Mad Mouse Break Down

[T-bone]

Come-on Children, be nice to each other. Give some people in this world some respect.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

If only maint. at Wonderland put as much effort into their work when they were at the park as they do in posting maybe the park wouldn't have been so  poor. Sorry to be harsh but IMO the maint. at WL was 'band aid' at best.

I have nothing against the maintenance team at WL. i knew a lot of them and was good friends with some as well.... personally, i believe the blame for most of the incidents you could classify as "band aid" were due to management's niggling over money. can't fix a ride without the proper tools and parts.... there were however some incidents that cannot be faulted on anyone except maintenance personnel... like bussy's picture of the plc board at SP... with the little RIP notice taped onto it...

[rappa]

Not saying it's all their fault just that the upkeep in general at the park was crap and that is a very important thing. That is one of the biggest differences you can notice between say DW and SW is the level of upkeep. I know you can't do a job if you're not given the money or parts but I have a simple rule in my work. If I can't do it right, I won't do it. I would sooner go without the work than do a dodgy job, if everyone had that attitude we would all be living in a much nicer place.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

yeah but clint - do you use a MAC 2000 P for the static placement of a gobo, when you could use a profile and get the EXACTsame result? EVERY company goes with a cheaper option... and if its cheaper to say... turn the bearing over to wear it on the other side, than buy a new bearing... then most companies would do that... One company I used to work for had many locations around the country, each with a single laser printer. there were 130 locations, and they had 260 printer cartridges. when you finished your old one, you sent it to head office, and they had someone there, who spent all day refilling the toner cartridges out of a drum, and sending it back to the location who sent it to them... we generally got our "new" cartridge within the week... which was plenty of time before the one that was in there died. its a fine line between money, and usefulnessefficiency

[Daniel]

however long it took to fix skyrider... something more should have been done in that time. And how do you know it was EXACTLY 90 minutes? is there a stopwatch on a ride that starts automatically the instant it breaks down? i dont think so. so add on extra time for the operator to realise there is a problem, bell it to the other station, wait for the radio channel to be free, then call in to the control room,also bear in mind that once it starts up again, its a minute or two before the passengers make it back to the station, and many other little bits and pieces, your 90 minutes can balloon quite quickly... tell us.... how DO you know it was exactly 90 minutes?

No stop watch Alex old son but it's immediately logged in the logbook by the operator and also by the plastic cop working at post when the ride is called down. Funnily enough it's also logged when the status changes. (Again at both places) hence it being known it was 90 mins.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

90 minutes by the paperwork maybe. i still disagree that it can be claimed to be "exactly 90 minutes". there are variables there that can not, and will never be accounted for. i was working right next to skyrider during that incident. i never pulled out a stopwatch but i can tell you it was wayyyyyyyy too damn long for the woman in the cabin closest to the station with an infant and a 4 year old. Skyrider goes delta in high winds. this is because of the safety of the passengers in the cabins during high wind. what could have happened if we got high winds while it was charlied? My only insistance here is that for the time the ride was down, no emergency services crew, police rescue, the S.E.S., fire brigade, or the local brickie with a cherry picker were called to aid the passengers stranded on that ride.... for 90 minutes or 120 minutes.... WHO CARES? it was too long either way.

[rappa]

Well first of all anything that involved a Mac 2000 doesnt mean your doing a good job because for the record I hate those friken things but anyhow... Just because I'm using a profile as opossed to a mover doesn't mean it's going to look bad. And no there is NOTHING wrong with turning a bearing over if its fine to do so and it extends the service life. Don't get me wrong, I'm saying things should be done GOOD, not expensive... I wasn't specifically talking about Mechanical Maintenance, more just park upkeep in general.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

