DaptoFunlandGuy

In doing a quick search on RCDB, out of 47 coasters that are: Shuttle Sit Down Made by Vekoma, 27 of them are named Boomerang, Plus 1 Zoomerang, not including Visionland. (some results are double ups, as the RCDB includes coasters twice if they relocated - eg: Titan became Demon) Roller Coaster Amusement Park 1Boomerang Bellewaerde Park 2Boomerang Fantasilandia 3Boomerang Freizeit-Land Geiselwind 4Boomerang Geroland 5Boomerang Hafan y Môr Holiday Park 6Boomerang Jerudong Park 7Boomerang Knott's Berry Farm 8Boomerang La Ronde 9Boomerang Parc de Montjuic 10Boomerang Parque de la Costa 11Boomerang Playcenter São Paulo 12Boomerang Pleasure Island Family Theme Park 13Boomerang Six Flags Elitch Gardens 14Boomerang Six Flags Fiesta Texas 15Boomerang Six Flags Marine World 16Boomerang Six Flags Mexico 17Boomerang Tashkent Park 18Boomerang Tivoliland 19Boomerang Walibi Aquitaine 20Boomerang Walibi Rhône-Alpes 21Boomerang Wiener Prater 22Boomerang Wild Adventures 23Boomerang Woobang Towerland 24Boomerang Worlds of Fun 25Boomerang Zygo Park 26Boomerang Coast-to-CoasterGreat Escape 27Boomerang Coast to CoasterSix Flags Darien Lake 28Cobra Walibi Belgium 29Cobra West Midlands Safari Park 30Colossus Habtoorland 31Demon Wonderland Sydney 32Flashback Six Flags New England 33Flashback Six Flags Over Texas 34Head Spin Geauga Lake 35Krachen Al-Shallal Theme Park 36La Via Volta Walibi World 37Ragin’ Cajun Dixie Landin’ 38Sea Serpent Morey's Piers 39Sidewinder Hersheypark 40Space Shuttle Enchanted Kingdom 41Thunderbolt Aladdin's Kingdom 42Tidal Wave Trimper's Rides 43Titan World Expo Park 44Unknown Grandlink World 45Vampire Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom 46Zoomerang Lake Compounce 47Zydeco Scream Six Flags New Orleans

i believe Gazza was being sarcastic, as was I, on the name being unique... Zoomerang was used for another ride of the same design. Given it has a boomerang element, and so many across the world are already CALLED boomerang, Zoomerang is just another play on word(s). Titan and Demon were unique names, and it would seem that our poor demon has been saddled with a name that lacks creativity and uniqueness, and has had it, or a variation, applied to most of the other rides of the same design. the demon as we know it is unique no more. At least Demon was themed reasonably well (as far as wonderland standard goes), and had an entire themed land built around it. Zoomerang will just be a standard ride with standard gates. its name doesnt imply much in the way of theming, so it will just be another carnival type ride plonked smack bang in the middle of their park, wherever they have the space for its footprint.

