TH13TEEN 18 rider rule

[james.e.hyde]

Went to ride TH13TEEN today just before queue close, they were asking for two more riders, and saying that TH13TEEN has a strict rule that 18 riders must be on the train, else it doesn't go. Now seeing that they sent the next train round empty, can anyone provide any background information on this rule?

 

[John]

Two of the the three trim brakes on the ride are retractable. If guests are on the ride then the trims will be in use and the train needs to be a certain weight to have enough momentum to make it round the circuit, somehow they worked out 18 was the minimum number. An empty train will be slower so the trims are switched off to compensate.

When the ride was first opened the trims were all permanent magnets, so when the last guests had got on they had to load the empty trains with large water bottles to ensure they made it round.

I'm not sure how strictly this rule is actually enforced though, it's possible that when there are no single riders you could have 3 groups of 3 on one train giving a total of 17 riders - technically they'd then have to re-arrange everyone to pair up two of the single riders, but I suspect they might not bother (or even notice).

 

[TheMan]

And that children, is the story of how John won the 2012 Geekiest Member award. ;D

 

[thefatone]

It's seemingly strictly enforced - so it'd be 18, 19 or 20 per ride. Must make some ERT a nice long wait, particularly at beginning of season?

I imagine 18 riders is based on the fact that the 18 riders are all kids, so technically they could have less if they're all adults, however for pure ease of things, 18 is the rule they'll stick to.

With the trims being off, they can send a maximum of 2 guests I believe, hence why the trains are sent completely emtpy.

 

[Andrew]

To be honest, I think that they just want to get off quickly.

---

I'm sure that I've ridden when there have been less than the 18 riders that they ask for. However, I may be wrong.

I'm more interested to know if there are any other rides which need a certain number of people to ride it for it to be able to complete the circuit.

 

[John]

There are a couple of rides in the UK that run with weights on the trains if there aren't enough passengers. Ultimate and PMBO are two that come to mind - Ultimate uses water bottles whilst PMBO uses sandbags. In both cases the rides run with the back car(s) closed off on quiet days to maintain a queue and ensure the trains can always be sent fully loaded.

 

[Alastair]

There are a couple of rides in the UK that run with weights on the trains if there aren't enough passengers. Ultimate and PMBO are two that come to mind - Ultimate uses water bottles whilst PMBO uses sandbags. In both cases the rides run with the back car(s) closed off on quiet days to maintain a queue and ensure the trains can always be sent fully loaded.

A stupid rule in my opinion considering there is almost no day where there won't be enough people to fill a train at one time. And why don't they sandbag the middle trains? The ones with the worst riding experience? :

 

[John]

To be fair BPB can easily be quiet enough to struggle to fill the trains - I've seen them send Grand National trains with only a handful of people on them.

Still, it's annoying to see empty seats (or even trains) being sent round when there's a queue, even though I know why they're doing it. Earlier this season I queued from half way down the stairs on Thirteen and because it was so quiet they were only loading 1 train, despite all 3 being on the system. Needless to say that the queue soon built up and they started loading a 2nd.

On the other hand, I've queued around half an hour for the Ultimate when it wasn't loading full trains - there were probably fewer than 100 people in the queue at the time, but since it's such a long ride the throughput can be pretty dire when running 2/3 of a train.

Colossus is another ride that occasionally sends empty cars to avoid running off the queue, but that's not a weight issue and the seats are just sent empty (normally they have to open all the restraints even if no-one is sat there, which is hard work, but they can "lock off" cars so they don't have to bother). Generally they tend to close cars 5 and 6, leaving the back 2 rows open. On the first day of fright nights last year it briefly ran 16 seats per train (cars 1, 2, 3 and 7), before eventually going down to 1 train operation.

 

[Alastair]

To be fair BPB can easily be quiet enough to struggle to fill the trains - I've seen them send Grand National trains with only a handful of people on them.

Oh believe me, I know about that

But on a serious note, even on extremely quiet days the PMBO will have a queue all day sufficient to fill the train. It's genuinely completely pointless in my opinion to sandbag 4 rows when there are always people waiting that could be in those rows.

 

[djtruefitt]

It's seemingly strictly enforced - so it'd be 18, 19 or 20 per ride. Must make some ERT a nice long wait, particularly at beginning of season?

Earlier this season on the quieter days Rita was used a lot during ERT, which I think is to do with the problem of having 18 guests. You could end up wasting the whole of ERT waiting for people to ride!

 

[T]

This morning, Th13teen had very few guests during ERT and as such, we were stood in the bays for around 10 minutes waiting for guests to join us before they'd let us take our seats. In that time, the empty train in the station was dispatched, as to allow the train being held behind to come back into the station and get the previous, now stationary, riders off.

Rita anyone?

 

[DiogoJ42]

And I'll bet they still wouldn't allow rerides, would they? Any other park in the world would encourage guests to stay on if they need a minimum number of riders.

 

[John]

I've had a reride on Thirteen when there weren't enough people to fill the last train of the day - it's the only time I've ever been allowed to reride at Towers.