Snake River Falls Derailed

This past Saturday afternoon, was walking through Frontiertown past Maverick and noticed a crowd gathering near SRF. To my surprise, one of the boats had derailed and still had people in it! Thankfully, it didn't derail completely - it was just the front left side that was up out of the water. Maybe this has happened in the past and is more common than I am aware of? Not sure, but it was the first time I've seen that happen in 20+ years of going to the park.

Geez, must have had some heavy riders. Ive never seen that happen.

Pics please?

I've never heard of this happening before either. That's weird.

Considering no other coaster groups, enthusiast groups, or even this forum haven't chimed in after it happened, right now I call bull, especially news hasn't said anything and they're usually first to jump at this stuff...

Rode it twice Sunday with no issues.

thedevariouseffect said:
Considering no other coaster groups, enthusiast groups, or even this forum haven't chimed in after it happened, right now I call bull, especially news hasn't said anything and they're usually first to jump at this stuff...

I did take a picture and will happily post if I can figure out how to do it.

I did not see it occur, but I did see it aground with the front up on the concrete channel wall. It was late Saturday afternoon. The boat was only about half full. The front rows were empty. I watched for about 20 minutes as they removed the riders from the boat.

The riders had to wait in the boat until some staff arrived. One woman and her daughter left the boat, but were instructed to get in again until help arrived. When the rescue crew of mostly maintenance men arrived the riders left the boat and were walked on top of the channel wall toward the first aid building. I don't know where they went at that point.

There was another boat that stopped out of view at the top of the ride. These riders were walked down the stairs along the lift hill.

After the riders were removed from the boat that had run aground maintenance men jacked up one corner of the boat and there tossed it back into the channel.

It all made for some interesting entertainment. Nobody appeared to be injured.

^See that story is a bit more to it...First one was hey it just derailed, woah. That actually is what I was looking for, but pics please, photobucket, imageshack, facebook w/ links, ect. I'm def. curious into this, and I'm sure rideman will be able to explain some stuff and theories as well to keep me intrigued. First thing I can think of is the water level is usually very controlled with the trough guides so this doesn't happen one and two the boat follows a set course, so obviously something happened that changed this. All I can think of is damaged trough guides or higher water level, which with recent rain wouldn't surprise me

^ and no weight in the front of the boat.

The water was not very deep. It looked to be about a foot deep at the edge of the basin where I was standing. You could see it had been deeper by the marks on the basin walls. The water looked deeper in the channel itself, the rescue crew walked through there and it wasn't even knee deep.

I have know theory as to how this happened.

JW Addington said:
^ and no weight in the front of the boat.

Seemed like the majority of riders on that boat were kids (guessing maybe 5 out of approximately 7 riders from what I remember), so I'm thinking not enough weight in the entire boat was the cause.

That's what I saw rmrufe.

Since this is an Arrow ride and not Intamin, "fat americans" can't be the issue here.

If the front row was empty and most of the weight was in the back, the front guide wheel probably climbed up too high on the trough, jamming the hull in the trough. Can't call it a derailment though since it doesn't run on rails...

Pete said:
Can't call it a derailment though since it doesn't run on rails...

Very true. I just didn't know what else to call it. =) The important thing is that no one appeared to be injured. Seems like it was an easy fix too.

They cycle boats empty in the AM, and even if the front row wasn't full, I can't imagine it causing something that catastrophic. Also are the wheels in constant contact? I didn't think they would be moreover just as bumpers along the trough, mainly used in station, lift, and stop at the top, but not the whole course (it bumps a bit at the top of the ride as it's free to move around in the trough at the top). I still think higher water caused it to sit at or above the trough's level, and then at landing it skids across the water, something kicks it a certain way whether it be water/forces itself or the wheel hitting the side, ect. But I believe the water level to be the main culprit

Dave, ride logic please :)

The wheels are not in constant contact, though the guide wheels probably are in the turns at the bottom of the drop.

Empty boats are still balanced, so that wouldn't cause an issue. High water level could of course be part of the cause, but I'm guessing there are some controls to monitor water level. I'm thinking low water level is a much more of a likely thing to happen on the ride.

When I guessed the boat was biased with a back weight bias, I'm thinking the front guide wheel went over the top of the trough. Stern down, bow up would raise the guide wheel a bit. That caused the hull to jam against the trough stopping the boat.

I just posted a pic of the "derailed" SRF from this past Saturday afternoon on my Twitter account @RyanRufe. http://twitter.com/RyanRufe/status/351853628178448384/photo/1

Pete you nailed it on the head. With most of the weight in the back the boat will tend to hydroplane when it hits the receiving pool. Ironically this was a problem with the original Shoot the Rapids, except the boats would climb the trough at the middle drop.

Also in the original STR there was a position between the drops called boat pull. Occasionally boats would get stuck and a crew member would get up off the seat and drag the boat to the next drop. And, yes I worked STR on its final year - 1981.