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The Smiler


th13teen

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Not all Gerstlauers are as bad as Saw. I can only vouch for the 10 or so of their rides I have been on but none of them even come close to the pain and misery that Saw inflicts on me.

Only problem being most of those rides invert you 2-3 times or not at all. This thing could be brutal.

Well, you said on Facebook, Tornado at Bakken was your new worst ride you have ever been on ;)

anyhoo On my mini meet yesterday, we had the very odd experience on Saw of the left hand side of the train being silky smooth and the right side of the train, being the most jolted headbanging and most painful experience you could wish to experience, it was very odd...

Hopefully Smiler, doesn't inflict the same pain on us rightsiders :P

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The queue line looks awful now, you cant really blame H&S for it, even if they did advise them to cover it they wouldnt specify they have to buy the cheapest rustiest metal they can find.

About it being rough, it does look abit rough in moments but maybe thats just the videos

480287_10151703919558185_783939039_n.jpg

It seems to have lost alot of paint from this section of track though.... (From TT)

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Not all Gerstlauers are as bad as Saw. I can only vouch for the 10 or so of their rides I have been on but none of them even come close to the pain and misery that Saw inflicts on me.

Only problem being most of those rides invert you 2-3 times or not at all. This thing could be brutal.

Hmm. See, now the one main problem I find with the 3 Gerstlauers I've ridden is the tightness of the track leading to the snappy transitions into inversions/turns. The Smiler, as awesome as it looks, just screams rough and I don't mean 'Colossus rough' or 300 year old stone slide rough, it's those pesky tight turns and inversions. Everything about this ride just doesn't appeal to me in terms of wanting to ride it; these rides are just glorified fairground rides.

I will go on the ride with an open mind... I just hope it's intact once it's done.

Regards to the fencing. Wow. Just... wow.

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It's a shame that they weren't advised earlier, or didn't taken action if they were, about the Queue lines having to be enclosed.

With the comments about rusty metal, yes it would be a lot more appealing if it was painted, or even galvanised but some metal can rust like that very quickly, go and buy a bit of box section mild steel or concrete reinforcing bar and leave it outside, the surface will rust very quickly, so I don't think it was just any old scrap bit of metal mesh.

I am quite sensitive to rough rides, gives me a banging headache and if this is anything like some of the others then it may not be rerideable.

Tom.

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The queue line looks awful now, you cant really blame H&S for it, even if they did advise them to cover it they wouldnt specify they have to buy the cheapest rustiest metal they can find.

About it being rough, it does look abit rough in moments but maybe thats just the videos

480287_10151703919558185_783939039_n.jpg

It seems to have lost alot of paint from this section of track though.... (From TT)

Since that paint 'loss' is down to the train wheels running along the track, an issue that plagues ALL rides, nope, won't be repainted...

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By one person...

Cannot see how it's a valid comparison though... You can see on Juvelen, another ride new for 2013, it suffers a similar issue...

425178_10152875987040220_138774426_n.jpg

What happens when new wheels are being run in, friction will take the paint off after some time of running on a constant basis... Fact of life, but to compare it to Colossus is slightly over-exaggerating the situation...

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I'm sure there will be some serious discussions and repercussions throughout Alton/Merlin management for the entire screw up of this project. Hold ups happen but the way the project has been rushed over the last four weeks has meant the ride has hit problems and now instead of a ride opening later in the season is just disappointing people who have planned visits based on Alton giving out an opening date.

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A very interesting article here by TowersTimes which explains one of the set backs for the project, and how the HSE was involved with dealing with errors made during the groundworks process.


The main contributing factor to the ride's failure to open in March was severe issues with the groundwork during the early part of the construction. This was hampered considerably by a major breach of Health & Safety regulations committed by subcontractor T G Cruse Groundworks Limited, as detailed below:

"Failure to provide trench supports, box's or battering to ensure that the sewer pipe trench (or part of it) did not collapse."

"Failure to provide supports or battering to ensure that the faces of sections of the main excavation (or part of it) at the site of the new ride did not collapse."

HSE report: http://www.hse.gov.uk/notices/notices/Notice_details.asp?SF=CN&SV=304321528

http://old.towerstimes.co.uk/news/news.php?subaction=showfull&id=1369595511&archive=&start_from=&ucat=1,10,11&

EDIT:

This did make me laugh... hahaha oh dear!


'I'm hugely disappointed I never got to go on it. It's called The Smiler and I was sitting there thinking what is there to smile about."
Global Superstar - Tinchy Stryder

Edited by Luke_A
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Definitely. I get that there have been setbacks with weather and all sorts of things but the second track wasn't even fully complete yet and they announced there will still aiming for a late May opening? I lost faith that very second. I don't know if I'm the only one that thinks that I'd rather them delay the opening and announce that way beginning of this year and say it'll be ready for Summer and then have soft openings and maybe open it early thereby exceeding guest expectations than under delivering in what appears to be a complete press shambles so far.

I mean on top of the delayed opening, I remember watching the news segment on Smiler and they said it had opened when it hadn't yet. I get that that could well be a fault of the News network but its just been a calamity with press in the run up to opening to say the least.

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A very interesting article here by TowersTimes which explains one of the set backs for the project, and how the HSE was involved with dealing with errors made during the groundworks process.

Decent find, explains a lot about the initial delays to the project...

Just seems to make it seem less of Towers' direct fault really... Couldn't prevent the weather related issues which really was the next major delay...

Right shame really then that it decides to crash as well, just to really complete the set... Dunno why people are shocked June is likely right now considering it's next week...

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Think the most hilarious thing about that article is the 'Tinchy Stryder - Global Superstar' chart, he hardly charts in this country let alone internationally. Anyway it's a shame about it still not being open, but hopefully with this extra time, they'll be able to finalize things and finish off things and make it the best it can be. They might as well get it perfect (or as close as possible) if they've missed the deadline several times.

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TT seems to enjoy using the words "major" and "severe". What arse.

I'd love to know their source for this "foreseeable future" that The Smiler will close for. A valleyed train? Happens all the time in testing. And it's quite the coincidence it happens just after trim fins were added to both airtime hills. This "major incident" is basically over-trimming. Probably a bit gusty that day too. Still enough to throw half of TTF into a meltdown about the ride's opening possibly being delayed for another forty years.

Just because the wording of the closure alert on Towers' website changes from "The Smiler won't be open today" to "The Smiler is currently closed" doesn't mean The Smiler won't open soon. It's what the whinging "enthusiasts" at TTF have been wanting for ages - for Towers to stop updating them and the GP "only 20 hours in advance" of the next day that the ride won't be opening. To me it's a good sign. From photo updates we can see the amount of construction that's been going on in the last week and how close they are to finishing the ride queue; final touches like covering the substantial gap between the ground and the gate that blocks off the cherry picker access path and fiddling about with that support. They've also finished the disabled access fire escape round the back of the building and covered most of the queueline that required covering.

I'm hopeful the ride will open soon. It's not my business to speculate about management cock-ups. That's Towers' and Merlin's business and very little I or anyone else says will make much difference, regardless of how much it should.

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