rappa

Okay first... wow Alex you better get your facts straight cause 90mins is SOOO MUCH better than 2 hours lol Second no one in the public really gives a toss whether it's a mad mouse or a galaxy or a wild mouse or called taipan or anything... Mad mouse is close enough for the public to know what they are talking about. Third if they say it was a hat, it was probably likely a hat, they have been known to jam up coasters. and Finaly Alex's comment was actualy 'looks like WL operations got a job at Melbourne' you are confirming that as fact so why are you saying he doesn't know anything? Geeze people, lighten the hell up and try and at least be civil to one and other.

I have to agree that this is one of my favourite flat rides and it is something I do actually miss from wonderland. Even now as an adult I still don't really understand how all the mechanics of that central hub works and would love to see it pictured and explained in detail. The counter rotating gears, hydralic lifts and all the rings contained under that top cap certainly make for some interesting mechanics to watch.

Merely an observation, no need to get defensive. In fact Daniel you're probably the one exception who does say it was **** if it was.

Yes but the timing is certainly damn convenient don't you think? My point is that the park was going down hill for a few years, towards the end of this period rides started breaking... couldn't be perhaps that they weren't given the proper attention in the lead up to them 'suddenly' breaking. I'm not expecting anyone to confirm what I am saying, there is a strange thing about Wonderland. Even though the place was a crap whole by the end an it was a DAMN long time since it was run properly, employees always seem to have the opinion the place was perfect and they could do no wrong... Had the problem with Taz been came around 6 years earlier it would have been fixed. Also a 20 thousand dollar bearing is no little component of a ride, its not general use that SUDDENLY causes components like this to fail. Lets just look at it from face value, the numbers just don't add up.

Sorry to have to bring an adult point of view here (a rare thing in many of these carnie ride topics) but there is a time and a place for jokes. When someone is suffering a misfortune like this it is definately NOT the time. But hey who am I to say anything. If your life is that dull that it brings you joy to bring down others who you don't even know what place is it of ours to stop you...

It is amazing though that in that final year 2 rides which had been operating forever SUDDENLY had critical flaws discovered that needed expensive repairs...

Brissy I think that signatuire is in extremely poor taste and totaly not what these forums are about. Take a good long hard think about it and see if that's what you would like people to post/say about you if you were in a similar situation. Bloody hell, some people... I dunno.

LOL good point. Much like Dragons really...

The other issue with this is weight and transportability. The weight of the ride which was intended as a park model in addition to any extra weight that would be needed in the trailer to stabilise the ride may be too much to be allowed to transport. The other issue is that the design of the ride was not to facilitate easy and regular dismantling and reconstruction so some pretty major mods may be required. I'm sure some of our ex WL employee members could tell us how long this normaly took for anual maint.

I also don't think it would have been possible for Taz to be transportable just because of how it worked. The sheer lateral forces generated buy the awesome 'wave' like motion of the ride would have been too great for a trailer mount version IMO. The ride would end up tipping the trailer or lifting its sides off the ground as the ride hauled itself up and down in its rotations. Still one of the best Flats I've come accross. IMO Taz, Wizards and Endevour were 3 of the best rides at Wonderland just for their uniqueness if nothing else.

Primative? Yes Simple? Yes Damn Good Thrilling Ride? YES!! That is what was so good about the ride, was the last of the more original sort of water rides at the park and something that still had a bit of thrill to it... We lost the speed slide to the damn boring and stupid "Speed Coaster" and that was all we had left. I don't think there is a single ride in the park (maybe except twister which is hell with the amount of water your drink) that could be considered a Thrill ride. Pretty much everything I'd put at a Family level. The good thing about Double Screamer was that you had a little bit of control and the outcome of the ride really depended on you. Most modern slides are simple sitting in a tube and heading down a flume getting a few splashes. Definately sad to see it go after riding it for what I was just told has been 18 years.

OH WHAT! I can't believe they took out double screamer. Easily the best attraction in the park and to just remove it without mention is pretty poor. I would have hoped if they did remove it they would return it to the park in another area but I'm sure they won't. A shame to see a high capacity attraction that is quite unique for us removed for probably another AWL slide that barely differs from the others, requires some sort of tube and hardly gets you wet. Another problem I see here is that was one ride that could be both ridden single or as a double. Many of the recent additions require a minimum of 2 riders. This is hard if a family visits the park with a single older child or someone takes themselves off to the park solo for the day.

I hate you

I don't HATE it but I don't really like it very much. It's just totaly out of place there. Had they spent some money and properly intergrated it with the facade of the building that would have been one thing but the way it's just an aluminium 'box' around the screen is kinda crap. Same goes for the horizontal lateral supports that run from the back of the screen to the building. Nice idea, bad implimentation.

