Texas Giant closed last week

I just was reading some stuff on the one ride accident website and saw something about the Texas Giant closing last week due to a car "losing position." If this was covered here, I apologize.

I'm just curious... it said the car came off and was dragged 200-300 feet and then the whole train stopped and they make it seem like no big deal. It sounds like a big deal to me, or am I just paranoid?

Here's a new article

The one site said this about it:

1. An "up-stop wheel" – which is supposed to help hold running wheels down on the track – somehow failed on the train's last car.

2. The car "disengaged from its proper position" and was dragged 200 to 300 feet until the whole train stopped. It remained attached to the car in front of it by a bar and thick steel cables.

Sounds like a big deal to me! If the last car came off, I keep thinking that the whole train could have flown off.

While it does sound a bit more serious than the park is making it appear in my opinion you've gone to the other extreme. The whole train couldn't have flown off if the last car was missing one upstop wheel.

I guess I had a vision in my head of the weight of the last car dragging along and eventually ripping the rest of the train off the track, lol.

To me, it sounds like SF needs to hire better people in their PR departments. This is the 3rd story this year that has not been handled properly IMO by their PR/spokesperson.

I saw those stories, and decided it wasn't worth posting in news. The newspaper is trying hard to fish for a story, and it annoys me. Previous articles went on about how the park "refused" to tell them why the ride was closed and other such nonsense.

A wheel broke, the train stopped, nothing bad happened.

Jeff said:

A wheel broke, the train stopped, nothing bad happened.

If the park's PR would have used those words from the get-go, would that have put an end to the "fishing," or would the newspaper have run rampant with the limited information they were given about a coaster accident? (which I realize is really only an incident)

If I'm not mistaken, every wheel on the train has some redundancy measures so that if the wheel comes of a steel bar or plate will keep the train from doing anything it's not supposed to do. So it probably dragged along on the redundant device just like it was supposed to and nothing too interesting actually happened.

I think the news papers should only have good things to say about the closing of Texas Giant it cant hurt anyone while its closed!

I had heard it didn't cause any injuries. Which first is good, and secondly it didn't really come up out of the track it was in. However, it probably did do some damage to the track underneath where the wheel rests.

Its actually amazing this doesn't happen more often to say the least. I am sure it will be down for some work on the track and at least for them taking the train off for work on it. Gotta love those Dinn and Summers woodies from the late 80s early nineties, they just take too much effort sometimes to keep themselves in running shape.

The article said that the ride was already back up. The train is still being worked on though.

Why is the park obligated to tell anyone anything? It's not a safety issue, so who cares? I'm usually one to defend the news media, but these idiots give journalism a bad name. The tone of what they were doing suggested something naughty, and that's what I take issue with.

^Exactly.

The Dallas Morning News was covering this on a daily basis hoping to get some information which is pathetic.

I don't understand why you all are defending the park so heavily...a coaster car derailed with passengers on it. In my opinion, that seems like a pretty serious (and scary) issue.

I'm sure you would better-see the seriousness of the situation if you were one of those passengers.

Taer it down!

The situation was not serious if nobody was hurt. As others have stated there are plenty of redundancies that ensure a single wheel failure does not cause a full derailment. Is it something that needs fixing? Yes. Is it SFoT's 'dirty little secret' that needs to be exposed on the evening news? No.

The car did not derail. It was quite firmly in the track, just not rolling on one of its wheels.

Seems to me, if an upstop wheel failed and the car lost its position on the track, that IS a derailment. You can spin it however you want.

And just the fact that it happens so rarely, it is interesting to me. And yes, if it happened while I was on board, you can bet I'd want to know what went wrong, even though the safety devices worked as designed.

Still, I see the point about this particular media outlet digging for dirt. To the outsider, there probably should not be a story.

Derailed to me implies that the coaster car was no longer positioned between the guide rails...sounds like it was exactly between the rails, just being dragged more than rolling. There's a reason it's not called "dragging stock". ;)

If a wheel on a toy train comes off the rail, but the train is still between the rails, wouldn't you call it derailed? I would.

Derailment is what happens when the train comes off of the rails. Like in Unbreakable.

I agree the article was completely ridiculous. But I would also say that an experience like that one had to be pretty scary for the riders. In retrospect, they were fine and not in any danger, but the experience of it happening was probably pretty frightening. I hope they were rightly compensated by the park with free passes or something.