Disneyland Resort (DL, DLR, DCA) Discussion Thread

[Flight Attendant]

NO not Soarin"! ...LOL

 

Actually, they might complain that the scents used inside of the attraction set off someones allergies, making them get a perscription!

 

Or...

 

It set off a latent form of acrophobia...and now they must seek out a Pychologist!

[Wes]

Or they thought they were going to get hit by that CG golfball, causing severe emotional trauma.

[coaster1]

THANK YOU COASTER1!!!

 

If this was like a braking, sensor, computer issues, I don't believe that it's Intamin's fault either! Don't they have another company do all that stuff?

 

They may have an outside source, but my experience working for a park, the ET (Electric Technicians, or Electrians) were responsible for maintenance of the PLC. One of the ET's at SFOT rewrote the entire system for the Oil Derrick, Runaway Mountain, Mr Freeze, Log Flumes and Titan from scratch. Then again, Disney may out source like some compaines, but Allan-Bradley and the other PLC people came by once a year to check up on the system.

[SharkTums]

From the NBC4 LA news 2 minutes ago:

 

'Investigators believe that operator error or a computer glitch caused the accident that sent 15 people to the hospital"

 

Now granted the news has been way off before, but this seems to confirm what we thought! Maybe maintenance should have been paying more attention to DCA than glitzing up Disneyland for the 50th!

[CoasterFanatic]

^ From my microscopic knowledge of block braking, there are only three scenarios where trains can collide.

 

- Brake Failure (Very Rare, and doesn't CS use MAGNETICS)

- Computer Glitch (Even More Rare)

- Manual Reset (Almost always the case)

 

Operator error would lead me to believe "Manual Reset". From what I had gathered after the BTMR incident. "Manual Resets" are pretty common at Disney, because of the high pace that they operate their rides.

[USCoaster]

CA Screamin's programing has been changed to prevent the ride-ops from doing a manual reset (by switching to maintenance mode) since cast previews in 2000/2001 when a similar accident almost occurred. A friend of mine who used to be a lead on Screamin' prevented the previous accident and said that the reason it almost happened was when they switched over to maintenance mode, the sensors lost the train sitting in the same block section the train was sitting in this time. Luckily, someone noticed and e-stopped the ride before the train hit the block before the helix.

 

Based on his knowledge of the ride system, he believes there is no way operator error was the cause. And based on the speed of the train (resulting in the "bump") The block brake before the helix would have had to completely stopped the train as it passed through it, and then released it. Otherwise, there would be a lot more damage.

[Mark Rosenzweig]

^ From my microscopic knowledge of block braking, there are only three scenarios where trains can collide.

 

- Brake Failure (Very Rare, and doesn't CS use MAGNETICS)

 

While Screamin' uses mags to advance and park trains in the station, I'm fairly sure that each of its course blocks use friction brakes. I know for certain the once following the helice finale is a friction brake, as it tends to be a bit abrubt.

 

-Mark

[CoasterFanatic]

^ Now that I think about it more, you are correct. From my understanding, Magnetic brakes cannot COMPLETELY stop a moving train.

[ahecht]

Storm Runer uses ony magnetic brakes (unless you count stopped drive tires as brakes), but that may be easier to do when the magnets are on the train and the fins are on the track (and where you never need to stop a train mid-course).

[CoasterFanatic]

^ Precisely my point. None of the "all mag" Intamins have a mid-course block. The magnetic brakes will slow the train down to a speed where the drive tires can take over.

 

CS has got to be friction. I can't believe that I don't really remember.

[Sir Clinksalot]

^ It's friction. The final brake runs and all course brakes are. Even the brakes before the launch are friction. They release right before the train launches.

[Jose Eber]

Is everyone forgetting the multiple mishaps on BTMR a few years ago...what was that, 2 of them in one year?

 

This is pretty crappy. Especially at the end of that helix -- man, you whip in there fast.

 

Thank God no one died.