Adding sparks always adds a risk of fire, regardless of how safe you try to make it. the only "safe" way would be to play a video of the sparks on a screen... Disney's "fire" effect in Pirates of the Carribbean is a white sheet, with an orange and red flickering light behind it, and a fan specially designed to blow the sheet to look like fire - but even in this situation, if the sheet were to catch on the light, a potential fire hazard would exist there as well. the trees you added are small bushes, and the tall trees in the distance are off the rides footprint. planting large trees, big enough to hide this scaffolding, would need to be inside the footprint, and need to be very tall (ala-gum trees etc). Large trees tend to have large branches, and in high winds, these branches can fall off, into the water and cause a hazard. there would be no sensory system that could detect a branch in any one place on the track, without installing sensors every metre along the track (very expensive), so the results would be a branch in front of a boat, which can cause a "Traffic jam" as well as have the potential to cause injury. Also, these types of trees would need a long time to grow. Go and have a look at the photos in the wonderland thread posted by Wonderbuzz. photos in 1985 show a very sparse smattering of sapling sized gumtrees. it took 19 years to grow into what they are now, which only just hides HBLGoldrush from the middle areas of the park. For WBMW to plant enough trees to hide this facade and scaffold and enough time to let them grow, replacing ones that die or fall down early in their life, would be a mammoth, costly and wasteful undertaking, not to mention a very slow way to fix this problem, which, while detracting from the appearance of the ride, most people who ride this ride do not look at this, because they are too busy screaming and hiding from water splashes. it is only very super critical theme park junkies such as yourself and myself who would notice, and complain about this sort of thing. The exit to Batman Adventure is a plain white colourbond wall on one side, and a chain link fence on the other. should they hide this too? bottom line is this sort of thing is either not safe or too costly to hide, and not worth the effort in the end anyway. The only park I know of, who is capable of hiding EACH AND EVERY PART of their back-of-house facilities is Disney, and most of their rides are indoor or underground, so thats a lot easier than a 40 metre mountain. The exception to that rule would be the Matterhorn, but the Matterhorn track is all based inside the mountain itself, and doesnt wind in and out of the mountain like Wild West.

then the same would go for buying a house someone died in, or a car, or driving on a road someone was killed on - ever drive down a country road and see a white cross and flowers along a particularly tight bend? its called ACCIDENTS HAPPEN. I am not condoning Disneyland cutting corners on their maintenance. I would love to go back to the days where their maintenance team was in house - but every corporation is in the business to make money, whether its selling groceries or adrenaline rush, and they need to make decisions. sometimes, those decisions are wrong, and they are learnt from. The point here is that there was not a documented procedure for the operators to follow. They weren't sure what to do. How I read the report, it seemed to me that they had come to the decision to remove it from the circuit after the train had staged and loaded. it is not possible to take the train from the staging area to the storage area, without it doing a full cycle (as far as i am aware), so loaded or not, it would have to return to the disembarking area (which is behind the staging area) to be brought back into the storage and yellow tagged. Once a train is loaded, the cast members would also have wanted to minimise the inconvenience to the guests, as nobody wants to load, then unload and load again - they would be seriously annoyed at the operators. The right thing to do should have been to remove it the moment the noise was apparent, but again, the operators had no clear communication from Disneyland as to what they are supposed to do, in this situation. Disney did all that they could in this situation. While they have accepted blame as the owner and operator of the attraction, it was through no action on Disney's part that this occurred. Disney had all the proper procedures and policies in place. All of the Disney Employees knew the policies in regards to an attraction that was not safe to ride. Train number 2 had a green tag, so they put it into service. it was the external Maintenance contractor who were not educated in the correct greenyellow tag procedure. Repeating - Disney accepted the blame for the accident - of course they did, it was their ride, their operating staff, and the maintenance was performed by a contractor paid for by Disney. for legal purposes, they had to accept blame, but outside of a court of law, what I am saying is that Disneyland Resort California did nothing wrong. it was the fault of the contractor. Thats not what Bus meant when he said that, but as with a grand opening on a ride, every nut and bolt is given a thorough inspection before it is opened again for service. you know there will be no problems after this has happened. Pump 10 Million people through Dreamworld, open it from 10am to midnight EVERY DAY, and then compare death statistics after dreamworld has operated for 50 years. If thunderbolt was still standing after fifty years, im sure it would have eventually had some sort of large issue. Where the report says that the operators had decided to "tag" the train, this was referring to YELLOW TAGGING the train, which would take the train out of service immediately upon its return to the disembarking area. Unlike a ride like Bush Beast, that requires a fair amount of time to bring the second train in or out of service, the operators of BTM are capable of incycling or outcycling a train from or to service in a few minutes, without the assistance of maintenance personnel. Personally I think the only goof in this situation was that the train was signed off by someone who did not do the repair. If the guy who attached the upstop assembly signed off on it, the bolts would have been tightened. And if they weren't then he is solely to blame. A technician who signs off on something that he has not personally checked is just asking for trouble and disaster. this is the only mistake in this entire situation. An operator is not a technician. they are not to know that a slight change in noise is a fault with a train. it could be that maintenance put a new wheel assembly on the train which is a little tighter fitting, and it needs to "burn in" for a few cycles, which is why they cycled the train 12 times before electing to yellow tag it again. I stand by my statement that Disney did nothing wrong. All of their policies and procedures were in place, and available to the external maintenance company. it was the maintenance companies duty to follow those safeguards put in place, and by their own mismanagement - someone died. Disney owns the ride, and pays for the maintenance, so they ultimately are at fault in a legal proceeding, but morally, and responsibly, it was West Reliability Team who goofed up, not Disney.

