Dragon's Fury

[Benin]

I know it was 3 adults per car (going to assume that it upped to 4 people when they decided that the weighing station was a good idea), hence why I said:

 

They might as well just say 2 adults per car and be done with it rather than this palavar

 

I.e. Rather than cause all this extra hassle like this just reduce everything down again cos it's how Chessie seem to operate...

 

Even reading the procedure makes me head hurt, can imagine it's even worse for the hosts... It was bad enough with max 3 adults...

[Coaster]

It was there last weekend but I didn't realise what it was, it was slowing down operations though with them regularly having to stop the cars in the station due to people not being batched quickly enough.

[Mysterio Ka]

I hope you were watching out very carefully, because there are countless reasons why the cars would stop in the station, one of which is the single rider position, doing the weights and getting people into 4's. If there is a chain guy standing at the height measurement in the station they can also slow the ride dispatch down as their only duty is to make sure they don't rush to get on. The 2 key positions have to check bars and then wait for the ride to clear a certain amount of blocks before the car in the front of the station can be dispatched, and this can take a little time for some riders to get comfortable. Also, the operator will sometimes get the key positions to recheck bars, which can take its time. Then, if there are disabled guests who need the ride to be stopped, this causes a hold up, and ultimately the button that releases the station blocks seems to take a couple seconds to reset, and the hosts also seem to do bags and deal with the disabled guests. If the ride is running 7 cars the gap between them is pretty slim and if even one of the positions above slows down just a little bit, the ride stacks in the station.

 

 

Dragon's Fury has a very busy platform and the hosts tend to deal with it amazingly well, for what it is. I've queued up before and seen attendants literally go

'Hey, how many are you guys? 4 adults? Okay can you stand on this flat metal bit for me? (waits 2 seconds) Okay! through you guys go!'

More often then not aswell I've seen 4 adults be able to go together rather then get split up. So really it doesn't take it's toll all that much, but is rather occasional. Think about it, it's a family park, so more often then not there will be kids going on with their friends/parents. When there are 4 adults who are over weight, there is almost always a group of 2,3, or 6 somewhere on the platform, and all it takes is a little jumbling about and people are on the ride. 

 

So in response to you Jamie, I highly doubt that the ride was stopping regularly solely down to the scales. Try and take into account all the other things that could make the ride temporarily pause.

[Coaster]

So in response to you Jamie, I highly doubt that the ride was stopping regularly solely down to the scales. Try and take into account all the other things that could make the ride temporarily pause.

Yeah that's a fair point, it did appear that way though as the cars were stopping to wait for guests who were still being weighed.

[SteveJ]

Cars stop automatically, very regularly and can very quickly be restarted, it barely affects throughput because of a large number of other factors with the automatic system.

All this weighing scales "hassle" you speak of simply doesn't exist, it takes 2 seconds to pop people on them and get a yes or no. Rather than the fuss of previous years where you'd have a blanket 3 adult rule meaning even tiny adults OBVIOUSLY under the limit wouldn't be allowed together, yet four heavy 'children' could go on.

SO often cars would have to be released because the operator would decide the car had 4 adults when the loader didn't think so. Massively slowing the whole ride. It was a broken rule.

The actual weight limit is exactly the same and is a flaw in the design of the ride. With the scales it now means you can actually see for sure if they're over the limit, rather than leaving it down to perception.

The scales are dumb but useful! And have been there since May

[pluk]

Why any weight limit at all though?

 

I can only presume car overspeed or brake capability issues with too much weight? Surely it's not down to the weakness of the track or lift chain? Those things should surely never be that close to the limit.

[Tom]

More weight leads to more likelihood of collisions between the final break run and station drives, as the tyre drive on that transfer track is the only thing stopping cars (no brake fins)

[Altitude]

Winja's doesn't have a weight limit, so I'm confused. Maybe because it doesn't stack?

[Mysterio Ka]

Fury was designed to be temporary, infact, it was designed to be gone by now. And yes, if what is said above is true (as I think it's most likely to be) some of the tyre drives wrapping from the

brake run > switch track > station

only have 2 wheels and thats all thats stopping the ride from colliding. It may also be why in wetter weather they only load 1 side of each car to reduce skidding?

 

Winjas has neither of these problems.

[SteveJ]

It's nothing at all serious and nothing that can lead to any ride failure or injury. It just because the system is botched

[Coaster]

Fury was designed to be temporary, infact, it was designed to be gone by now. And yes, if what is said above is true (as I think it's most likely to be) some of the tyre drives wrapping from the

brake run > switch track > station

only have 2 wheels and thats all thats stopping the ride from colliding. It may also be why in wetter weather they only load 1 side of each car to reduce skidding?

 

Winjas has neither of these problems.

I've never really got this "Fury was designed to be temporary" thing, I'm probably being stupid but why would they design a coaster of that scale to be temporary?

[SteveJ]

To save money.

Oh, that also explains every bad decision made ever

But yes it was built cheaply like a car that's only built for lower speed, shorter distance driving, it's less expensive and not as well built.

[pluk]

More weight leads to more likelihood of collisions between the final break run and station drives, as the tyre drive on that transfer track is the only thing stopping cars (no brake fins)

 

So effectively it's braking capabilities on that section of track. You'd think sticking an extra bit of braking in would be a simpler and more cost effective fix than messing about with the weights and numbers of riders.

[Matt 236]

On the assumption Fury was supposed to be tempory, it enlightens the argument further why it is absolutely escential Chessington 'need' another major coaster.

 

Vampire has somewhat reached the end of it's life [especially now reaching the life extentancy age of a suspended coaster] and will likely be spared removal for as long as possible.

 

Fury was supposed to be tempory and the ride looks quite a mess and lacks the theming many other rides had once.

