SteveJ

No not crazy at all, I'm sure all well-designed custom machinery will be alright for a long time and then encounter problems. Parts become obsolete, and as far as I know the fountains are awaiting a new part that needs to be custom built. Trying to keep the same machines going for a number of decades is not possible unless you start replacing parts with newer available technology (which has already happened with the control systems for the BubbleWorks, and remember the Vampire was totally rebuilt on an operational level only 10 years after it opened). No! That's like what George Lucas did to Star Wars in an attempt to 'bring it into the 21st century'. Original BubbleWorks is pretty timeless, they could easily get away with reopening the ride exactly as it was in 1990 and it would be hugely popular again. It doesn't need "high tech" effects shoe horned in for the sake of it. By all means reinvent the ride into a new Bubbleworks incarnation, but do it in the spirit of the 1990 ride and it will be loved. There are plenty of creative ways of reinventing the ride without losing its original charm. Why on earth would you replace the music, apart from the currently poor quality playback missing SFX that's the only bit of the ride that's still great. Graham Smart >>>>> IMA score

Knowing how they work they are not "simple" and not comparable to a bathroom plumbing job, but probably still very managable for Chessington's tech services. The required engineering to have that huge volume of water sent over guest's heads for days on end is significant so there's no point being flippant about it. We don't know what the problem is. If there's an engineering problem behind them or the pumps they can't just send a bloke to flick a switch and they start again. (it's not RCT3) The fountains are typically quite reliable and have been working well for decades, but a couple of times recently not so much.

They do say smell is the sense most associated with memory. I do remember when I was a bit younger I'd put theme parks to the back of my mind, but one day I found a (probably grape) candle in my house and smelt it, it WAS the Bubble Works, right there embodied in wax. All my dreams came rushing back in a split second. And so started years of obsession with dark rides

The aroma in the last couple of years has been tea tree (and a hefty bit of chlorine). I think it used to be oranges and berries, a kind of bubblegum smell. It was quite unique, hard to describe. You can probably get similar scents to buy for commercial or personal use

Of course they don't, they also don't know anything about all the other stuff they report on. Magazines publishing inane rubbish to get attention = don't feed the troll, don't buy or read them. It's just an industry of selling money for rubbish sadly.

Why is it shocking? It's almost physically impossible for the trains to stall in that area when loaded with guests. Although following the accident it's highly likely they'll put a platform in there anyway. Even an unloaded train is quite unlikely to stall there, it's usually caused by overtrimming on the hill just before, cold wheels or very high winds. The Smiler is more prone to it because of the way so many inversions were engineered into such a small space.

Yes

Yeh they're more for when moving trains around in storage.

Following the interview I have emailed Nick Varney praising him for being a great representative for the theme park industry during this rubbish time. I know it is the media's job to scaremonger, get attention and exaggerate, but the interviewer seemed to come from the point of view that any ride that takes the tiniest, minimalised risk in order to entertain millions of people should be shut down. This woman tried to trash the industry I grew up with and that I know so many people enjoy. That kind of interviewing will only perpetuate the misinformation and totally unfounded Claim Culture that unfortunately surrounds theme parks. I'm not angry because its what I expect from Sky News, but it's so irritating and undermining to be honest.

Because most people were thinking.. why call emergency services when you can just film the accident and sell it to the newspapers?'

Rides like Fury, Rattlesnake, Saw and Spinball have multiple block brakes (it's just like RCT3!! Yay) which allow multiple cars to be on the track, one in each block section.Fury for example has 5 block brakes out on the track (including the second lift), these are the flat sections that the cars travel straight through. Should the power fail, all brakes lock shut and each car is stopped out on its nearest block point. The ride also has multiple speed settings depending on how many cars are on the track, so with maximum number of cars the chain lifts and drives will all speed up slightly to ensure staff can still send out cars every 10 seconds without having to wait longer for the next block to be free. I also *think* there is a sensor before the horseshoe on Fury that the car must pass in order to send the next one. This way even if the car ahead magically stalls despite the laws of physics, the one you've just sent is guaranteed to have not made it past the lift hill - therefore can be easily and automatically stopped. Usually these systems are watertight and that's why The Smiler's case is so bizarre

It is required by law for an OPERATOR to be at least 18. Unless you mean they were way OVER 18? The age of the operator is also pretty irrelevant since their most primary function is communication and supervision, rather than any direct control of the ride (apart from dispatch).

