jasicia

I would prefer not to put pictures up of remote areas of Scenic World that have significance to ride safety, so I'm sorry, but I won't post photos of the top anchor. I will tell you the design is the same as the bottom anchor. This is done to minimise rope wear, and design out the need for slow moving rotating joints which previous verisons of the anchors had which didn't work very well.

We are uncertain who designed the first counterweight for the Railway in the early 50's, but we belive it would be a consulting engineer named Bill Wingrove who was doing work for Harry at the time. He also did a lot of design work on the Skyway. The counterweight was definately built in house. I can tell you the top anchor was merely the rope wrapped around a big wooden telegraph pole that was dug into the rock. The bottom anchor was just the rope wrapped around the big rock still used today, with a wooden saddle about 30m up the hill (you can still see it today). The original winch was extended to accomodate the counterweight by bolting onto it a twin drum winch (a twin drum, was needed as this is when the Railway went to 2 ropes and a counterweight), the drum was obtained from Harry Stride, of Strides Boatyard in Balmain. The winch was off a mine sweeper. Bill Wingrove also designed the first aluminium Scenic Railway car that was installed during this upgrade.

The project didn't stop dead after the track was finished. The Orphan Rocker was built on site at Scenic World and was the first roller coaster as far as we know to have been built completely in Australia. This meant that the coaster was an evolving beast with trial and error involved in getting everything right. The interesting thing about the standards is that when the coaster was first built there wasn't an amusment standard in Australia. The first version of AS3533 (Amuement rides and devices) came out in 1985 as far as I know (by then the track and train was already built). Because the Orphan Rocker was not open at that stage it then had to comply with that standard before it could open. That lead to quite a bit of rework in the electrcial systems and the train. The evolution of the rides systems and trains continued on for about 10 years after that time as modifcations were made for reliability and passenger comfort. The coaster was only being worked on during weekends when management had time, which is why this took so long. It was never anyone's full time job, or I'm sure it would have been open long ago. Eventually Scenic World decided to concentrate it's money and management's time on finding a new way to get passengers in and out of the valley as the Railway was reaching capacity (hence the building of the cableway), then onto the completion of the upgrade of the rest of the building and finally the Skyway. It not a very exciting story, which is probably why there are so many myths out there about it. To answer Jobe's query, the best I can give you is what is written above. In the next 2 years, we will not be developing the Rocker, after that I cannot tell you, that is up to the board of directors and the vision they have for the business. It might seem like putting the Rocker in would be a great money spinner, and everyone in Australia would come, but there are lots of other factors and it isn't quite that simple. However, I am always happy to hear that there are people keen to go on it, as if you guys aren't out there then it definatey wont happen.

Given that track has now been there for 20 years, it is safe to assume that some track work would have to be carried out if the Rocker were to be opened, and given that there is over 800m of track which is pretty long for a coaster the cost of the track and civil works in the terrain we are on would be substantial.

I understand that fans find it frustrating, I too love the ride and enjoy it immensly having been one of the lucky ones to ride it. I can assure you that we couldn't have spent the $30 million differently or we would have, and to include the rocker would have meant $15 -20 million dollars out of the budget (it is not going to be a cheap thing to get operating). So, if the $30 million had included the rocker there would be no Skyway and probably only half a builidng which wouldn't not have been an intelligent way for us to spend our money. The business couldn't afford to spend the extra $15-20 million so it wasn't done at the time. I'm sure that's not the answer you want to hear, but that's the truth of the matter.

As much as everyone (including me) would love to see the Orphan Rocker open, you need to understand that we have to run a business. There are other business contraints in place that affect whether it is opened, worked on, pulled down etc. It is not as simple as you might think, especially given the enviroment that Scenic World operates in (eg. GFC, major swings in market origin, and other financial constraints placed on the business). As much as no one likes hearing we would like to open it one day, that has never been a lie, but it has to fit into the business plan, and it would irresponsible of the company directors to approve the expenditure of millions of dollars on a project that the business couldn't afford. Also if you have visited Scenic World in the last 8 years you would have noticed the 30 million dollars or so we spent on redeveloping the site. It desperately needed it and this was the priority so the Orphan Rocker has had to wait, unfortunatley the bucket of money is only so big. In the immediate future (ie the next 2 years), I will tell you it is not in the plan, as the business has other prioities. However we will not pull it down because if/when we do decide to develop this then having the structure already in place makes getting further approvals for such a task much easier. So if it means leaving it there for another 10 years while we make up our minds that is what we will do, and anyone who asks will continue to get the same answer about whether or not we are going to open it. Besides all that... it makes you keep talking about the place! If anyone is interested in the book I mentioned, they are available from our souvenir shop, if you send an email to info@scenicworld.com.au, they can organise payment and mail it out to you.

I don't remember seeing any photos of it that long ago around the place, the Managing Director might have some buried somewhere, I would have to get back to you on that one. It is maintained like every other piece of equipment at Scenic World as part of our maintenance program. It is just a piece of mechanical machinery so it gets regularly inspected, greased and maintained. Nothing very exciting about it really. If anyone is interested the Managing Director just finished writing a book about the History of the Mines here including some history of Scenic World and a shale ropeway that went from the current Scenic World all the way across the Jamison valley to the Ruined Castle.

Hello, I'm the engineer up here at Scenic World. The counterweight was last upgraded in 1994, at which time the counteweight was rebuilt to include walkways on the sides, but it used the same tank as the previous model. Prioir to that the counterweight had a very similar design structurally (but no catwalks) and as I said the same tank. The tank was filled with water at that time and it is now filled with steel to get the extra weight that was needed when the Railway went from 2 to 3 cars. The water filled tank design was installed in approx 1973. I hope that answers your question.