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Dragon Falls


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  • 2 weeks later...

Originally the ride didn't have a filtration system meaning in the summer the water was a disgusting opaque green from the algae. I believe the filtration system was added at some point in the 2000s. Of course, for truly disgusting ride water you need Storm Force 10 at Drayton Manor which is a reddish-brown colour and forms huge clumps of scummy foam and smells fishy (probably duck poo).

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I'm sure the water has always been a closed filtered system. It certainly was dyed green/turquoise originally as I have pictures of its opening day where the water is practically glowing blue! And heard from someone the reason it stopped being used was because it ruined the filters after some years, but not sure how accurate that is.

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Yes that was a few years ago. The same engineering company which does a lot of stuff for Chessington.

 

As I've said in another thread, it seems that the extensive work done to Dragon Falls, this & all the evac stuff is probably needed on Loggers too which is why they've probably closed it until they can decide what to do with it.

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3 hours ago, dickie001x said:

Was anyone aware of this?

"...replaced most of the water trough and all of the spines underneath that supported it."

https://www.garmendale.co.uk/theme-park-engineering/winter-ride-refurbishment-work/

They were actually going to close Dragon Falls at the end of 2014. Its only due to this work that it was able to carry on. Its certainly very likely that its the same issues had on Loggers (rotting ride structure, mould and decay). 

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13 hours ago, Wumbamillio said:

I'm sure the water has always been a closed filtered system. It certainly was dyed green/turquoise originally as I have pictures of its opening day where the water is practically glowing blue! And heard from someone the reason it stopped being used was because it ruined the filters after some years, but not sure how accurate that is.

It was closed in so far as it wasn't part of a body of water like Loggers Leap and Rumba Rapids at Thorpe Park, but the filtration system definitely wasn't there. You can see the filtration system to the left of the small drop near the start (Bing Maps birds eye view shows this best). I remember ever since this was installed the ride has had clear, chlorine-smelling water. Before then it was murky and lacked the chlorine smell, and the area contained derelict portacabins..

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22 hours ago, HermanTheGerman said:

They were actually going to close Dragon Falls at the end of 2014. Its only due to this work that it was able to carry on. Its certainly very likely that its the same issues had on Loggers (rotting ride structure, mould and decay). 

I wasn't aware of that. I guess they realised that they couldn't have one of the main rides at Chessington SBNO in such an obvious place. Also a good part of the ride goes through the Tomb Blaster building. At least they revamped it :).

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Well at least the ride is in working order and had the adjustments to operate in present conditions.

 

Still a shame and disappointment to see most of the original theming removed or delapidated as the drops look dull and naked without the faces and rockwork. Same can be said for the shortened tunnel and other pieces astound. 

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  • 1 month later...
59 minutes ago, Mattgwise said:

Guess that means back to forced sharing of boats then. Something I've liked at Chessington last view seasons is that they haven't forced you to share like in the past.

 

Why would they/did they force it? Is it a H&S thing? 

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On 15/01/2017 at 10:17 PM, Wumbamillio said:

The elephant is (shockingly!) the same. Its been butchered over many years, it was built to smaller scale and was meant to appear bigger from a distance, which is why it now looks tiny when closer to the track. The trunk also seems to have been shortened and the whole thing painted solid grey so doesnt look as nice or lifelike. And its movement probably has never been properly refurbished in 30 years, last it got turned on it moved pretty badly.

 

Goes to show how standards dropped! You'd never think the exisitng elephant could look so good!

The water used to be dyed a teal colour, and yes its always been a closed water system.

 

Cant believe how much better the elephant looks there! Do you know when it was moved to the other side of the track and why? Just seems a bit pointless to move something like that :P Unless it was so it could get guests wet (it looks too far away to do that originally). 

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It could get guest wet easily when it waved its trunk around, that short clip  may not show it though.

It was moved because an eating area was built over the other side I think, it was adapted quite shoddily, with its trunk shortened and painted up very badly. On the other side its too close to the track, so the scale is wrong and you can see how small it actually is... and it was turned off recently because it was a "H&S risk" by distracting riders from their boat bump ahead of them. It should never have been fiddled with and then it would all be fine.

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On Saturday, March 11, 2017 at 11:27 AM, Mattgwise said:

Guess that means back to forced sharing of boats then. Something I've liked at Chessington last view seasons is that they haven't forced you to share like in the past.

This doesn't seem to be the case. A boy two boats ahead of us entered through the SRQ and sat literally on his own in a boat. So yay for throughputs I guess?

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2 hours ago, ChessingtonSam said:

This doesn't seem to be the case. A boy two boats ahead of us entered through the SRQ and sat literally on his own in a boat. So yay for throughputs I guess?

Because today there was no queue at all! I rode it several times and walked on. Wait until the Easter holidays.

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