Something new from Wonderland History

[Guest 239]

14 minutes ago, AlexB said:

We're all about everyone's love for the park - and wouldn't deny anyone wanting to visit. you're welcome anytime... join us for a beer, hey?

I can't deny a beer with the boys! I'll definitely take you up on your offer!

I know there are no hard feelings. There are none on my end as well.  

[Bussy]

@AlexB I clearly haven't been on here for a while so haven't seen your post until now. 

It's been nearly 15 years since I operated Bush Beast so my memory of the control panel is limited.  I'll start from the top of the diagram and photo and go from there;

Key for ON/OFF: pretty self explanatory. There is a difference between the photo and the diagram, the photo has dual key (not sure why) where as the diagram doesn't.

Next three orange lights across the top indicate what brake sections are being occupied by a train, this didn't really matter if a single train was in use.

Emergency Stop: Again self explanatory, only helped if the train was on the lift or approaching a break block.

Lift Start: Only used at the start of the day.

Moving on down to the last button on third row down as everything else was for the maintenance guys. Lap bar release: pressed when the train was stopped in the correct position in the station and often needed to be pressed several times.

Lift  Stop: Only used at the end of the day.

Next two were for maintenance use.

OK Dispatch: Was pressed and held when the train was ready to go for a cycle. From memory was used in conjunction with the button below it Dispatch Brake Release.

Lap Bar Down: Unlocked the lap bar from the open position so that riders could pull down the bar.

Emergency Brake Release: I'm not 100% sure of this but this was either the first section of brakes coming into the station or the brakes on the back curve.

Trim, Ready and Dispatch brake release were the three sections of brakes coming into and including at the platform and had to be pressed one at at time to allow the train to be stopped in the correct position in the station. I'm not sure why the Auto Brake Enable wasn't used.

Further to the photo the black panel with the LCD screen on the top left of the photo was a wind speed and direction monitor, if the wind was at or over a certain speed from a certain direction you weren't allowed to dispatch the train as it would not have enough momentum to get around the back curve and would become stuck.

On another side note there was a manual release for the lap bars, it was a small hole on the upright section of each seat section that required a long bolt to be pushed in and pressed on the right bit and pushed down. We trained the operators in how to do it at the station and was very fiddly to get right. I only had to do it once on the lift hill and it was very difficult to get right. You can just see it in this photo http://www.wonderlandhistory.net/media-gallery/detail/13/260 it's just above the blue hat.

Hope that helps.

[jjuttp]

Is the bus headed to Bushland Beach?