Project LC

Mixed day today. Up until about 1:30 was dire. The park opened with, tidal wave, x, flying fish, Colossus, stealth, dodgems, rush, slammer, loggers leap and detonator closed. Then by 11 slammer, loggers leap opened as usual along with Colossus and tidal wave. X and flying fish were closed all day. Stealth was closed until 1 ish broke down repeatedly and ended the day on 1 train. Dodgems had 8 broken cars by the end and kept closing. Detonator was on and off all day whilst making some very odd noises. Nemesis inferno was down for about an hour around half 2 ish. Swarm was on 1 train until 1:30. Rush opened with 1 swing at around 1 ish. However after all the break downs it wasn't too busy and became more enjoyable. Ride count: Swarm 7 Nemesis inferno 6 Stealth 2 saw 1 Colossus 1 (front row, walk straight on) Slammer 3 Samurai 1 Vortex 2 Detonator 1 rush 1 rumba rapids 1 Zodiac 1 Ride total: 27 Positives: - short queues in the afternoon - adding a second train after apologising to me on twitter - Nemesis started on 2 trains - slammer was working (most of the time) Cons: - Swarm on 1 train until 1:25!!!!!!! Despite having a 120 minute queue - Everything broke down at some point (only zodiac and loggers leap didnt) - 20 minute delay at saw to retrieve someone's lost item (surely they could have waited until the end of the day like normal)

Train 2 lives, however it only lived for about an hour before having to be removed again. Stealth was closed until around 1:15 today and kept breaking down repeatedly. Also something I noticed, I dont know if its been like it all season but it appears to me that the last 3 segments of triangular track have been repainted as they look all shiny and new with no wheel marks.

Generally six flags operates by re-rides are fine. Hence the sale of platinum flashpass.

Is the love of my life back on 2 trains yet?

Six flags don't care, cedar fair don't care. There really the only set of other parks I know. That is what the case should be across all merlin parks. If there is no queue, then let people stay on rather than making them run round. Running round oblivion is a nightmare and so is nemesis. Its much nicer hearing an announcement saying "no one is in the line we need at least ## of people to stay on."

It should be called rocky mountain construction just to annoy the enthusiasts.

The bag search isnt optional, I have been stopped as have many others ive seen get searched. It never used to be but this season they have been trying to stop all the people they see.

It always strikes me as utterly stupid to not allow re-rides. There is no harm to anyone if they let you stay on if there is no one trying to get on. Only 2 rides in a row sounds ridiculous, either allow them or don't, not have some stupid rule which cases delays. Cedar Point encouraged re-rides, TTD they forced people to stay on because of the weight of the trains.

10 years isnt too good. That will become a problem quickly. Merlins aim to be the most visted wont be happening at thorpe if the most it can have is 7 coasters and a dark ride.

Thorpe is very restrcited in space. They have room for about 3 major rides left, possibly 4 at a push. It may not be limiting now but a few years it will be very limited such that it is a problem. A park which cant expand isnt good for anyone.

I dont think it can run 7 but it does have 7 shuttles. Also its throughput isnt that high, it only really gets 1400pph.

Looking into it more saw does have 8, I was being lied to by another forum. A common delay with the smiler is them switching over a train which means 4 train op is pretty standard. They do use 5 trains but no where near as much as your making it out to be. Also my point still stands, there should always be a train waiting to replace it if they own more than needed. If they employed the right amount of people then strip down should only occur over the winter.

5 trains were used twice. Opening week and the first scarefest, since then it has run 4 trains using the 5th as a spare. 5 trains has no effect to the operation of the smiler and results in stacking on the brake run. There is also many other rides which have spare trains. Oblivion has 7 and saw has 9. Not sure if saw operates the same as stealth but I know TTD has 6 and uses 5 with 1 always waiting incase one breaks.

But it should never happen in the first place. Train 3 should always be avalible to use throughout the season like tussauds intended. Many other coasters always have their spare train ready to go, the smiler has train 5 avalible at all times so why cant stealth have train 3.

Why does The vampire only operate 2 trains now, what stopped them operating 3?

They got stormsurge so throughput isnt an issue, clearly.

Yes it is thorpes fault. 3 trains exist so 2 will always be avalible. However becuase of recent year mantanice scheduals that is no longer the case.

Still that is 30 minute waits, some above some below. For offpeak with 2 trains that could have gone upto 4+ rides an hour.

Saw is hard to achieve full capacity when very little people are there. If they wait to fill the seats then stacking occurs and the ride needs to be "reset" so to speak. 1 train op will encourage more fastracksales. If the park is at 0 minutes queues with 2 trains no one will buy one. Put it on 1 train and it goes up to 20 minutes people may start considering it. If it was at 15 minutes 2 trains then still very little people will be buying, however if that goes to 45 minutes with 1 train many more will buy fastrack. It may be less sales than the weekend but it is more sales compared to the same day on 2 trains.

13 rides for a day? I would be furious if I went and got that. That is worse than my trip in the height of summer. Looks like 1 train op made the queues rather large.

Or maybe they are saving costs and encouraging more fastrack sales... I would prefer a 15 minutes stop to make the queues shorter for the rest of the day. However it should be on full trains from the start. There is only 1 ride I will let off and that is saw. The problems that can have with stacking on the break run can slow operations so I will excuse saw. The rest have no excuse ever.

The potential dark ride is currently designated for the arena. Also some of those trees cant be removed as they are there to hide the park from the other side of the lake. Also if you look on the mtdp it shows that the land behind the old railway tracks they dont own. So achiving planning permission for a large building there would be hard.

Suspended top spin if it has good operations can achieve 900pph (people per hour). That is pretty good on Thorpe park scale so it would reduce the queues. However to do that maybe it shouldn't have water so on cold days people still go on it.

The freeflyer has a better capacity however that or a zac spin I don't think would add much. All it would achieve is long queues and a let down. Top spin may work at Thorpe but it would need to be different to ripsaw. A suspended top spin may work with a few water and fire effects themed around the nemesis volcano going off, or the aftermath. However it wouldn't bring in a load of guests as they are still pretty generic.

S&s 4d freeflyer.