Runaway Mine Train: General Discussion

[Quantum]

The Runaway Mine train is such a staple of Towers, my kids love it as they are too short for the bigger rides. Hopefully it has many more years left in it.

 

[Zeock]

Makes me chuckle on here, just because a ride is old it'll be torn down.... some of the rides at Disney date back to the 50's

Definitely agreed, but as a ride becomes older it usually becomes more of a maintenance headache.

 

[WillPS]

Makes me chuckle on here, just because a ride is old it'll be torn down.... some of the rides at Disney date back to the 50's

None of those are powered though, which changes things significantly as you have tractive motors to consider, which have a finite lifespan and may not be available indefinitely.

The oldest similar attraction is less than 10 years older than RMT.

 

[RIPCorky]

None of those are powered though, which changes things significantly as you have tractive motors to consider, which have a finite lifespan and may not be available indefinitely.

The oldest similar attraction is less than 10 years older than RMT.

Still cheaper to refurbish than build a complete new ride though. It'll probably need a major overhaul in the near future

 

[WillPS]

Still cheaper to refurbish than build a complete new ride though. It'll probably need a major overhaul in the near future

Yes but the marketing value of a new attraction is far higher. They could have spent money life extending Black Hole, Corkscrew, The Flume among others... but they didn't because ultimately they were more useful as plots for future new attractions.

 

[djtruefitt]

To be fair Mack still make and sell these rides (Tivoli replaced theres a year or two back with a brand new one), so I don’t see it going anywhere anytime soon.

It’s popular, a good family filler ride and actually never seems to have much downtime. I guess it’s also a fairly easy ride to replace parts and change over time.

(Unless it catches fire like the one at chessie which is rumoured to be going )

 

[Matt.GC]

RMC RMT

 

[Zeock]

None of those are powered though, which changes things significantly as you have tractive motors to consider

Very good point; this may limit RMT's lifespan to a certain degree.

 

[rob666]

None of those are powered though, which changes things significantly as you have tractive motors to consider, which have a finite lifespan and may not be available indefinitely.

The oldest similar attraction is less than 10 years older than RMT.

Most electric motors can be dissembled and rewound, indefinitely.
Used to be my father in laws job, repairing "irreplaceable" motors.

 

[RIPCorky]

Most electric motors can be dissembled and rewound, indefinitely.
Used to be my father in laws job, repairing "irreplaceable" motors.

Yep most bearings are outsourced with part numbers too. You don't always have to buy new. Track is also under less stress than a large coaster.

 

[STEJENT]

RMT is a good crowd puller, however, not very marketable these days. I can’t see it going any time soon.
Though I tend to avoid it on quieter days as the ride ops will send you round multiple times if there’s no queue, and last time I was there it rained heavily and I was stuck on the ride, soaking wet, cold and needing the toilet, being sent around about 6 times

 

[WillPS]

Most electric motors can be dissembled and rewound, indefinitely.
Used to be my father in laws job, repairing "irreplaceable" motors.

Diminishing returns every time though. There's a reason electric rail stock typically has a 40 year service life.

See also - Buffalo at Drayton Manor.

 

[DistortAMG]

None of those are powered though, which changes things significantly as you have tractive motors to consider, which have a finite lifespan and may not be available indefinitely.

The oldest similar attraction is less than 10 years older than RMT.

Disneyland monorail is one of the attractions from the 1950s. As is the Matterhorn. It would be nice if they ran on Disney magic, but those trains do not move themselves and those bobsleds do not get themselves up the lift hills on their own.

Motors are relatively easy to repair and swap out. They are ubiquitous in this day and age, so even if you did not want to repair, finding a 3rd party replacement to meet your requirements would not be too difficult.

I would have thought the lift hill machinery on any non powered coaster would be a bit more tricky to be fair. Especially if the company is not around anymore......as lift hill equipment is usually bespoke to any given manufacturer, but they seem to manage that just fine the world over.

 

[WillPS]

Disneyland monorail is one of the attractions from the 1950s. As is the Matterhorn.

Motors are relatively easy to repair and swap out. They are ubiquitous in this day and age, so even if you did not want to repair, finding a 3rd party replacement to meet your requirements would not be too difficult.

I would have thought the lift hill machinery on any non powered coaster would be a bit more tricky to be fair. Especially if the company is not around anymore......as lift hill equipment is usually bespoke to any given manufacturer, but they seem to manage that just fine the world over.

