The Smiler - General Discussion

[Wilsy]

It all comes down to the fact that it didn't receive enough testing with weighted dummies. A lot of these issues would have been ironed out for X number of hours pre-running.

It clearly doesn't all come down to that though. Doing more testing would not have fixed wobbly supports, prevented poor drainage and therefore flooding or ensured that no bolts would fall out. It might have helped with some of the more standard downtime issues that all coasters get but more testing would not have solved all that much.

Having said that, testing is another aspect of The Smiler that was rushed, hence it did not open on full capacity.

The issues of bolt losses and shedding on 'wheels' could have been identified (IE gotten out of the way) during an effective testing period in my mind. They are literally caused by the presence of (fully laden) trains traversing a flawed design. Bolts and wheels may not have been ejected during an appropriately-long testing phase, but if things were checked for deterioration then they could have been.

As for flooding, certainly not, but maybe buy a hosepipe next time if you're going to appoint cowboy civil engineers

It's taken months for any potential issue with the lift to surface? Something which wouldn't have shown itself during additional testing.

 

[Tom]

It all comes down to the fact that it didn't receive enough testing with weighted dummies. A lot of these issues would have been ironed out for X number of hours pre-running.

It clearly doesn't all come down to that though. Doing more testing would not have fixed wobbly supports, prevented poor drainage and therefore flooding or ensured that no bolts would fall out. It might have helped with some of the more standard downtime issues that all coasters get but more testing would not have solved all that much.

Having said that, testing is another aspect of The Smiler that was rushed, hence it did not open on full capacity.

The issues of bolt losses and shedding on 'wheels' could have been identified (IE gotten out of the way) during an effective testing period in my mind. They are literally caused by the presence of (fully laden) trains traversing a flawed design. Bolts and wheels may not have been ejected during an appropriately-long testing phase, but if things were checked for deterioration then they could have been.

As for flooding, certainly not, but maybe buy a hosepipe next time if you're going to appoint cowboy civil engineers

It's taken months for any potential issue with the lift to surface? Something which wouldn't have shown itself during additional testing.

It's taken months for the actual ejection of bolts and wheels. A proper testing phase that would have been checking component condition would have found problems with the items before they failed in the manner that they did.

It's all learning experience for next time I guess, if you have faith in them to learn that is.

 

[Alastair]

It all comes down to the fact that it didn't receive enough testing with weighted dummies. A lot of these issues would have been ironed out for X number of hours pre-running.

It clearly doesn't all come down to that though. Doing more testing would not have fixed wobbly supports, prevented poor drainage and therefore flooding or ensured that no bolts would fall out. It might have helped with some of the more standard downtime issues that all coasters get but more testing would not have solved all that much.

Having said that, testing is another aspect of The Smiler that was rushed, hence it did not open on full capacity.

The issues of bolt losses and shedding on 'wheels' could have been identified (IE gotten out of the way) during an effective testing period in my mind. They are literally caused by the presence of (fully laden) trains traversing a flawed design. Bolts and wheels may not have been ejected during an appropriately-long testing phase, but if things were checked for deterioration then they could have been.

As for flooding, certainly not, but maybe buy a hosepipe next time if you're going to appoint cowboy civil engineers

They would have had to test it for months to notice any signs of issues with the bolts! No coaster would ever be tested for that long.

 

[Tom]

You can detect issues earlier than that, but most rides do begin testing months before they open anyway.

 

[Alastair]

You can detect issues earlier than that, but most rides do begin testing months before they open anyway.

Not 4/5/6 months before they don't.

 

[simps100]

My thoughts exactly. It is only a matter of time before this joke of a ride kills someone, and I don't intend to be that person. (If I'm going to die on a coaster, I want it to be a good one.)
I shall be filing The Smiler in the same draw as Furius Baco, labled "WILL NEVER RIDE AGAIN".

Swarm sheds bolts.... you not riding that too?

At the end of the day the H&S in this country is very strict, and Towers have good techies. Personally i feel the papers have over dramatised the whole thing, some small plastic wheels fell, not huge bits of metal.

The ride is a farce from a planning and construction point-of-view don't get me wrong but it's a bit "OTT" to declare it a death trap. Especially when you consider the touring rides in fairs.

