Steel Dragon had previous defects involving wheels prior to derailment

Uh Oh, doesn't look good. If they are much more hardcore about inspections and safety checks in Japan (like someone posted previously about this post) why were there loose bolts? I would think in a daily inspection check that those things would be detected.
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"You know its a good ride when you come into the final brake run wiping tears from your eyes."
*** This post was edited by DorneyDante 8/28/2003 9:28:58 AM ***

That is kind of scary. I wonder how many other parks let things go to get to this point.
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Do the Moo Shoo!

I know nothing about Nagashima Spa Land's inspection program, but finding loose bolts is probably the result of an inspection program, not the lack of it. The train was inspected and the loose bolts were found.

"Loose" and "defective" can have various meanings. "Loose" can mean the torque was checked and found to be a little low, or it can mean the bolt was about ready to fall out. "Defective bolts" is really more frightening to me since defective bolts are subject to sudden often unpredictable failure. Bolts can of course be loose because they are defective, or they can be defective because they were loose. Failure to properly heat treat bolts can result in bolts that stretch and become loose. Conversely, One of the most common causes of broken bolts is that they were either too tight or too loose. The bolt problems could also be due to design issues with the bolted connection.

The real issue is why wasn't the problem corrected or the coaster shut down before things reached this point.

Thats just plain scarey. I hope all parks will step up the inspection program more now just to be on the safe side. I wonder if Steel Force is being throughly looked at right now? See anything Dante going on up at Dorney?

Thanks,

Dug

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http://coastertrackrecord.tripod.com/

Seeing as Steel Force has been operating for 8 years without incident, and other Morgan coasters have operated similarly, there's very little to suggest that this is an endemic flaw to their design. In fact, since Steel Dragon's trains were built specifically for that coaster, it seems most likely that this is a problem that will remain specific to that coaster.

Edit: *cough**wheeze*spelling*achoo**cough*

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--Maddie--
What do I Listen-To?
May the Schwarz be with you.

*** This post was edited by Chernabog 8/28/2003 12:30:49 PM ***

Thast good to hear then. I like Steel Force. Glad it won't be down and I was unaware that the trains were a different design. What about Steel Ele in Sea World?

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http://coastertrackrecord.tripod.com/

Maddie: You might not call it endemic (actually ya didn't), but I might. VF WT's premier year was pockmarked with lots of periodic downtime for wheel replacement. You don't see it as often these days, but I wouldn't say they haven't been underdesigned in the past.

Doesn't it seem ironic this was their new/improved design?

-'Playa

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The CPlaya 100--6 days, 9 parks, 47 coasters, 2037 miles and a winner.....LoCoSuMo.
*** This post was edited by CoastaPlaya 8/28/2003 11:28:14 AM ***

Usually wheel replacement on hypers is due to failure of the tires (square wheel syndrome) not to anything that would be likely make a wheel come off.

Due to its size and speed the loads on all the running gear for Steel Dragon are greater than for other Morgans. It wasn't just an improved design, it was a special design for one coaster. And remember, we don't know yet what caused the problem. It could have been something as unrelated to design as using the wrong grease in the bearings. (I'm not suggesting that that is what happened.)

" Maddie: You might not call it endemic (actually ya didn't)"

Argh. I never spell anything wrong. That's, like, 20 self-imposed lashings. Thanks for pointing that out.

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--Maddie--
What do I Listen-To?
May the Schwarz be with you.

I'm going Wedndesday to Dorney Crashmando, I'll let you know.

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"You know its a good ride when you come into the final brake run wiping tears from your eyes."

Loose bolts on a coaster train? Say it isn't so.

Bolts are tightened (even replaced after falling out) on trains on pretty much every coaster on a nightly basis.

It's amazing the wear and tear the trains on even small coasters take each day. Makes you understand why some parks don't run all of their trains unless they have to.

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James Draeger

it.s amazing how many bolts can work loose after just one day of operation.

even when loc-tite is used they still come loose on coaster trains.

i have heard that morgan has had issues with their wheel design in the past.

in fact a big dog in the industry told me that they have a hard time keeping wheels on their coaster trains. dont know if that's true or not.

if that's the case i would suggest that ureamet wheels should go on steel dragon. or possible wheels from ureathane associates. i would hate to see morgan suffer the rotten history of chance rides (aka inverter and chaos) especially since morgan bought chance last year. chance had alot of accidents on their inverter rides and the entire wheel fell off of a chance chaos. there's just too much to check every day.

there are no rollercoasters in hell

mixter2568

www.wonderlandpark.com