Remembering that you asked the question "do you think"... trees would become a problem in keeping the ride free of debris. If they were to cover it up, it would need to be walls or more mountain facade. these walls or facades could possibly cause a problem in the event of a fire evacuation. if the escape stairs were enclosed, it would increase the risk of smoke in this area, whereas the current situation allows for superb ventilation to clear the smoke. personally, and from what i gather the opinions of a few others on the site is that they won't. for a person who never saw "the other way" they would not know any different, and the ride is still just as enjoyable, minus a few seconds of extra "thrill" before you're shot out the drop. I also think that the theming that is missing was part of the cause for the fires in the first place - the "sparks" as you climb the lift hill can cause a fire, and the more electrical equipment you have at the top of a drop that utilises WATER is just more of a hazard. Personally I think WBMW has made the decision not to reinstall that theming permanently, because of money, and the potential risks associated with putting it back in. I do not think it will ever be put in, unless they choose to do a complete refurboverhaul on it, and come up with a failsafe way to install it without the risk of another fire...

Not that I have any problem with news and the like being circulated around the web, but its surprising how quickly he jumped on the news... Oh well - pity he didnt offer you the credit of the discovery Buzz... like its his own news report... lol

give em ten points for being unique...

Yes... yes you are. I have on ride footage of BushBeast and Demon, which has been circulated privately to other members (Flea, Paul Hollibone, DjRappa) etc, but up until recently it was only available in MP4 format, and could not be easily edited. I also have Lethal Weapon and Corkscrew on-ride as well. I have since invested in RiverPast's VideoPerspective software, and Ulead Video Studio 8. The first of many - which will be lethal weapon, is in post production at the moment just tweaking some finishing touches, and a few websites have been liaised with to host the video, Richard and R-C.com.au included. One of the sites I have negotiated with wants exclusivity, but is taking their time in getting the files uploaded, so it is highly likely this will be hosted on R-C.com.au very soon. Depending on the recorder you used, your quality is probably going to be better, as this is a hand held (pocket size) recorder, which uses a fibre optic cable to run from the pocket to a strap on the wrist - therefore the quality is pretty low...

as that appears to be the highest point on the ride, i would be inclined to say it is the second. that picture looked to have been taken just after the initial backwards drop, which is after the first lift hill, so the angle of the lift hill shown in the photo would appear to be the second lift would it not?

Bussy, the report details quite clearly that it is an outside sourced company who does the maintenance on Big Thunder Mountain. Final results as to "what went wrong" in this situation, was that the up-stop guidewheel on the decorative locomotive on the front of Train Number 2 had not had its bolts tightened, nor had it had the "safety wire" attached to the assembly. These are two crucial tasks outlined by Disney in the Maintenance manual that were not performed. The train had been "Yellow Tagged" until such time as it was fixed, but the maintenance worked who reattached the upstop guidewheel assembly (and who also did not bolt it on tightly) was NOT the person who signed off on the trains suitability for service, and gave it a "green tag". Again, I am more comfortable riding a disney ride where a couple of people have died, that I would be riding an attraction at a park that has a history of cutting costs in every direction for the sake of a quick buck (dreamworld). How long will it take until the poor maintenance being done on Wipeout causes a strenuous metal fatigue fracture and the whole structure lands on top of the claw? Who knows.... What I do know is that Disney were following all the correct procedures. they had every item documented and catalogued. As far as Disney were concerned, the maintenance operator employed to maintain that train had confirmed it was in safe and working order. The only loopholes and problems associated with the cause of this accident have since been rectified. And Bussy - its the West Reliability Team that performs the maintenance on BTM.