yes well we all remember when the "water troughs" in goldrush collapsed from the wood rot and almost landed on top of a woman who was sitting on a bench breastfeeding, while watching snowy... oooooooooooooooo Zoe had fun that day... and the next day..... THEY WERE ALL GONE WITHOUT A TRACE! lol just because you hate the 2000, doesnt mean it is not a good multi-purpose mover. I never said a profile would make it look bad, i was talking about a number of things - if you use a mac, you need a controller, someone who knows DMX, and an expensive bulb. in a profile, the bulb is generally cheaper (depending), and can be positioned prior to the show by hand, and plugged into an analog dimmer, or hell - even a quad pack or single dimmer would do it.. and you have the same effect. The point i was making about lighting was simply that in that particular scenario, you have two things that will do the job... one will cost more to do than the other.... both delivering the same result.... which one are you gunna pick? so taking that analogy to the Maintenance aspect of WL, why replace the bearing, when it can be turned over? yes thats right - theres nothing wrong with it, but the comparison i am making with the lighting comes here to say - why use a mac (replace the bearing) when you can use a profile (turn the bearing over) ?

[rappa]

Yeah like I said, doing something cost effective is fine. It's doing it half arsed I have an issue with. When the public can notice, that's when its not asseptable I hear you Bus. Perfect example today, sugestion was made at work to replace all the fans in our dimmer racks (cost about 500 bucks for 30 units). Mgmt deamed that a waste... so today a one catches on fire... quite possibly 2.5grand down for a new rack. 500 bucks of fans not so bad now hey

[Bussy]

i can tell you it was wayyyyyyyy too damn long for the woman in the cabin closest to the station with an infant and a 4 year old.

If this is the incident I am thinking about, Wonderland was taken to court over it. The woman claimed 'emotional distress' after being stuck on the ride. If the woman had just sat there and enjoyed the view everything would have been ok but she started freaking out within 15 minutes of the ride stopping, this caused her children to freak out with inflamed her emotional state. Can you tell me what could have been done to rectify this any quicker than it was.

Skyrider goes delta in high winds. this is because of the safety of the passengers in the cabins during high wind. what could have happened if we got high winds while it was charlied?

Not much as a Charlie was a higher level than a Delta. Seriously nothing would have happened anyway because what happens in a Delta? The ride is shut down. What happens during a Charlie? The ride is shut down. The main reason SkyRider was closed during high winds was the same reason a cabin would be closed on Space Probe, and that reason is to protect the cables of the ride.

My only insistance here is that for the time the ride was down, no emergency services crew, police rescue, the S.E.S., fire brigade, or the local brickie with a cherry picker were called to aid the passengers stranded on that ride.... for 90 minutes or 120 minutes.... WHO CARES? it was too long either way.

Ok here is what would have happened if the emergency services were called. The ride would have been Charlied for 30-45 minutes and all attempts to start it up again had failed. Authorities are contacted. Parts of the park would be evacuated so the appliances could access the ride. Authorities turn up and take 15-20 minutes to evacuate each gondola. Now add up all that time and tell me how long the people in the last gondola will be waiting. "The Bus is now leaving for Delta Downs, Queensland"

[T-bone]

This Skyrider Incident we are all talking about here, was it an actual incident, or just a ride breakdown? Would anyone like to share the light on this issue in full?

[Daniel]

Did you read any of the previous posts Pauly Boy? Try it old son! It does wonders for your knowledge.

[T-bone]

Yes, I know the ride charlied, but why is it so important that the ride had to have emergency staff on hand (alex's wish) to just fix a broken down ride? Was it something as simple as a broken ride, or something like the Kodak Skylink accident at Dreamworld?

[Wazza1]

If this is the incident I am thinking about, Wonderland was taken to court over it.  The woman claimed 'emotional distress' after being stuck on the ride.  If the woman had just sat there and enjoyed the view everything would have been ok but she started freaking out within 15 minutes of the ride stopping, this caused her children to freak out with inflamed her emotional state.  Can you tell me what could have been done to rectify this any quicker than it was."

Nahh Bussy, this was a different one. I know this one that you refer to rather rather well.That particular one, that you refer to the woman was off the ride in under 20 mins.