 

In my opinion this is inexcusable. Disney has over the years spent less on maintenance and, according to many long time cast members have become more lax in safety policies due to 'cut backs' (thanks Eisner) -- which only compounds the problems: rides these days for some reason are getting more intense and demand engineering/computer/operator perfection.

 

Perfection is hard to come by on the cheap!

 

J.

[arrowfanman]

Is everyone forgetting the multiple mishaps on BTMR a few years ago...what was that, 2 of them in one year?

 

3, but 2 with people on board, yes.

[Sir Clinksalot]

New article from the OC weekly ... and this guys an idiot.

 

http://www.ocweekly.com/ink/05/48/diary-lowery.php

 

 

Quote:

 

Friday, July 29

 

Another ride malfunctions at the Disneyland resort. Tonight it’s the California Screamin’ roller coaster that injures 15 when one train rear-ends another. Arriving quickly on the scene, Anaheim spokesman John Nicoletti, dressed in Mouse ears and waving a Tinkerbell wand for emphasis, said all injuries were minor and likened the accident to a fender bender, you know, the kind of fender bender that occurs when you’re locked into a contraption that goes 0-55 in five seconds, has a 108-foot drop, gets completely upside-down and requires you to sit behind some yutz from Dearborn, Michigan, who won’t shut up. Fender bender? How many fender benders require the mobilization of 100 firefighters and 18 ambulances? This is, in fact, the fourth major accident at the resort in the past seven years, while two of those accidents—the Columbia sailing ship and Thunder Mountain Railroad—have resulted in deaths. Fender bender? Hmmmm. Let’s say someone had a fender bender and it turned out that over the past seven years they had had at least three other accidents (that we know of) resulting in at least nine other injuries and two deaths; think the DMV would think twice before giving that person a license? Yet Anaheim, Tina to Disneyland’s Ike, raises nary an eyebrow—in fact, enables the behavior as it did in 1998 when it dutifully allowed Disney to stop Anaheim cops at the gate while Disney personnel scoured the Columbia accident scene. However, any questions about the city and park’s cozy, perhaps dangerous relationship were bypassed when Nicoletti excused himself from the press conference because he said he had to go make Disneyland a sandwich.

 

But if you had 100 cars (attractions) and 40,000 drivers (cast members) then 4 accidents in 7 years is not such a bad thing. Let's try to keep this in perspective.

 

The fact remains you are more likely to get in a car accident in your own driveway than be injured in a theme park accident.

[Space Freak]

This is a recent article. Looks like Disney may be to blame.

 

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/states/california/northern_california/12315961.htm

 

Funny though, it looks like I am the disney spokesman... Weird!! And my last name isnt all that common either.... SPOOKY!!! :shock:

 

Rob "Really is my last name" Doughty

[disneygurlz2s]

^That writer is an ass (not Gregg, the author of the article )

 

Add to your "statistics", Gregg, the fact their have probably been 20,000,000 "passengers" (guests being "driven" in those attractions) as well.

 

Shari

[Real]

http://video.msn.com/video/p.htm?mkt=us&i=86445fda-e875-470c-bc01-31ca17dd1b49&p=Living_NBC%20Today&m=Home%20and%20Living&mi=NBC%20Today&rf=http://www.msn.com/

 

Taken from that: 300 million people take 1.5 billion rides per year

 

Your chances of even getting injured enough to require overnight stay are 1 in 790 million.

 

 

Find me another form of transportation that has that kind of record and Ill take that back.

[SLUSHIE]

^ Precisely my point. None of the "all mag" Intamins have a mid-course block. The magnetic brakes will slow the train down to a speed where the drive tires can take over.

 

CS has got to be friction. I can't believe that I don't really remember.

 

I think your forgetting that the breakes your talking about are just polarized fins.

 

The magnets on CS are powered. Just like the magnets on Superman or any of the Impule coasters.

[ahecht]

No, the brakes are not polarized anything. They are just simple copper fins.

