Ten people hurt in minor Pony Express collision at Knott's Berry Farm

It must have been raining.

No brakes on the launch track?!

Appears to be friction brakes;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7x2dFTzKZA

Not good news.

Bet there will be some type of redunancy built into the ride track for the future. Maybe another block setup of some kind.

Knotts don't seem to have much luck with launch coasters.

I cannot believe that Zamperla designed that ride without magnetic brakes on the launch. You know, we have learned over the years that sure, Intamin might over complicate things a bit, or a lot, but there rollback brake systems for their rocket's are a sure fire thing--if they deploy. Even premier has been using it for years on their LIM coasters.

Which Premier coaster uses magnetic brakes on the launch? Every one I've ridden uses friction brakes in case of a rollback.

Something obviously went wrong here. The backup system is there, but it either failed to work properly or just didn't work at all. I haven't ridden this coaster, but maybe someone else can answer this: do the back up friction brakes activate individually as the train passes, or all at once after the train clears the last brake? If it's the second method, that could very well be the problem.

-Nate

^ I thought Premier used friction brakes. Does Sky Rocket use magnetic?

Sky Rocket uses magnetic braking as trims and in case of a rollback, but friction brakes for the blocks and in the station.

Obviously, the title of this discussion should be "Ten People kicked in the nuts while straddling plastic horses awaiting a 25 second mildly thrilling adventure and why the hell would you waste time at the premiere Halloween event in the world to ride this p.o.s., you all deserve to have been kicked in the nuts and miss the rest of the night."

/m

LOL

airbuzz said:
Obviously, the title of this discussion should be "Ten People kicked in the nuts while straddling plastic horses awaiting a 25 second mildly thrilling adventure and why the hell would you waste time at the premiere Halloween event in the world to ride this p.o.s., you all deserve to have been kicked in the nuts and miss the rest of the night."

Hahahahahahahahahahaha... other than how short the ride is it does look fun anyway. but i've never been on one of those so I wouldn't know. The question about the artcle I have is did the thing just give the other one just a tap barely big enough to hurt a few people or is it more of a fast clide and the brakes did nothing at all. I wonder if there just weren't enough brakes to completely stop the fast moving train. Also the hill isn't that big how could it not get over that small thing. (it is a horse theme so I would expect getting jolted around turns) hahahaha

Thats terrible. I hope that those injuries are not long term ones.

coasterdude318 said:
Which Premier coaster uses magnetic brakes on the launch? Every one I've ridden uses friction brakes in case of a rollback.

Something obviously went wrong here. The backup system is there, but it either failed to work properly or just didn't work at all. I haven't ridden this coaster, but maybe someone else can answer this: do the back up friction brakes activate individually as the train passes, or all at once after the train clears the last brake? If it's the second method, that could very well be the problem.

-Nate

It appears the brakes don't close until the train passes all of them.

Check out 0:50 in this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPMi8ti66kk

I dunno, it looks to me like the first brakes close before it gets to the end of the launch.

On Mr. Freeze, if you sit in the front, you can see a set of magnetic brakes drop, then a set of friction brakes open. I assume the other premier launch rides are similar, but I have not personally ridden any.

How long until the on-ride video is leaked? ;)

Still no word from Dick, what the hell?

...Oh yeah, it didn't happen in Sandusky.

Well, the brakes don't need to close at all if the train is still going in a forward direction. It's when the sensors see a train moving the wrong way that they should clamp shut.