Small hang-up on Raptor today...

A friend of mine, Bob*, was snapping some pics at CP today and came across this interesting situation. A second photo can be seen here. Apparently a walk-down took place, but he wasn't around long enough to see if the ride re-opened later in the evening.

*name changed to protect the innocent
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"Kristin you look burnt or DEAD"

That's Crazy! I've never seen anything like that before. I wonder what went wrong!

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3 TTD rides in 2 hours!

Am I seeing things or is there really 2 trains on the lift? Wow, I too have never seen anything like this other than a edited picture.

Wow, yes, that seems to be a scary problem.

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That's Ridiculous™

It's not edited, I'm guessing it would have to be a station brake failure, since the next train usually advances pretty quickly into the station after one is dispatched.

There are no station brakes on Raptor.

Perhaps the control system lost count of the cars as they were moving through the station and didn't know when to stop the feed system. But there is a gap between the trains (there usually isn't when they move through the station) which suggests something else went wrong.

Interesting......

Easy to fix if you put the ride in manual: get the third train back to the station, start the lift, stop it when the first train goes over the top, restart after the first train clears the mid-course brake. I got to see the same thing happen on Phoenix about a decade ago.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Would be interesting to see how the person sitting on the left far seat got over to the staircase on the other side, at the very least it would be unnerving.....

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"What time does the 10 pm laser show start?"

I believe they have a platform (it sits at the bottom of the hill normally) that can go up and provide a place for people to stand on to reach the stairs.

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"I can't make a movie or write a song either, but that doesn't mean I'm not entitled to think they suck."
-Jeff

Dragster: 1 Force: 5 Twister: 7 Raptor: 6 Magnum: 12

Don't forget it happened on Magnum during the '99 season.

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'03 Magnum Crew * magnum count: 2347 * '03 count: 114 * www.dannyjphoto.com

Wow, that's weird. I knew the Raptor crew was fast, but that's amazing ;)

That second train is a mystery becuase if it did actually stop in the station, they would have been unloading/loading at the time it left. Reguardless, I would think someone would have hit e-stop if that train began leaving the station when it wasn't supposed to. I'm sure someone will have more details sometime soon.

Oh, and yes. There is a platform that moves under the lift hill to unload people.

Edit: After closer inspection, there doesn't appear to be anyone in the second train, or either train for that matter. If you look at the second link provided, the one from under the hill, there doesn't appear to be any feet dangling.

Edit again: I missed the part where she said a walk down occured.

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-Chris Woodard
"We got pop and Gatorade over here for $100 a bottle, so have your credit card ready. Seriously, the food here is so expensive, I just eat the condiments because I can't afford a meal." - MF que DJ 6/16/03

*** This post was edited by Ralph Wiggum 6/25/2003 1:12:12 AM ***
*** This post was edited by Ralph Wiggum 6/25/2003 1:13:32 AM ***

I was in line when this happened and there were people on both trains. I wasn’t watching the trains when this happened so I don’t know if the 2nd train had been reloaded and then dispatched or had not stopped properly in the station. As soon as I saw two trains on the lift hill, I left the line because I knew this wasn’t going to be quickly fixed. As it turned out, the ride didn’t open for the rest of the evening (the problem happened around 6:00).
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Bob M.

Yesterday was actually fairly wierd. I mean rides were up and down all day (Magnum went down for some time and was running 2 trians, Chaos was down, MS was running 2 trains, etc.). I was by raptor when it happened and at first i thought they were just taking a train and putting it on the transfer track. Then I smacked myself and realized it would be on the midcourse breaks (which had been off all day :)). But the thing I dont understand is how would it blow through the station, I mean there is the gate and the floor raises when the train enters.

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Six Flags: The AOL of Theme parks...

Sorta looks like RCT 1 blocking ;).

RCT 1 had blocking? ;)

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Drag Races: 14
2002 - Raptor Photo
2003 - Millennium Photo

I doubt it just blew through the station. Just guessing, as I'm not familiar with the control system, but it seems like the ride ops just dispatched the train too soon. There may not be a dispatch restriction built into the controls. You will notice that the second train is right at the bottom. The system probably shut down at that point due to a block violation.

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I'd rather be in my boat with a drink on the rocks,
than in the drink with a boat on the rocks.

Pete - On B&M rides there is always a dispatch restriction based on the blocks. :-)

This is indeed a strange sight. Having been a ride op/supervisor at Batman The Ride at SF, we also had this happen once, and since it's the same company and same ride this may be what happened. We were running 2 trains at the time. When train one was dispatched and on the lift, something had gone wrong with a proxy and signaled that the train returning to the station was still in the ride area so that when the train on the lift got to the top it stopped and the lift shut down. Right after the lift shut down, the train on the lift was ghosted to the ride area block and the station train was allowed to dispatch. Being that the lift was shut down the train was propelled out onto the lift at the base by the station motors and hence 2 trains were stuck on the lift. One on top and one below. It was quite perplexing and amusing at the same time. We got the problem corrected quick and the trains off the lift but they kept it closed the rest of the day.

This is defnitely a rare occurance and those who were on those trains are indeed special! :-)

Skullmtn1 said: This is defnitely a rare occurance and those who were on those trains are indeed special! :-)

Or they are soooooo fat that the train had too much weight on it causing the train to have too much inertia. So the brakes or whatever in the station were not strong enough to slow the train down. Then the train went through the station up the lift some and they stopped the ride. ;-)

Actually there is one way to dispatch two on the same lift but that function is only used for testing and transfers on all B&M coaster's.

Also the last friction brake is located about 4' prior to station on transfer, from their the drive wheel pull the train tho, yet those drive wheels are very strong and can and will stop that train on station exit if at least the last 3 cars are still inside it can an will support the front 5 cars in the dip turn outide the station, which even in case of an over shoot would be more then enough time for reaction.

And no the train cannot just run tho the station, as the system can sense over runs, or when the train runs into a section to quickly and auto estops the ride. That normally occurs during heavy rain with loaded trains.

Also if the second train got completly on the lift the crew used e, or ride stop as the lift would of setup earlier then that even in bypass mode...

Cheers!

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Mantis / Raptor 2002

Anyone know if Raptor was running today? (6-25)

i was there on 6/25 and the EXACT same thing happened on raptor. i was going from wt to mf at about 9.30, and when i saw that i got really confused. at about 11.00 when we were leaving the park, they were just then clearing the trains from the lift hill - still wonder how that happened...