Wildfire station brakes FAIL!

Last night when I was at Silver Dollar City, Wildfire's computerized station brakes failed. The operator also didn't catch the train manually and it zoomed through the station and back on the lift. The operator finally E-stopped the ride about 1/3 up the lift. The people were very nervous and they were stuck about 10 mins while they reset the system. The train stopped normally and the passengers were taken off safely in the station. They then lowered the seats and ran 10 successful test runs while anxious people(including me) waited in the station.

I salute the maintenance and management of SDC that responded very quickly to the situation and was able to calm the riders and the get the ride running in less than an hour after it happened.

GOOD JOB SDC!

-----------------
WCUSA-The World's largest theme park is coming!
Theme parks will NEVER be the same!

Well this is intersting. What was the operator doing was he or she paying attention or was it just the computer?
-----------------
Cedar Point Americas Rock N Rollercoast!

Hmmmm...didn't B&M say themselves that they have a perfect safety record? I recall seeing a quote from Walter Bolliger himself about how their brakes never fail. I guess that this has all changed suddenly.

Wildfire has station brakes?

I thought only Paramount's B&M coasters had brakes in the station; that the rest all use brakes on the approach run, then use advancing tires through the station...

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

I have had this exact same thing happen to me while riding Montu once. The train went right through the station(it was slowed by the approach brakes) and then up the lift where they stopped it a quarter up. Needless to say, the ride did not run the rest of the day.

Cheers,

-------------
Bob Hansen

"Excuse me while I kick the sky!"
kickthesky@hotmail.com

No, there is no station brakes but feeder/advance tires. It was pouring down rain all day and it seemed to be having problems moving out of the trims because of the wet tires. Also it did reopen but then closed later because of the rain. Don't know if it reopened after that we left since it was 40 and raining and the park was only open for a few hours more.

-----------------
Jeff Mast
www.themeparksonline.org

Riddler Has Station Brakes, with advancing Tires. Kind of like how Goliasths are. Diagram Below but its brake wheel brake wheel brake wheeel.

!0!0!0!0!0

-----------------
SFMM Season Pass 80$ drink 10$ ripping of six flags by coming back 100 times Priceless......

odd, station brakes on a non-Paramount B&M?

question: how do tires stop the train?

-----------------
webmaster,
coaster-thrills.cjb.net

How many trains were in operation? If only one, then I have a good theory. With one train operation, blocking systems really don't apply since only one block in the system will be occupied at a time. Therefore, the train shouldn't stop until the station. My guess is that maybe the dispatch routine got confused (buttons got stuck??) and let the train roll through without stopping.

-----------------
Scott W. Short
mailto:scott@midwestcoastercentral.com
http://www.midwestcoastercentral.com

Just one, the other one is out for rehab.

-----------------
Jeff Mast
www.themeparksonline.org

ForceMillennium said:

question: how do tires stop the train?
-----------------
webmaster,
coaster-thrills.cjb.net

Well, they'd stop the train by friction. . . kind of like brakes :)
Anything at all that's not moving at the same velocity or greater than a train acts a retardant.

Perhaps the ride was left in manual when transferring a train on or off?

Regarding the safety record, it was my understanding that Consign AG actually does the majority of control work for them, so the burden in this instance would be on them.

-----------------
Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com, Sillynonsense.com
"As far as I can tell it doesn't matter who you are. If you can believe, there's something worth fighting for..." - Garbage, "Parade"

...Assuming it was, in fact, a controls failure. Recalling for a moment what kind of coaster Wildfire is, I wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't have pinch-wheels, but rather the less-reliable vertical tires. I've seen Mantis:TCFKAB slide as much as a full car-length in the station when its tires are wet, and that was a train that had been at a full-stop on the transfer table. I wouldn't think that the station tires would completely fail to stop the train, though...I'd expect an overshoot. I know that on most B&M coasters a platform attendant has to hold a button to bring the train into the station, and a different one to dispatch it; the operator has one button to park the incoming train and two others to send it out again...so it doesn't sound like the usual 'operator held down the button too long' problem that can happen with some coasters...

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Riddler does have breaks and advance wheels in its station. BUT....

I think it has to do with the fact that it has the vertical tires rather than pinch wheel system like on Batman. I guess B&M learned that there is a lot of play with the vertical tires.

Even though not B&M, I noticed on Goliath when the train stops in the station it "rocks" back on forth on its tires. I'm sure it wouldnt do that if it had a pinch wheel system.

From what I know of Consign's control systems, I would think it unlikely that a control system failure resulted in the overshoot. There is a lot of redundancy in their controls. Opening the brakes requires that 2 separate PLCs (computers) agree to open the brakes. I suspect that it had something to do with the brakes themselves, possibly due to the rain.

When I first read the topic, I got really worried that 2 trains ran into each other! Luckily, only one train was running. Just think how Markey would go crazy all over again. I always used to think SDC closed in October with the other parks. Does it close in January or is it open all year round? What is the weather like in Missouri in winter?

Silver Dollar City closes at the end of December. The weather could be anything from 50's to below freezing and snowing. This past weekend it was in the 40's with rain. They do not run the water rides but if it is warm enough they will run the coasters (except Buzzsaw). I believe it is around the 38 degree mark before they shut them down.

-----------------
Jeff Mast
www.themeparksonline.org

I can see the WF train sliding right through the station just they way The Beast slid through its brakes when it was raining. The brakes get wet, there is less friction, and things don't work the way they are supposed to.
-----------------
Is a tomato a fruit or a vegetable?

Wow, I finally figured out what Dave meant by TCFKAB. Can't use that anymore once BGW puts their new woodie in the Ireland section - I've already decreed that the name Banshee be "un-retired"....
-----------------
PoTP acolyte - remove fear to reply
Son of Drop Zone - PKI CoasterCamp I Champions!!!

RideMan said:
Recalling for a moment what kind of coaster Wildfire is, I wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't have pinch-wheels, but rather the less-reliable vertical tires. I've seen Mantis:TCFKAB slide as much as a full car-length in the station when its tires are wet, and that was a train that had been at a full-stop on the transfer table. I wouldn't think that the station tires would completely fail to stop the train, though...I'd expect an overshoot

I have seen Iron Wolf slide a lot too, while wet. And the sound the poor thing makes is truly obnoxious!

So .. Why does B&M continue to use the vertical tires when the pinch ones are so much better?

Could the train have slipped far enough that the computer intentionally advanced it out of the station and on to the lift? (Don't want those restraints to open while a car is dangling out of the station!! (Presuming it might still be close enough to the release mechanism..))

Someone needs to teach whom-ever is programming these systems how to duty-cycle those motors .. They will work much better if they don't start and stop so suddenly. I'll gladly do it, I hate my current job!

Cam.
-----------------
Cameron Silver

*** This post was edited by Cameron on 12/18/2001. ***