I'm not so sure lift hills are harder. Ultimately it's a chunky motor turning a chain or a cluster of smaller motors with wheels attached. Power delivery is important too and in either lift hill scenario they can be directly attached to a power source with cabling and remain stationary, whereas with a powered coaster you've got the complexity of delivering that power across a live rail on the track, pick up/s on the train etc.

We'll see I guess. I'm not saying it's dead, not by a long way, but I don't think it'll make old bones either. Mack still selling them no doubt increases it's viability hugely.

 

[DistortAMG]

I'm not so sure lift hills are harder. Ultimately it's a chunky motor turning a chain or a cluster of smaller motors with wheels attached. Power delivery is important too and in either lift hill scenario they can be directly attached to a power source with cabling and remain stationary, whereas with a powered coaster you've got the complexity of delivering that power across a live rail on the track, pick up/s on the train etc.

We'll see I guess. I'm not saying it's dead, not by a long way, but I don't think it'll make old bones either. Mack still selling them no doubt increases it's viability hugely.

Lift hill equipment sets have a big motor, then they need a high ratio gearing system setup to deliver lots of torque (quite a task in itself when said thing you are lifting weights many tonnes) then you need to have a way of automatically adjusting the chain tension so the thing doesn't snap all the time. Most achieve this by counterweighting the whole multi tonne piece of lift hill equipment set against the weight of the train when attached to the lift. Believe me, they are far more complex.

I still maintain that is far more complex, even with the bus bar power delivery used on minetrains.

 

[Blackhole_Sun]

Bit of a bump here.

Three changes for this season I have noticed.

1) The train is missing one car at the back which was not the case last year as I often ride at the back. Hope they can bring that back ASAP

2) The head chopper (mind your head) is now back in place with new sign after being missing for quite some time

3) There is a new smoke effect and light effect as you exit the rapids tunnel. Doesn’t add a great deal but the recognise it’s a blank spot for the ride

4) Queue is now shorter generally as little kids can no longer go on it. Shame….

 

[Matt N]

Bit of a bump here.

Three changes for this season I have noticed.

1) The train is missing one car at the back which was not the case last year as I often ride at the back. Hope they can bring that back ASAP

2) The head chopper (mind your head) is now back in place with new sign after being missing for quite some time

3) There is a new smoke effect and light effect as you exit the rapids tunnel. Doesn’t add a great deal but the recognise it’s a blank spot for the ride

4) Queue is now shorter generally as little kids can no longer go on it. Shame….

Another change I noticed is that the dreadful exit turnstile is gone for this season, having been replaced by a gate!

Surprisingly, though, this didn’t seem to improve the throughput at all…

 

[Blackhole_Sun]

Another change I noticed is that the dreadful exit turnstile is gone for this season, having been replaced by a gate!

Surprisingly, though, this didn’t seem to improve the throughput at all…

Ah knew there was something I forgot to mention. It’s now a normal gate which is operated by the ride op on the far side of the station. Much better than the stupid turn style.

People take an age to leave the ride area. You can be seated in the ride and ready to go and people are strolling down from the back of the station.

 

[jibbsie]

1) The train is missing one car at the back which was not the case last year as I often ride at the back. Hope they can bring that back ASAP

I went on it today and noticed this, but I did notice the foot steps seem to have been modified, they have been rased with a brown metal block with some yellow/gold footplate (I think that was the colour), really hard to describe. I only noticed because it looks as if it has been riveted into the body of the train. I wonder if this is part of the reason for the height increase, as this modification dose improve the restraining ability of the ride.
here is a bad drawing of the modification: (original picture from:https://www.towerstimes.co.uk/theme-park/katanga-canyon/runaway-mine-train/)

 

[Blackhole_Sun]

I went on it today and noticed this, but I did notice the foot steps seem to have been modified, they have been rased with a brown metal block with some yellow/gold footplate, really hard to describe. I only noticed because it looks as if it has been riveted into the body of the train. I wonder if this is part of the reason for the height increase, as this modification dose improve the restraining ability of the ride.
here is a bad drawing of the modification: (original picture from:https://www.towerstimes.co.uk/theme-park/katanga-canyon/runaway-mine-train/)

I didn’t actually notice that, what I did consider is I think I could actually wriggle out myself if I so wished with the bar locked as the gap between my leg and the bar when pushed up is considerable. For a kid it would be no issue to get free.

Ideally the restraints need changing. No chance in a month of Sunday’s Merlin will do that to an existing ride. They won’t even change the badly needed sub terra ones.