 

On CS, the fins are on the train instead, and while the launch life motors are electromagnets, nothing says that you can't mount perminant magnets to the track to interact with those fins (after all, this is exactly how S:RoS works).

[Real]

They call them "rare earth magnets" They have their own charge and own polar field so theres no need to energize them.

 

This is why above, someone mentioned you need kicker wheels to bring it to a full stop. Physics prevents the magnets from completely stopping any vehicle without some other form of friction. It is physically impossible for it to bring it to a 100% complete stop without the kicker wheels.

 

 

Whatever happened, it was Disneys fault. Thats all I care about. I love Disney but this doesnt suprise me. I dont see why they needed to mess with a perfectly good ride.

[Cerberus]

Not that I imagine it would go without someone shouting it out from the rooftops, but can people local to the park keep an eye on the ride and let us know when they start operating it again?

 

I'm going to be there in about two weeks and I'll be thoroughly annoyed if it isn't operating. Might even skip the park altogether and try something new like Legoland.

 

This is dumb- last year Xcelerator was closed a couple weeks before my holiday with that whole lapbar crap, now Screamin' closes down two weeks before my holiday THIS year!

I'm cursing them all!

 

Cerberus

[Sir Clinksalot]

^^ Are you psychic? How do you know it was Disney's fault? And why do you care where the blame lies?

 

Until the DOSH report comes out, or some 'official' word comes out we don't know who was at fault. It could have just been one of those freak things.

[ScOtT k]

^^ Your lucky. I'm going to be at california adventure this friday! I'm really concerned. This is one of my favorite rides in that park! Please open it up disney. Puleeez! I've been looking forward for this trip for a year and screamin shuts down!

[Jose Eber]

According to the Disneyland calendar, the attraction is closed till end of november (that's as far as it goes right now).

 

Sorry for the folks that will miss it. Its smooth and fun enough.

 

I spoke to my wife about this tonight ( she didn't hear about it), but wasn't surprised because she always was paranoid about the end of the ride.

 

For those of you who haven't been on it the initial break run after the last helix, it is quite severe (full on hard core friction break). That's where the accident happened.

 

You come in really fast...

 

Just another comment on high technology rides. A marine general friend of mine was saying how with their highly sophisticated planes, there is just more and more of a probability of things going wrong. The more gadgetry, the higher the probability of failure of a component (because there are more components).

 

5 trains over 6000 feet is a lot. We've got a lsm launch, an lsm lift hill as well -- its pretty complex stuff.

 

I don't think its fair to compare CS to a Mouse Robb, that's like saying, hey a cessna and an F18 -- they both fly, what's the difference? There's a huge difference, yet at the same time, there is a great similarity.

 

Hugely complex rides are going to invariably be at risk for death etc. Look at the highest technology we have going: space launch/rocketry systems. Would you consider that stuff 'safe'? Its so incredibly complex, so many parts, the more there are, the more chances there are of failure. And failure in a space launch is a lot less easier to handle than failure in a low tech form of transportation (say a kayak?)

 

I'm just bothered that people aren't seeing beyond the reality that its in the complexity of the machines themselves that the danger therein lies.

 

That's why these machines are exciting.

 

Crazy stuff happens with innovative (which at the time, believe it or not, CS was) machines. Remember when ToT's walls were blowing out because of the speed of the wind?

 

Its the little things that can provide danger and safety.

 

I'm not going to apologize for my long-winded rant. I just think the blame lies on ourselves here too as coaster enthusiasts. We love this crazy stuff, but we have to realize that inevitably, these machines we want built will fail and people will die.

 

Disney has many of these machines, so more people will die there than say a Six Flags or a Legoland.

 

BUT, that doesn't excuse Disney or the public from their own responsibility when getting on these machines or building them (let's throw Intamin into that equation too -- they test boundaries a lot).

 

Its a risk you take whenever you buy your ticket.

 

Life's a beeyotch I guess at times!

[Sir Clinksalot]

The ride was reportedly testing with water dummies over the weekend. So I guess we will just see what happens.