SixFlagsChick wrote:I think what happened is the original paint job on the steel got messed up. The paint didn't stay on well after they joined the track together because they need to stretch the steel in order to make it meet correctly. The paint base was just a poor/cheap paint and it didn't hold up well. When they went to repaint the ride last year (which they did) they only did touch-ups of the areas that needed it, and the paint they used dried a different color than what it was supposed to, creating mis-matched paint splotches.
Untrue it was simply the primer coming through the other paint. Also if they did the touch up paint last year what did they do the first year it opened? It was like that then.
Wow, this really needs to get straightened out. First of all, the touchup paint (splotches) was added in the 2001-2002 offseason.
Second of all, with regard to the basketball imprints, I was there when those were made. No one took them on to the ride, a group of people were bouncing them off the supports while waiting in line.
Finally, the splotches are indeed some sort of low quality touch up paint. They are not caused by the primer showing through. This can be proven by the fact that you can rub it off with your finger revealing the regular paint color. If these splotches were indeed the primer showing through, there wouldn't be regular paint under them.
I have a question for everyone. Why don't they choose to check both the harness, and the seatbelts at the same time? I remember hearing someone say that at SFMM, they checks both the harnesses, and seatbelts at the same time. So, instead of that quote, "Welcome to De'ja' Vu'. Please pull your harness down as far as they will go...." (Six Flags Great America dejavu lady)
They should say "Welcome to De'ja' Vu'. Please fasten your seatbelts first, and then pull your harness down as far as they will go." People actually listen to "her" (the dejavu lady). They don't listen to the ride operator, and never will. Thus, the problem would be solved. It would save so much time, and would save the employees un-needed exercise.
"I've been staring at the world, waiting. All the trouble and all the pain we're facing. Too much light to be livin' in the dark. Why waste time? We only got one life. Together we can be the CHANGE. So go and let your heart burn bright"
Ok well maybe I got my years wrong..but I think they tried to do some touch ups last year sometime... and it didnt work. And with any ride, the track is stretched to meet the rest of the joint and then bolted into place. If you strecth something too far the outside coat starts coming off. Take a chocolate covered marshmellow rabbit for example (hehehe)... start pulling on it and the chocolate eventually breaks and chunks of it fall off., but the marshmellow still holds together (most of the time). I think that is what happened with Deja Vu.
I think the splotches are from a combination of things, such as the stretching and the bending of the steel, as well as the oil and dust accumulation on the tracks. In any case... no need to get all defensive over a whole thread filled with speculations shockwave. I was just giving what info I had heard.
SFGAm Shock Wave wrote:Second of all, with regard to the basketball imprints, I was there when those were made. No one took them on to the ride, a group of people were bouncing them off the supports while waiting in line.
Did anyone here notice the names on the supports? LOL. Yea, me, Nolan, and Papas all put our names on the supports. Papas was behind a bush at the last turn before the stairs, Nolan was NAT by the station and mine was DAN by the last switchback. Too bad are names are gonig to be gone this year.
Universal Orlando Mechanical Engineer Marathon down, Goofy to go.
I was just thinking that part of the problem of why this ride shuts down for weeks at a time is because of the train missing the second tower. The reason is obvious. The train gets stuck because of the loop, and and the cobra roll.
So, since this happens, wouldn't it be a good idea to install emergency lims after the loop until the cobra roll (I don't believe it would take that many as V2 has.). So, when it gets stuck, they would power them up, and send the train over to the other side. It's just an idea. If you have any thoughts, please comment on them.
"I've been staring at the world, waiting. All the trouble and all the pain we're facing. Too much light to be livin' in the dark. Why waste time? We only got one life. Together we can be the CHANGE. So go and let your heart burn bright"
Have you ever seen DV miscatch the 2nd tower? That's why they have the emergancy brakes there. If the train is stopped before getting over the loop then the pully for the 2nd tower can get to the train. It's on it's own seperate track which goes until the loop.
LIM's would be a waste of energy and time and would probably cause more problems than DV has now.
Top 5 wood-5-Goliath 4-Ravine Flyer II 3-Phoenix 2-Voyage 1-El Toro Top 5 Steel- 5-Velocicoaster 4- Maverick 3- Fury 325 2-Steel Vengeance 1-X2 Coaster Count: 444
It has nothing to do with the catch cars and making it through the course anymore. Yes, it happens to mis-catch, but that is not what shuts for the ride down for a week at a time.
The ride actually has very poor track that needs a lot of welding. When the train bottoms out, it hurts the track. I'm not actually sure why the ride closes for so long, but I have been led to believe that it is not because of the pulley sustem.
