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The Smiler - General Discussion
Croftybaby
TS Member
James said:Nice to see the press being as positive as ever.![]()
Theres nothing to be positive about?
Amy
TS Contributor
Has anyone seen this?
https://www.facebook.com/ThemeParkCollective/posts/415609508550159
I just wondered if that was true about the lift hill? I'd heard about the issue with the groundworks but not the other bit.
https://www.facebook.com/ThemeParkCollective/posts/415609508550159
I just wondered if that was true about the lift hill? I'd heard about the issue with the groundworks but not the other bit.
delta79
TS Member
Ian the link does not work. I take it you where trying to link to this
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23588202
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23588202
IanB said:I think we have just found the cause of all the problems with the Smiler:
Link
All the 6 and 8 got swapped around.
Ian
Laura
TS Member
I found this the other day which made me chuckle:
(copy pasted from tumblr as the source link has stupid bgm)
THE LEGEND OF THE NEW ROLLER COASTER
Local legend has it that one day in 2013, the Earl of Shrewsbury was travelling by car in his home at Alton Towers, past the site of The Smiler. Suddenly and unexpectedly, an old woman stepped out and, upon bringing the Earl’s car to an abrupt halt, asked him if he could spare a coin. The Earl dismissed her, and bid his driver to continue, ordering her off his land as he departed. As he did so, however, the old woman issued the chilling reprimand, “For every bolt that falls from this new roller coaster, a member of your family will die.”
Some time later an extreme heatwave arrived, during which, a single bolt was sheared from the roller coaster and fell to the ground. Shortly after, a member of the Earl’s family – purportedly his son – suddenly and inexplicably died. So, as the legend has it, the Earl returned to the ride and demanded that the track pieces were chained together to prevent a similar tragedy.
(Source: http://jellydekiller.tumblr.com/post/57428549578/the-legend-of-the-new-roller-coaster)
(copy pasted from tumblr as the source link has stupid bgm)
THE LEGEND OF THE NEW ROLLER COASTER
Local legend has it that one day in 2013, the Earl of Shrewsbury was travelling by car in his home at Alton Towers, past the site of The Smiler. Suddenly and unexpectedly, an old woman stepped out and, upon bringing the Earl’s car to an abrupt halt, asked him if he could spare a coin. The Earl dismissed her, and bid his driver to continue, ordering her off his land as he departed. As he did so, however, the old woman issued the chilling reprimand, “For every bolt that falls from this new roller coaster, a member of your family will die.”
Some time later an extreme heatwave arrived, during which, a single bolt was sheared from the roller coaster and fell to the ground. Shortly after, a member of the Earl’s family – purportedly his son – suddenly and inexplicably died. So, as the legend has it, the Earl returned to the ride and demanded that the track pieces were chained together to prevent a similar tragedy.
(Source: http://jellydekiller.tumblr.com/post/57428549578/the-legend-of-the-new-roller-coaster)
Vicky
TS Member
I'm not sure how many people have seen this but I thought it would be worth posting. An interview with Ben Dowson about the process behind The Smiler, including marketing and keeping the world's first under wraps, it makes for an interesting read.
http://www.parkworld-online.com/news/fullstory.php/aid/2503/The_story_of_The_Smiler.html
http://www.parkworld-online.com/news/fullstory.php/aid/2503/The_story_of_The_Smiler.html
Nice article, I like the way he talks about not having inversions for the sake of inversions yet the idea was to have inversions for the sake of inversions because inversions are the selling point of the ride. Nevertheless I always enjoy reading about ride development. I would like to know what alternative theme ideas they had.
Alastair
TS Team
ATG just posted a link to this interview with Wardley on Youtube. Pretty generic really, talks about his background, but contains some footage of him on ride.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHRKudj8w4U#ws
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHRKudj8w4U#ws
djtruefitt
TS Team
As posted on the TowersStreet Facebook page earlier, most of the Smiler queue line is now covered with netting, and by the looks of things more is being added soon, as there are poles and hooks above some parts of the queue without netting.

Alastair
TS Team
A rather amusing development on The Smiler's Wikipedia page; apparently an IP tracked back to Merlin was found (and blocked) whilst removing sections about the problems with the ride. Bit desperate.
Max
TS Member
Utterly pathetic, not something you'd expect from one of the worlds biggest Attraction operators.Alastair said:A rather amusing development on The Smiler's Wikipedia page; apparently an IP tracked back to Merlin was found (and blocked) whilst removing sections about the problems with the ride. Bit desperate.
Jonathan
TS Member
I'm not actually surprised that they did this.Max said:Utterly pathetic, not something you'd expect from one of the worlds biggest Attraction operators.Alastair said:A rather amusing development on The Smiler's Wikipedia page; apparently an IP tracked back to Merlin was found (and blocked) whilst removing sections about the problems with the ride. Bit desperate.
BigAl
TS Member
Why on earth would they risk this? People have been riding it anyway, regardless of the fact that there were problems building it, opening it and keeping it open. It's not as if all this information isn't already well-documented out there on hundreds of other news websites and fan forums either.
I can't believe that this would be anything other than the actions of a single employee. Getting caught doing something like this is worse than if the information on the Wikipedia page had just been left. I don't think there are many companies out there that would condone or risk things like this.
I can't believe that this would be anything other than the actions of a single employee. Getting caught doing something like this is worse than if the information on the Wikipedia page had just been left. I don't think there are many companies out there that would condone or risk things like this.