Alton Power

[DistortAMG]

On another thread. DistortAMG posted



And it takes away the mechanic stress of running up from a standing start.



I have not heard about that issue. As you have knowledge of such thing. Do you know where the on site substations are.

Also i wonder if this is correct, ripsaw was removed to free up power for rollercoaster restaurant?


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I am sure there is a substation located under the skyride main drive station (Forbidden Valley). That powers the whole Skyride and parts of Forbidden Valley. The rollercoaster restaurant would use no where near the amount of power than Ripsaw would have used. You are talking about a huge multi tonne machine full with 40 people, being swung around at high speed. That requires large amounts of electricity.

You guys will believe any old **** the park wheel out.

But the park has had power issues, for its whole existence nearly. This is nothing new at all. They have to carefully manage the power. However, I do think they are using this as an excuse to cut costs. But power issues do and always have existed. Statement of fact.

Surely a ride don't take up that much power. I would have thought that most rides will run on 12v to 24v with low amps for safety?

How do the pleasure beaches manage, with rides stopping and starting all the time, the must be a time where they all coincidentally start up all at the same time from time to time.

What about the hotels? Everyone boiling a kettle all at the same time and the restaurant cooking breakfast in the mornings must also create a power surge too.

The fact that they fail to even get the rides open on time despite the staggered opening times tells me that they just don't have the staff to get all the rides signed off on time.

Simply put, you are not going to get a 20 tonne train up a 30 degree lift hill using low voltages and low amps, physically impossible. Rides are power hungry machines because they have to be, due to their size and nature, they are very very similar to industrial machines, except people ride them, they use high power 3 phase supply, like industrial applications do and the equipment is all industrial grade. Just look at the lift hill motors on any large coaster, the main assembly is usually bigger than a family car. Maelstrom at Drayton Manor, the motors are the size of a mini, and it uses 3! Obviously this doesn't apply for all rides as some are much smaller, but most are big industrial machines essentially.

 

[bluesonichd]

Question – How big are the motors used to run roller coasters?
It depends on how big and heavy the vehicles (trains) are that must be lifted, and how fast they need to be lifted. That depends on how many people will need to ride per hour. The motors might be anywhere from about 20 horsepower to 200 horsepower on a roller coaster.

Q: How much energy does each ride take to run?

A: Lets suppose that a 150 horsepower motor is needed to lift the train on the roller coaster that you are building. To figure that out in watts multiply by 746. That is 111,900 watts, which is 111.9 kilowatts. To get the energy, we have to figure out how long we need that power. If it takes 1 minute to lift the train to the top of the hill, that is 1/60th of an hour. So, 111.9 / 60 gives 1.87 kilowatt-hours of energy. There is your answer: in this example, it takes 1.87 kilowatt-hours to lift a train to the top of the first hill. After that, the ride is free! An ordinary 60 watt light bulb would have to burn for about 31 hours to use that much energy, but that much energy only costs about 10 cents! Compared to what it costs to maintain the ride, the energy is probably not a big expense.

Q: What is the maximum amount of energy it takes?

A: Like the size of the motor, that depends on lots of things.
http://www.birket.com/reading-room/student-faqs/question-19/

 

[Alsty]

I thought the Skyride ran on diesel power?
if not whats that big ass generator under the FV skyride station used for

I thought the diesel generator was a backup for when there's a power failure, but I'm not sure.

 

[DistortAMG]

Question – How big are the motors used to run roller coasters?
It depends on how big and heavy the vehicles (trains) are that must be lifted, and how fast they need to be lifted. That depends on how many people will need to ride per hour. The motors might be anywhere from about 20 horsepower to 200 horsepower on a roller coaster.

Q: How much energy does each ride take to run?

A: Lets suppose that a 150 horsepower motor is needed to lift the train on the roller coaster that you are building. To figure that out in watts multiply by 746. That is 111,900 watts, which is 111.9 kilowatts. To get the energy, we have to figure out how long we need that power. If it takes 1 minute to lift the train to the top of the hill, that is 1/60th of an hour. So, 111.9 / 60 gives 1.87 kilowatt-hours of energy. There is your answer: in this example, it takes 1.87 kilowatt-hours to lift a train to the top of the first hill. After that, the ride is free! An ordinary 60 watt light bulb would have to burn for about 31 hours to use that much energy, but that much energy only costs about 10 cents! Compared to what it costs to maintain the ride, the energy is probably not a big expense.

