderhawk, and Hercules), and Knoebels (Twister, Phoenix), I'd say this isn't just a Six Flags issue. I agree that it's irritating though.

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Batwing-Bow Down *** This post was edited by Intamin Fan on 7/24/2001. ***

I can't believe mechanics were still working on the blue train at SFA as of Saturday! I went to SFA the week before and it was off the track until about 7 pm.

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Ride op for FoF: "See ya!" Wooooosh!

I don't have the story of what is going on right now with the SROS trains, but wheel changes in season on steel coasters are normal. However, normal wheel changes don't take long with a good crew. Last year CP was making wheel changes on Millenium Force in the middle of the day in only a couple of hours. They were really chewing up a lot of wheels on MF at first. I know that this year CP is still making wheel changes on MF during the third shift.

If the trains are down for more than a week you can bet that they are doing something more involved than a simple wheel change.

I JUST got back from SFA and the blue train is still like what Phantom Catcher said. Lat wheels are lying on the ground. The waits were still not bad at all. The lines didnt go more than a couple feet out of the station queue. On a side note, Batwing is the most intense coaster in the world. Period.

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Joshua Wilcox
"I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it."
Formerly the buzzer known as "SFA"

It seems like you should be working hard to get more trains going on the most poular ride in the park.

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Kerry - Bright Man of the Elite Eight

well at least the wait isnt long at SFA cause they have other good coasters over there such as Batwing and Roar. we, SFDL have nothing so everyone goes to SROS.

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NEW - 35 Michigan's Adventure Photos at G-Screams
http://gscreams.cjb.net

Well, when I went to SFA, they took the whole morning to work on Batwing and wouldn't open it until 2:00pm. You'd think that they could've done the work at night when there weren't any guests or something like that, but you have to remember that this is Six Flags we're talking about. Not Cedar Fair or Busch.

AAndy: The 2pm thing was dictated to the park by Vekoma NOT something they wanted to do on their own. The lead engineer there said he wanted the mornings to do his thing. They really didnt have much of a choice.

But I want to know what happend that made them take the wheels off of Supe for almost a whole week. This does not make me a happy camper. Actually, I'm starting to feel a bit 'hostyl'.
lata,
moi

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"Nobody writes about the planes that land." Steve Salerno Washington Times 7-10-01

maybe they are waiting for intamin to send them a new supply of fresh wheels.and as for batwing I remmember reading in earlier posts that SFA would be opening it in the morning once the vekoma engineers had left the park and turned the ride over to SFA are they still hanging around?