[Wazza1]

*changes "over 2 hours" to "a heck of a lot more time than it should have taken to either repair, or call emergency rescue"* Geez.... these maintenance and operations people get really defensive dont they? however long it took to fix skyrider... something more should have been done in that time. And how do you know it was EXACTLY 90 minutes? is there a stopwatch on a ride that starts automatically the instant it breaks down? i dont think so. so add on extra time for the operator to realise there is a problem, bell it to the other station, wait for the radio channel to be free, then call in to the control room,also bear in mind that once it starts up again, its a minute or two before the passengers make it back to the station, and many other little bits and pieces, your 90 minutes can balloon quite quickly... tell us.... how DO you know it was exactly 90 minutes?

Believe me I know.... I am sure that Dan will back me up in the fact that I know

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

Not much as a Charlie was a higher level than a Delta.  Seriously nothing would have happened anyway because what happens in a Delta?  The ride is shut down.  What happens during a Charlie?  The ride is shut down.  The main reason SkyRider was closed during high winds was the same reason a cabin would be closed on Space Probe, and that reason is to protect the cables of the ride.

What I am saying here, is that the ride is shut down when winds reach a certain level to protect damage being done to certain vulnerable parts of the ride... So when Skyrider goes Delta, the cabins are all secured in-station, and the cable stops. If the ride is charlied, this means the vulnerable parts of the ride (the cabins) are then exposed to a wind at height. Im not saying Delta was a higher alert level, im simply saying what if delta levels of weather began while the ride was already charlied, leaving people stranded in a cabin, which is no longer hanging gently high above the park, but swinging violently in a heavy wind. Lets say Maintenance's response time from their current location to the ride is 10 minutes. (Our TL's and Sup's could go from Beastie to Beast in 6 minutes) they spend 10 minutes determining what the error is, and how to fix it, if possible. if they could not have it fixed 10 minutes after that (so no more than 30 minutes since it went down) ERS should have been called in.

[Zamperla]

the ride is shut down when winds reach a certain level to protect damage being done to certain vulnerable parts of the ride

I'm not so sure about the truth to this comment - sounds like something ride operators are typically told by management. Wind conditions with operating amusement rides are more likely enforced for rider safety, ultimately by WorkCover. Same as lightening. Go easy on the park emergency code speil eh? Copy that? Get a Zulu up ya.

[Bussy]

I said the main reason was to protect the ride not the only reason. Rider safety was a big factor but not the main one (except for wind at Bush Beast), lightening is completely different. Alex, if there was a Charlie it would be well under 10 minutes for maintenance and supervisors to arrive. But that is just me being pedantic. Anyway 30 minutes, in my mind, is too short a time frame for emergency service to be called in for something that is really minor. Once it is getting on for 60 minutes management would start looking at that option. The park is now a signal 61. "The Bus is now leaving for Roaring Wind Mountain, NSW"

[T-bone]

Signal 61 being?

[Zamperla]

Just curious, were you allowed to run any rides in manual operation at WL? or were they all set to automated cycles and times?

[Bussy]

The majority of the rides that were open at the end could only be operated in automatic. The only exception to this was Bush Beast. Due to a problem with the PLC the ride could only be operated in manual for the last couple of months. Any other rides that could be operated in manual could only be done so by maintenance and the supervisors as the general operators were not trained to do so. Signal 61 means all rides closed. It was only used at the end of the day. Signal 61 was used all the time though but it was followed by Alpha (ride breakdown, no guests), Bravo (protein spill), Charlie (ride breakdown, guest on board), Delta (bad weather) and then the ride name or code number. "The Bus is now leaving for Codernah, Queensland"

[Zamperla]

Protein spill? lol. are you serious?

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

Most parks across the world utilise codewords for all sorts of things, and Protein Spill is one of them. When you are "escaping from everydayland," you dont want to overhear someone go "someone just hurled" or "i gotta clean vomit out of that ride" or something like that... particularly if you're feeling a bit nauseous yourself... Variations on the codewords include: Bravo Protein Spill Code 'P' or Signal 'P', as well as the letters V and S (for Vomit and Sick) I know that the last time I was in Disneyland I overheard "Code P" on Space Mountain.