From what I know Nick Varney is not considering scrapping The Smiler and that article is quite clearly fudging his words. At no point does he or anyone actually say they are considering scrapping it or even allude to that.

You can't conclude any of that, as that's not how rides are operated. E-stop totally cuts the power, and would require a routine evacuation if there are riders on board during the E-stop. This suggests it was a block shutdown rather than an E-stop, but we don't know. Gerstlaurer do not live on site. You don't need the manufacturer or in most cases maintenance to restart the ride, this can be done by managers in the ride operations department. Again, we don't know. Multiple failsafes are in place to overcome human error, it can't simply be human error. There's absolutely no point guessing what happened.

All rollercoasters on the face of the planet have a bare metal strip running the tracks where the wheels wear the paint off. And Colossus track is not actually rusted, that would be a massive engineering failure - the dirt is usually oil, general muck

That's not really a problem I've ever come across. There aren't many "big rides" so they will always get disproportionate queues on busy days no matter what. Most supporting rides get unreasonable queues too. But a couple like Hocus Pocus do lack ridership because people don't realise it's an attraction or in the case of Griffins don't know it's even there.. That really doesn't have much effect on other ride queues though.

Well just to defend the tech services.. A lot of them have been at the park for years, and they really do have an enormous amount of work to do with stuff going wrong daily. I'd think the idea that "they spend more time wondering around than fixing rides" is quite an exaggeration as we don't really know how their shifts and schedules work.

I will! I just need to ask in case it's a plan that's been shelved for the future (hopefully), rather than cancelled altogether. But yeh, although it's become enjoyable for a quick blast of fun, Sub Terra is doomed to deteriorate into one of those "WTF?" dark rides that no one really understands what it was meant to be. Shame.. Yes some simple timed effects or lighting would be much appreciated I'm sure, just not mannequins - if only because it's one of those bad Merliny staples like shipping containers and vehicles.

Or... An example of how Merlin Studios don't care much for the operation and guest experience of the rides they design. To cut their own costs on automated intro and end scenes, they make the ride experience rely on actors instead, which costs them nothing but costs the park operations a bomb to fund the actors. So inevitably they get dropped after a few years. And 'propped up mannequins with gas masks on' would be so embarrassingly bad, they might as well stick up a massive sign saying "we run out of money for this bit". OH - is that what they were suggesting with Thirteen's queueline then? Why the ride didn't even have an ending when it opened is just.. what a travesty. The budget should have gone where it was originally planned.

It deserves the negativity because it stole the budget off much better dark ride project (I won't elaborate on what this for now but it would have been awesome..), was a nightmare to build, was a disappointment when it opened and is a nightmare to operate daily.

Cars go empty on Fury all the time, it's because they're BrOkUn (for reasons) and take 2 seconds to fix. But it takes forever to take them off and on the track and run them round for testing. All because it's a poorly engineered ride that should never have become the park's leading coaster. Thank you DIC Tussauds and your rubbish cheapest option strategy. Chessington is really suffering with crowds, best to stay away until the inherent problems from 10 years of shocking management are sorted out.

For some reason May half term last year was far busier than an average Summer holiday.

Bbbut they're not tRaInEdD. Kobra and Rameses being down would only free up 3 attendants anyway and the flats are all on different teams.

On those smaller flat rides, yeah single staffing and faffy rules are probably to blame. But overall the park is much busier on peak days than years before. There never used to be so MANY foreign/multicultural visitors coming in from London. They do make up a massive percentage of these high numbers, particularly since the new hotel opened and people come on weekend trips. Often in very large groups as well, with extended families and friends all coming altogether in the queue (even if they don't intend to ride). And then they all seem to disappear on off-peak days, when most rides are walk-on. Also I'm not being all Nigel Faragey and scapegoaty, it's obviously not anyone's fault that they contribute to excessive queues - it's a factor Chessington know they need to facilitate by building better capacity rides. Of course the largest factor is that it's a 1980s theme park designed for a couple thousand, now dealing with being a very popular resort with totally different numbers.

No that's me, although I thought it was you leaving sarcastic comments on my posts? Who-nose.Colossus repaint. Thank Doc, they've really been wanting to do it for years as much as enthusiasts and guests. Even if it's just small parts at least paperwork and money isn't getting in the way anymore