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Incident on The Smiler 02/06/2015

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How can they make it go faster the knot? Change the Trims? Weight the trains? Have special weather measures like on spinball (adding heavy dummies if the wind is over a certain speed)?
 
Re-profile the knot (expensive)
Remove the trims (more pressure on the track - replace parts of the track - expensive)

IMO - not sure how possible this is, but would be great if they added a tiny portion of a launch along the part of the batwing where is stalls, just to ensure its pushed through those inversions.
 
Amy said:
This is like following the original Smiler construction topic. The testing is very exciting, I can't wait to get back on!
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And funnily enough, much like most of the original construction topic in 2013, none of us had a clue when it would open.

Very exciting indeed to see stuff going on. Whether it opens next week or next year seeing activity on a site that has remained a ghost town since June is really exciting to see!
 
That would be amazing. A small launch would make the inversions faster and remove the chance of a stall.

We don't know yet that towers haven't ALREADY done something to prevent stalls. I think we would notice a launch, but they could have done something (I know literally nothing about what options they have to prevent stalls, sorry if I'm wrong :))
 
Bare with me I'm no Pablo Picasso & I'm terrible at painting pictures but...

You know the straight section under the "spider" before you go down & then into the knot? Correct me if I'm wrong (or imagining things) but doesn't that section have a breaking system?
I always thought (or imagined) it to be a breaking system in-case you're carrying too much speed from the previous sections. That way if you're going too fast it could slow you down so the next bit wasn't "too" intense.

Same way as I'm no Pablo Picasso, I'm no John Wardley so please go easy on me if wrong.
 
Alec said:
Bare with me I'm no Pablo Picasso & I'm terrible at painting pictures but...

You know the straight section under the "spider" before you go down & then into the knot? Correct me if I'm wrong (or imagining things) but doesn't that section have a breaking system?
I always thought (or imagined) it to be a breaking system in-case you're carrying too much speed from the previous sections. That way if you're going too fast it could slow you down so the next bit wasn't "too" intense.

Same way as I'm no Pablo Picasso, I'm no John Wardley so please go easy on me if wrong.
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They are breaks yes... They are there so the train doesn't do too much wear and tear on the next part of the track, going from airtime to an inversion.
 
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@Ash123uk Ahh so I'm not going crazy.:tinfoil:

So would these always be on? Couldn't they just switch them off or lower the magnitude? (I'm guessing it's a magnetic system)
That way the train will always have enough speed & pace to go through the knot right?
 
Ash123uk said:
They are breaks yes... They are there so the train doesn't do too much wear and tear on the next part of the track, going from airtime to and inversion.
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Definatly there and almost always wrong. Though wouldn't they have not affected the stalled train that would have been below a certain speed to make the breaks work (edit- sorry about the bad grammar there). And should they have stopped/significantly slowed the second train?
 
@Alec & Leah

I'm not 100% but I think they are adjusted accordingly.

So on the day of the incident I'm presuming that the brakes weren't applied as may not have had the speed behind it.

Or maybe it did and the brakes were applied, it may have just not had the weight needed behind it to get out of the batwing. Plus the added factor of the strong wind that day.
 
But this is all stupid! The stall should never happen! If Alton can't make a ride do what it should because of height restrictions, don't make it!
 
I've seen Spinball stall twice in the 11 years it's been open, went to the park on Easter Monday and Tuesday in 2009 and happened both days even got one on video.




Anyway back on topic.
 
spinba11 said:
I've seen Spinball stall twice in the 11 years it's been open, went to the park on Easter Monday and Tuesday in 2009 and happened both days even got one on video.




Anyway back on topic.
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lol - but at least spitballs stalls are easily pushed on.
 
I agree @Ash123uk, I'm just brainstorming my own solutions that could prevent stalls in the future. Like you said, wind could & can always have a factor to play along with other factors that just means the train isn't carrying enough speed through that section.

I don't think heigh restrictions have anything to do with it though, I know AT have height regulations that they have to stick too which prevents them from going too high but that's why they dig down right? So surely if they needed more high for a certain section they would have just gone deeper? Plus more trains have travelled through the bat wing than stalled in it, showing that the ride is doing what it should. It's just on certain days multiple factors join together & create terrible conditions, which causes a train to stall.
 
Alec said:
I agree @Ash123uk, I'm just brainstorming my own solutions that could prevent stalls in the future. Like you said, wind could & can always have a factor to play along with other factors that just means the train isn't carrying enough speed through that section.

I don't think heigh restrictions have anything to do with it though, I know AT have height regulations that they have to stick too which prevents them from going too high but that's why they dig down right? So surely if they needed more high for a certain section they would have just gone deeper? Plus more trains have travelled through the bat wing than stalled in it, showing that the ride is doing what it should. It's just on certain days multiple factors join together & create terrible conditions, which causes a train to stall.
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My point being if it was taller, it would be faster and would be a better ride.



2.00 into the movie - unbelievable
 
I think the best way to stop The Smiler from stalling is raise the speed the brake fins on the trim brakes pop up, so if they pop up to get the train down to (for example) 20 MPH at the moment adjust the target speed to 25 MPH as long as it wont wear the track out.
 
spinba11 said:
I think the best way to stop The Smiler from stalling is raise the speed the brake fins on the trim brakes pop up, so if they pop up to get the train down to (for example) 20 MPH at the moment adjust the target speed to 25 MPH as long as it wont wear the track out.
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Shhhhhhhhh.........


We want a boost
 
Wow, you could already see that it was struggling by the third inversion.

But then again I've been on it plenty of times & never felt as if it was struggling to make it through any of the inversions, so I wonder what's different. (apart from the weather)

Can the lift hills chain be speeded up or slowed down? Wouldn't that have a considerable factor in how much speed it's carrying through the first few sections?
 
Alec said:
Wow, you could already see that it was struggling by the third inversion.

But then again I've been on it plenty of times & never felt as if it was struggling to make it through any of the inversions, so I wonder what's different. (apart from the weather)

Can the lift hills chain be speeded up or slowed down? Wouldn't that have a considerable factor in how much speed it's carrying through the first few sections?
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That wouldn't have much impact on overall speed. The momentum is built up from the first drop/inversion after the lift.
 
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