Alton Towers Discussion Thread

[snoflake15]

3 amusement park incidents in a weekend. Wow!

 

I saw the Texas giant one - what was the third?

[SharkTums]

^Check the Cedar Point thread...and the Camden Park fire also. Busy weekend = More Incidents

[rctneil]

Poor Neil...I'm sure he's just gutted that he didn't get to ride his favorite ride!

 

I am now totally devastated!!!!!! What am I going to do now!!! I was soooo excited for the insanely speedy section!

[snoflake15]

^Check the Cedar Point thread...and the Camden Park fire also. Busy weekend = More Incidents

 

Thanks ST. Ooft - you wouldn't want all that happening every weekend!

[australianalex]

what I would like to know is where is the Intamin cable? we all know somehow he is responsible for all of this mess

I blame now blame Rita and its Intamin cable of death for this whole incident. Yet another reason for the park will tear down that piece of crap

[buckaroo234]

Just to add this in: bolts on steel coasters, especially in that area (the track joint bolts) break fairly commonly. This was why CA Screamin at DCA replaced the entire loop not long ago. It usually ends up a material defect or a grade 2 bolt being put where a grade 3 is required. Or just stress, as these bolts are hard to inspect for wear. And as ST says, on busy weekends inspections are somewhat rushed, sometimes a small indication gets missed. Thankfully the ride was stopped and no further issues happened (although the most that would happen is a kinda rough ride and some damaged road wheels).

[BudtheWeiser]

The over excited brigade forgetting the same thing happened to The Swarm last year as well its not that uncommon.

[MG]

Yeah, this happens to Colossus every so often. Likely temperature stresses maybe just pushed it a bit too far combined perhaps with an unusually weak bolt. It'll be open again in no time.

[nemesis1978]

Whilst I agree this can happen on coasters I really do feel Alton have had an absolute nightmare with this coaster. The Smiler is an £18 million pound ride and after all the problems they have had with it I really do think Gerstlauer need to provide answers. Altons PR team are not helping the situation either.

 

I really want to make the 400 mile round trip to Alton this year but think I will wait till scare fest before spending the amount of money I will to get there.

[thedazza]

Some good news and bad news for regarding Alton Towers today.

 

Good news: The Smiler re-opened.

 

Bad news: The Runaway Minetrain appears to have split in 2, again.

 

Images from towerstimes facebook.

 

When this happened before a coupling broke, the train split into 2 parts and the 2 parts crashed into each other injuring the people on board.

There is no confirmation regarding that happening this time, no-one was on board at the time, and there are some suggestions that the ride broke down, and the train was taken into 2 pieces by the engineers in order to get the train back to the station. There has been no official word from the park yet as to what actually happened.

[Spacek531]

Some good news and bad news for regarding Alton Towers today.

Bad news: The Runaway Minetrain appears to have split in 2, again.

 

I guess you could say that the Runwaway Minetrain has

*sunglasses*

run away

[michaellynn4]

I guess you could say that the Runwaway Minetrain has

*sunglasses*

run away

 

[MG]

Some good news and bad news for regarding Alton Towers today.

Bad news: The Runaway Minetrain appears to have split in 2, again.

 

I guess you could say that the Runwaway Minetrain has

*sunglasses*

run away

 

Best first post ever

[StealthFan]

If the ride had split in 2 and crashed again the ride would have been covered in a tarp like before to hide it from guests. I'm pretty sure it was split in half to allow the engineers to get the train back up the hill. If the ride has had some sort of electrical fault the train won't be able to get up the hill under its own power. I also think if they could get power to the train I would put a lot of strain on the motors to pull the whole train up the hill slowly from the bottom of the hill. The engineers will most likley winch the train up the hill then couple it back together when both parts are in the station.

 

-Craig

[Garet]

The ride was re-listed as open a few hours later after that photo so i'd say its safe to assume it was more a maintenance issue than a train breaking in two again.

[Wes]

I guess you could say that the Runwaway Minetrain has

*sunglasses*

run away

 

 

[cfc]

Some good news and bad news for regarding Alton Towers today.

Bad news: The Runaway Minetrain appears to have split in 2, again.

 

I guess you could say that the Runwaway Minetrain has

*sunglasses*

run away

 

Best first post ever

 

Let's not get carried away here.

[thedazza]

Update: Alton Towers have confirmed that the ride had technical issues and broke down, the mechanics pulled the train apart in order to get it back to the station.

The ride is now re-open.

[TPDave]

Aww, I kinda preferred the "EPIC TRAIN OF DEATH" vibe that was going on for a second there!

[snoflake15]

^hiding in tunnels to catch unsuspecting trains.

[jray21]

Glad to hear Smiler is reopen and that the Runaway Minetrain wasn't anything big at all. I still need to get out to this park somehow.

[WatersRevenge]

People over at another forum are reporting the Smiler was closed for a few days and re-opened on the 04/08, today. Just terrible if this is the case. I feel lucky to have ridden it given how many people must get turned away during The Smilers downtime.

 

Rumours from another forum suggest some 'work' on a support being undertaken and even a support 'sinking' ???

[JJLehto]

How exactly is the smiler? Looks like an epic cluster**** of twists, inversions and IDK even but I've heard it's also kinda slow and the whole 2nd lift kills the pace. Also that it's kind of painful

[WatersRevenge]

The Smiler... I was surprised as I had low expectations. Not bad at all, lots of fun, however if you're not seated in the front then expect a more abusive ride if seated further back. Also, Nemesis remains my favourite Alton ride followed by The Smiler.

[Bear92]

The Smiler is an absolute blast, it does way more for me than Nemesis does.