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Thirteen: General Discussion

That's what it was consistently getting back then. The staff were running along the platform to check bars (which didn't have to be so tightly closed) and with the bag room at merge loading times were far quicker. They'd often get the train out before the one behind moved out of the switch track.

In 2010 a queue to the entrance through all extensions was about 70 minutes, though I don't think they sold fastrack for it straight away.
 
John said:
That's what it was consistently getting back then. The staff were running along the platform to check bars (which didn't have to be so tightly closed) and with the bag room at merge loading times were far quicker. They'd often get the train out before the one behind moved out of the switch track.

In 2010 a queue to the entrance through all extensions was about 70 minutes, though I don't think they sold fastrack for it straight away.
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What would you say it gets now, out of interest? I timed it at slightly below 1,200pph the other day, but as that was only using 2 dispatches, I thought that could have been a particularly quick dispatch.
 
Stevros said:
What has happened with the ops on Thirteen lately? Was on park Wednesday and Thursday and both days, while being on 3 trains, it was stacking all 3. Would complete the backwards section and have to wait for the mini ‘launch’ forward as the next train still hadn’t left the station. Have never seen it like that before.
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You mean the "launch that's faster than Icon"? :D:D
I was there Friday and Saturday and all seemed ok. Don't forget you only need one person struggling with getting in or out of the seat or scared to go on it (a girl was like that on my train) and that's enough to make the trains stack.
 
So for a few years Thirteen hasn’t been able to operate in low temperatures, and following the ‘incident’ earlier this season whereby a train seemingly slipped off the lift (how?!) in wet weather it can’t now operate in the rain either. For a rollercoaster situated in rural Staffordshire this is a pretty ludicrous situation.

Do you think the park might have Intamin over during the winter to seek a fix to the rain issue? Low temps only really impacts Scarefest, but rain can stop play any day of the season.
 
On one hand, Thirteens drop track is quite an incredible piece of design and engineering. Yet it's part of a coaster that can't even climb a lift hill in the rain, operate without being fully loaded in the back few rows or traverse a 17m drop without the need for trim breaks! A totally unacceptable situation
 
The obvious solution to me is to have a structure built to cover the second lift (I assume this is where the “incident” occurred?) . As much as we can criticise the thematic direction of Thirteen, it would actually not be totally egregious to see some kind of scaffold structure here to ensure that the second lift works
 
I'd imagine any solution will be in the off season. Bit like the bodging they've done to Marauders Mayhem I presume to limp it to the end of the season. The easiest solution would be a set of ARBs between the station and lift, bit like the extra set added to Nemesis
 
Out of interest, what “bodging” have they done to Marauder’s Mayhem?
 
Matt.GC said:
On one hand, Thirteens drop track is quite an incredible piece of design and engineering. Yet it's part of a coaster that can't even climb a lift hill in the rain, operate without being fully loaded in the back few rows or traverse a 17m drop without the need for trim breaks! A totally unacceptable situation
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Yes agreed. Totally inappropriate system for a high capacity thrill ride. I'm not sure why Intamin allowed it to be honest, presumably they could have built a similar feature for a more substantial model of theirs?
 
It was used because the drop track needed a fairly lightweight train and track type in order to work quickly and reliably (a huge train with huge, beefy track likely wouldn’t have worked, for instance), so Intamin thought that their Mine Train Coaster system would be the best fit.

If you’re wondering why this is, a lighter train means that less force is required to move the train, and lighter track means that less work needs to be done to move it down & up each time at a given velocity. Braking is also quicker with a lighter piece of track and/or train as less force is required to slow it down, and Wardley said about how quick himself & Merlin wanted the process to be. That simply wouldn’t have been possible with a beefier ride system; look at how long something like Expedition Everest takes to move its switch track, for instance.

Less force would mean a more comfortable experience for the riders as well as less time required to complete the drop track process, and it also means less electricity is used.

I hope that makes it a little easier to understand! (As well as that I’ve explained it correctly…)
 
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