How's it running this year?

I was suprised to find wait times for WT to be short the weekend I was there (5/14). IMO, many pass on riding this giant as being "too scarey".

MrScott

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Aaron Eskins said:
she siad that it was to take some of the crowed away from Dragster

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WT was built before TTD, and so was MS. I highly doubt that.

Also, with the limited selection of space to build coasters, I don't think that they would purposely build a ride to take some of the crowds from another part of the park. But let's not get onto that topic. ;) *** Edited 5/25/2004 11:20:30 PM UTC by Topthrill420***

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RideMan said:
The RUMOR that I heard was that First Energy was playing power games over the weekend and that was causing problems for Dragster, and for Wicked Twister which has the same power feed..."

I was on the train after Neil, I was waiting to ride and the train before us shut down before returing to the station completely. They got the computer to pull the train back and unloaded that train. They then launched the empty train, and it ran fine. So we all loaded in the train. We hit the launch and just as you got out of the brakes, you could feel the whole coaster just die. We barely made it up the first spike and we were stuck on the ride for 20 minutes. they then got us in the station and told us we could reride if we wanted to. Maintenance came in and stated the ride was going to be down the whole remainder of the day. Magnum, Dragster and Iron Dragon had similar problems. I spoke to Monty Jasper and he too stated that they were having problems with First Energy. All I know was that my legs hurt so bad after being left hanging there for so long :-(

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On Monday(5-24) I witnessed something on WT for the first time. The train had completed it's run and was backing into the station when it stopped. The person on the microphone informed us that a guest in the station had stopped the ride by either reaching over the railing or something along those lines(I couldn't hear the whole thing that clearly). Until I heard that and started looking around I never noticed the motion sensors in between the air gates and the train.

I never noticed those until last year too. It was weird. The train came into the station the people got off and the gates didn't open as normal. There was some kind of alarm going off. I don't know if this was even the same problem but it was still odd. They ended up running the ride once with nobody on and it came back and everything was normal. The ride was having problems that day too. (Closing Day 2003)

Rather Light Curtains. If anything goes in the path of them, they will E stop the ride, and you will hear the beeping that Gomez is talking about. But it will stop the ride also. So sometimes a bird or something will come through, or some ones shoe will come off and go in there and it will stop the ride. Either way, WICKED DOWN TIME. hehehe not much, but still nice. I always loved last season waiting for a piece of paper or something to go in front of them

It doesn't E-stop.

My bad, quick stop. I guess i better watch my words.

What is that alaem that goes off? I heard it once when I was there.

It is just to let the ride operators know that something has broken the light curtin. You know i guess so maybe like if a kid was out there, like so we might be able to like grab them in time or something you know, or something like that. The alarm goes off on witch ever light curtain was broken. I mean like the gates are on a sensor to, so if you were to push a gate open or something you know it would Quick Stop the ride. I dont know if the alarm goes off for the gate either, i cant remember. But in controls, the computer tells us witch curtian or exactly what is wrong with the ride. So they would know also

Incidentally, the reason the ride has a "quick stop" instead of an "e-stop" is that an actual Section 525 E-Stop would probably not stop the ride as quickly. An E-stop is what happens when you "pull the plug" on the ride...but because Wicked Twister uses powered braking, it can stop more quickly by throwing the LIMs into reverse and dropping the brakes than it can by just killing the power.

ObDisclaimer: Educated guess. If I'm totally wrong, Aaron or Mathew can probably set me straight...

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Or if a prosthetic leg breaks the light curtain...comedy gold if I recall when this subject was brought up before...

Regarding the gates, it depends on which gates you are talking about. The gates that guests go through are not sensored, or at least they weren't the first year when I worked there. I remember one of the gates coming loose. It was swinging freely when the ride was in motion without any alarms sounding All of the gates that open simultaneously are connected underneath and one of the nuts came loose that connected the gate to the bar that connects the rest of the gates. There were no alarms going off when that happened. Does anyone know if they have added sensors to the guests' gates like they have on the employee gates?

Raptor Chris 2000 and 2001
Wicked Chris 2002

If the gates are like the ones on Raptor then I believe there is a sensor. When you are in line for Raptor, you can see the bar that is connected to the gates and it has a prox sensor on both ends, and part of the bar is in contact with them when the gates are closed. However, if one were to become detached from the bar it could swing freely and it would not trip the sensor since it would not be moving the bar. However, if the gates are pushed by a guest, they will move the bar and set off the sensors. This is why the ride ops always tell people not to push the gates. I think this how it works, but I could be wrong. Fell free to correct me.

Yeah like they are installing censors on all the rides with gates. Last year, Corkscrew did not ahve censors, but twister does well last season. THey will quick stop the ride, i just can not recall if they sound the alarm. Now we had to yell at them to get off gates last season, that is why my two guest complaints where from, cause you know that some people just can understand. KIDS. uggggg, hehe, like they would push you would tell them to stop, they would for like 10 seconds and then they do it again only worse, so i yell there parents get mad, then i get wrote up for being mean. So like i dont understand that but whatever.

Aaron, you have no idea what you're talking about.... When WT quick stops it is easily recoverable, only automode stops. E-Stop cuts all power and turns the system off. Whether it's a quick or E-stop, the LIMs 'turn off' and the magnetic brakes drop.

well mr mathew i never said anything about the lims or anything like that i just that the censors would quick stop the ride. I also said that i did not recall if it sounded the alarm. then i talked about people pushing on the gates, and us yelling at them. hmmm so maybe you dont know what your talking about??????

Hmm i dont know. WHy dont you tell me

Now rideman, did talk about the LIM's but i dont recall.

The only 2 ways to quick stop the ride is by hitting quick stop or breaking a light curtian. 2 beams of the light curtian must break to set it off, and the reciever part of the curtian is what beeps. Any other thing is an E-stop, employees gates, air gates, electrical fault, etc. The LIMs only aid in acceleration, never braking, the only 'braking' they assist with is the final positioing of the train.

Right, I mentioned the possibility that a ride stop might reverse the LIM polarity to get a quicker stop. But I also noted that it was only a guess, and that I was certain that either Aaron or Mathew would correct me.

Obviously I was right about that. Thanks, Mathew! :)

Good call on the E-stop, too. Clarly the E-stop is an "NEC Section 525" stop, which basically pulls the plug on the ride. Great if there is an electrical fire, for instance (remember, the NEC was written by the NFPA, so fire is a pretty important issue) but not good at all if you're trying to keep a computer happy. Hence the "ride stop" which kills the ride motion but tells the computer, "Hey, someone just killed the ride system, now you get to recover..."

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

A big reason for not E-Stopping (and instead quickstopping) the ride when it's only a light curtian breakage is because if the ride E-Stops then maintenance has to come over and look at it... something that is wanted to be avoided if it all possible.

Sure does cause If you have worked there then you know how bad there maintence department sucks, thats like this last season they were like go ahead and run the ride, there is nothing wrong with the ride. so we call a supervisor and ran it while waiting, and Andy got on it and then he shut it down, cause chunks of the wheel were coming off, but what was that, THERE IS NOTHING WRONG. yeah right.