BTW, Lims would complicate the already overly complicated computer system of DejaVu. It is not worth it considering the ride is actually starting to break in.
w00dland wrote:Have you ever seen DV miscatch the 2nd tower? That's why they have the emergancy brakes there. If the train is stopped before getting over the loop then the pully for the 2nd tower can get to the train. It's on it's own seperate track which goes until the loop.
Yes, I have. It usually gets stopped right inside the bottom portion of the loop to the cobra roll, and it definitely takes time to get back to the catch car. I think they usually try to rock it back and forth to get it out.
Don't get me wrong, I like the loop a ton, but it can ruin things. If it wasn't for the loop, the catch car would be able to get to the train. I just think that the first tower doesn't have the trouble that the second tower has. If SFGAm feels that they are not going to keep it for much longer, I would say forget it. However, I think it would save some of the mechanics time.
You know and I know that when it brakes on that side of the ride, it is down for the day because it just take so much time to repair.
Someone said before that part of the reason why it shuts down for so long is because the mechanics have to take apart the train, and put it back on. The pulley systems have there problems also. Last year, the mechanics had the crane by the pulleys on the second tower for some time.
"I've been staring at the world, waiting. All the trouble and all the pain we're facing. Too much light to be livin' in the dark. Why waste time? We only got one life. Together we can be the CHANGE. So go and let your heart burn bright"
^ If the ride is down for the day due to a 2nd tower miscatch, then clearly there was something unusual that caused it. I have seen the ride reopen 2-3 hours after a 2nd tower miscatch. On one ocasion, they had the ride open again in an hour.
Ive been on a 1st tower miscatch... I think it was anyhow.
We just finished going through the ride and it was going to catch us to lower us back into the station but instead of catching us... it kinda grinded us to a near hault on the tower then dropped us.... It was actually kind of painful. Then once in the station the floor would not come back up. Fun ride...
---------2006--------- Raptor Crew Wicked Twister Crew ---------2007--------- Maverick Crew Mantis Crew Cad Cars Team Lead
w00dland wrote:Have you ever seen DV miscatch the 2nd tower? That's why they have the emergancy brakes there. If the train is stopped before getting over the loop then the pully for the 2nd tower can get to the train. It's on it's own seperate track which goes until the loop.
Yes, I have. It usually gets stopped right inside the bottom portion of the loop to the cobra roll, and it definitely takes time to get back to the catch car. I think they usually try to rock it back and forth to get it out.
Sorry but you couldn't be any more wrong. I think the train has gotten stuck between the loop and cobra roll once. That's what the emergancy brakes are for. The worst thing that's ever happened to the DV at SFGAm was that is got stuck in the cobra roll. I don't know exactly what they'd do if it got stuck between the cobra and loop, but I doubt it's rocking it back and forth.
Top 5 wood-5-Goliath 4-Ravine Flyer II 3-Phoenix 2-Voyage 1-El Toro Top 5 Steel- 5-Velocicoaster 4- Maverick 3- Fury 325 2-Steel Vengeance 1-X2 Coaster Count: 444
between the cobra roll and the loop they take a section of track out and remove the train car by car, then put it back together in the station. it has only happened once, as you said.
I don't have a detonator; its on a timer.
A countdown timer?
No, a count-up timer. It goes from one to explode.
SFGA Bob wrote:between the cobra roll and the loop they take a section of track out and remove the train car by car, then put it back together in the station. it has only happened once, as you said.
Your half right. (literally).
It got stuck between the loop and the cobra roll in August of 2002. Before that, in May of that year, the train somehow seperated and cars 1-4 ended up by the 2nd tower while cars 5-8 were between the loop and cobra roll. I wish I had a picture, because it was really freaky looking
Wow this topic is really hard to read, im glad all you experts know exactly what's wrong with the ride .
And the train never seperated by itself in May 2002, the train valleyed between the loop and the cobra roll and they had to move the cars to the 2nd catch wagon so they could get it back to the station. You saw it when they only had half the cars moved over to the tower side of the loop.
sorry, i must beg to differ. once, deja vu stopped on the 2nd tower. and then mis catched and was stuck between tower 2 and the loop. with people on it. i watched the whole time and somehow, the car was able to launch forward. only like maybe 30 miles per hour. just enough to go up the loop and roll back far enough up the tower to catch. then was brought al the way up and then dropped to complete the course. im assuming when it sitting in the station its charging. as far as i saw. one of the cars must have a motor or something...
i dont care if you try to tell me other wise because i saw this with my own eyes along with many others
DeJaVu can have 3 types of miscatches, 2 of them being less serious. But first let me define some terms.
Tower 1: This is the tower right out of the station, you go up this tower twice in one ride.
Tower 2: This is the tower you go up facing upwards. You only go on this tower once. It is after the loop.