Gosh Adam, you were right - once - after doing research... my work here is done - YOU DID RESEARCH! Damn, and after I just went and praised your research capabilities, I am quite sure that Wild West Falls has TWO turntables - 1) after first lift hill, before reverse drop then a turnaround (reverse park and then forward system) 2) prior to final drop, to rotate the vehicle onto the "drop" track Indeed, it doesnt have a turntable, but unlike all the other examples you provided, and Mummy itself, ToT is not a circuit coaster, and therefore doesnt need a turntable at all. I never talked of reverse drops, but rather the methods with which the cars are then put forwards again. this is a shuttle, just like demon, deja vu etc.... Feel free to keep gloating that I was incorrect. Its not a regular occurrence these days, but when I am wrong, I will admit it... So as I said, keep gloating... you will be back to normal next week when you claim that the Batman Adventure - The Ride 2 Attraction actually has tracks mounted under the vehicles, and they follow a roller-coaster style layout to deliver the motions felt by passengers, all as a result of a tyre drive system, with fire detecting bunnies in the front of the car that chew a carrot if theres a fire, causing the vehicles to reverse back to the station under its own power.

LOL. Just cause you didnt get in first dan... I didnt attack Phats in my first post: I only then referred to him as Shifty Junior in response to Rappa's comment about my being harsh... and in all fairness, this is the sort of thing that would have come from NightShifter. So far, nobody has come up with any reasonable explaination of what this "extra track" would be used for. The only explainations others have come up with are contradicting the initial report.

I have spent the last 2 hours reading that article, associated articles, and the full 22 page report by the department of occupational safety and health (amusement rides division). I can tell you that the following statements were made and accepted as fact, post-accident: Disneyland Anaheim's Big Thunder Mountain Railroad is not considered by the division as inherently dangerous. It was found to meet all quality and control guidelines in its construction. The accident was not as a result of any Guest interference. The accident was not as a result of any Operator error. The safety procedures Disneyland Anaheim have in place were found to be adequate and above average The maintenance personnel, which were all outside-employed contractors were found to be lax in their performance of their duties. The maintenance personnel were signing off on work as completed, without having done the work themselves. No maintenance workers interviewed could demonstrate the correct procedure for "in serviceout of service" protocols for the trains. Cast Members who operate the ride were not properly trained on what to do in the event that a ride emits an unusual noise or other suspicious anomaly. The results of this inquiry were that Disneyland Resort Anaheim would be obligated to re-train all external maintenance personnel associated with big thunder mountain on the correct maintenance proceedures, as well as the "in serviceout of service" procedures. Disneyland Resort Anaheim would also need to modify it's existing operations manuals to define more clearly the procedures cast members should take in the event of a suspicious anomaly in the rides operation. Adam, what you said as far as being put off by Big Thunder Mountain, Space mountain has had the same or more number of incidents as Big Thunder over the past 5 years. There have been (between 1999 and 2003) 5 Major incidents at Disneyland Resort Anaheim, which included 2 fatalities and over 40 injuries. In a related article, from the one you posted, i found these facts and figures for perusal - (http://www.themeparkinsider.com/news/respo...nse.cfm?ID=1296) (figures recorded in 2003) According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (www.census.gov.au) there are currently 20 million people (just over) living in australia. According to Google.com.au and varying sources that were turned up through its search engine, an average of 10 Australians are struck and killed by lightning every year. This means that the odds of getting struck AND killed by lightning are 1 in 2 million. The odds of receiving a lightning related injury are much higher. around 100 Australians are injured every year as a result of lightning strike. Odds of getting INJURED by lightning are therefore 1 in 200,000. Compare this to 1 in 48 million of being killed at Disneyland. I like those odds.