I think smilers problems are on a somewhat different scale to The Swarms, when you bare in mind Swarm has just completed its second season without spending an entire day closed.. Got to love them B&Ms!

Not saying its not safe though, like others have said id have no problems with riding it if it was open now.

Just seen it on Watchdog, they mentioned abit of track fell off earlier in the year so the media are certainly making it worse!

 

[TheMan]

OK anyone "In the know" about if it will open perhaps tomorrow or not?

Discretion assured!!

No seriously, if anyone has an idea or heard some murmurings can you drop me a PM if you don't want to mention it on the boards? Thanks

 

[Tim]

I am joining Diogo in not riding The Smiler again for the time being.

Not because I believe it is especially unsafe (although the most recent incident definitely shows it is unsafe if mechanical faults are causing injuries) but because my enjoyment of the ride is now completely spoilt by the number of problems it has. I've only had the chance to ride twice now but on both occasions I've been so focused on the problems I haven't been able to relax and just enjoy the ride for what it is.

I've said all along they should have waited for 2014. I fear now there is only so much they can change this close season.

 

[James]

From what I've heard The Smiler is planned to remain closed tomorrow.

Don't take my word for it. But as far as I'm aware that's the case.

 

[Dave]

My thoughts exactly. It is only a matter of time before this joke of a ride kills someone, and I don't intend to be that person. (If I'm going to die on a coaster, I want it to be a good one.)
I shall be filing The Smiler in the same draw as Furius Baco, labled "WILL NEVER RIDE AGAIN".

Swarm sheds bolts.... you not riding that too?

At the end of the day the H&S in this country is very strict, and Towers have good techies. Personally i feel the papers have over dramatised the whole thing, some small plastic wheels fell, not huge bits of metal.

The ride is a farce from a planning and construction point-of-view don't get me wrong but it's a bit "OTT" to declare it a death trap. Especially when you consider the touring rides in fairs.

I think smilers problems are on a somewhat different scale to The Swarms, when you bare in mind Swarm has just completed its second season without spending an entire day closed.. Got to love them B&Ms!

Not saying its not safe though, like others have said id have no problems with riding it if it was open now.

Just seen it on Watchdog, they mentioned abit of track fell off earlier in the year so the media are certainly making it worse!

Ohh I know, Swarm comes nowhere close to the issues Smiler has. My point is H&S won't let a ride open that's unsafe.

Think Merlin and Towers need to appreciate that they don't build new rides with enough lead-up time or with basic considerations.

Excepting the stuff that is due to the rush job of the ride, This year I can think of two Merlin new ride issues that should have been foreseen.

1) no drainage on Smiler site... Drainage been a concept that has existed in construction since the Romans

2) Zufari off-load needing to cross on-load to exit kinda negates the benefit of actually having an off-load.

Both of the above maybe suggest Merlin can draw nice pictures but don't actually think about "logistics"

 

[James]

The Smiler is open once again!

 

[Rob]

As I suspected it might do, The Smiler has re-opened today.

Edit: Just beaten by James!

 

[Dave]

It only has to limp through 4 days...

... Any bets on it succeeding?

 

[Rob]

We all know that it's going to get destroyed by a stray firework on Sunday!

 

[Dave]

Hope all these issues make Merlin actually start to plan proper lead-up times and do thorough ground and water table surveys and... You know.... Plan!

But then we said similar with 2011 fail and sub-terra so I'm not holding my breath too much.

 

[James]

Bit of a random post but when staying on resort last week I had a look at the reserved parking and this is what the signs for the reserved spaces look like when you stay in a Smiler room.

Pretty nice sign (you know you're a geek when..)! The red lights on the cameras flash too! I thought it was a pretty nice touch compared to the Silentnight signs they've been using since forever in a day.

 

[Scott]

Ooh I like that! More interesting than the rides entrance at least


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk.

 

[Alexsutton]

Looks great apart from the lower case L in 'belong'. It's bad that that's one of the first things I noticed.

 

[delta79]

they have changed the S for 5 and the E for 3, so why not add a lower case L. it add the the confusing of the letter to numbers

 

[Slugjc]

Is the room number 513 by anychance