Ride Breakdown Evac Procedure

[NightRider785]

I was just curious who knew what would happen if a ride stopped during part its run, such as Giant Drop, Raging Bull, American Eagle, etc. Not a power outtage, thats common sense. But lets say a brake locked up and stopped the Bull in that section just before the ORP, or at the top of the lift hill. The main one I'm curious about is if the GD stopped close to the top on one of the cars and they couldn't release it, how would they go about getting the people down?

[T.K.]

LOL I can tell you about Giant Drop... If for some reason which would be extremly unlike, there would be no way to release or bring down the cars... then...

A maintenance people would enter a metal door at the bottom of giant drop to eneter the stairs inside the tower... they would go all the way up, and then its like cherry picking from the top... I know its safe... the maint. guy would go down on rope, and he would wrap a belt around u and you would be attached to a maintenance guy...with many snaps... then others from the top would pull u and him up on the rope..., and then they go around... and u guys would go down a very dirty set of starirs... I think I explained what they would do... thats at least what they said to me on training...

Bradley wanna fix something... if im wrong... I believe that was procedure as for 2005, but after SFKK everything might have changed... Cause i know firefighters dont go that high with theirs cherry picking... Ass for roller coasters... in extreme case that no matter what they would open up for evac, a maint. person would just take the car apart and release manually... and that always works.. so coasters are not as bad, as Giant Drop...

[Paradise]

That sounds like a pretty intense thrill. Being hoisted up and out of your seat on the drop 200 feet above ground...wow...

[BP317]

In Giant Drops case if the cars get stuck they can override pretty much any error when the ride is switched into maintenence mode and lower the cars to get the people off, which is what they do pretty much every time it breaks down. If for some reason that doesnt work there is a button on the control panel that releases the cars from the catch wagons...and the brakes are fail safe so its not a big deal. You will never see anyone evacuated from Giant Drop's tower I guarentee that.

For most coasters they just power the ride off and put a padlock lock through the rides power switch to ensure no one can turn it on while they are evacuating, then take down one car at a time starting from the position closest to the station (although if a train is at the very top of the lift they probably wont evac to prevent this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MECcvwtocac&feature=rec-HM-r2).
In BTR and SUFs case there is a little cart that runs under the lift, you can see it if you sit in the station if you sit in the front row. They bring that cart up and you step onto the cart then onto the stairs and walk down.

When SUF is stuck in the station out of position, the seats cannot be lowered manually and has to be evac'd from flying position. This means someone has to crouch down under the person while someone else releases their foot flaps and restraints (there are switches on the train), then the other person has to catch them from falling on their face and stick a gum scraper into the side of the restraint to block the pin from re-locking.

[Ilovthevu']

I didn't know that about the cart. I thought that was just for the mechanics to check the lifthill's chainlift. How come Batman has a chair attached to a moving platform thing?

[Jerrykoala2112]

Thinking about it gives me the chills....

[monsterfan99]

I can tell you the evac on Inverted coasters is interesting. Saturday night I got evaced on Raptor during CoasterMania ERT at Cedar Point. The ride comes to a stop (shakes after the stop) then you wait. The gap between the seat and the ground is 3-4 feet. They took us out 2 rows at a time down the spirals stairs. Defiantly intense to walk down the spiral staircase that is maybe a foot at its widest.

[SFaddiction84]

OK, so they take the cars off the track one at a time and reassemble it! That does not explain how they GET the people off BULL! Say if the break on the FIRST HUMP locks tight and halts the train!

[BP317]

/\ If it vallies at the bottom of that hill they would wait for it to stop swining back and forth, evacuate people via cherry picker then take the train off with a crane.

[Ilovthevu']

OK, so they take the cars off the track one at a time and reassemble it! That does not explain how they GET the people off BULL! Say if the break on the FIRST HUMP locks tight and halts the train!

I think he meant they take off the people in the cars one at a time. For instance if BTR is stuck on the lifthill, they would do that. However, if SUF is stuck in the loop (I don't think it has happened yet) they first get the people out of the ride, and than they take apart the cars one by one after they get the people off, and reassemble them at the station.

[Goku1910]

/\ If it vallies at the bottom of that hill they would wait for it to stop swining back and forth, evacuate people via cherry picker then take the train off with a crane.

Didn't bull Vallie once?

Someone told me that it did, but I don't believe it.

[FParker185]

During testing I think 2 years ago the train vallied between the first inclined loop and the 3'rd hill, they removed a piece of track to get the train out of where it was with the least amount of effort possible. I've heard it's vallied before, but never with people on it.

[djchad818]

Two Problems Here:

1. The trains/cars themselves don't have brakes; the brakes are built into the tracks at the ride's predetermined braking locations, such as when you're approaching the station. On the Raging Bull, there are also one or two braking locations along the ride designed to control the train's speed; they are at the the top of one or two of the hills.

2. If a coaster valleys, it is evacuated, they repair the train where it is, then they run a cable along the track and winch the train as far as they need to to either get it to the station, or give it enough kinetic energy to return to the station on its own.

[NightRider785]

^
How could they get a wire that far down the track if it stopped on in the middle of the ride? And once they get to a certain speed they would still have that cable attached and I would think that it would rip the train right off the track if there was enough force.

[FParker185]

some parks do winch the train up the next hill and let it go if they know it will have enough speed to make it through the rest of the ride. 99% of the time though parks elect to just remove the train from the tracks and put it back on at the maint. track.

Only time SFGAm uses the winch that I know of is when Eagle stalls out going up into the barrel, though that's a simple operation especially with all the flat track at the top, makes it easy.

[NightRider785]

I found two interesting links, one kinda answers a question and the other brings one forward.
The first link is the Giant Drop slowly lowering with people on it, which answers what happens if it malfunctions, though I'm curious what actually caused this to happen:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWkqV9U6 ... re=related

The second link is the Giant Drop going up at closing time. I was curious what he thing is taking it up and what/why its needed:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1uRCFq6mPQ&NR=1

[FParker185]

Lowering the cars slowly only works if the ride is mechanically good and power is on. In the event of a power loss or some mechanical difficulty, they would repel from the top of the tower and drop each car manually.

That's the maintenance cart. That's how they get up and down the tower to do maintenance on it. Without that they would have to climb the ladder inside the tower with their heavy tools and parts.

[zjohn1988]

^Correct. A yellow button on the control panel will blink after someone only hits a ride stop at the console or one of the two remote OCC's. Operator must press their Ride Lower button & the attendants must press their enables (at the same time) for the cars to lower. Once they let go, the cars stop again with the catch wagons.

[twixmix0303]

Only time SFGAm uses the winch that I know of is when Eagle stalls out going up into the barrel, though that's a simple operation especially with all the flat track at the top, makes it easy.

The block brake on Whizzer is at the top of an incline, so the train needs to be winched out every time it stops there.

[FParker185]

Forgot about Whizzer. Though they do normally just get a bunch of maint. guys up there and push it out. Almost got to see that happen last week, though didn't want to wait the line.