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The Smiler - General Discussion

That exit path has always been very iffy, especially for people who have just come off a 14 inversion coaster.
There is, however, a middle ground between "total blackout", and "ground zero".

See, in the old days, we had these things called "dimmers"...
 
Excalibur said:
I was an operator on the ride, the exit tunnel looks like the house lights are on personally, could be wrong though.
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Squiggs said:
Those pictures of the exit corridor are different to how it when I was there in June. I was taking some photos for the site and was struggling due to the low lighting.

Don't know about the queueline room, however, as I used single rider.
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So it looks like they’ve either accidentally left the house lights on, or they’ve been told they need to brighten up the exit corridor and just decided the house lights will do.

If anyone’s going anytime soon I would love to know how the exit corridor looks!
 
It most likely is the house / work lights that have been turned on. Possibly as a temporary measure. But we all know how "temporary" things tend to stick around.

Seriously, all that corridor has ever needed is a couple more profiles with gobo rotators (what some have called "projectors") to fill in the dark spots. A few grand tops on kit and labour. Should have been there since day one.
 
AT86 said:
Both trains from the accident were scrapped I believe?

They had one new one to replace the 2 that went, which is why they have 4 trains now as opposed to the original 5.
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Does anybody know why Alton Towers only ordered one new train instead of two, so that they would have had a full fleet of five trains available instead of four?
 
Secret Weapon said:
Does anybody know why Alton Towers only ordered one new train instead of two, so that they would have had a full fleet of five trains available instead of four?
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If I had to guess:
Being generous, to ensure that with one less train, there was less chance of it ever happening again.
Being pragmatic, because it was cheaper.

I'm sure those who visit more often than I could tell you whether or not the fifth train always stacked (in which case it was pointless). You could argue that they knew the ride would attract less people once it reopened, rendering an extra train unnecessary?
 
DiogoJ42 said:
You could argue that they knew the ride would attract less people once it reopened, rendering an extra train unnecessary?
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I assumed that this may have been the case, although I am unsure.

Maybe they thought that they could start 2016 with four trains, and then buy a fifth again in future if the demand required it?

This sounds a bit risky, though, as there is the danger that Gerstlauer may eventually stop manufacturing them (I personally would buy a fifth and keep it in the maintenance shed - also in case one breaks).

Maybe the increased safety features after the 2016 reopening made a fifth train less desirable than in the past (i.e. the additional time that it may now require to add extra trains during the day).

P.S. If anybody knows why the Smiler logo patterns were removed from the back of the trains in 2016 then I would be interested in hearing the reason.
 
By the logic of "they might stop making these things soon"...... I, personally, would buy as many as I could possibly afford.

[....And I did exactly that when they banned tungsten lightbulbs. I have a whole crate of Hundred Watters at the back of my under-stairs-cupboard. Who wants one? A score each. Don't complain. Black market, baby!]
 
The exit corridor was dark today as normal, in fact darker than the last year or two where there has been one or two small lights on, the photos on the last page is when the house lights are on, and in the projector room, the spot lights in the middle are also the house lights. Sometimes if you ride at the end of the day they’ll be end as staff start to clean.

As for the 5th train, I believe it didn’t really help the ride throughput at all, and many of the technical issues and errors happened whilst it had 5 on the track. So I guess they decided 4 was perfectly fine for the ride. As even on 4 you will usually stack for a few seconds even if it’s being ran amazing
 
Hid said:
Seen a vlog of Theme Park Insanity, The Smiler Marmilizer is looking fresh with all of the effects working which is good to see also worth mentioned in hid vlog there a rumour The Smiler is about to get a retheme
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Why would they spend money restoring a piece of theming if they were about to retheme the whole ride anyway? Sorry but that just doesn't make sense.
 
This whole Project Wasp rumour is very tenuous. It wouldn’t really make any sense to remove The Smiler theming and just leave everything black and yellow, and why have an insect themed ride in what is supposed to be a mysterious government facility area?

Heck, let’s go one step further and retheme Nemesis to The Ladybird because it’s already black and red.
 
Can someone fill me in on what exactly Project Wasp is? And what this rumour actually entails?

If it is a Smiler retheme as the posts here imply, I’ll admit I’d be stunned if Smiler was rethemed. It’s arguably one of Alton Towers’ strongest and most popular ride brands.
 
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