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Incident on The Smiler 02/06/2015

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James said:
The new walkway rails people are on about are not the ones on the final brake run. There are ones being installed on the brake run before the vertical lift hill, there were no walkway rails there previously, so that is new and not a hallucination. :)
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Any pics?
 
This is all extremely interesting. In my opinion Towers would not be carrying out all of this work (track inspections, new control panel installations, evac rail thingys at bottom of vertical lift, testing the damn ride) if they did not have a 2015 re-opening in mind. There is plenty of time over the closed season to get all of this work done out to the public eye. Surely that is what they would do if they were set on a 2016 opening?

Of course Towers will be saying that this is all part of the ongoing process following the incident. Anything they do to it up until the day it re-opens is part of an ongoing process. I expect that the HSE prohibition notice has been lifted now also but there is no way of knowing this.

As I've said many a time is makes far more sense for Alton Towers to open The Smiler again in 2015 and get all of the bad press that will come with it out of the way. Then they can focus on 2016 without worrying about it.

:)
 
DiogoJ42 said:
I'd put money on the scarefest map having a strangely empty void where The Smiler used to be.
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How much You willing to bet?

Rick said:
Fences everywhere on this forum. It's just a fence.
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Not really, it's a sign of work occurring on a ride that has been SBNO with nothing happening to it. People here are keen to talk about such a thing in relation to the potential of an opening, if your not, marvellous but live and let live I suppose.
 
Given that it's currently testing and showing signs of opening in the very near future, I think a re-theme/new logo are off the cards. Can't say I'm surprised though. On the video you can see that the logos are still on the front of the trains.

:)
 
I was on park all day yesterday and not once did I witness any Smiler cars running around the track not did I meet or overhear anybody that did. However there were rumors going around the park saying that it had been tested due to the youtube and twitter post.

Just because I didn't see the Smiler being tested yesterday does not mean that it wasn't being tested, and because it was posted on the web, then it must be true ;)

However what I did witness was work going on at the bottom of the vertical lift hill, I couldn't be sure what they were installing, but I could see long lengths of cable and small white boxes, maybe sensors or cameras, you could also hear a lot of banging coming from the base of the second lift hill.
 
I would also like to add that I was at Towers yesterday and didn't see any evidence of the Smiler being tested (a ride-car was in the station though if this means anything). Only thing I saw at about 2pm was the 2 guys working at the bottom of the second lift-hill. Not saying testing didn't happen (as I wasn't in x-sector for most of the day) but just thought I would add to what the previous poster has said.
 
The thing clearly tested yesterday, i don't think that is in dispute.

It appears to be running through that knot a few mph faster than it has been in the past.

Who knows, new trains could already have arrived at some point in the middle of the night on unmarked lorries? Just because nobody has discovered a delivery doesn't mean it didn't happen, they do ALOT in the middle of the night.

Example, was staying at splash with the wife about 3 years back, it was 3 oclock in the morning and we were snooping around for a cash machine that didnt charge for withdrawal, the 2 medical responders had nothing to do so let us jump on their jeep and drove us in through some back gates and right up to the cashpoints on Towers Street.

This was right before scarefest began, and there were people on park at 3am putting the finishing touches on park decorations.

My point being, if they can do that in the middle of the night, they can certainly take delivery of 2, relatively small rollercoaster trains.

Let's see if testing steps up, or whether or not signs pop up overnight.
 
BarryZola said:
I would also like to add that I was at Towers yesterday and didn't see any evidence of the Smiler being tested (a ride-car was in the station though if this means anything). Only thing I saw at about 2pm was the 2 guys working at the bottom of the second lift-hill. Not saying testing didn't happen (as I wasn't in x-sector for most of the day) but just thought I would add to what the previous poster has said.
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Thanks for confirming what I witnessed. I too also saw the car sitting in the station all day.

A quote taken from another forum site
@AltonTowers: Hi Leanne, the ride has been periodically running just as part of the ongoing investigation. Thank you.
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Apparently testing did take place yesterday, so I can only assume that it was very brief and I blinked ;)
 
phildenholm said:
Would explain the time the ride has been closed for
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Surely the HSE investigation into a major accident explains the time the ride has been closed for.

They still have the 3 trains that weren't involved in the crash, and I would assume once they re-open it it will be running on reduced capacity anyway.
 
nope the HSE were finished with the ride when the park opened, there may have still been prohibition notices on it but we will likely never know any of the details.
 
I understand that the ride has a prevention order on it until the necessarily safeguards are in place to prevent the indecent from repeating itself.

I think any attempt to reopen it at a reduced capacity rate will definitely cause major ques and certainly for the firework weekend, this will cause major problems as they need to start getting the tower end cleared a couple of hours before the start of the display. I'm sure that they will need to have working 5 cars to hand.
 
phildenholm said:
nope the HSE were finished with the ride when the park opened, there may have still been prohibition notices on it but we will likely never know any of the details.
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Just because they were physically done with actually running the ride doesn't mean their investigation had finished.
 
Knowing how the HSE work they would not go back for anything 3 months later as the weather would have altered the conditions. Although we will never know I'm fairly sure merlin will have closed the park so the HSE could have full access to anything without anyone seeing. I think its fair to say they HSE's investigation will be finished on the structure of the ride.
 
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