Emergency Stop on Thunder Canyon

I was talking with someone who will be working on Thunder Canyon, and he mentioned that a couple times last year the ride had to do an Emergency Stop, which turns off the wave machines and puts on an anti-current to slow the flow down.

However, neither of us had any idea as to why this would be necessary... you can't stop the current, because of gravity, and to my knowledge there really isn't areas where the rafts themselves would get stuck, at least stuck to the point where the ride has to be shut down.

Just curious, if anyone knows.

Uh, as far as I know, you turn off the pumps, the water stops. I've never seen them shut down, but I've seen the start up, and it's absolutely amazing to me how fast that thing fills up.

There's a lot of quick work at the loading platform that needs to be done to keep boats from stacking up outside of it (since the platform stops). All the boats still coming in need to be redirected into the storage area next to the platform to keep the stacking boats from flipping over when they collide with each other.

Other than that I don't think there's much that needs to be done, but I do know it takes more than one person to ensure it's done right.

At a park back here in utah we have the same type ride. It takes 20 minutes to fill the river. And during an All Systems Stop (Emergency Stop), the pumps stop, the wave machine stops, and the river drains. And than the guests are evacuated, than the ride is started back up, and a test run is preformed. I dont know if it is the same for thunder canyon, but I think it may be reletivly close

LeGrand

Sorry, I think I asked the wrong question, though I like the responses... I was curious why they would NEED to do an Emergency Stop on it... this is one of those rides where I can't see a real big cause that would make a stop necessary.

*Somebody takes too long getting on and almost (or does) fall into the water.
*Somebody takes too long getting off, or gets off too early
*A boat going up the lift slips off of it repeatedly
*Somebody's shoelace gets caught in the platform
*A life guard on the course spots somebody who falls off
*Power outage

Oh, and how about just plain guest stupidity. I'm sure you'll see *plenty* of that on Raptor this summer.

At the end of the season come back to this thread and tell us how obvious the reasons listed should have been, and then add some more to it. ;)

[edit: User Hartley deleted a post above this one about not thinking about some of the "obvious" reasons an e-stop might be required]

*** Edited 4/8/2005 1:27:07 AM UTC by Michael Darling***

Rafts wedging-It happens on raft rides. I got wedged once on another raft ride. Just adding that in.

*** Edited 4/7/2005 3:20:21 AM UTC by MForce310***

I'm curious to know where these wave machines are located on the Thunder Canyon course. I always thought they just used bumps on the bottom of the flume to create the variations in waterflow.

At some other Cedar Point site (it may have been Guide to the Point), I read that it is possible for guests to get back to Thunder Canyon on time to see it get filled. Is this true?
*** Edited 4/7/2005 2:02:12 PM UTC by rathofdoom***

The ride usually opens at noon. So if you get to the observation deck between (I'm guessing here)10:30am-11:00am you could watch the ride fill.

I saw an e-stop at PKI once. It was amazing how quickly the channel emptied out once they turned the pumps off. Also, even when the river is full it's not actually all that deep and it just takes a little water loss to cause the rafts to run aground. It seemed very quick and safe to me.

I'm sorry I can't remember the reason for the e-stop that day.The rafts were piled up or stuck against the lift hill or something like that, no real emergency.

we have a ride like this at a park where i used to work. When we did an e-stop the pumps stopped, and flood gates opened, draining the entire thing in about 20 seconds. We also had two types of e-stops. We had a platform stop and a ride stop. If a guest slipped while getting on, and got hurt, but was not in the water we did a platform stop. That would stop all the rafts from entering or leaving. If somone fell in (happened once or twice) we did a ride stop, that would drain the ride.

A Thunder Canyon E-stop is pretty intense. If the crew doesn't act quickly rafts can stack up outside the station and potentially flip over. The reason for shutting off the pumps and pulling the drains is to drain the water to a level that would make it impossible for a raft to tip if there would happen to be a problem with the diversion gate.

There is a scenario (which is practiced during e-stop training) in which a raft is purposely stopped where the diversion gate would normally pop up to divert the rafts into the storage flume. This is the one situation (even when the crew executes an e-stop properly) that can cause rafts to stack up outside the station.

I think that a few years ago something like this happened at a ride down in Texas and people were injured and/or killed. I tried to find a the news entry on it over at Cbuzz, but I don't know how to narrow the search very well. All I know is that it was prior to the 2003 season.

Also, there is one area with a wave machine. It's the part of the ride furthest from the station. Its in the area where MF's overbanked track is above the opening in the trees.

There was an accident on SFNE's (the park might still have been Riverside Park at that time) raft ride several years back as well where a raft ended up flipped and someone got killed. I was waiting for you to come explain it Gannon because I remember you and Phil telling me that e-stops on Thunder could be pretty interesting but I didn't know enough about it to explain it myself.

TO rathofdoom: the pumps that generate it are right at the top of the lift hill i believe, two on each side, they are hard not to notice when on the ride. and there are more things in along the ride which help the current move strong.

CP_bound, the accident you referred to in Texas was at a Six Flags park. However, I'm not sure which one. There was some kind of backup and a raft flipped over. One lady was trapped underneath and died before she could be freed. That accident was on a TLC special a few years back. I think the park was sued for negligence.

That accident happened at Six Flags over Texas in 2002 I believe. Or 2001. When I was there in 02 and 03, the ride wasn't running. I don't think it has actually run since then, but I could be wrong.