Gold Reef City - Tower of Terror

[Noxegon]

Has anyone in this forum ridden the Tower of Terror at Gold Reef City in Johannesburg *prior* to its refurbishment, i.e. pre-2005? I've got a handful of questions I'd like to get answered if possible...

[PKI Jizzman]

Sooo...."I've got the credit now!" Has it opened?

[Noxegon]

Yup. I rode it on Sunday.

[Fallen Heretic]

I havent had a ride on it myself. However, my Aunts father (no direct relation to me) was on the team which built it. He also worked on Anaconda plus loads more that I cant remember. He lost his thumb when the brakes of a ride accidentaly closed on it while he was working.

 

Anyway, he said the drop of Tower of Terror had an 11g spike when they first tested it, so the pull-up had to be completely re-designed. Probably no help to you at all, but I thought it was interesting.

[ktglads]

I rode it in October 2003 when I had a night layover in Johannesberg. I could try to answer questions but I may be a little hazy as I had not slept in over 24 hours since I went right to the park after being on planes for over 20 hours

[mightypotato]

Anyway, he said the drop of Tower of Terror had an 11g spike when they first tested it,

 

omg, wut?

 

I like forceful coaster...but damn.

[FLIPDUDE]

Yikes, that's almost as high of a G spike as flip flap railway!

[sfotkid]

Wait.. 15-Gs can kill you. That pretty close for comfort!

[Team Thriller]

Wait.. 15-Gs can kill you. That pretty close for comfort!

 

Not true. Maybe 15 G's for a long time, but when you jump into a chair, you pull over 10 g's for a quick fraction of a second.

You might pass out with 15 g's, without a g-suit, but you shouldn't die if its for a quick second or two.

 

Of course, on Goliath, this lady died from that helix.

 

--James

[Jew]

Why don't you just ask the questions instead of mentioning how you got the credit? You'd probably have a better chance of getting an answer that way...

[haux]

Of course, on Goliath, this lady died from that helix.

 

--James

Actually, I don't think that was ever proven. She could have had the aneurysm burst on the lift hill.

 

Wasn't one of the modifications to Tower of Terror adding OTSRs because it originally had lap bars?

[FLIPDUDE]

Flip flap railway pulled less than 15Gs and it snapped riders' necks, so I guess it takes less.

[haux]

The loop was also a circle, not teardrop shaped, so that helped add to the discomfort.

[Team Thriller]

^^

The good old flip flap. That would acually be fun to ride if it didn't pull 12 freakin' G's and break necks.

 

But the neck problems also came from the fact that the loop was a circle and not in a 'tear drop' shape.

 

P.S. The guy above me beat me to it.

 

--James

[vacoaster]

can anyone find a youtube video of the ride or anything... I always wanted to see some videos of it.

[Noxegon]

Okay, what I'd like to know is:

 

- Has it ever run more than one car? I don't think so, but it'd be nice to know.

 

- What sort of dispatch interval was there prior to upgrade? Judging by it now I'd guess five minutes plus.

 

- Did it really run with lap bars at one stage?

[Shockwave]

^Last question: yes it did.

 

http://rcdb.com/ig1481.htm?picture=21

 

There's a short video as well. Pretty awful as it's off a camera phone, but it goes from the drop to the end.

 

Link:

 

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5837458489913843589&q=tower+of+terror+gold+reef+city&total=2&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0

[Noxegon]

Good catch on that video... that's cleared up a few points. If anyone can offer pointers on the other questions I'd appreciate it though.

[Loefet]

^Last question: yes it did.

 

http://rcdb.com/ig1481.htm?picture=21

But by the look of that video, they seems to have some kind of seatbelt over the shoulders, so it's not just a standard lap bar.

[ktglads]

In 2003, there was a seatbelt-type harness that went over your head and clicked into the middle. It was a V rather than a single over the shoulder seatbelt.

 

While I didn't time the dispatching of the trains, I do remember that it seemed to take forever for them to get a train ready to go, so 5 minutes between trains would not have been unheard of.

 

I do seem to remember more than one train going at a time, but I think it was more of one train was going up the lift hill (which was quite slow) ans the other train was being unloaded/loaded

[Noxegon]

OK cool. If anyone can shed any definitive light on the more than one train question (a photo would be cool!) I'd appreciate it.

[TexTitan01]

that is possibly the SHORTEST ride ever...

 

I probably should have expected that, but a few bunny hills or a helix would have been nice...

 

Oh well, still a cool ride!

[Hand 0f Time]

The ride seemed just like Oblivion from Alton Towers. :O

 

Good lord, 12 G's. There must be a black hole hovering over that ride, lol.

[texcoaster]

^Last question: yes it did.

 

http://rcdb.com/ig1481.htm?picture=21

 

 

That's my picture. The ride ran with lapbars, but there were shoulder belts (like auto seatbelts). A better pic showing them is here:

 

http://rcdb.com/ig1481.htm?picture=19

 

I remember only a few things about the ride:

[1] I think there was only one car. I'm pretty sure I remember seeing another car on a transfer track somewhere, though.

 

[2] It took FOREVER to creep over the edge of the drop and finally get released. Very different that Oblivion, where it rolls over, stops, then drops. ToT doesn't stop, it just takes almost a full minute to slowly creep over the edge. You're facing straight down for a long time before you finally drop.

 

[3] Loading/unloading was ungodly slow due to those shoulder belts, which had to be adjusted for each person. I'd say that five min per dispatch was about right (load/ride/unload)