Parkz News Dreamworld previously modified Thunder River Rapids' conveyor belt

[Parkz News]

Dreamworld previously modified Thunder River Rapids' conveyor belt

At some point in the past two decades, it is believed that modifications were made to the Thunder River Rapids conveyor belt lift hill by removing the majority of the wooden slats that support rafts on the journey up to the unload platform.

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[New display name]

What year was the turntable removed?

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

I don't think they removed it - i think it's just locked - i'm pretty sure they could turn the rotation back on, provided the machinery that drives it still works. Unsure when they stopped though.

[New display name]

A. Concrete ramp to unloading point.  The turntable sat at this height.

B. The turntable ran around the inner circle.  You can still see the outline of it.

C. Concrete slab.

[ashhole157]

In the video Richard posted the turntable does not appear to be working. So must of been stopped early on.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

Thanks Skeet. Been a while since I looked up close. Clearly the turntable is still there. It could be enabled - they'd just need a concrete saw and a jackhammer. Wonderland did similar things with their turntable post-disablement - fixed handrails that spanned from the queue ramp onto the deck and so forth. Nothing irreversible however.

[Brad2912]

I'm sure the rationale behind the change will figure into a large part of the investigation. Smaller gaps would mean less 'grab' ability for things to be caught and pulled along or under 

[New display name]

I have never noticed the rails under the water in the loading section before.   I know this rail system in the photo went in this year.

 

[TheParkFan]

The turntable is shown in use at 6:45 in this video from the late 80s (unfortunately only a few seconds of footage)

And this video from May 1996 shows the whole ride from 14:46 and at 17:50 onwards you can see the lift hill and conveyor with all its original full slat coverage.

[Theme Park Girl]

Yeah. That's actually me and my family riding it in the bottom one. 

[Reanimated35]

On 27/10/2016 at 4:01 PM, YLFATEEKS said:

I have never noticed the rails under the water in the loading section before.   I know this rail system in the photo went in this year.

 

IIRC that was because they had issues with the boats bottoming out there when the pumps were switched off during evacs/other reasons for the pumps to be off. That was done just before the extra stuff was added to that gate to prevent the rafts from floating to the reservoir.