Space Mountain Ride Evac

[larathydo]

Currently being evaced from Space Mountain @ 10:50/11:00AM on Wednesday Jan 28.

We were moving in the line for about 10-15 mins normally until it happened, so wasn't particularly busy.

Got me thinking, what typically is the reason for having to stop the ride and Evac? Is it usually guests misbehaving on the ride?

 

[Horizons '83]

Interesting, looks like Mine Train is down too

EDIT: And like that it looks like its back up

 

[larathydo]

Interesting, looks like Mine Train is down too

EDIT: And like that it looks like its back up

Just before they made the call, they did mention some technical jargon about power being cut, but that may just be their standard Evac procedures (I imagine if they are getting guests out of the cars they turn off the power for safety reasons)

 

[dreamfinder]

Just before they made the call, they did mention some technical jargon about power being cut, but that may just be their standard Evac procedures (I imagine if they are getting guests out of the cars they turn off the power for safety reasons)

I would imagine they have a lock out/tag out system in place to ensure that the vehicles don't just start moving again during evac. It may indeed just be killing the ride power, and locking it in the off position until it is clear.

 

[marni1971]

It's a basic gravity ride;

In theory, any vehicles on the actual ride portion (after the lifts) should coast to the next brake zone where they will be held. The blocking system will allow only one rocket in each zone between brake zones, so one won't stop and be hit by a second behind it. Think about how many actual rockets are between the top of the lifts and unload, on each side, at any one time. There aren't that many. The rest would be held at unload, load, and the lifts.

The brakes will fail safe if power is cut, that is they will "turn on" and stop the next approaching car if they don't have power.

There would also be numerous live PA announcements before power is reapplied to stand clear of the ride path for anyone in the building.

 

[Goofyernmost]

It's a basic gravity ride;

In theory, any vehicles on the actual ride portion (after the lifts) should coast to the next brake zone where they will be held. The blocking system will allow only one rocket in each zone between brake zones, so one won't stop and be hit by a second behind it. Think about how many actual rockets are between the top of the lifts and unload, on each side, at any one time. There aren't that many. The rest would be held at unload, load, and the lifts.

The brakes will fail safe if power is cut, that is they will "turn on" and stop the next approaching car if they don't have power.

There would also be numerous live PA announcements before power is reapplied to stand clear of the ride path for anyone in the building.

I'll bet you are saying that just to sound smart aren't you?

 

[marni1971]

I'll bet you are saying that just to sound smart aren't you?

Me? Nah.

Or I could add in 2009 booster wheels were added to each brake to get the cars moving again after the brakes were released. Prior to this CMs had to walk and climb to each brake and physically push stubborn cars that wouldn't move. With rewritten software it's now far quicker to recover after a 101 and one of the few good things to come from the refurb.

Going back to the op, Space runs close to capacity when busy. Someone getting stuck at load or unload would hold up the cars behind them. Take too long - literally seconds - and the ride begins to cascade where cars behind start to back up. When this happens the ride will automatically stop.

 

[Goofyernmost]

Me? Nah.

Or I could add in 2009 booster wheels were added to each brake to get the cars moving again after the brakes were released. Prior to this CMs had to walk and climb to each brake and physically push stubborn cars that wouldn't move. With rewritten software it's now far quicker to recover after a 101 and one of the few good things to come from the refurb.

Going back to the op, Space runs close to capacity when busy. Someone getting stuck at load or unload would hold up the cars behind them. Take too long - literally seconds - and the ride begins to cascade where cars behind start to back up. When this happens the ride will automatically stop.

Now your just showing off!

 

[sjhym333]

There are a lot of reasons for that at Space Mountain and the most common of those are a combination of guests and CM's at unload. The computer system is set up so that trains will not collide obviously. At unload you will have trains unloading and trains waiting to unload. If a guest has a problem getting out of the train or loses something or just takes their time the next trains will pull in behind them and wait. There is only room for a couple of more trains behind that before the computer will see too many trains sitting at unload and shut the system down. Once the system is down it requires CM's tagging out and then releasing each train individually from the ones closest to unload to the ones furthest away. It can take about 20 mins to do it.

If the problem is at the load area (a slow guest loading or a guest needing assistance loading) the tower CM will instruct the last people in the load position to start storing trains. That means as trains come from unload to load and there is not room at load, they will send the trains into the storage (maitenance area). If they don't then unload backs up and then shuts down the attraction.

Sometimes a power surge will knock the system out, sometimes someone opens a restricted door. Ultimately it doesn't matter. As soon as everything stops the ride has to be reset by hand on the track.

 

[Vipor51]

So today at 11:00 am they evacuated Nemo the Musical at Animal Kingdom as well. Weird. Any new info?