Valley Platform 1: This was always on the ride, this is between the loop and tower 2. It is made of metal gradient and has a curve to it.
Valley Platform 2: This is the wooden structure built after the ride opened. This is between the loop and the cobra roll.
Catch Car: The little car that runs inside the track on either of the vertical towers.
Miscatch scenario 1. The train makes a complete circuit but going through the cobra roll, loop, successfully catches on tower 2, falls back through the loop, cobra roll but does not catch on tower 1. This is the most common. The ride will be stopped by emergency brakes before entering the cobra roll. The train will rock back and forth in the station for a couple of minutes before stopping (accompanied by a loud ratcheting sound). The ride must reset by bringing the catch car into the station to pull the train back up the tower and lower the train back into the station to complete the circuit.
Miscatch scenario 2. In this scenario the train rises up tower 1, falls through the station, into the cobra roll, through the loop, but does not have quite enough speed to catch the car on tower 2. I’ve seen this happen once, as it is much rarer. The train will fall back down tower 2 and into the loop where the emergency (or trim) brakes will slow the train down preventing it from completing the loop. This is also accompanied by a loud ratcheting sound. The train will sit over valley platform 1 (the metal grate one over the station) before the catch car will lift it back up tower 2. The train will then complete the circuit back into the station and will shut down for maintained. I was in line in the station when this happened right under the valley platform. We waited 30 min for the ride to reopen.
Miscatch scenario 3. This is the most serious and may not be related to a miscatch. In this scenario the train is lifted up tower 1 and dropped through the station, cobra roll, and the loop. Now one of two things can happen.
A. The train will not catch the car on tower 2 and will fall back into the loop. The brakes will engage but will not slow the train enough to stop it from completing the loop. Once through the loop, the train wont have enough speed to complete the cobra roll and will get stuck between the loop and the cobra roll over the wooden valley platform (2).
B. This involves a successful catch, but for some reason the brakes engage into the loop. The train slows enough to complete the loop but not the cobra roll. Valleys in the same position as A.
This scenario requires dismantling the train or pushing the train through the cobra roll car by car. If this happens it is guaranteed that the ride will be closed for at least a week or more before it will reopen.
The most infamous incident on DeJaVu was when the train experienced scenario 3 with riders aboard. The ride vallied where the wooden platform is now. Riders had to be evacuated off the train. The train sat there for quite some time before being disassembled and put back on the track.
Another more recent occurrence, I believe the ride vallied between the cobra roll and the loop again but the cars were disconnected and pushed through the cobra roll. There were no riders on the train when this happened.
Rumors, the train NEVER broke in two with riders on it!
And sections of track are removed all the time. How else do they get the train on and off? There is no transfer track so something has to go.
*Dave, feel free to add or edit this so I don't look like such a complete moron when errors are found* -It's late and this is all to the best of my memory.
Edit: the more I think about it, the more I think I dreampt the second valley up.
Last edited by Aero737 on March 20th, 2005, 5:04 am, edited 1 time in total.
Double post, about the paint blotches, when people write stuff on them (wiping it off with their finger) the marks they make wont last. After a rainfall or a long time in the sun, the blotched go right back to the way they were. Why would six flags completly repaint the ride if all the blotches could be wiped off?
I was just thinking, perhaps it's paint oxidation? I've seen paint oxidation on cars where the clear coat was eroded off and it looks similar. I'm sure that DeJaVu is painted with a different type of paint than auto's, and perhaps that leads to the poweryness (yes, it will rub onto your clothes). Maybe DeJaVu has a clearcoat (so to speak) on the ride and the areas that were forgotten (which explains the rollerlike appearance of the blotches) are the lighter areas that are oxidising?
The idea of them being grease marks makes no sense to be, because they appear in random spots and spots where grease would never fall or leak from.
^If the marks were really from grease, then wouldn't people in line see grease falling on them? So, that can't possibly be the case.
I was there the day when people were in between the loop and cobra roll. They closed down RB because they needed to just worry about getting those people off.
I guess that I definitely hear (especially) and see the second scenario the most. I hardly see tower 1 miscatches out the 20 or so times I have been there last year. (I don't really keep a count, but I'm around 20 plus.) For tower 1, all I have seen are problems with the ride getting stuck on the first tower.
"I've been staring at the world, waiting. All the trouble and all the pain we're facing. Too much light to be livin' in the dark. Why waste time? We only got one life. Together we can be the CHANGE. So go and let your heart burn bright"
I think the blotches may be from the paint that Vekoma Uses or from the Steel that Vekoma Uses. Six Flags uses Sherman Williams Paint; I suspect if it is the paint when they repaint it they will not have any problems any more.