It is easy if they do it on the ground before the ride goes into service for the show. Changing a light bulb that might weigh 100g from a ladder when you have plenty of time, daylight and no public around can't be that hard... compare it to a 50kg fixture, in the day, 15m above the ground, no ladder, hanging from a truss in a harness with 15, 000 people as witness...

Yes I could maintain a 99% bulb count and I didn't actualy say 99% of the bulbs working I said ALL of the bulbs working 99% of the time. If I couldn't do this then I shouldn't be buying/operating rides with lights on them. I would give you the point if Rainbow (or any other ride, we're not just talking about rainbow) was working 100% at the start of the show and some bulbs went throughout the 2 weeks... yes that would be quite difficult to fix but that's not the case now is it? We deal with this every day, if a light isn't working WE FIX IT, if you go to a concert and see a light mis-behaving watch what happens at interval, some poor bugger will have to climb up into the grid and drop it down with a rope and replace it with another. They don't just let it slide for the rest of the show, they fix it as soon as possible. And we're not talking about a $15 bulb here, we're talking about $20,000 pieces of equipment. If we can have spares I think the carnies can manage.

I simpl said once a week in response to another post that was made. Globes should be replaced when they blow, simple as that, no further discussion to be entered into.

I think it may has been mistaken as 'Show Rides' as in a rides with a 'show' component to them ala dark ride... As for your coments Huss yes of course mechanics ie safety is the utmost priority but looks should be a damn close second. IMO The look of a ride is one of the most important aspects. It may be a great ride but if it looks like **** then why bother. Its sad if they can't go replacing globes every few weeks but if they can't then maybe they should look at another business. Its my major peve went things aren't properly maintained. You SHOULD NOT have a ride with 100 globes if you cant keep 100 globes working 99% of the time. Same as you should have a ride themed with effects and fog and you can't afford to maintain the effects and buy the fog fluid (just look at probe).

WOW Rabid that is a bold statement! I am now certainly eagily anticipating the latest addition to the ever growing family of rockets...

As far as I know the only LED bassed affects Franc is using on Idol are chromabanks which he is a big fan of and can be seen in pretty much all tv shows he's currently lighting. Interestesting post Blueman... curious as to what your background is and where the name comes from??? Welcome

As Richard said, for sure Superman will have Magnetic Brakes. The system in use on the Rockets I really like where by the magnets are on the train and the copper fins retract and extend under it. I can tell you from Xcel. that this braking is the smoothest you can you imagine with no 'surge' or anything like that as the high speed is very quicky taken off. The train simply glides through the brakes to a very quick but gentle slow roll around and into the station.

Information has just come to hand that the damn fine Corkscrew Op mentioned above was in fact Bec so full compliments to her on her Parking Perhaps we should get a thread going on here rating all of the SW Op's 'non manual' abilities EDIT: Just to clarify (mostly for those young male coaster fans living in western sydney) that my comment above of "damn fine Corkscrew Op" was simply refering to ride operating ability and nothing else...

Okay after watching the train come into the station a few times yesterday I can go halfway to answer a couple of your questions. Firstly the train comes into the brake run brakes which are always closed, it comes in through these brakes which stop the train with about 2 or 3 cars into the station. The Op then depresses 2 buttons which release these and the station brakes bringing them into the station. After a while the Op seems to let go of one of the buttons (I am thinking maybe this is for the Brake run?) and depending on their skill (the young girl yesterday afternoon was spot on every time) they release the button to stop the train or give it a couple quick presses to get the train into position. The best Ops there seem to just bring it straight in and stop it perfect first go. The dispatch of Corkscrew is done from the front end of the train at a seperate panel. Problem with auto braking is the PLC cannot 'judge' where the train is and where it needs to stop, it simply needs to look at where it is and release and engage brakes as neccesary which often means a much less smooth process. Of course more modern coasters (the Cyclone system is quite dated) slow the train with a brake run and then bring the train into the station with tire drives and then hold it in place once stopped with brakes. Intamins with the new magnetic braking are a perfect example of this.

That looks like a pretty cool ride. Just a shame it sort of has the PP thing going where the main part of the ride is held up by scaff type looking truss structures, not very attractive. A shame given the nice job they look to have done theming the station. If it were to be a Mack coaster I would prefer to see something a little bit more substantial than a lift, turn, drop as that appears to be. If you did just want to go for that sort of ride I'd be going with the Intamin model.

Not really if it looks like in the picture and has a curve to it. Building trusses wouldn't nomaly have round 'rails' and wouldn't be connected with ties in the way coaster track is. The fact it was blue and red also makes it very unlikely to be part of a building project...