June 22, 20187 yr comment_258690 I think vampire would definitely benefit from another refurbishment. Tidy up/enhance the queue line, upgrade the trains, make the station actually gothic and atmospheric again instead of the cheap school disco look it currently has. I do wonder what tie furthest changes they could do to the ride that wouldn’t require planning? Retractking would be nice if they could get away with it. Unless the blocks can adjusted/reworked, I cannot see it ever running three trains ever again. Not with the now over complicated procedures and the fact that the media making a stopped train to be much worse than it actually is. I'm not sure if the original Bat Cars all stacked up before the station. Fury being the first coaster to leave is interesting but not surprising, especially seeing as it was only ever supposed to be temporary and does not look as sturdy either. It certainly seems the pre-1998 hardware was designed to last much longer than some of the newer ones like Land Of The Dragons.
June 22, 20187 yr comment_258693 On 6/19/2018 at 8:22 AM, Benin said: That's deliberate, steel needs to have some give in it, otherwise it could be problematic... Even Nemesis' track bends, particularly after the zero-g... It may well be deliberate, I'm merely observing that it flaps back and fourth whereas Vamire's supports are solid.
June 23, 20187 yr comment_258695 Course those are solid, they're about 3x the diameter... To minimise the flex you need to compensate... Add in Arrow and their tendency to over engineer everything and there's a massive difference in design... Plus obviously the massive changes in technology allow different things to be done in terms of getting away with certain designs because you can check it all on a CAD program in a hour or so... If Fury's lift hill didn't wobble it would do much more damage...
June 23, 20187 yr comment_258696 The wobbling of fury will result in metal fatigue which will make the life span of the ride significantly shorter than vampire. Although it would have been designed with a shorter lifespan anyway so the wobbling will have been deemed acceptable. One of the main differences in design will be that fury would have been designed in accordance to the eurocodes where as vampire would have had to follow the older British standard which was far more conservative in its saftey factors and so would be a far more solid structure.
June 23, 20187 yr comment_258697 Can I get a fact check on that please, all the Arrow suspended have giant support systems whereas all the Maurer spinners have thin bendy supports. Thats surely just a manufacturer 'thing' and nothing to do with a countries particular demands or safety regimes.
June 23, 20187 yr comment_258698 Any modern day design to be used in the UK has to work within BOTH EN and BS legislation... This goes for pretty much every industry... I would suggest that it is a manufacturer thing, and that comparing design and construction methods of a 15 year gap is completely different... Vampire probably was hand drawn calculations to ensure it worked correctly...
June 23, 20187 yr comment_258700 For structural engineering we currently use the BS EN 1993 for steel structures. Which is the European standards with the British national annex. The old British standard was more conservative and so the load calculations would have to deal with greater values (EN BS 1993 1-1 the partial safety factor for steel is 1 due to high control over steel manufacturing where as the old method had a combined saftey factor of 3, I believe). The thing with the suspended coasters is that the supports would suffer very large bending moments due to the distance from the train whereas a ride like fury has a small load directly above the support so buckling or axial loading would likely be the failure mode. Manufacturing choice would also be a difference between the 2 as more modern supports are far harder to manufacture than a steel tube with an I beam on top.
June 23, 20187 yr comment_258702 Good old Arrow, built to last! Well, PMBO's track might be stapled to the supports but you know what I mean!
July 6, 20187 yr comment_258850 3 minutes ago, EpicSmatty said: The pianist is moving once again! I mean, I don't think he ever actually stopped. For more than like half a minute anyway.
July 6, 20187 yr comment_258852 2 hours ago, ChessingtonSam said: I mean, I don't think he ever actually stopped. For more than like half a minute anyway. He's not been moving for at least 2 months from what I've seen
July 6, 20187 yr comment_258853 Just now, EpicSmatty said: He's not been moving for at least 2 months from what I've seen He has been, but extremely slowly ? if you focus on him for ages you'll see him move
July 6, 20187 yr comment_258856 The bad news is he'll probably be replaced with an emoji for the summer...
July 7, 20187 yr comment_258857 43 minutes ago, Coaster said: The bad news is he'll probably be replaced with an emoji for the summer... This actually made me laugh out loud - thank you ? Which emoji? ?
July 10, 20187 yr comment_258913 5 minutes ago, Matt Creek said: At least an Emoji is better than nothing though *Paddington Stare*
August 4, 20187 yr comment_259239 A shame the station audio has gone really quiet again, and the organist wasn't moving at all today.
August 4, 20187 yr comment_259250 Ive found Vampire alot smoother as of late - I'm no expert but the wheels look newish to me. Does anybody know for sure?
August 8, 20187 yr comment_259318 I jinxed it. It was horrendous today. Broke my back and concussed myself on one turn, but might have been because I was smack bang in the middle of the train instead of the back
August 8, 20187 yr comment_259322 5 hours ago, ChessingtonSam said: I jinxed it. It was horrendous today. Broke my back and concussed myself on one turn, but might have been because I was smack bang in the middle of the train instead of the back I had one of the worst rides on Vampire today - it was so jolty and not a good idea wearing sun glasses as it bloody hurt when my head got bashed - was in the middle(ish) but later on at the very back of the train it was nowhere near as bad ?
August 9, 20187 yr comment_259325 The new trains have always been like this. The couplings between the rows aren't tight enough, so they shuffle back and forth into each other creating the jolts.
August 9, 20187 yr comment_259328 51 minutes ago, pluk said: The new trains have always been like this. The couplings between the rows aren't tight enough, so they shuffle back and forth into each other creating the jolts. I miss the original bat trains - felt a lot smoother and just added to the themeing of the ride. Theres one particular part of the ride which really smacks my back regardless of where I sit (with the Vekoma trains) and it hurts like a bi#%h.
August 9, 20187 yr comment_259344 10 hours ago, Han30 said: I miss the original bat trains - felt a lot smoother and just added to the themeing of the ride. Theres one particular part of the ride which really smacks my back regardless of where I sit (with the Vekoma trains) and it hurts like a bi#%h. Yeah that's the bit I was talking about where I broke everything - I've found it to be not as bad recently. Granted that's with sitting forward as far as possible and also far too many rides on the thing.
August 11, 20187 yr comment_259385 Had a front row ride on Vampire today, wasn't really rough at all, just the back and forth little bit of jolting on a couple of points after second lift.
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.