Tree fell on cable car

[Bussy]

From here. Fifty trapped on fun park ride January 17, 2004 AROUND 50 people were trapped on an amusement ride at a Gold Coast theme park after a tree fell on a cable today. The tree fell on the main cable on the Gondola cable car ride at Dreamworld at 1.45pm (AEST). The tourists are suspended mid-air above the theme park while ambulance crews and fire fighters attempt to pull the tree off. "There are fears if we do not move quickly enough the tree will pull the ride down," said a Queensland Ambulance spokesman. "The ride is absolutely full." The cable car ride offers a panoramic view of the park and transports tourists from one side of Dreamworld to the other. "The Bus is now leaving for The Felled Timber, NSW"

[Slick]

Holy crap! Man, that's going to spark a bit of friction for DreamWorld. I'm guessing midway through the cable car track the tree fell from the island, over the river and onto the cable car track. I would hate to be the ride-op when that happened. News from Sky News that the tree fell from the Australian Wildlife Experience part of the park, near the Emus!!!!!!

[Richard]

Anyone else find the theming for Cyclone at least a little ironic right now? Everyone's reported fine and dandy, so it's an open floor for the varying degrees of humour that exist out there.

[screammachine]

Is it the cable we speak of the Kodak Chairlift Thingy? And how come the cable didnt snap when the tree fell on it? And now for my last question. How come the tree fell over? Was there strong wind at the park?

[Slick]

Here are some answers to your post: A)yes. B)The cables are reinforced to withstand much more than a tree falling down. C)There was very bad weather on the day which caused the tree to snap. :eek: There you go.

[Richard]

Yes, it's the chairlift. It wasn't really a tree that fell, it was more of a large branch - a thick (maybe 25 or 30cm diameter) gumtree branch, which snapped off the tree and landed on the cable. It didn't snap because believe it or not, rides are engineered to take a lot more force than they do in normal operation - for this very reason. As soon as they cut the branch away, they turned the thing right on again to get everyone else off the ride, so it was still operational (it was probably e-stopped in the first place as soon as an operator saw it), and I doubt any damage was done at all. The park was hit by a storm essentially out of no where. The wind knocked the branch over, onto the cable. Really, when you think about it, though it was a significant incident, it really wasn't as bad as you initially think. The ride will more than likely be back in a week or two, after they do some stress checking of the cable and supports, which will come back with clean results.

[screammachine]

Thanks guys for answering my questions. Its really crazy how that could have happened. Sure as hell be thankfull it didnt fall on anyone.

[Nightshifter]

well on that day our friend Andy was there and so was my sister and mother to perform at dreamworld for dancing. My mum said the ride stopped for 4 hours caused by terrential rain, and strong winds which the news calls a mini cyclone. Other than that the whole park was still opened surprisingly.

[Richard]

The only thing that stops Dreamworld is lightning. High winds close Giant Drop and any rain closes Tower of Terror but other than that, the park operates in any weather. It's really quite an intriguingly nice place to be in a downpour if you're dressed appropriately for it.

[Nightshifter]

what was weired was that tower of terro was operating in the rain that day. My mother said it never stopped raining and in fact it got worse. then she went on tower of terror. it seems weired.

[Richard]

It wasn't raining all day in Brisbane, and I assume it was the same down at the coast. I can assure you that while it is raining they're not running Tower of Terror. They'll even walk the track and mop the motors if it has been raining earlier in the day.

[pyro_man]

3rd bad thing for theme parks, amusement parks and fairgrounds lately.

[rappa]

I've always thought that funny how they go and mob the LIMs on ToT given that at DCA they have squirters spraying water all over theirs on Clif. Screamin all day long... it's a pretty cool look to see the steam coming off those babies.

[Richard]

Yeah, they've clearly insulated them differently or something so that they can cool them quicker to allow the Disney-style dispatch times. They're clearly corrosion-resistant too, given the state of that stretch of track (DisneyWater™ isn't too kind to steel). Unless it's something different about the LSM system that causes electrical risk or whatever in rain which isn't a factor with LIMs, I'm pretty well stumped on this one.

[Nightshifter]

first it was movie world with wild west falls, then the fairground accident then the dreamworld fiasco, 2 of which are located on QLD gold coast. im not sure if the other was in QLD , please mistake me for that.

[Richard]

Yeah, they were all at the Gold Coast. We're just waiting on Sea World and Wet'n'Wild now.

[Slick]

With LSMs, the magnets create an electrical discharge, so you can imagine what would happen with 2.2 megawatts of electricity directly in the rain :confused:

[Richard]

But it's not directly in the rain at all. Firstly you've got those outer white boxes which are weather-proof, then inside you've got coils of insulated, presumably copper wire. The only thing getting out, or into these things is some uber huge magnetic field. There's got to be a better reason that one ride, using LIMs can be perpetually exposed to water, while operating, yet one using LSMs can't operate if there's any water at all on the motors.

Did you know that Rainbow's End's Fear Fall Drop Ride is 54 metres? That means in 10 rides you could acheive the same freefall time as the Giant Drop in only 4 rides!!

I just thought I might also point out that a 54m (conveniently ignoring the brakes) tall drop ride will be falling for 3.3s, or 33s in 10 drops. A 119m tower, such as Giant Drop (again without brakes included in the height) falls for 4.9, or 19.6s in four drops. You've forgotten (or didn't know) that gravity is compounding, not linear.

[Slick]

Oh there you go Richard, happy !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Andy_q69]

well on that day our friend Andy was there and so was my sister and mother to perform at dreamworld for dancing. My mum said the ride stopped for 4 hours caused by terrential rain, and strong winds which the news calls a mini cyclone. Other than  that the whole park was still   opened surprisingly.

Woahhhh... You freaked me out then! Just that when I saw you knew I was there, lol. Well, you have that bit correct, and it was one of the worst days at Dreamworld I've ever had. The only good thing was I got to get every ride I wanted to go on in the day. ToT was operating in the morning, but after the unexpected heavy downpour of rain, it was closed for another 2-3 hours due to the weather. I stood under the Nick Stuff shop for 20 minutes watching the rain pour down, non-stop. While I took a ride on TGD, I noticed the skylink wasn't moving. Above the queue little kids were screaming to their parents because they were hungry, scared, thirsty, etc. I felt so sorry for them. After my ride (Being stuck 10 minutes at the top of TGD ), they were still there. I didn't know why it was stuck, but then I heard a operator say that a tree fell on the cables down near the wildlife bit of the park. But after the "mini-cyclone" everything was running perfectly. (I rode Wipeout 7 times in the whole day), an achievement for me. :cool:

[Richard]

It's amazing what Dreamworld did to the offending tree. This was a big gum tree, and they didn't just trim it so that there's no chance of anything like this happening again. They've essentially, for lack of a better word, neutered the tree. I know it's nothing really, but I almost see it as some sort of sick, action movie payback type situation, where Dreamworld have finally got the bad guy and killed him in a big gory battle to the death. Too far? Anyway, here's a shot of the tree (to use the term loosely), it was the tree at the rear that was actually the one involved, but I guess they got his partner in crime while they were at it. I don't have any clear before shots, but you can see the two trees in the distance of this shot (behind the roof, near the chimney).

[joz]

See now Richard, that is why we need photos of EVERYTHING in the park that has the potential to cause harm, including trees, rides, benches, bins, souvenirs windows, buildings animals and management staff.