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Spinball Whizzer: General Discussion

Trooper Looper said:
It's a shame. I think Spinball could do with a TLC project during this closed season, but since alton towers TLC was abandoned years ago, its likely that it won't happen. Here's a quick reminder how spinball used to look with its greenish blue supports back when it opened in 2004 before the Sonic sponsor.
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And here's how it looks now with all the faded Sonic paint and grime. You can't tell me this ride looks good, because... it doesn't...
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I don’t think we can assume what Merlin are planning with aesthetic maintenance at the moment. To all intents and purposes Merlin is now a brand new company. It’s owners are now Kirkby in the majority, it’s CEO has changed and quite a lot of the various attractions senior leaders have also changed.

The scale of work that needs doing (and the cost) is astronomical thanks to years of neglect. That said we already have 2 projects at Towers that although marketed as new attractions are basically massive restoration projects (Manor and Nemesis). I suspect as well that Skyride and Hex closing for the season is simply that they have decided to take more long term solutions to those problems rather than quick fixes.

Now just to be clear I am not saying we WILL see a change, I’m just saying turning this around is like turning an oil tanker 180 degrees. It’s not going to be quick and we won’t know if they are even trying to turn it for a few seasons.
 
DistortAMG said:
Replacing a rides control system however, is a very major component of a ride and a very major upgrade. It's like a heart transplant. It is very unlikely a park would do an expensive and substantial upgrade like this if they did not plan running the ride for some time into the future.
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Of course, and I totally agree the scale is such that there is a stronger hope of it being open longer.

Getting Submission running on full capacity again I understand was a fairly major investment, and that lasted all of a single season before being completely removed in the end.
 
WillPS said:
Of course, and I totally agree the scale is such that there is a stronger hope of it being open longer.

Getting Submission running on full capacity again I understand was a fairly major investment, and that lasted all of a single season before being completely removed in the end.
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The point about Submission is a good point actually. That would have been quite a major undertaking.
 
Had the most insane ride on this last week. It was on wet weather operation so I was on one side and two other guys were on the other side, and it did not stop spinning the whole way round. It also spun faster than I’ve ever experienced on before, that much so that when we hit the brakes I had blurred vision for about 20 seconds. I’ve never come into the brakes with blurred vision before but it was mental. Thought I wasn’t going to be able to stand up at the end at the fear of not being able to see properly, but I just about made it.

Also noticed the “ball in play” graphic vinyl thing on the maintenance was just black with scaffolding on it? Assume it’s being re done.
 
Spinball Whizzer has developed an interesting teething issue. There's a ride op stationed at the end of the platform to manually release the seats for one of the cars after every circuit. Leading to stacking of the cars in the final brake run / righting mechanism.

Update: And they've just swapped out two two of the cars.
 
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GooseOnTheLoose said:
Spinball Whizzer has developed an interesting teething issue. There's a ride op stationed at the end of the platform to manually release the seats for one of the cars after every circuit. Leading to stacking of the cars in the final brake run / righting mechanism.

Update: And they've just swapped out two two of the cars.
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They were running once car around empty a few weeks ago. Wonder if this was the same issue
 
I always find Spinball to be a fascinating ride to watch from a nerdy tech point of view. Fascinates me how the locking and unlocking of the spin is purely mechanical using a metal bar at the top of the lift hill and at the start of the brakerun. Then at various points on the brakes you can see the levers pushing the car round to the correct orientation then locking it ready for the station. Very simple and never fails.
 
Steve74 said:
I always find Spinball to be a fascinating ride to watch from a nerdy tech point of view. Fascinates me how the locking and unlocking of the spin is purely mechanical using a metal bar at the top of the lift hill and at the start of the brakerun. Then at various points on the brakes you can see the levers pushing the car round to the correct orientation then locking it ready for the station. Very simple and never fails.
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you may also find it intresting that from what i have seen the restraints aren't released by the ops (unlike nemesis, etc), it is fully mechanical there is a bar in the station such that as the car travels through the station it starts like a ramp and then flat when it is up the restraints are unlocked, so the movment of the train is what unlocks the restraints.
 
jibbsie said:
you may also find it intresting that from what i have seen the restraints aren't released by the ops (unlike nemesis, etc), it is fully mechanical there is a bar in the station such that as the car travels through the station it starts like a ramp and then flat when it is up the restraints are unlocked, so the movment of the train is what unlocks the restraints.
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Same as Curse too by the sounds of it.
 
Steve74 said:
I always find Spinball to be a fascinating ride to watch from a nerdy tech point of view. Fascinates me how the locking and unlocking of the spin is purely mechanical using a metal bar at the top of the lift hill and at the start of the brakerun. Then at various points on the brakes you can see the levers pushing the car round to the correct orientation then locking it ready for the station. Very simple and never fails.
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Never fails... the repeated alignment faults may disagree with you on that one. Its a pretty common occurrence that ride hosts have to manually unlock the spinning brake and realign the car ready for the station.

Lucky its not Dragons Fury where for some unknown reason tech services and managers are required to complete the same process.
 
As much as this is a good thing, have they not considered looking into single rider for Oblivion too. I know for Nemesis there isn’t space for a single queue but Oblivion I’m sure there is
 
Ethan said:
As much as this is a good thing, have they not considered looking into single rider for Oblivion too. I know for Nemesis there isn’t space for a single queue but Oblivion I’m sure there is
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Blivvy's old SRQ is used for Ambulant RAP now (and needs to stay, it works a treat), but if the rumoured station rebuild happens I could see them adding one.
 
Hopefully they look into adding more single riders queues back in if possible. I'm sure some queues could be reworked and there'd be a way for it to happen. I usually skip Spinball when it has a massive line but more likely to ride now due to this
 
Great news.

Regarding Oblivion, there is rumored to be a lot of work to the station so it would make sense to do it at the same time as that, if its something they're looking to implement.

It would be great if they could find a way for SRQs to return on Rita and Thirteen too. May be possible with Rita if they can find a different FT merge point, Thirteens could be possible now the other set of stairs to the station are now free.
 
Ethan said:
As much as this is a good thing, have they not considered looking into single rider for Oblivion too. I know for Nemesis there isn’t space for a single queue but Oblivion I’m sure there is
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I don't think that is oblivions biggest problem, I think it has a problem where people are waiting on the platform to collect and deposite their bags, waisting like 30-40 sec just dropping off bags and trying to leave, SRQ would probably not make too much of a differnce here
 
jibbsie said:
I don't think that is oblivions biggest problem, I think it has a problem where people are waiting on the platform to collect and deposite their bags, waisting like 30-40 sec just dropping off bags and trying to leave, SRQ would probably not make too much of a differnce here
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Really? 30 second wait is a problem?
 
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