 

Rattlesnake struggles with throughput and operations [especially since Smiler this year] and is also starting to struggle now.

 

Scoprion is really the only coaster that's doing it's job well. It's reliable, has an okay'ish throughput but then due to the other coaster's problems is often left picking up the pieces [long queues].

 

I hope whatever big investment arrives in 2017, greatly helps the park's many many problems as a whole.

[Mysterio Ka]

 

So effectively it's braking capabilities on that section of track. You'd think sticking an extra bit of braking in would be a simpler and more cost effective fix than messing about with the weights and numbers of riders.

 

Really? I think adding a scale and changing precautions is much cheaper then adding new tires, reconfigurating the whole brake system to accommodate new brakes, or adding better pads to the bottom of the cars to save 5, maybe 10 seconds every few cars? To be honest it doesn't seriously effect the throughput and is something so minor that it is highly likely they will never consider changing the brakes for it.

[JohnD]

Operations on Fury seem a complete mess compared with Spinball.  On my only visit to Chessington so far this year I waited over an hour and the queue wasn't even at the shop.  It had just opened after a breakdown, and from the queue outside the entrance I'd estimated it would be about 15-20 minutes, based on how long I'd expect to wait for Spinball with a similar number of people.

 

It's good that they've got scales rather than just automatically sending empty seats, but why it even an issue on Fury when Spinball can run 4 adults (unless it's wet)?

[Mysterio Ka]

Again, the different brake system and layout. 

The day you visited it may have been running a limited number of cars and had a high number of exit riders? I've never known that the queue would take that long to rap round, but you must've gone on a bad day.

[SteveJ]

Operations on Fury seem a complete mess compared with Spinball.  On my only visit to Chessington so far this year I waited over an hour and the queue wasn't even at the shop.  It had just opened after a breakdown, and from the queue outside the entrance I'd estimated it would be about 15-20 minutes, based on how long I'd expect to wait for Spinball with a similar number of people.

You visited near the start of the season after a new part had been installed and was teething. The problem that was causing regular breakdowns and slow operations was sorted out months ago. It never has a day like that now and generally runs pretty well. Spinball is much more efficient though but I don't know exactly why, although it may be to do with the simplified layout of the end brakes and different station layout.

[JohnD]

It was running 7 cars but 2 of them were empty, they briefly closed it to take one of them off which cost us another 5-10 minutes.

 

By the time we got off the exit queue was half way down the ramp, fastrack was almost to the entrance and the advertised queue time was 120 minutes, though the queue line was nowhere near full.  Dispatch times were appalling, with most of the cars stacked up outside the station.

 

Meanwhile, Vampire was constantly breaking down and we ended up wasting our MAP fastrack on it as it broke within 10 minutes of reopening after the previous breakdown  (we came back later just as it was about to reopen, so fluked a ride with a very short queue).

 

Basically, there's a reason I've only been to Chessington once this year.

[Mysterio Ka]

There is constantly around 4 cars stacked up. That's just the way the ride operates. Other then that I'm sorry for your experience, certainly not the best of days to go!

[Mark9]

There is constantly around 4 cars stacked up. That's just the way the ride operates. Other then that I'm sorry for your experience, certainly not the best of days to go!

 

Only with mega slow staff. At any time on a 7 car operation you have the three cars in the station, one travelling through the break run and the other three around the ride.

 

You visited near the start of the season after a new part had been installed and was teething. The problem that was causing regular breakdowns and slow operations was sorted out months ago. It never has a day like that now and generally runs pretty well. Spinball is much more efficient though but I don't know exactly why, although it may be to do with the simplified layout of the end brakes and different station layout.

 

Fury can be very easily run in a way that the cars never stop in the station. The problem is lack of efficiency in the station frankly. Spinball actually always has a car stop at the dispatch wheels due to block spacing but in theory Fury's cars should almost always go with stopping. It just depends how on it the staff are. 

[SteveJ]

 

 

Fury can be very easily run in a way that the cars never stop in the station.

Not anymore! Various restrictions now in place means cars pretty much have to stop at the end of the platform before being dispatched.

 

 

 

By the time we got off the exit queue was half way down the ramp, fastrack was almost to the entrance and the advertised queue time was 120 minutes, though the queue line was nowhere near full.  Dispatch times were appalling, with most of the cars stacked up outside the station.

Yes, as I said there was a teething problem that was driving people nuts, and it got sorted very soon after. As you'll know, with a rollercoaster if one part is playing up, it creates a chain of repercussions and all the poor operational things you experienced were linked to this one issue.

 

There is usually around 1 or 2 cars stacked up, 4 means there's been a short delay.

 

By the way, lack of efficiency in the station is 80% of the time down to guests being shockingly unobservant and not listening to instructions. It's actually fascinating how people become so dysfunctional at the prospect of sitting down on a rollercoaster.

[HermanTheGerman]

Indeed. The actual staff seem to cope very well, one girl in particular who's name escapes me seems to always be working flat out whenever I've visited this year. It seems mostly down to slow guests and perhaps slightly altered arrangements car wise in the station (?) that have been causing stacking recently.

 

Ahh, I remember last year when they were sending cars out with only 15 or so seconds gap. If only that were the case now.

[Mysterio Ka]

^There were a couple of attendants who count to 15 out loud in what seemed to be a challenge to dispatch the front cars before they stopped on the final block in the station. It's fair to say that it worked, although it made the guests rush a little.

[Mark9]

Not anymore! Various restrictions now in place means cars pretty much have to stop at the end of the platform before being dispatched.

 

Truly a shame that then. As an operator it was such a thrill to try and keep the cars going. Creates a feeling in guests that they need to get on quickly with less faff.