News Magic Kingdom Experiences Major Attraction Shutdown, Impacting Most of the Park

cjkeating

cjkeating

Well-Known Member
MrPromey said:
Can anyone with knowledge explain the value in a centralized system for compressed air?

I've never heard of this in the park before and this seems a good example of why it seems like a bad idea.
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Someone will know but I think this just goes back to the history of how MK was built as an experimental/futuristic theme park.
 
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Purduevian

Well-Known Member
MrPromey said:
Can anyone with knowledge explain the value in a centralized system for compressed air?

I've never heard of this in the park before and this seems a good example of why it seems like a bad idea.
Click to expand...
I don't know about this system in general... but compressed air is used in a variety of applications and would be very useful to have hookups around the park. As far as centralizing it to a single location I can think of many benefits including:

  1. Easier and cheaper to maintain
  2. Simplicity of design (less moving parts, less to go wrong)
  3. Easy to tap into if something new needs compressed air
  4. Centralizing the noise of the pumps
  5. Scales of economy mean its probably cheaper/easier/more reliable to have 1 central location.
Think of it like a city water system instead of everyone being on their own wells.
 
lazyboy97o

lazyboy97o

Well-Known Member
MrPromey said:
Can anyone with knowledge explain the value in a centralized system for compressed air?

I've never heard of this in the park before and this seems a good example of why it seems like a bad idea.
Click to expand...
Efficiencies of scale. More efficient to compress a bunch of air at once than to do it in a bunch places. Same reason they use central energy plants that provide chilled water for the air conditioning instead of individual systems everywhere.
 
MrPromey

MrPromey

Well-Known Member
lazyboy97o said:
Efficiencies of scale. More efficient to compress a bunch of air at once than to do it in a bunch places. Same reason they use central energy plants that provide chilled water for the air conditioning instead of individual systems everywhere.
Click to expand...
Thanks.

Just seems odd to me that for something as simple as an air compressor, that they'd be running lines literally all over the park (and maintaining that) rather than having them specifically for each major attraction or section of the park.

Obviously it (usually) works since I can't recall hearing of this kind of issue before and admittedly, I have zero experience on pneumatics for something on the scale of Pirates much less a whole theme park.

It's just surprising to me to learn that it's done that way (outside of trash collection).
 
Ayla

Ayla

Well-Known Member
Purduevian said:
I don't know about this system in general... but compressed air is used in a variety of applications and would be very useful to have hookups around the park. As far as centralizing it to a single location I can think of many benefits including:

  1. Easier and cheaper to maintain
  2. Simplicity of design (less moving parts, less to go wrong)
  3. Easy to tap into if something new needs compressed air
  4. Centralizing the noise of the pumps
  5. Scales of economy mean its probably cheaper/easier/more reliable to have 1 central location.
Think of it like a city water system instead of everyone being on their own wells.
Click to expand...
6) And a DISASTER if that single location ceases to function for whatever reason.
 
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Purduevian

Well-Known Member
Ayla said:
6) And a DISASTER if that single location ceases to function for whatever reason.
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True... I'm guessing there are back up systems in place, but some sort of perfect storm hit to bring everything down.

Would you rather (totally made up numbers btw):

A: Spend $5 million a year on individual compressed air systems and every ride goes down due to air once every 6 months (disconnected from other ride closures)
B: Spend $3 million a year on a central compressed air system and the whole system goes down once every 10 years.

I can see why they went with option B.
 
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DisneyCane

Well-Known Member
lazyboy97o said:
Efficiencies of scale. More efficient to compress a bunch of air at once than to do it in a bunch places. Same reason they use central energy plants that provide chilled water for the air conditioning instead of individual systems everywhere.
Click to expand...
I wonder what redundancies are in place or bypass valves so that a leak somewhere doesn't have wide scale effect.
 
sixbagelboy

sixbagelboy

Member
Just curious…what would compressed air be used for on some of the rides which closed? Like Tomorrowland Speedway. And other attractions like HM and Small World, a compressed air failure might prevent items on the ride from functioning, but will it cause boats and Omni-movers to stop moving?
 
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Purduevian

Well-Known Member
sixbagelboy said:
Just curious…what would compressed air be used for on some of the rides which closed? Like Tomorrowland Speedway. And other attractions like HM and Small World, a compressed air failure might prevent items on the ride from functioning, but will it cause boats and Omni-movers to stop moving?
Click to expand...
Again, no idea on specifics... but off the top of my head.
  • Gates that tell people if they can board the vehicle
  • Sometimes restraints on vehicles are air powered
  • Animatronics or simple moving figures could be pneumatic
  • On ride effects such as doors opening or heads popping out from grave stones
  • Lifting mechanism on rides like dumbo or astro orbitor

Basically everything that moves is either electric, pneumatic (air), or hydraulic (liquid/water).
 
peter11435

peter11435

Well-Known Member
sixbagelboy said:
Just curious…what would compressed air be used for on some of the rides which closed? Like Tomorrowland Speedway. And other attractions like HM and Small World, a compressed air failure might prevent items on the ride from functioning, but will it cause boats and Omni-movers to stop moving?
Click to expand...
It depends on the attraction. It’s used extensively across attractions for animated figures and props, station gates, switch gates/tracks, brakes, and much more. In some cases yes, It will cause some attractions to stop because the system will initiate an emergency stop.
 

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