The Smiler - General Discussion

Mon Jun 10, 2013 3:40 pm

simononestop wrote: i still dont get the trims?
the whole ride would have been calculated to the exact speeds etc.
including resistance/wind resistance wear on the wheels.
why would they need trims to reduce g's on riders???

they couls have just made the drops/invertions smaller different in planning to counter act accesive g's this makes no sense to me. but hey what do I know.

The track will develop and evolve as the years go on - weather will have an effect, i.e. a wet track is faster than a dry track - the trims can be used to maintain a constant speed no matter what the conditions. We don't want riders being thrown into inversions too forcefully now do we?!

Mon Jun 10, 2013 3:42 pm

ScouserJohn wrote: just a quick question, why dont alton towers test their rides at night once everyone has left the park, then of a morning when the park opens they obviously test the ERT rides before park open at 9, so why dont they start the testing for smiler at the same time

another question off subject, ive been told to purchase my parking ticket before i enter the park makes it easier when your finished, were do you get the parking tickets from and how much is it ?

Before the slopes up to the monorail indoors, there's 2 ticket machines in there in the left corner.

Mon Jun 10, 2013 3:49 pm

ScouserJohn wrote:
another question off subject, ive been told to purchase my parking ticket before i enter the park makes it easier when your finished, were do you get the parking tickets from and how much is it ?

You can get them at the ticket office when you get your entrance tickets

Mon Jun 10, 2013 3:55 pm

mikecloud1984 wrote:
AT will iron this out - they will remove the dodgy trains (which they have), remove the wheel covers (which they have) and I would imagine now they will just pull the plug on the non-existant trims.

Dodgy train? How do we know it was dodgy? I know AT removed it, but not even they knew what was causing the issue until now!!! You certainly seemed convinced it was one train over the past 50 pages

At least we now know it is the ride control system. Thankfully this is a relatively easy fix and reminds us all how complex these modern machines are and that even they need software updates!

Mon Jun 10, 2013 4:02 pm

mikecloud1984 wrote: The track will develop and evolve as the years go on - weather will have an effect, i.e. a wet track is faster than a dry track - the trims can be used to maintain a constant speed no matter what the conditions. We don't want riders being thrown into inversions too forcefully now do we?!

why not? im sure the difference of all these factors is not that great. not enough to add a huge amount of g's difference to the over all ride? that it is too intense?
and they would have taken this all into account with the planning/development of the ride.
and if so, plan to add trims later?

im just throwing some thoughts around?

when I first saw smiler testing it did think it really struggled round some of the inversions. it looked painfully slow and hangs on some of them. surely it would have been better a bit faster to make sure it gets round?

like watching stealth get over the top or roll back.

Mon Jun 10, 2013 4:03 pm

Javs wrote:
mikecloud1984 wrote:
AT will iron this out - they will remove the dodgy trains (which they have), remove the wheel covers (which they have) and I would imagine now they will just pull the plug on the non-existant trims.

Dodgy train? How do we know it was dodgy? I know AT removed it, but not even they knew what was causing the issue until now!!! You certainly seemed convinced it was one train over the past 50 pages

At least we now know it is the ride control system. Thankfully this is a relatively easy fix and reminds us all how complex these modern machines are and that even they need software updates!

It was also confirmed about 50 pages back that the first 2 valleying issues were due to dodgy wheel covers on the train - they have since been removed.

Mon Jun 10, 2013 4:05 pm

simononestop wrote:
mikecloud1984 wrote: The track will develop and evolve as the years go on - weather will have an effect, i.e. a wet track is faster than a dry track - the trims can be used to maintain a constant speed no matter what the conditions. We don't want riders being thrown into inversions too forcefully now do we?!

why not? im sure the difference of all these factors is not that great. not enough to add a huge amount of g's difference to the over all ride? that it is too intense?
and they would have taken this all into account with the planning/development of the ride.
and if so, plan to add trims later?

im just throwing some thoughts around?

when I first saw smiler testing it did think it really struggled round some of the inversions. it looked painfully slow and hangs on some of them. surely it would have been better a bit faster to make sure it gets round?

like watching stealth get over the top or roll back.

But some would then argue that the extra hang time is a plus - having the trims allows Gerst/AT to regulate the speed at all times.

Mon Jun 10, 2013 4:15 pm

mikecloud1984 wrote: It was also confirmed about 50 pages back that the first 2 valleying issues were due to dodgy wheel covers on the train - they have since been removed.

