pluk Posted October 16, 2015 Report Share Posted October 16, 2015 ? It's 16 years old, and was good for about 10 of those. If they want a running topscan a new one must be cheaper than the maintenance bill this one causes. GOOSEANIMATICS and JoshC. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoshC. Posted October 16, 2015 Report Share Posted October 16, 2015 is it worth it. A new Topspin will just go the way of this one. it arrived at Thorpe basically a brand new ride and look where we are now. I see what you are saying, but given a new one will last a good number of years and Samurai is still a popular enough ride (when it is open), I would say it is worth it. Of course, the ideal would be to get rid of the ride altogether and invest the money in something else which will help improve the park and the like, but getting a new topspin would be an alright, medium-term, solution for the park all things considered. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt10 Posted October 16, 2015 Report Share Posted October 16, 2015 Samurai will now be joining the group of rides that open at 11pm as in the last twenty minutes before close, they put up the ride opening and close times for tomorrow on it, and it is due to run between 11am and 10pm. It was also the last ride to finish operations today.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark9 Posted October 17, 2015 Report Share Posted October 17, 2015 I see what you are saying, but given a new one will last a good number of years and Samurai is still a popular enough ride (when it is open), I would say it is worth it. Of course, the ideal would be to get rid of the ride altogether and invest the money in something else which will help improve the park and the like, but getting a new topspin would be an alright, medium-term, solution for the park all things considered. I'm someone who has loved and hated Samurai. In it's toned down, tame Thorpe location it has on the rare occasion surprised me but majority of the time it is a glorified ferris wheel. Maybe that's okay for the up for it families that Thorpe want to attract, I don't know but for one of the most thrilling rides in the planet, I find Samurai embarrassing. Now, the thing is with a new Top-Scan, I want Thorpe to get rides that are going to last generations, not ones that have a five year shelf life at best. It's been a valiant effort to keep Samurai going, but lets face it, if they'd just packed it in around 2011 when it started spending half the season closed, a lot of wasted time would have been saved. Slammer's been open more this season, even Smiler has. Do we really want another ride that in 2020 will be closed more then it is open? If the answer is yes then so be it, but lets face it we don't know if the park are even considering this. Finally, of course Samurai is popular at Thorpe. It's wedged in between two rollercoasters, it spends 2/3 minutes zeroing and it has a throughput that makes Rattlesnake blush. Ricky 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glitch Posted October 17, 2015 Report Share Posted October 17, 2015 Samurai will now be joining the group of rides that open at 11pm as in the last twenty minutes before close, they put up the ride opening and close times for tomorrow on it, and it is due to run between 11am and 10pm. It was also the last ride to finish operations today.... Seems right. It never gets a queue at 10 and then you have to wait for a large group. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Project LC Posted October 17, 2015 Report Share Posted October 17, 2015 It was on the list originally when they first started 11pm openings. It just didn't have many days when it was open for people to notice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ricky Posted October 17, 2015 Report Share Posted October 17, 2015 I'd it dead yet? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LK_ Posted October 17, 2015 Report Share Posted October 17, 2015 Yes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel.S312 Posted October 17, 2015 Report Share Posted October 17, 2015 Great was hoping to get on this tomorrow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InfernoMartin Posted October 17, 2015 Report Share Posted October 17, 2015 Died at around 6 and has failed to reopen. It was on an awful cycle and the zeroing was shocking. Zeroing lasted longer than the cycle itself! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark9 Posted October 17, 2015 Report Share Posted October 17, 2015 If it opens before this weekend, I expect it to be closed again by the end of Sunday. What do I win? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldFarmerDean Posted October 17, 2015 Report Share Posted October 17, 2015 It was running, and they just chose to close it by 6pm..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt 236 Posted October 17, 2015 Report Share Posted October 17, 2015 Samurai closed just days after supposedly opening from a massive work up project? Not at all surprising, Merlin really need to just replace it with a newer model regardless of things like paper work and costs (would be much cheaper & easy). I'll be on park tomorrow (with a large chunk of TPM) to see what's happening and if it's the case it's died again just after getting the kiss of life. Daniel.S312 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cal Posted October 17, 2015 Report Share Posted October 17, 2015 Hahahaha. Has Samurai ever actually lasted a whole season of Fright Nights. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoshuaA Posted October 17, 2015 Report Share Posted October 17, 2015 I guess it lasting two days is impressive for Samurai... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattgwise Posted October 17, 2015 Report Share Posted October 17, 2015 It seems that zeroing is such a common problem with the ride. It only has this issue as the ride lowers at the exact same place it starts. All other topscans I've ridden lower wherever and don't have this issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt10 Posted October 18, 2015 Report Share Posted October 18, 2015 The primary reason is that it is in manual control. This meaning it follows a pre-set cycle with determined start and end positions. As the ride completes the cycle, it will vary every time slightly, more on a old one, meaning it is out of position so the computer tries to correct it at the end as in its mind the cycle will only be complete when its back right where it started. On a new model on a pre set cycle it would not matter as the ride itself would be a lot more responsive, and would follow the sequence with less errors due to better performance. Thorpe could change this and remove it from the pre-set cycle (the end position staying the same as the start) but it would be less reliable as it may end up lowering not a loading zone and engineers use this current method so they can easily identify which pod is which, so if there is a problem with lets say pod 1, when it comes around they no exactly where it is when it stops. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark9 Posted October 18, 2015 Report Share Posted October 18, 2015 The primary reason is that it is in manual control. This meaning it follows a pre-set cycle with determined start and end positions. As the ride completes the cycle, it will vary every time slightly, more on a old one, meaning it is out of position so the computer tries to correct it at the end as in its mind the cycle will only be complete when its back right where it started. On a new model on a pre set cycle it would not matter as the ride itself would be a lot more responsive, and would follow the sequence with less errors due to better performance. Thorpe could change this and remove it from the pre-set cycle (the end position staying the same as the start) but it would be less reliable as it may end up lowering not a loading zone and engineers use this current method so they can easily identify which pod is which, so if there is a problem with lets say pod 1, when it comes around they no exactly where it is when it stops. That issue could be solved by putting numbers on the pods like at Chessington. Only issue then is that loading becomes a bit of a mess. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Posted October 18, 2015 Report Share Posted October 18, 2015 Most of the time the zero problems are the main arm not finding it, the pods seem to find their correct position pretty quickly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt 236 Posted October 18, 2015 Report Share Posted October 18, 2015 At Thorpe today, Samurai has been closed all day, it's had some testing but has so far not opened yet. The ride really needs replacing with answer model. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark9 Posted October 18, 2015 Report Share Posted October 18, 2015 It was running, and they just chose to close it by 6pm..... was it chosen by the park to keep it closed today as well then. Project LC 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldFarmerDean Posted October 18, 2015 Report Share Posted October 18, 2015 was it chosen by the park to keep it closed today as well then. Must be...The ride was still in operation, they just had a member of staff closing the queue around half 5 yesterday (can't remember the exact time)... And we were with a worker (who wasn't working that day) and asked and they said due to problems they decided to close it early (even though the ride was still running, and there was still people in the queue, when the queue was shut off, just saying). Could be that it did actually suffer worse problems while they were getting through the last lot of people in the queue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Posted October 18, 2015 Report Share Posted October 18, 2015 It's entirely possible that after being closed for such a long time there are small niggles they want to iron out. The fact they closed it and ran the queue through indicates it's not a major issue OldFarmerDean 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coaster Posted October 18, 2015 Report Share Posted October 18, 2015 Well Samurai raised... and then went back into loading position, and that seemed to be it for the day. This was whilst testing, not with people on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Posted October 18, 2015 Report Share Posted October 18, 2015 It tested a lot during the first half of the day, with staff members around suggesting it may have opened, but then was closed and left for dead in the latter half Coaster 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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