well done Adam, you did some research on your own. keep it up....

that post was to a launched shuttle system though. I can't imagine or conceive of the difficulties in a sliding track section like that being fitted to demon - for one - the original station was shipped to them as well, and it would be a little more difficult to put that into a sliding station version, and secondly, as I recall, the catchwagon begins its descent when the train is staged on its braking column at the correct position. the sliding system would need to be efficient and fast, in order to have the train on the second track in the exact position necessary for the catchwagon to lock on. I see this sort of system causing nothing but trouble to a ride that is already renowned for its difficulties in operation. The only possible uses I can see for the extra sections of track would be - to create a higher lift hill (why?) to creat a longer station (WHY?) to make the inside run of the boomerang longer, to give it a larger footprint (?????) or a transfer section of track, not actually connected to the rest of the ride, on either a truck or trolley or some sort, that they can move the train to to perform maintenance etc....

Lethal Weapon is 35 metres up (+/-)... so this new one isnt going to be that much higher. All rumors so far point to a Rocket Coaster.... with a 40m top hat.... to be opened on December 26.... anyone care to provide further info? *looks at Joz*

ok well since everyone's in the habit of giving the new guy's a nickname - i reckon we call this guy Shifty Junior.

yet again another wonderfully irrelevant post from Albert. PLEASE STICK TO THE TOPIC FATTY

owww man that hurt. lol. you have no idea how old most of us are fatty. now note: your = you're buch = bunch fare = fair but anyway, i'd be careful who you go calling kids around here...

oh yes i recognise this sort of information - its a friend of mine who works there... i dont believe this information to be extremely accurate as - 1)an A/V Cast member wouldnt be in on the operations side of things 2)where in hell are they going to put the extra track sections? the only place they could put it would be on top of the lift hills, or either side of the station. 3) how many other vekoma boomerangs are in the world that look identical to demon, and how many have "Extra track sections" ? 4) how many of those boomerangs with "Extra track sections" got the extra track AFTER the ride was almost 20 years old? im gunna need a bit more information from a reliable source before i swallow this info.

Albert's really set out to put a bee in a few people's bonnets hasn't he? this from a person who is not in it to start an argument... lol. Thats fantastic to see the date more firmly set than what was quoted a while ago as being "some time this year". December 26 is a date a lot of Australian Amusement attractions use to open their new attractions and exhibits. School breaks dont work because the difference between public and private is always a bit sketchy, and most people spend the few days between the start of the holidays and Christmas at home. Opening it on Boxing Day gets all the christmassy stuff out of the way, it gives the park a full "CLOSED" day to pull out all the stops, theme up areas that are in public access areas. it means they dont have to obstruct walkways, and is much easier to give access to heavy machinery for that elaborate artwork or sculpture at the entrance. you'll be surprised what a park can actually achieve when the gates are closed for a good 36 hours straight. But besides that most people dont really "begin" their holidays until christmas and boxing day, so its a good start. Richard is correct though, in saying not to head for the park straight after opening. you might be one of the first to ride it, but it is going to have a lot of teething problems, and the first 2 weeks or so is when the ride's manufacturer's work with the park maintenance personnel to iron out individual glitches, calibrate it properly, and fix anything that would not have been obvious until such time as you have 100Kg guys loaded into the ride. I do not plan on visiting WBMW to ride SE probably until february '06. I visited Dreamworld to ride The Claw 3 days after its opening, only to find that it was closed for half the day with calibration issues, technicians constantly climbing the tower to check things, the floor wasn't rising right and all the rest. When we actually went to queue up for it, it was a reasonable queue, and the ride went without a hitch, but this is not a glorified flat ride that is being added. we're talking a multi million dollar roller coaster, that should hold standards of all the other "superman" coasters out there, and judging from every other ride in WBMW at the moment, will be heavily themed as well. This is going to be a people magnet on opening day. Lovers of Scooby or Wild West, or even Lethal weapon - December 26 will be the day to go, because for a holiday crowd, the queues of these rides compared to SE will be NOTHING. (incidentally, I think I am the first person to refer to WBMW's new Coaster as "SE" so I reserve the right to claim the prestige for such brainy thinking... lol)

