The Smiler - General Discussion

[Dave]

Truly abysmal for such a major ride. Anyone else noticed how most of Towers rides now operate approx 50% lower capacity than they were originally designed for? All part of the plan to sell more Fastrack methinks. It's a conspiracy I tell you.

All rides bar Oblivion are operating at or near their practical throughput this season. Even Rita was hitting 950 which is better than last season.

Oblivion is also operating better than last season, with quite a few quick dispatches the last few times I have been. Think personally throughputs are running as expected which is better than last year. As for Fastrack Towers seem to be going for increasing the cost and restricting quotas atm unlike Thorpe who just sell sell sell.

Smiler was badly designed for throughputs, it's practical average with no delays is about 1000pph.

 

[TheMan]

Hang on, let me get this straight.

A ride with at least 2 sections, a brake run, plus loading bay, 5 cars, (well, 4 and shopping trolley with a wonky wheel), has a practical average of only 50 MORE than what you state Rita was getting at 950?

I am tempted to write that paragraph again.

I feel it's time to consult Duckypedia for confirmation of this!

 

[Rob]

Hang on, let me get this straight.

A ride with at least 2 sections, a brake run, plus loading bay, 5 cars, (well, 4 and shopping trolley with a wonky wheel), has a practical average of only 50 MORE than what you state Rita was getting at 950?

I am tempted to write that paragraph again.

I feel it's time to consult Duckypedia for confirmation of this!

Yeah, but it is a Gerstauler!

 

[jon81uk]

Hang on, let me get this straight.

A ride with at least 2 sections, a brake run, plus loading bay, 5 cars, (well, 4 and shopping trolley with a wonky wheel), has a practical average of only 50 MORE than what you state Rita was getting at 950?

It's more about how quick you can get people in and out the station than how many cars are on the track. This is why Oblivion was designed with 2 airgates for each row so it can be pre-batched and they can also load 2 cars at once. At Disney I have see Space Mountain have 5 trains worth of people batched and ready to board so as soon as the train is in the station people can get in. On the Smiler I have got up the stairs and been sent straight to a row even when there has been an hours queue, they aren't always managing batching and fasttrack merging well.

 

[_nemesis_]

I have no idea why it doesn't have an offload platform, as when a train is still loading, another is just sitting there.

What should have happened is they should have added an offload platform, but one that doesn't have to be used, so if a train isn't loading they can just do free up the off load platform for another train, so that in theory two trains can be unloading at the same time.

But I suppose Merlin's response to the poor throughput wasn't: "Oh yeah, we should probably do something about that" , instead it was "Why don't we just make a longer queue line!" :/

 

[Alastair]

I'm not sure an offload platform would realistically make any difference to the throughput. As it is, the airgates open as soon as the train stops in front of them - and you get on at the same time the previous riders are getting off. An offload platform would merely mean people would get off quicker which is really of no consequence to throughput.

 

[Scott]

You would barely see any increase with an offload platform... Considering people exit the train as the next group board you would be saving next to nothing and increasing throughput by a tiny margin.

As for the actual throughput it's no surprise it's low because the trains are only 4 rows of 4.

 

[Dar]

Plus each half is about the same length as RITA on the whole, so you're not going to get much higher throughput regardless of how many trains you put on.

 

[Dave]

Hang on, let me get this straight.

A ride with at least 2 sections, a brake run, plus loading bay, 5 cars, (well, 4 and shopping trolley with a wonky wheel), has a practical average of only 50 MORE than what you state Rita was getting at 950?

I am tempted to write that paragraph again.

I feel it's time to consult Duckypedia for confirmation of this!

Rita takes about 30 seconds to do the whole layout, The Smiler takes longer than that to clear one section. Plus it has fewer guests per train (Smiler has 16, Rita has 20).

So although Smiler does dispatch more trains per hour than Rita, Rita has more guests per dispatch. Double station loading wouldn't add much capacity to the ride, at the moment on full capacity a train only just clears a block before the next one arrives to replace it.

Merlin don't consider things like throughput.

 

[TheMan]

Well I have to say I genuinely never realised that and I thought The Smiler would be doing way more than 1000 on a decent day.

I think that's pretty crap.

 

[Dave]

Compared to towers old standard it is and compared to the likes of Europa park it is....

... But when you consider Helix at Liseberg is getting about 500pph actual not theoretical) it's probably about average world wide.

 

[TheMan]

Compared to towers old standard it is and compared to the likes of Europa park it is....

... But when you consider Helix at Liseberg is getting about 500pph actual not theoretical) it's probably about average world wide.

Wow I bet Roland is crying into his stein! (Or counting his money and not really caring that much?)

 

[PeteB]

Must admit whenever I've been on The Smiler the one thing I've consistently found annoying is being on the train, stacked, unable to get off. An empty train pulling up into the loading bay would definitely increase throughput, but only slightly. Faff tends to slow things down.

 

[Tim]

Although I see the logic that a separate offload area wouldn't help I think in reality it would for the times when you do have faff. While waiting for Blue Fire the other day I was trying to work out how it saved time as people generally got off before the next guests could get on, but this wasn't always the case. Then on some occasions they were dispatching trains so quickly that by having the extra train in offload meant there was always a train in the station ready to load.

Of course the best system is probably Great Yarmouth's old rolling offload where the train doesn't actually stop at all, you just jump off as it cruises through the station. But with H&S now I see why that doesn't happen any more

 

[jon81uk]

Of course the best system is probably Great Yarmouth's old rolling offload where the train doesn't actually stop at all, you just jump off as it cruises through the station. But with H&S now I see why that doesn't happen any more

Spinball rolls through the station for onloand & offload when they don't get stacked up, I think as long as it is a slow speed (which Spinball does travel through the station at) there is no more danger than stationery. Biggest risk would be falling off the platform between car and train and at the slow speed it wouldn't do you any harm.
Duel also has continuously moving station platforms.

 

[Rob]

Arthur at EP will also have a continuously moving station. It probably has to to be able to run the amount of trains it does!

 

[Tim]

Yes but Yarmouth's one went as fast as the breakman would let it

Of course a proper rolling loading is the best kind of system.

 

[TheMan]

A Chivalrous man decides to carry his girlfriend through The Smiler queue due to recent storms.

Things didn't go as planned:

 

[thefatone]

The thing which probably slows The Smilers throughputs down is the awful system that Gerstlauer have to wait at the bottom of the lifthill before it engages and moves up. If it went straight up the lifthill you'd be able to dispatch trains quicker, which'd probably lead to it being worth having an offload platform. As it stands, it doesn't need one whatsoever.

 

[BigT]

I'm sure I've read it before on here but I had a very interesting conversation with someone who works in a senior position in maintenance at AT and apparently the Smiler is still slowly sinking into the ground.
Has anyone else heard anything about this?