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The Smiler - General Discussion

Spark said:
Was there not also an issue with owls or some sort of animal living in the tank?
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I believe some bats were nesting in the round tank that the fireball errupts from, but they only started living there after the fire effect was removed.
 
Smiler. Didn't feel like it jolted so badly out of the corkscrew at the end today!! Smooth? No. It is a Gerst, but rough as the last time I rode it? Definitely not. Did I actually get a good train, TWICE?

Special mention for awful dispatching lol. 20 minute queues outside, NO ONE in the station, trains waiting for guests with empty seats... ooops.

If they run it like that on a busy day.....

Extra special mention for the one projector so misaligned it may as well have been on the floor :D - none of the others were even on, they just had the lights on and a random strobe, no smoke in station/indoor section. Effects wise, that was actually quite laughable.

Centre feature looked impressive today though, most bits seemed to be working on that. Music seemed quieter inside as well, not sure if it was just me, but it didn't really boom like I remember.
 
The roughness issue is the trains and they have been stripping the trains down since summer.

The projectors are having issues at the moment but apparently they are hoping to get them fixed.
 
Dave said:
The roughness issue is the trains and they have been stripping the trains down since summer.

The projectors are having issues at the moment but apparently they are hoping to get them fixed.
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The train issues seem to have made a big improvement I must say, I braced for the usual OWWWWWW moment which didn't happen. For it not to happen twice, left me confused.

It was odd though to only have one projector on and be so far off. It didn't look too bad with the lights on, but clearly it isn't what it should be. Was good to see the marm more or less at full capacity on a dull day it has some real presence.
 
Rode Smiler yesterday myself, although the track jolts still happened it was noticeably smoother and quieter. The roughness must be a train thing!
 
Dave said:
Rode Smiler yesterday myself, although the track jolts still happened it was noticeably smoother and quieter. The roughness must be a train thing!
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Strange isn't it! I braced twice for that final inversion head bang for it not to come, I spend the remainder of it wondering what happened, both times lol.

MASSIVELY improved for it though I have to say.

Still not "smooth" but it's certainly moved it out of back row Colossus territory and into actually re-rideable without feeling some sadistic sense of "just how many times can I tolerate this ride" when I was bored last year :D
 
Not ridden The Smiler for a while so it will be interesting to see if there are any noticebale improvement to the ride experience this weekend.

:)
 
Well what can I say...

The Smiler literally broke today! The top of an inversion which is part of the Staffordshire Knot came apart, and they had to get a crane to come and fix it. They had cordoned off any access to The Smiler site, area around enterprise etc, from the Smiler entrance onwards. We could still get on Oblivion though. I know they had to evac on the brake run too.

Opened later in the day, but then had technical difficulties again at the very end of the day.

Sorry I don't know any more.
 
Well that's what it looked like. The track came apart very slightly from the other piece of track, or that's what it looked like anyway.

It looked like it did when I was there, though it may just be that that's how it looks anyway.

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Nevertheless, they did still have to get a crane out and close off the area surrounding The Smiler today.
 
Doesn't look like there's much of a gap there but it is hard to tell. I'm sure it couldn't have been anything too drastic as it opened later in the day and also only used the evac cherry picker to fix it rather than needing a crane like when the trains valleyed in the early days.

Interesting nonetheless
 
To be fair Swarm had track inspections due to bolt issues in its first year. I appreciate Smilers bolt issue last season makes any track inspection look suspect, but ALL roller coasters have bolt fails through the season. It's just last years one was a multiple bolt failure.

The track clearly hasn't shifted in the picture so it can't have been anything more than a single bolt issue which isn't unusual.
 
I was there last Thursday, Smiler was again closed for a few hours, I saw 2 trains back at the station with guests stranded on them. then nothing for a while, a few test runs, then back open, I rode it soon after and it was so much smoother than it had been for the last 4 times i'd rode it.

I heard it broke down again today on twitter too.
 
It seems like whatever they have done (it's bolt spitting episodes to one side ;) ) they've really improved those trains.

It's not silky but it is now infinitely more tolerable than before, and actually, with it getting smoother, I think if it was TOO smooth it might actually be a little nausea inducing!

EDIT: Maybe they have used some parts from the projector screens to make it better? :D
 
Didn't get chance to do The Smiler over the weekend so shall have to wait until Fireworks to see if there has been an improvement. Here's hoping it doesn't have a massive queue!

:)
 
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