Ride Downtime Thread 2012

General discussion regarding the UK's No.1 Theme Park. Talk about anything and everything Alton Towers here.
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Pennywise
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Considering Alton Towers' generally excellent record for ride availability, I'm surprised see the need to start this topic. However, I visited yesterday and Oblivion was closed for the duration.

Anybody have any idea what's up with it and when it's likely to reopen? There didn't seem to be too much in terms of activity surrounding the ride and apparently it also had serious issues operating on the Friday. This was actually the first time I'd visited Alton Towers and seen a major ride closed all day since the end of the 2008 season.

Besides that, this thread is for sharing your experiences of ride closures at the park over the 2012 season, and keeping us all updated as to what can be expected to be closed.

:)
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starbugger1303
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I think this season has got to be the worst I've seen for ride downtime..

Every time I have been on park something has been closed or broken. Nemesis, surprisingly has had her fair share of breakdowns this year. Oblivion has gotten worse, I was on park on Thursday and a friend and I got stuck on the lift hill (In the pouring down rain, I must add) for about 15 minutes. But the staff were very nice and re-assuring.

Less said about Sub Terra, the better..

:)
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mrbrightside
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Sub Terra has improved greatly since it's closure.

Oblivion was shut all day when I visited a week and a half ago (Wed 30th) and on the same day there had been some minor issues waiting for Nemesis to reset itself. Thursday 31st saw Rita close, however the rain on that day may not have helped.


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AstroDan

There have been a few breakdowns this year, but to my knowledge barely anything has had entire days closed.

Oblivion I believe has a lift issue. It was up and down on Friday, as was Nemesis.

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NatOwls82
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D4n wrote: Considering Alton Towers' generally excellent record for ride availability, I'm surprised see the need to start this topic. However, I visited yesterday and Oblivion was closed for the duration.

Anybody have any idea what's up with it and when it's likely to reopen? There didn't seem to be too much in terms of activity surrounding the ride and apparently it also had serious issues operating on the Friday. This was actually the first time I'd visited Alton Towers and seen a major ride closed all day since the end of the 2008 season.

Besides that, this thread is for sharing your experiences of ride closures at the park over the 2012 season, and keeping us all updated as to what can be expected to be closed.

:)
I really have no idea - just a stab in the dark, but is the Oblivion affected by high winds? I am aware that many places have been affected with strong winds over the past few days..I maybe wrong tho..
Looking forward to another visit on 10th July
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BowMan
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I saw an empty shuttle stuck near the top of the lift hill when I went into X-Sector for early ride time.  :D
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Don't_Look_Down
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They seemed to be having trouble with the lift hill on Oblivion yesterday. The shuttles kept stalling for some reason (or at least that's what it looked like).

I was quite upset that I couldn't get at least one ride in. A trip to Alton is not complete otherwise  :|
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mrbrightside
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The other week when it was down and I was in X Sector seemed to see mechanics wandering around the brake run a lot too... They got it up and running for testing but I don't think it re-opened. Was fine by the next day though.


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Chaz
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AstroDan wrote: Oblivion I believe has a lift issue. It was up and down on Friday, as was Nemesis.
That's kinda how roller coaster work I believe. :P


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BowMan
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I also noticed that TH13TEEN didn't open on time yesterday and it stopped on the first lift hill at around 1:45. I don't know what time it was fixed if it was because I left Dark Forest.
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djtruefitt

On my last 3 or 4 visits Oblivion has broke down, I think its something to do with shuttles overshooting the breaks, which then shuts down the ride? It certainly seems to be happening most days now.

Nemesis also seems to have had a bit of downtime in the past few weeks, this year is the first time I have heard the breakdown message so many times.
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Today, every ride was fine, except when I was on Rita, we were sat for about three minutes while the breakdown sounds were on (Them clanking sounds? They happened last time we were on a breakdown), but within three minutes, we were on.
And just when we were about to go on spinball, we saw it was broken down. Luckily it opened just as we reached the queue start thing.

Oh, and on air someone had had a medical axcident..
______  ___                     
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__  /|_/ /_  __ `/_  / / /  __ `/
_  /  / / / /_/ /_  /_/ // /_/ /
/_/  /_/  \__,_/ _\__, / \__,_/ 
                 /____/

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Alex Tyler
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Oblivion reopened mid afternoon today (sunday).
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BowMan
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And Nemesis was experiencing technical difficulties for about a half hour near closing time yesterday.
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PeteMadden

This had better improve by July 16th! I've been waiting for the end of year school trip to Alton Towers for a long time, if half the rides are going to be faulty it's going to ruin the day!
ZenakuShi

I was a little surprised today with the downtime. As said, Oblivion only opened after mid day, Air stalled leaving the station and a little entering and going up the lift hill, and Nemesis seemed to jutter out of the station a few times- as well as stopping in the upper half of the lift for 10 minutes which held some fairly  decent tree views.
Still got a great ride count though despite being the worst day for reliability this year that I have been in park!
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DannyNewbro
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I think this may be caused by the shortage in electricity? Not quite sure, I could find out for you
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LauraCow
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Was on Oblivion on Monday, running 5 or 6 trains, loading then sending, then every 15th one was empty. It broke down just after dropping, the ride ops came to explain to us, and I asked what was the reason, he said Oblivion has been having a lot of down time recently because of the little green box sensors every so often a car is going around an inch over it.
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Alex Tyler
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ZenakuShi wrote: I was a little surprised today with the downtime. As said, Oblivion only opened after mid day, Air stalled leaving the station and a little entering and going up the lift hill, and Nemesis seemed to jutter out of the station a few times- as well as stopping in the upper half of the lift for 10 minutes which held some fairly  decent tree views.
Still got a great ride count though despite being the worst day for reliability this year that I have been in park!
I'm only guessing but on all 3 B&Ms the op's have to keep the finger on the dispatch button, if they take their finger off it the train stops.
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Boz
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alex tyler wrote: I'm only guessing but on all 3 B&Ms the op's have to keep the finger on the dispatch button, if they take their finger off it the train stops.
you are correct. when working on inferno at Thorpe, both dispatch buttons plus the remote button on the far corner of the train, must be held down to fully advance/dispatch a train, i'm assuming the other B&Ms are the same.
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