Walkdowns...

Who here has ever had to do a walk down? On what ride and how high? It would be really scarry to do a walk down on a coaster like raptor! SO who's been on a walk down?
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Best woodie: The Beast
Best steel: MF
Best park: IOA! Get to the point... cedar point!

I've now experienced three walk downs to this date. First was Roar at SFMW that was about 90ft. Then there was Medusa west that was at the full hieght 150ft. And this past Sat. 9/29 at SFMM, Viper, from the top of the lift hill 188ft. That one was not fun as we sat there for what seemed like forever in the heat.

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My current top 5:
1)Goliath 2)Vertical Velocity(SFMW) 3)Medusa(SFMW) 4)Stealth (PGA) 5)Riddler's Revenge

aw thats cool, except the heat part....do they walk u down one by one or what? how does it work?
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Best woodie: The Beast
Best steel: MF
Best park: IOA! Get to the point... cedar point!

Well, in all three cases, they unlocked us row by row or car by car (depending on the train). While the mechanics unlocked each row/car, ride ops on either side walked you down car by car or row by row.

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My current top 5:
1)Goliath 2)Vertical Velocity(SFMW) 3)Medusa(SFMW) 4)Stealth (PGA) 5)Riddler's Revenge

The closest I've come to being walked down was being walked off the ready brakes on Magnum's last train of the night.  Ironically, I actually worked on the ride that day and I was just in the park riding (as always) that night.  The winds were very high and maintenence and management requested that empty trains not be sent.

Each member of a crew at CP is required to walk the lift as part of the training.  It was an experience I'll never forget.  Not because I was scared, but the view up there, especially looking back toward MF is amazing and it was cool to stand there for a few minutes and look around.

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-Matt
2001 Magnum Crew

*** This post was edited by MDOmnis on 10/1/2001. ***

how did they have you walk down medusa since there's no floor (if your in the middle of a row, this could be a problem, i would think. 
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"who needs drugs when you have coasters...they're like a natural high"

To answer your question amusementparkfanatic85:

On the floorless coasters (and inverted coasters), there are panels that they can bring up to where the train is stuck or the panels line the lift on racks (there are three points on Medusa west where the panels are located, bottom of the lift, mid portion and top portion). hese panels on the floorless coasters at least are on the stair rails and are used only for emergenceis. The process is about as quick as you can expect, the panels are taken off the racks, and are locked into position beneath the train (they are locked at a level where the floor panels in the station are normally at). Mind you, this has to be done row by row. he next time you're on a floorless coaster, look carefully to the sides of the lift and you'll see some grey or black panels that seem out of place. hose are the evac. panels. And the next time you ride Medusa west, look carefully behind the ride op in the control area; there are a total of eight panels stashed in that area alone.
Note:  Some of those panels stored in the station may have been moved to the brake run, and I forgot to add that the mid-course brake block has it's own set of evac. panels located on the right side.
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My current top 5:  1)Goliath 2)Vertical Velocity(SFMW) 3)Medusa(SFMW) 4)Stealth (PGA) 5)Riddler's Revenge

*** This post was edited by decoy on 10/2/2001. ***

I've never had a walkdown to date.

But I seriously doubt: Has anyone ever had to walk down from a Vekoma inverted? How difficult is that?

Had a walkdown on Magnum at the very very top, wow. Quite the experience let me tell you. 200 feet up, looking straight down.
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Does CCI know how to make a bad coaster?

*** This post was edited by BeastieBrent on 10/1/2001. ***

Did I ever mention I had to walk down Superman at SFA when the chain broke?

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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com
"From the global village... in the age of communication!"
Watch the grass grow!

At Adventuredome the only time I got to do a walk down was during a park evac training. We had to evacuate fellow ride ops from the Canyon Blaster and Rim Runner.

At MGM I always end up being at controls or at unload so I havent had the chance yet. We have an event coming up Wednesday so maybe then?

Once I got a "walk through" of Snow White at Disneyland. The Witch turned around, cackling her evil laugh, glaring at us, and then she bent over, the music turned off, and the lights turned on. We all had to walk through the rest of the ride and exit. No, it's not a coaster, but it was still fun!

Vekoma SLC'S have a car that travels up parallel to the lift so you can walk to the stairs.

Closest I've gotten is when I had to walk off the ride from Titan's brake run on media day when the girl in the train ahead of us had a seisure.
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.:| Brandon Rodriguez |:.
http://www.coasters2k.com

Well I'd say the best coaster to do a walk down is magnum or something of that caliber. I bet it's also scarry though.
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Best woodie: The Beast
Best steel: MF
Best park: IOA! Get to the point... cedar point!

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Jeff said:
"Did I ever mention I had to walk down Superman at SFA when the chain broke?

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....of course not... ;)

An no, I have never had to "walk down" a coaster... [but i have been stopped on lifts many times... in upwards of an hour...]

Alan Jacyszyn
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Jeff, you are the best! Thank you for your hard work, and your awesome site!

*** This post was edited by sfdl dude on 10/2/2001. ***

I had a strange walk down from Psychone at SFMM.

We went down the first hill and up around the first turn, and at that point, mid turn, we stopped. We then proceeded to roll backwards back into the first ravine. (by the way, people were freaking out)

After we rolled practically to the top of first drop (backwards still), we of course lost speed and went back the other way again.

For the next 15 minutes we rolled back and forth till the car finally stopped rolling on its own, and the car was able to be chained down by the mechanics.

We were then taken off one by one, and since the bottom of the first hill is actually a pretty high off the ground, we took a route climbing over the rails to another piece of track and finally down a wooden ladder attached to the structure to get to the ground.

At that point they handed us a cup of ice water, and a free return ticket, and made sure we were all okay. That has been my most memorable experience exiting a ride.

(I just re-edited this to make it easier to read)

*** This post was edited by bunchastuf on 10/3/2001. ***

I got to walkdown Skyliner at Lakemont Park this year when our lap bars suddenly came open. The op killed the chain as we yelled at him. I was towards the front of the train and got to walk down from about 15ft. It was great!

I even have photographical proof on my web site... :)

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-Xtreme Theme
http://xt.thrillzing.net

I did tons of walkdowns... As a cast member at DLP, on Space Mountain. You see, whenever there's a breakdown, the catapult has to be evacuated. So, you got 2 casts members, the 2 unloads. One put a hiker's harness and the other goes with him. You start at the back of the train. The cast with the harness ties himself to the guardrail and goes behind the car ( the manual release is behind the car ) and opens the harness. Its usually takes 5 minutes to evacuate a 24 guests train.

I will never forget how Jeff left a message on my answering machine on how the chain broke and how he got a walk down.

I had a walk down off the readies on Batman KF at SFWoA.  It was only a 20ft walk but it was still cool.

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MF: 188
Magnum: 2101