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Broken Effects

TBH, one of the light bars in the pre-lift for 1st lift of The Smiler is still a bit knackered.

Another effect broken is the trains, currently 2 down ;)
 
They should swap the light bars around so the broken one is the first one we go under, It's about time the replacement trains arrived at the park as it's a year ago tomorrow it crashed.
 
spinba11 said:
They should swap the light bars around so the broken one is the first one we go under, It's about time the replacement trains arrived at the park as it's a year ago tomorrow it crashed.
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They have 4 trains on site as far as I am aware. A fifth doesn't actually provide throughput improvement anyway so I doubt we will see it run 5 again.


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Scott said:
They have 4 trains on site as far as I am aware. A fifth doesn't actually provide throughput improvement anyway so I doubt we will see it run 5 again.


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Good to hear a 4th train has returned. Maybe we can see the gap between trains reduced from the long gap between 1st and 3rd
 
No idea how long it needs testing, however I bet it's being tested at night when the park is closed. There would be nothing worse than testing it in the day and then it stalls!
 
spinba11 said:
They should swap the light bars around so the broken one is the first one we go under, It's about time the replacement trains arrived at the park as it's a year ago tomorrow it crashed.
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Or they could just buy a new one and replace it instead of buying new trains.
 
Just thinking about this topic. Rather than try to list all of the broken effects in Duel, I think it might be easier if we could compile a list of things that actually do work.

Off the top of my head:


Think that's it.

Oh and bravo to the numpty who changed the screaming room's blacklight strobes to UV LED washes recently. So on top of the effects being completely out of sync, we now hardly see the faces glow and the black walls are clearly lit up. Awesome. Not a single thought given to wavelength.
 
PeteB said:
Oh and bravo to the numpty who changed the screaming room's blacklight strobes to UV LED washes recently. So on top of the effects being completely out of sync, we now hardly see the faces glow and the black walls are clearly lit up. Awesome. Not a single thought given to wavelength.
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Looks ridiculous doesn't it! Must say, it did make me chuckle the first time I went on it after they changed the lighting fixtures. Must have been at the start of the 2015 season now.
 
I know lighting changes were made throughout the ride last season but I didn't notice the screaming room until this year.

I think Duel is beyond repair now tbh. Sad really, as I once considered The Haunted House to be the next best ghost train after Disney's Haunted Mansion.
 
I can tell that some of the effects were fixed during closed season this year. Some of the drools are looking better than in the last few seasons and some of the effects have clearly been fixed. The things that haven't though really stand out. The screaming room is absolutely laughable, it would probably be better to have no lights at all in there now. The bridge demon is a bit pathetic now, having half it's body just missing, and it looks like some of the wall faces have been removed as blank sections of wall are lit.

Some serious work needs doing on the finale too, it lacks any excitement (honestly, a face with a light inside?). Won't be too suprised if we see it closed for tic next year as hex is currently. I think to say it's beyond repair is a little far though. (Sadly) it's still one of the best dark rides in the country, and it's only a few scenes that need replacing/restoring. If you want to see a ride beyond repair, visit chessington...
 
Screaming room seems to have changed recently, lighting wise. The final ghoul that flies overhead I'm sure had the awful LED UV lighting at one point, but it's noticeably been changed to fixtures whereby you can only see the head, and not the contraption it's on. :)

Also, the pop-out zombie just before the Trommel seems to have a much brighter white strobe on it now than it ever used to. It's even visible from the scene before you turn the corner to enter that section.
 
The large head thing at the end of the screaming room has am had a LED light for a few seasons now, but the colour seems to change quite a bit. I think the strobes were replaced on the rest of the screaming room at the end of last season, but the gels have been made a lot darker this season.

However they whole room is rubbish now and whoever replaced them should be ashamed! Surely you can still buy normal strobes and not just LED ones. It just lights the room and all the mechanisms up rather than the heads.
 
djtruefitt said:
Surely you can still buy normal strobes and not just LED ones. It just lights the room and all the mechanisms up rather than the heads.
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Yes, normal strobes are still widely available. I actually doubt there was anything wrong with the old ones, if they were broken they would have probably just needed new lamps, which are cheap. To get strobes to emit black light they have UV bandpass filters applied over the lens, which should have still been in place since they were first installed in the ride.

It all seems completely crazy to me that something so simple could be messed up.
 
A lot of places in the entertainment industry are being forced to convert everything to LEDs by accountants, who only look at the "they don't need to have bulbs replaced" side of them, and have no concept of "right tool for the job".
 
DiogoJ42 said:
A lot of places in the entertainment industry are being forced to convert everything to LEDs by accountants, who only look at the "they don't need to have bulbs replaced" side of them, and have no concept of "right tool for the job".
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That, and people who are more obsessed with modern tech/toys than having the right tools for the job. I had an argument with someone the other day about Stage Blinders, because the LED ones are so crap that hardly anyone bothers with them, and so they're now hard to get hold of and considered to be "pointless old technology".
 
Everything has to be LED now the EU says so! save power, save the world
however thats another debate.. :)

I have given up on Duel ever working or getting back to its hay day ever again :(
 
Yes I very much enjoyed the days when the Haunted house was a work of art :)...

...now Duel it is a complete mess :(.
 
Well, if its true Hex is getting a refurb this year I can surely see Duel being closed next year and getting one.
 
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