Europa Park

DiogoJ42 · Thu Mar 22, 2012 12:04 pm

Any chance this is Roland's idea of a joke to wind us up? Let's face it, German and British humour are rather different.

Maybe he wanted to out-do Wardley's wind up with the train numbers on Th13teen?

AstroDan · Thu Mar 22, 2012 12:40 pm

I hope it isn't some joke!!

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Thu Mar 22, 2012 12:58 pm

I'm guessing that if Wodan has slowed down, then it won't have been an intentional move by the park. Think about it, a slower coaster means a slower throughput, Roland wouldn't stand for that... surely? No, it must just be a trick of the eyes... it has to be...

right?

Thu Mar 22, 2012 1:27 pm

The effective throughput is given by the duration of the longest sector.
So the limit duration for the intermediate sector in order to avoid a throughput decrease is given by the duration of the slower sector between the two with fixed-duration (the one from the station to the top of the lift hill and the one from final brakes to the station).
For example if the piece of track from the station exit to the top of the lift hill is 40 seconds long, it doesn't matter if the central sector lasts 30 seconds or 40. Indeed in both cases you can dispatch a train every 40 seconds. The situation is different if the other sectors are shorter. I hope i was clear enough, if this was not the case, just tell me

Does someone have the data about the duration from station to the top of the hill?

DiogoJ42 · Thu Mar 22, 2012 1:34 pm

Presumably they can alter the speed of the lift a bit to tweak the throughput?

Thu Mar 22, 2012 1:57 pm

Yes, usually it is possible to tune it. By the way, it is an initial configuration choice and not something which is changed during normal operating time. Since in many coasters (especially the higher ones) the lift is the throughput bottleneck it is set to the maximum available speed.

Thu Mar 22, 2012 2:34 pm

AstwoDan wrote: There is a lot of screams coming from Atlantica which is closer to the hotels and village!

Most of Wodan is quite low to the ground, so a lot of noise won't travel!

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Nope, nope, nope...I heard it with thoser former, "faster" wheels...it was without any question much more noise that what`s "usual" for Europa.

Onthe other hand : I LOOOVED that roar. Man, that was sexy as hell

AstroDan · Thu Mar 22, 2012 2:57 pm

If this ride is slow, then that 'fan event' they are holding the day before, is going to be interesting.

Negative feedback about a new ride probably isn't something EP and GCI are used to from fans.

I am still clutching at straws that it won't be this slow when it opens...

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DiogoJ42 · Thu Mar 22, 2012 3:12 pm

I highly doubt there will be "negative" feedback. If EP fans are anything like us lot they will fap over it nomatter what.

Thu Mar 22, 2012 3:18 pm

[bNope, nope, nope...I heard it with thoser former, "faster" wheels...it was without any question much more noise that what`s "usual" for Europa.[/b]

I can approve this.
A few weeks ago, just some days after the first test run of Wodan, Gero and me had a walk to the park. We enjoy doing little trips and walking-tours to the park. There is a train station nearly 1 km away from the park, where we walked through a little forest. And only have past half the way (so we just were mayba half a kilometer away from the park and had the forest with the large trees arround us), we HEARD Wodan!!!

We had walked this way lots of time in the past and we NEVER heard any other coaster from this distance to the park.

What I want to say is, that Wodan (I must say: the "Speed Wodan") makes much more noise than the other coasters or attractions in the park.

DiogoJ42 · Thu Mar 22, 2012 3:36 pm

So if the soft rubber / plastic / whatever wheels are causing more friction and reducing the speed.... can they not do an RCT and use a different lubricant on the bearings? (Tick the "low friction" box?) Or increase the speed of the lift so that it starts off with more speed?

AstroDan · Thu Mar 22, 2012 6:16 pm

New Park Map 2012:

http://www.epfans.info/parkplaene/2012_neu.jpg

I love it! First redesign in 12 years!

DiogoJ42 · Thu Mar 22, 2012 6:41 pm

Now that is how you make a park map!

SpinballEdders · Thu Mar 22, 2012 6:45 pm

That Park map reminds me of Alton's design between 1998 and 2004, which I love!

the Map for Europa looks Bloody amazing!

Dormiens-Dave · Thu Mar 22, 2012 6:54 pm

DiogoJ42 wrote: So if the soft rubber / plastic / whatever wheels are causing more friction and reducing the speed.... can they not do an RCT and use a different lubricant on the bearings? (Tick the "low friction" box?) Or increase the speed of the lift so that it starts off with more speed?

If they are anything like steel coasters they can change the compounds of the wheels to change the speed to some extent.

DiogoJ42 · Thu Mar 22, 2012 7:01 pm

That is true, but if the whole point of swapping the wheels is for noise, would they do this? I suppose it's a trade off between speed and noise. Let's hope they decide speed is more important!

Thu Mar 22, 2012 7:24 pm

Hello guys...GOOD news on the way !

As you know I was very sad seeing Wodan running soooo slowly. And because of the totally different sound...for me it was obvious, that they had changed the wheels. But there were so many roumours around about Wodan, that I thought it would make sense to try getting feedback from the park to clear things up !

So I did it ! I got all the Infos I needed directly from the parks management

And that is what they said :

Wodan indeed runs on different wheels now. Much softer than the wheels they used at the beginning...but Wodan was ALWAYS intended for those soft wheels...but they said, that testing the coaster with those hard wheels is quite usual (I had no idea about that) !

At the moment the speed varys, because they are testing Wodan with different loads...BUT...and that`s most important...WODAN WILL BE GETTING FASTER AGAIN !

It`s a kind of running-in procedure now...and indeed they say, that in the end Wodan will reach it`s former speed again !

How fast Wodan will be exactly...I guess noone knows until now...but they WANT it to be fast again...and that`s all I need to know really.

But, and that`s something they also pointed out : Wodan is STILL intended to be a family-friendly coaster ! It`s Europa`s philosophy to make ALL their rides family-friendly...that`s their concept...and they said that they`ll keep it this way

So...Wodan WILL be faster, yes...but it will probably NOT be a "typical" thrill-coaster...and that`s what we all should keep in mind not to have false expectations

I´m fine now...and how are you

AstroDan · Thu Mar 22, 2012 7:30 pm

Great. Thanks.

Family friendly was always the case - all GCIs are!

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DiogoJ42 · Thu Mar 22, 2012 7:31 pm

Ahh, the old "Th13teen Excuse" strikes again.
"This ride turned out to not be as good as we said it would be"...
"It's OK, we'll just say it's a "family ride" and not a thrill ride."

Thanks for the update George.

Thu Mar 22, 2012 7:35 pm

DiogoJ42 wrote: Ahh, the old "Th13teen Excuse" strikes again.
"This ride turned out to not be as good as we said it would be"...
"It's OK, we'll just say it's a "family ride" and not a thrill ride."

Diogo...you`re just joking, right ?

:giggle: