CoasterFanatic Posted May 6, 2006 Share Posted May 6, 2006 How the hell did this thing break a cable already. Didn't it only launch like 100 times last year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeemerBoy Posted May 6, 2006 Share Posted May 6, 2006 If that new mysterious tarp-covered track at CP really is the next Intamin coaster for the park, then we should hear a collective "D'oh" from CP execs in 3....2....1..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 6, 2006 Share Posted May 6, 2006 what happened was that the teal side was sent out they both launched, when the two returned (at 9.25). A guy on the teal train started saying he lost his cell phone on the ride. Well at this point they sent out the orange train, it went through the course but did not advance off the switch track at the back of station. then finaaly they got it in to the station, lauch whats known as a blank launch (a launch with no trains). then they sent the teal side out to test (9.45) at this point is when you heard the loud screech. according to what we were told as leaveing the station. when the cell phone fell out it fell onto the launch track and hit the catch car and some sensors, cause the computers say there was trains waiting to be launched. there was no damage to the brake fins, but there may be damage to the cable, catch car, and sensor. this is why they tell you to secure all loose articles. ps: i will update everybody on sunday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ECZenith Posted May 6, 2006 Share Posted May 6, 2006 I don't think it's the end for Intamin hydraulic launches... just the 400' + models seem to not handle all that speed without destroying themselves once in a while. If the new CP Inatmin is launched, I'm sure it will be by linear induction motors, the cable is just too unreliable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gmoney422 Posted May 6, 2006 Share Posted May 6, 2006 Dang it! I was suppose to pop my KK cherry on 5/15! And with no El Toro yet...crud! G "still a Kingda Ka virgin" Money Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HCOSurfer90 Posted May 6, 2006 Share Posted May 6, 2006 I hate stupid people . I'm supposed to go on June 28th so it better be open. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Three Posted May 6, 2006 Share Posted May 6, 2006 How the hell does a loose article land on the track? I can't invision a scenario where dropping something (necessarily off the side of the train) would result with it landing on the track. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HCOSurfer90 Posted May 6, 2006 Share Posted May 6, 2006 ^You never know...anything is possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billy Posted May 6, 2006 Share Posted May 6, 2006 i was looking foward to seeing a 4-5 hour line for kingda ka to suck the people away from El Toro when it opens. thats not happening now. ugh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WadeJ Posted May 6, 2006 Share Posted May 6, 2006 If I'm not mistaken, the catch car has permanent fail-safe brakes at the end just in case this were to happen. Perhaps the loud bang was simply the catch car hitting these? Regardless, from everything I've heard and read, I really don't think this is as big of a deal as some are making it out to be. Metal on metal = sparks. It happens. Even free fall has sparks on almost every run. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hercules Posted May 6, 2006 Share Posted May 6, 2006 So does this mean we can start calling it Kingda Krap again? Yes. I never stopped calling it that. Sometimes I also call it Kinda Krap. I'm pretty sure it is not just "Kinda", it is full on, all out "Krap" At least the Batman side of Chiller is working!!! New credit for me tomorrow! At least I've already been on Kingda Ka. Suckers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timmyuk Posted May 6, 2006 Share Posted May 6, 2006 I am really interested to see if Thorpe Parks Stealth has similar problems being its half the size and therefore half the strain, I hope it does not have so many problems, it should be all relative, like the bigger versions have bigger cables etc, i get the feeling this is not the case. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coastakid Posted May 6, 2006 Share Posted May 6, 2006 If it was a cable snap, hopefully SF will get it back up in running in the coming weeks. But, if it is something major, don't expect it to open until late summer. This kinda sucks.---Brent if it were a cable snap they could have it open in less than a week.... it takes about 3 days to replace the cable..but i think the cable sheered...and not snapped (that is when parts of the cable break away ...i think this because they could hit the train and cause sparks) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Imhotep Posted May 6, 2006 Share Posted May 6, 2006 Man.. I had a sinking feeling something bad was going to happen to this ride soon.. Hopefully the problems looked worse than they are. I saw the TTD cable snap and while it didn't shoot sparks it made a loud bang and then the cable flew out into the midway talk about scary. When I read that, right away I thought of that first scene from the movie Ghost Ship. Maybe 'Ka can be the focus of Final Destination 4 . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
martinb Posted May 6, 2006 Share Posted May 6, 2006 ^^So what did they do to prevent that happening again, I've seen Ghost Ship and the beggining just isn't very nice and for that to happen in a Theme park would be a disaster, let alone disgusting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Imhotep Posted May 6, 2006 Share Posted May 6, 2006 They would probably have to make some kind of guard to surround the cable so that if it does break or shear, that the cable stays within the confines of the guard. I thought I read somewhere that they already have something like that in place on 'Ka, whether that information was correct or not Im not sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeezus Juice Posted May 6, 2006 Share Posted May 6, 2006 Sounds to me like an adjustment was not made reguarding the empty train vrs. full and the system overlaunched and sent the catch car into it's brakes too hard. Of course I know nothing and that's all speculation, but it may explain the bang! Meh...the real news is that the Batman side of Chiller is open!!! -Don Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Token Yankee Guy Posted May 6, 2006 Share Posted May 6, 2006 Sounds to me like an adjustment was not made reguarding the empty train vrs. full and the system overlaunched and sent the catch car into it's brakes too hard. Of course I know nothing and that's all speculation, but it may explain the bang! Meh...the real news is that the Batman side of Chiller is open!!! -Don I thought the train was weighed before launch to calculate how fast the train needs to go to get the train over the top hat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timmyuk Posted May 6, 2006 Share Posted May 6, 2006 Sounds to me like an adjustment was not made reguarding the empty train vrs. full and the system overlaunched and sent the catch car into it's brakes too hard. Of course I know nothing and that's all speculation, but it may explain the bang! Meh...the real news is that the Batman side of Chiller is open!!! -Don I thought the train was weighed before launch to calculate how fast the train needs to go to get the train over the top hat. I dont think its that simple though, i have noticed on Stealth in the UK they slowly fill the train up very time it goes round for the first runs in the morning, 2 people on run 1 then 4 on run 2 and so on until full, its to get round the problem of a full train was getting rollbacks within the first 10 launches, apparently building the wieght up slowly enables it to calculate the required power better, so maybe going from all to nothing with the wrong calculations caused a problem, all speculation again of course. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Sabo Posted May 6, 2006 Share Posted May 6, 2006 I wish there was a way to change that system to an air-launch..lol I am also curious if the loud bang was caused by a mis-alingment along the track during the launch (if the cable lifted out of the channel slightly) and the loud bang noise was cause by acoustic vibrations along the track (inner-tubing shockwaves). When I worked at BGE maintenance on BBW we had a similar problem for about 1 yrs (notice now the trim brake b4 the 1st lift). The noise would echo throughout Germany/Oktoberfest section and we asked ride ops to E-stop the ride and inspect it...apparently it is quite common on Arrow coasters (aka-Demon..lol).. Another idea could be the hydraulic pumps having an issue in the launch-control room. The cable may have snapped similar to TTD, but does anyone have a timeline (hours or months) when that happen? If KK has snapped a cable and it was around same time as TTD perhaps the cable-life expectancy is much lower than they imagined. I'm also curious if the water is playing a part/cause in perhaps weakening the cable because of the heat/cool down/heat/cool down periods is causing the cable to become weaker (not sure if corrosion could also have some effect). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coasterguy618 Posted May 6, 2006 Share Posted May 6, 2006 Dammit! Now I am really getting frustrated. It was running sooooo smoothly all season so far and now the friggin cable has to snap. Although it has the infamous intamin curse, at least both times it had major breakdowns they were both test runs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeezus Juice Posted May 6, 2006 Share Posted May 6, 2006 Can anyone check to see how the cable is doing? If it did snap you maight be able to see it hanging down below the track. I know I was able to get some pretty clear shots of the breakdown last year by the exit of the safari. I thought the train was weighed before launch to calculate how fast the train needs to go to get the train over the top hat. Yeah, I'm not an engineer so I really have no idea. I'm just tossing things out there with the rest of ya! -Don Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjholla2003 Posted May 6, 2006 Share Posted May 6, 2006 Wow, lots to talk about here. Let's see if I hit everything I want to: First of all, how is Kingda Ka a "cheat"? Sounds like a sour CP fanboy to me... I'm going to smack anyone I see witha cell phone after Kingda Ka's lockers if they don't have zippered or buttoned pockets. That crap happened last year and had it down for a week. Boo. My guess is that he had the phone out to be cool and take a crappy POV. The force of the launch caught him off guard, he let go, and the train fell straight back into the launch track. One of the improvements made over TTD with Ka was the launch track. Because the cable was able to fray and spray up at the train during a snap, they made the trough that the catch car more enclosed for Kingda Ka so that the cable would be contained if an incident like that were to happen. This could be part of the reason that the accident was so loud if it was a cable snap. The trains are weighed before they launch. The train is actually launched based on the weight of the previous train and how it performed. This is a big reason in why the empty trains roll back more often than full trains. Because the trains have less mass, there's less momentum carrying the train up the tophat, so empty trains have to be launched harder than a full one. Since this was the first test launch, the train was going slower than it would have been if an empty train was launched before the accident. Lastly, the brakes on Ka are defaulted to the up position. If anything was to happen to the ride where it lost power, a pump failed, or anything that would affect the brakes, they would shoot up as they need to be forced down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
okinawaboy11 Posted May 6, 2006 Share Posted May 6, 2006 Uh Oh guys. http://www.sixflags.com/parks/greatadventure/Rides/index.html It begins again... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheStig Posted May 6, 2006 Share Posted May 6, 2006 Well isnt that nice! Bummer I really hope it re-opens before I go in August, but its had two major problems recently and I really dont know what they are gonna do about this ride, it's be a shame if they tore it down but I dont think that will happen... Colin C Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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