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Thirteen: General Discussion

Sadly looks like they've cannibalised a train as the spare ride shells are sat under lift 1
 
Either way it'll be a while I'd imagine. Just seems a bit odd to leave them in public view. Then again there's a Battle Galleons boat inexplicably sat next to Smiler on the access road so I wouldn't be surprised if maintenance got smashed at some stage and just lobbed things everywhere for a laugh
 
ATI said:
Also, I don't think Merlin is even known for cannibalising trains? Although then again, I always see one of Oblivion's shuttles in bits.
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Isn’t that just because they do the maintenance on a rolling basis through the year since it can only run 6 shuttles and it has 7? So at any point one of them will be being worked on.
 
Shawn (TPW) in his latest Alton Towers vlog was actually saying he believes the rain issue was resolved over winter, but I guess we'll find out eventually.
 
Seems like maintenance has been shocking this closed season with the number of trains down across all rides
 
Do u think having theses longer opening hours is having a major effect on the rides? Like Thirteen and Wickerman had the longest queues on my last 2 visits in 2020/2021 will both rides having downtime and not just cause of the weather.
 
TBH i think how full on 2021 was might have been an issue as off peak times you can expect a train to go through refurb in parks, especially the ones with 3 trains, if there all pushed through closed season that makes it harder
 
Rob F said:
Vampires 3rd train was cannibalised,
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Was that not more a case of them deciding that three train ops was difficult and troublesome for other reasons and the above was a response to that ?

Agree it's not their typical practice though. Blue Tornado had three trains at one time, but there were only two visible yesterday.
 
Th13teen is fine on 2 imo. The baggage hold will help a lot now and it'll move much quicker anyway. Wicker man is the same but it has to be 2 at least bcus we've seen this weekend that a major ride being on 1 train is a disaster
 
@Dave I think that's a fair call if they start to have issues mid-season but for winter maintenance that's a bit of a stretch. It doesn't come out of the blue and they have over a decade of history with the ride to understand what's likely required.

The supply chain issues are also pretty well understood at this point and can be planned for.
 
Rick said:
@Dave I think that's a fair call if they start to have issues mid-season but for winter maintenance that's a bit of a stretch. It doesn't come out of the blue and they have over a decade of history with the ride to understand what's likely required.

The supply chain issues are also pretty well understood at this point and can be planned for.
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I don’t think Merlin have ever been big on storing a lot of parts. If something was discovered during strip down in late November and it’s a 2 month lead in time to delivery then you didn’t what you needed until February. Merlin also now insist all parts come from the manufacturer rather than third party suppliers like they used to be able to do so that means everything is coming from mainland Europe pretty much.

It’s also possible the wider Christmas opening put pressure on tech services, if that’s the case hopefully they increase staffing in that team.
 
Dave said:
I don’t think Merlin have ever been big on storing a lot of parts. If something was discovered during strip down in late November and it’s a 2 month lead in time to delivery then you didn’t what you needed until February. Merlin also now insist all parts come from the manufacturer rather than third party suppliers like they used to be able to do so that means everything is coming from mainland Europe pretty much.

It’s also possible the wider Christmas opening put pressure on tech services, if that’s the case hopefully they increase staffing in that team.
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Right ... that's the root of my point.

They don't have a culture of part storage, a lot of good reasons for that historically - especially if you could overnight most things, but that's not feasible anymore.

Furthermore, if you shift your criteria from third party to OEM parts only, the lead time will be longer.

And not to labour the point, but if you want to extend your season, you have to adjust the maintenance cycle for it not just have the "but supply chains" excuse.

You're essentially arguing my case :)
 
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