Explosion at SFMM...NOT APRIL FOOLS!

According to our local Newspaper...

"Transformer Explosion Leads to Six Flags Closure"

blah blah blah closed two hours early...two loud explosions...50% of the park without electricity...some visitors stranded on rides...comps handed out to everyone...still working to restore power as of late Thursday evening...

I'm trying to find a link to the paper which has a hilarious picture of a bunch of employees looking dumbfounded about what to do!

Elissa "too bad the explosion didn't take out Deja Vu!" Alvey

That happened one summer when I worked at Hersheypark. The whole park lost power for about six hours. No one was injured, and it was more annoying than anything constantly having people ask when the power would come back on...

dt

It because everytime S:TE launches every light dims in Valencia and they slowly gets weaker, weaker, weakr then they Short Circuit and BOOM!

Yes I made that up. And Yes there is no point to this post. And yes I'm starting sentances with 'and' and I put a capital Y in 'Yes' in the last little phrase thing.

Okay this is weird.

You know this happened to me in Cedar Point. The electricity went out for two hours. It was also the day MF got stuck at the top. So, the advice is if the park's electricity goes out go to the waterpark or in the case of SFMM, go to Knotts and brag how much better it is! (Oh,I forgot Knotts is knot fun).

According to our local Newspaper...

 

"Transformer Explosion Leads to Six Flags Closure"

 

blah blah blah closed two hours early...two loud explosions...50% of the park without electricity...some visitors stranded on rides...comps handed out to everyone...still working to restore power as of late Thursday evening...

 

Elissa "too bad the explosion didn't take out Deja Vu!" Alvey

That happened to us last October at SFMW. There was an accident on the freeway that knocked out power to the park. Everything was closed up by 3:00, and we finally were able to get out of the parking lot at 10:00.

We got NUTTIN' for our trouble.

That happened to my friend once, he was in Sea World and there was a thunderbolt and the Kraken went out. My friend says he was looping and right on the top of the loop is when the ride went out

He says he was there upsidedown for about 45 Minitues. When the lights came back on They had to put the ride in reverse.

:shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock:

That happened to my friend once, he was in Sea World and there was a thunderbolt and the Kraken went out. My friend says he was looping and right on the top of the loop is when the ride went out

He says he was there upsidedown for about 45 Minitues. When the lights came back on They had to put the ride in reverse.

 

:shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock:

That is impossible! It is impossible because coasters run on gravity and you can't get stuck upsidedow. Unless you put TRIM BRAKES at the TOP OF A LOOP! That story is impossible unless Kraken has trim brakes on its loops!

Kevin"Why can't trim brakes be extinct with the dinosaurs! : : " Bujold

That is impossible! It is impossible because coasters run on gravity and you can't get stuck upsidedow. Unless you put TRIM BRAKES at the TOP OF A LOOP!

I know it sounds like a huge lie but i once turned on the news ages ago and saw just that, a coaster upside-down on a loop stuck with fireman trying to get them out, i dont know wot caused it but i wouldent think a power cut would have done anything, it was a no-inverted de-javu style coaster with just 1 loop and a simple (painful) lap restraint i think, does anyone eles know anything about this? I'm sure I'm not dreaming, i need some closure here why the heck did it stop!!!

Yes, there was such an event. It was a huge news story.

I was thinking of starting a thread about it actually, because I'm curious. Seriously, how the hell could that happen? The only thing I can think of would be something like an intense wind slowing the train down as it went down the hill, just enough so that it couldn't clear the loop.

And that scenario seems flat out impossible. So what else could do it? A train can't just stop anywhere on the track, right?

edit: This did NOT happen on Kraken. My baby wouldn't let me down like that

I found this out about getting stuck upside-down it only says this: 'At Six Flags Great America, a train full of passengers was stranded upside down for three hours on a vertical loop on the Demon rollercoaster. This was a very famous incidence and the whole world was shocked when treated to images of children trapped upside down for hours.'

from: http://www.coasterforce.com/information/accidents.shtml

(down the bottom of the page do a search on the word loop to find it this is all it says tho)

Yep. July 1996. I was just about to post that

Too bad it doesn't say how it happened. Seriously, it doesn't make any sense. Anybody know?

I think the Kraken story was supposed to be an April Fools joke...if not, please seek help right away.

As for getting stuck upside down, it's possible, just not likely. It DID happen at SFGAm and I believe at SFB...if a wheel assembly breaks, or there is some other MAJOR damage they can get stuck.

Elissa "it would be cool getting stuck upside down" Alvey

I thought I remember reading an article about it had something to do with the wheel assembly somehow snapping then the hanging piece getting caught up in the crossties. That or something with the wheels, I think it was one of those, but I'm not positive.

I found this out about getting stuck upside-down it only says this:

I am fairly certain that happened on Zonga! at SFMW a few years ago, too.

]

Low speed won't be enough to stall a train in a loop. Maybe one of a gazillion occasions would result in it stalling for a few second, but nothing more. As far as I know, the Turbine accident happened because of a broken wheel assembly, and extremely bad luck. It can't be fun stalling upside down, anyone who've experienced the slightest bit of hang time with lap bars ahould know. *shudders*

Arrow actually designed Demon with a safety system in the trains that would stop it if there was a malfunction with any part of the wheel assembly. The axle (and some other part of the wheel assembly) did break in one of the cars, engaging the safety system, stopping the train in the second loop. No one was hurt.

However, a much more scary incident happened with the Mindbender at West Edmonton Mall. There was no safety system in place, like the Demon had for wheel assembly malfunctions, and they think the cause of the accident was because of faulty maintainence. Three people died in the incindent, after their car slammed into a concrete wall. You can read about it here: http://schwarzkopf.coaster.net/ESmindbender-edmontonHF.htm

^ I have seen the Rescue 911 (or was it realTV) show on this event and I can confirm that it was the wheel assembly. The passenger described it as "grinding to a stop". They hung there for a good bit too, before being removed with a "cherry-picker".

One day this past summer while I was operating Shivering Timbers we has this huge storm so there was no one in the station and we were cleaning the blue train and then lightning actually struck the brake run and a transformer across the street at Lincoln Golf Course and knocked out power to the whole park and it was like 2pm so they had to close the park and sent home everyone. That was scary because the brake run is like 20-30 feet from teh station where I was standing, and I was cleaning hte train and I defenitly felt the electricity, scary.

I was staying at Hotel Breakers at Cedar Point late August last year and the power went out. The couldn't get the roller screen up to get through the turnstiles so they let us through the glass doors on the side, at the Magnum gate. Fortunately it appeared most of the rides were operating including TTD, which gave me a wonderful 3 rides in 15 mins.

I found this out about getting stuck upside-down it only says this:

 

I am fairly certain that happened on Zonga! at SFMW a few years ago, too.

]

Zonga has never been stuck upside down. Boomerang was the only coaster even remotely considered to be "stuck upside down." The truck ever released correctly off the back of the Boomerang train and ripped the cable right out of the lift. The train and cable went though the station and the cable end up winding itself around a support as the train went through the cobra. This haulted the train and only the front part of the train was slightly tilted but never really inverted.

Now you know the REST of the story.