Q: What is the maximum amount of energy it takes?

A: Like the size of the motor, that depends on lots of things.
http://www.birket.com/reading-room/student-faqs/question-19/

Remember though it is not so much the cost. But for that minute or two the motor is on full power on a lift hill. A significant amount of current is being drawn. Then you have rides that have high power motors running all day non stop, rapids, skyride ect, even some of the transport motors on flat sections of coasters run constantly. It all adds up.

Yeah the generator is a backup for the Skyride, day to day it runs on electricity, and lots of it.

 

[AT86]

I thought the diesel generator was a backup for when there's a power failure, but I'm not sure.

Yes it is.

 

[IanSR]

But the park has had power issues, for its whole existence nearly. This is nothing new at all. They have to carefully manage the power. However, I do think they are using this as an excuse to cut costs. But power issues do and always have existed. Statement of fact.

Funny it's only become an issue this year though, I don't remember them having to stagger ride openings over half the day five years ago when there was even more stuff running on site, everything was open at 10, no problem.

 

[DistortAMG]

Funny it's only become an issue this year though, I don't remember them having to stagger ride openings over half the day five years ago when there was even more stuff running on site, everything was open at 10, no problem.

Yes, like I said. I think they are using this as an excuse to cut costs.

 

[IanSR]

Yes, like I said. I think they are using this as an excuse to cut costs.

Glad you said that, I was beginning to think your name was Francis.

 

[RoyJess]

Yes, the staggered opening times are designed to save money, not to stop blackouts due to a sudden surge in power.

Even if starting up all the rides exactly the same time would cause a sudden power surge, it would never happen due to the fact that they only have a hand full of maintenance staff (and I also believe that they need a manager too) to sign off the rides, unless they have exactly the right number of staff to sign them all off at exactly the same time, and we know that they don't!

 

[SuperMuscleMan]

So from the math above its like putting on a kettle for each train lift? Wow so my village with its 2000 homes running off one substation manages! I reall dont want towers to get another penny of my money.

 

[DiogoJ42]

I reall dont want towers to get another penny of my money.

This guy gets it

 

[SuperMuscleMan]

This guy gets it

I have for a while. I activly have encouraged people not to visit for a few years now. And its working. Friends are actually taking family to the smaller parks or investing in trips to dlp. The money charging for thorpe that was posted today going up to £8/£10 shows merlins business model will fail. The parks are more like a token operated funfair now than a theme park. Opening pictures of rides like wm are no more than wedding portraits. It lasted in its pictured state for a few weeks. Much like a bride in her dress and then had effects switched off and thats it now. We might get a few effects working for scarefest but ive just been told they limit the gas supplies as the bottle gas driver 'dave' cant cope with the extra demand of carrying the extra bottle ;-)

 

[Matt N]

The money charging for thorpe that was posted today going up to £8/£10 shows merlins business model will fail.

What fee is this, out of interest?

 

[Alsty]

Car parking charge, £8 or £10 if you pay at the barrier itself.

 

[Matt N]

Car parking charge, £8 or £10 if you pay at the barrier itself.

Ah OK. Wonder what caused that?

 

[Poopoohead]

Greed

 

[spinba11]

Remember though it is not so much the cost. But for that minute or two the motor is on full power on a lift hill. A significant amount of current is being drawn. Then you have rides that have high power motors running all day non stop, rapids, skyride ect, even some of the transport motors on flat sections of coasters run constantly. It all adds up.

Yeah the generator is a backup for the Skyride, day to day it runs on electricity, and lots of it.

At towers only the drive wheels on spinball run constantly.

 

[Jonathan]

At towers only the drive wheels on spinball run constantly.

That's presumably because turning them on and off just wouldn't be worth it, what with the frequency at which the cars go around the track.

 

[Matt N]

I've just had an idea... if Towers is having problems with power blackouts, then why don't they invest in solar power? Or wind power? Or any form of renewable backup power to help them out? It would be good for the environment, too!

 

[spinba11]

I’m sure a few members could help out if towers started using wind power.