Who confirmed that? I know we have photos of them having been removed, but did we have a statement from AT? I only ask as a lot of so called confirmed facts on this forum seem to appear from photos and our speculation!

And how would wheel covers affect the train speed? Surely they were removed to allow easy access to tune and adjust the train wheels? I'm asking as I genuinely have no idea!!?

PS Im not having a go at you, just that we need to be careful what we refer to as facts and speculation.

Mon Jun 10, 2013 4:17 pm

Anyone reckon the crane could be used as some additional scenery?

Seriously though, there a few too many theories on here based on prediction and not proof. A few posts earlier someone claimed that AT experience problems with rides and all the Smiler ones came at once - how can anyone possibly know this that doesn't work at AT? Of course rides will experience new problems as they get older due to age, but how can you tell all the problems have came for The Smiler came at once? Surely it's not like The Smiler will never have problems again?

This isn't much to go by as we're all equally as in the dark about the problems. The thing is, theories are endless but there's a fine line between factual supporting evidence and randomly saying 'it happened because all The Smiler's problems are happening now'.

Danny · Mon Jun 10, 2013 4:18 pm

With regards to The Smiler's soundtrack, we have been contacted by IMAscore, the brains behind the official soundtrack. You can now listen to the full thing here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpAKsWssXpA&fb_source=message

Mon Jun 10, 2013 4:20 pm

They've started testing again but it's stuck at the top of the 1st lift hill

Mon Jun 10, 2013 4:34 pm

Ok, I have an idea for AT.

They should theme the crane, maybe label it the 'lifter', and give it a bit more of a permanent feel....

Mon Jun 10, 2013 4:39 pm

sully1311 wrote: They've started testing again but it's stuck at the top of the 1st lift hill

Wow, that was quick, cheers.

Mon Jun 10, 2013 4:46 pm

Staff told people Smiler would open, we were away for 10 mins, when we came back the queues were massive. They just booted everyone out the queue. They tested it but it barely made the course.

Mon Jun 10, 2013 4:51 pm

If your at AT now, go to the smiler entrance, they're revalidating tickets there

Mon Jun 10, 2013 5:08 pm

I bet every Gerst managers worst nightmare is seeing 'Incoming Call: Alton Towers' come up on there phone first thing in the morning. :')

I was wondering, what is the 'default' position for the air time brakes? (i.e. which would they go to in an E Stop or Power Failure). Obviously normally the brakes come on if either of these occur, but if that happened with the airtime brakes it would, as seen, cause a car to valley?

And I can't see them having enough power to stop the car completely, or it wouldn't be able to complete a circuit afterwards?

Mon Jun 10, 2013 5:18 pm

dazza4783 wrote: Here are the pics from twitter.

From Ollie16

Sully1311

I remember when people were arguing with me, that they would never take the train of the track at the point where it had stalled, well all i can say is my point has been proven. It is much easier to take it off where it is than pull it to the nearest brake run.

Mon Jun 10, 2013 5:25 pm

Perhaps this is the main reason they took the wheel covers off the trains, to facilitate a rapid removal of the wheels and hence remove the trains from the track whilst they investigated the overall problem.

Mon Jun 10, 2013 5:27 pm

It is funny how Alton Towers are being more open about this situation than the last 2 times (That the public know of) it stalling this time. Last time they wouldn't let anyone into X-Sector, ans this time, they are performing the lift of the train in full view of the public. Weird, just something I wanted to point out

Mon Jun 10, 2013 5:47 pm

James97 wrote:
I remember when people were arguing with me, that they would never take the train of the track at the point where it had stalled, well all i can say is my point has been proven. It is much easier to take it off where it is than pull it to the nearest brake run.

My thoughts exactly, I never could understand why or how you would pull a rollercoaster train through an inversion, how on earth would you go about doing such a thing?

SmileyMan wrote: It is funny how Alton Towers are being more open about this situation than the last 2 times (That the public know of) it stalling this time. Last time they wouldn't let anyone into X-Sector, ans this time, they are performing the lift of the train in full view of the public. Weird, just something I wanted to point out

I think since it happened last Tuesday and people saw it first hand and started taking pictures I get the impression that they'd be foolish to try and hide it again. Plus I guess it still allows people to ride Oblivion as I noticed plenty of people were upset that they couldn't ride Oblivion last week as a consequence of The Smiler.