22 People injured on a Vekoma Boomerang

[Greatdrift]

Many years ago there was a major incident on moreys boomerang. I used to have the report from the state bookmarked but couldn't find it, but if i recall part of the train de-coupled after some fatigued bolts on the chassis failed, and part of the train came to a valley in the same spot.

 

If the catch car connects to the back car, is the weight of the entire train on the last cars connection each time its pulled up the first hill?

 

You bring up a good point about the back car on the lift. Maybe the forces acting on the final car can help understand what might have gone wrong? If you do indeed find the information about they Morey Boomerang incident, maybe there could be something related.

 

Have there been any other boomerang incidents within the last few years?

[rcjp]

It's really lucky that we get to see what happened. Seems like the whole train was going down the second spike when the E-Stop is activated. The train was braked heavily when it was going up the loop backwards, then the back car detached from the train and made it through the course while the rest of the train was stopped on the second spike after going down the loop.

 

But did the 7th car damage the track? The whole train has 8 wheel sets and apparently the last wheel set went with the 7th car. So the front base and side of the 7th car must have damaged most of the track when it went through the course!

I think I saw some footage where you could see the last car had two wheel sets. Otherwise I think the drag would be enough to make the car not go around the whole circuit back to the station, but I'm not sure.

[AmyUD06]

The cars on Arrow/Vekoma trains have the wheel bogies attached at the front end of the car; the wheels of the 2nd car back serve as the "rear" wheels of the first car, and so on, except the last car, which has a "dummy bogie" attached to the rear coupling so it doesn't drag.

 

In the Morey's Piers incident, it was that "dummy bogie" that separated while the train was making it's 1st/forward run, causing the last car to drag and basically tear the back part of the frame/fiberglass off and drag the rest of the train to a halt.

 

And yes, the couplings between the cars see unequal force (successively greater the farther back) while the car is being pulled/held backwards up the initial spike. On the 2nd spike, there's a chain lift that "drops out" to release the train, but I don't know which car(s) have the catch pawl. Logically, it would be the "front" car, to try to equalize the total stress each coupling experiences during a full cycle....but this is a company that ripped off the basic designs of another company that didn't have the grasp of physics that we do now.

[TNT]

Deleted 

[Mechanic]

^ It would appear the bolt securing the safety cable either sheared, or was missing.:

[FLIPDUDE]

Holy crap! I've never seen a POV video of an accident before! And the odds of it being taken form the last car, which is the one that detached! WOW!

It's honestly a frightening video to watch!

[rcjp]

^That's what I thought too! It was really cool to see an "accident POV" shot from the right place.

[gerstlaueringvar]

Imagine that G force! Kind of made me want to try it!

[grsupercity]

Do you guys think Vekoma will ever build a giant non inverted boomerang. Like 250 feet tall but the standard layout. Just super sized

[cfc]

^That would be like hoping that Godzilla would pick you up, shake you around, then whack you upside your head.

[grsupercity]

I never found the giant inverted to be to rough

[cfc]

^Neither did I. But the thought of a "standard" Boomerang of the same size is somewhat disturbing.