-
Welcome to the WDWMAGIC.COM Forums!
Please take a look around, and feel free to sign up and join the community.
Riders stuck on top of roller coaster/ Universal Orlando
- Thread starter Lilofan
- Start date
lazyboy97o
Well-Known Member
Which one? When? Why is it newsworthy?
Rob562
Well-Known Member
(sigh)
www.wesh.com
Oh no! Coaster stopped on the mid-course brake run and riders had to walk down a flight of stairs...
-Rob
Video shows riders being rescued after roller coaster gets stuck at Universal Studios
A number of Universal Studios Orlando guests are safely on the ground after they became stuck on top of a roller coaster Wednesday morning.
www.wesh.com
Oh no! Coaster stopped on the mid-course brake run and riders had to walk down a flight of stairs...
-Rob
RustySpork
Oscar Mayer Memer
It's actually not uncommon for Rip Ride RockIt to get stuck, but I don't think I've seen it get stuck there before.
Tom Morrow
Well-Known Member
The theme parks should stop offering the news outlets press kits and whatnot unless they agree to stop sharing sensationalist non-news like this.
Hakunamatata
Le Meh
Do they have air conditioning in in those ride vehicles?
RustySpork
Oscar Mayer Memer
lazyboy97o
Well-Known Member
So the ride system was unable to verify the continued safe operation of the ride and properly stopped the ride vehicles at the designated stop points, at which time guests exited the vehicles via the designated means of egress so that the ride could be further examined without additional delay or risk of severe injury to the riders. “Breaking news at 11:00! Ride system operates safely as designed!”
RustySpork
Oscar Mayer Memer
What, no crash?? What's wrong with this attraction!
Rob562
Well-Known Member
OK, so watching some news helicopter footage it appeared that a train was "valleyed" between the first drop and the loop. Riders were being evaced from the train by boom lifts. Not the first time a train has valleyed on RRR, usually happens early in the morning when track, wheels, axle grease, etc aren't warmed up yet, sometimes you throw in a headwind at just the right angle and you get a train that doesn't make it up the next hill. But something seemed a bit off...
As @RustySpork said, the location wasn't normal. Trains that valley on RRR tend to be stuck *after* the loop. They make it through the loop and then don't *quite* make it to the block brake and they roll back. But by that point they don't have the momentum to get all the way back through the loop to the other side. So they settle between loop and block brake.
So then I saw a wide shot from the helicopter. And there's a train *in* the block brake after the loop (yellow circle).
Under normal operation the valleyed train (red circle) shouldn't have made it off the lifthill with a train stopped in front of it in the next block brake. There should always be a free brake zone between every moving train. So that makes me wonder...did the "valleyed" train actually stop on the lift hill as part of the cascade ride stop, and then they lowered it down the first drop in a controlled manner of some kind so they could evac the riders? Is this their new procedure rather than take the riders off up at the top of the lift?
Side note: Apparently this issue created some logistical headaches at HHN tonight. They had to reroute the queue for Ghostbusters so it didn't cross under the RRRI tracks, and actually send the queue *through* the Grinch show soundstage behind the Grinch set.
-Rob
Last edited:
Tom Morrow
Well-Known Member
Rob562
Well-Known Member
That brake may be there to help hold the train in place during evac once it's been lowered slowly, but there's no way it would stop a free-falling train at full speed. It likely also doubles as a trim brake.
-Rob
Tom Morrow
Well-Known Member
I think the idea is that it functions as a trim brake only for situations like this - to intentionally valley the train.
There's no way of getting the vehicles down the drop slowly. Even if you come to a complete stop at the top of the hill, you're still going down the drop at full speed. The purpose of putting brakes at the bottom would be to keep it from getting past the loop even after dropping at full speed.
Assuming this was done on purpose, I also have to imagine that the whole idea is to get people off at a lower elevation, meaning they're still on the ride when it descends. Can you imagine how terrifying it would be to go down the drop slowly?
Last edited:
Rob562
Well-Known Member
My random idea was that maybe after the last evac on the lifthill they'd installed a winch or something to lower the car down the hill.
I've never heard of a trim brake being installed to purposely valley a train, but I suppose it's possible. But that's a LOT of force that has to be exerted by one small pair of brake pads. I would've thought they'd put more than one.
-Rob
I've never heard of a trim brake being installed to purposely valley a train, but I suppose it's possible. But that's a LOT of force that has to be exerted by one small pair of brake pads. I would've thought they'd put more than one.
-Rob