well... without ever having ridden it myself, I can answer this yet again obvious question from Adam - cars start the ride in a forwards direction, in the burial chamber, it is reversed, yet when its back at the station, its forwards again. Logic would suggest there are TWO turntables. How else would the cars be turned around to start the ride again? or do they chuck the old cars out at the end of the ride and buy new ones? No... No... wait - i have it - they have 500 cars, and at the end of the day, they run all the cars back through the ride using adams mythical scooby doo on-board propulsion system, from the end, to the turntable, and all the way back to the start at the station... or.. wait - they bring a crane in at the end of every day to turn the cars around, with yet again the same 500 cars in use, and they just lift them, turn them around, and put them back on the station.... that must be it.... yep...

OK - Albert - Daniel is like this. In your first post you mentioned you have read the forums as a guest for a while, you must know already what daniel is like. Secondly, one daniel missed - GrammAr, not grammer. Don't go pointing out everyone else's mistakes until you're perfect yourself... only Richard can do that. Thirdly, Dan, give the guy a break for a while... you've initiated him, let him get his wind back. Fourthly... Albert, if you take offence to being called Fat Albert, please say so in a serious and straight up manner. I am sure nobody wishes to cause offence, just a Nickname. We called Liam Flea, Daniel is Dan, Wonderbus2003 is Bussy, Nightshifter was Shifty, etc etc. Consider it a term of endearment. but if you're not comfortable with it im sure Daniel won't mind dropping it,... but bottom line - thick skin is sometimes needed here because numerous people have differing opinions and sometimes people are going to clash. Finally... LETS GET THIS BACK ON TOPIC PLEASE.....

Adam your fixation with Scooby Doo, and Tyre Drive technology is starting to wear thin. I am no expert on the mechanics of rollercoasters, but ive been able to answer most of your queries in a single post... I dont wish to discourage you from posting on these forums, but let me tell you that the majority of your answers can be found in 30 seconds in a google search. to answer your query (after spending 2 minutes reading through a site found on google... Tyre drive systems impart energy through friction - the tyre rubs against the car, which pushes the car forward. the problem with this technology is it is not capable of high speeds without sufficient speed from the motor, and therefore, a lot of wear from the contact Disney's Test Track first opened with rubber tyres, and through the punishing they received, they were burning out tyres very fast because of the constant high speeds. They now use an aircraft composite wheel which doesnt burn out at high speeds. LSM's and LIM's rely on magnetic propulsion, and therefore, little to no contact is necessary with the car, meaning less wear and tear. LIM's can be used on an entire launch, however LSM's are capable of higher speeds (100mph in about 7 seconds) so, higher speeds, in less time, without the need for lift hills or a gravity drop, and less wear and tear from contact friction. here is info from the site -

I have only been to Disneyland Anaheim, and to try and pick from them is tough. Space Mountain would probably be on top, but it would be impossible to measure the gap between it and - Haunted Mansion Splash Mountain Pirates of the Caribbean which would be the next three i would choose. I saw a documentary on the design and construction of Space Mountain Paris, and the concept behind it, with individually calibrated headrest speakers, and an outdoor launch, sounded pretty good, but everyone who has been on it says its not even close to Anaheim's version. I think all the other parks by Disney are great in concept, but I dont think anything could ever surpass the original Disneyland Attractions.