Our beloved Oblivion stalling?!

[Doopy Dan]

I highly doubt Alton Towers would have built the tunnel without a drainage system. I find it very hard to believe that the height of water could raise above the level of the tracks enough to stop a train traveling through. Would have to be atleast a 4ft deep puddle which would take one hell of a storm to create or a blocked drainage system for a good few weeks.

As was said, the tunnel is so deep its more than likely below the storm drains, which means a sump would be used and therefore increases the chances of something failing by ten fold.

British summer rain storms are far far worse now than ever, and by far are the worst rain storms of the whole year. I have first hand seen areas with much greater surface area than the base of the Oblivion Tunnel fill with a substantial amount of water in a matter of hours. I would say if the sump was to fail its a very real possibility that the tunnel could reach a critical amount of water in a reasonable amount of time.

As for stalling, that's a different kettle of rather large orange and black fish alltogether.

[Nightfall]

[quote=""bushboy2""]As for one train and always the same train not being in use, surely this is because the system struggles to handle the last train (hence all of the break downs in the early years) and this is always the last train left in the shed when they get removed or is out of service due to needing maintenance?[/quote] They would nether leave the same train in the maintenance shed unless it had a serious problem. The longer a train is out of use the more problems it will cause when being operated. Alton Towers wouldn't leave one train in the shed just because it's the last one in line.

[quote=""bushboy2""]As for stalling. I see it pretty much impossible for Oblivion to stall unless a fault occurs. The height it drops from and the weight of the train, there is no way it wouldn't make it around the turn. There must be a good 70ft, if not more, difference in heights. It's hardly like the train crawls around the turn.[/quote] A train can stall at any track point lower than another, it's just unlikely. However if something was in the way (say a large body of water) the resistance would easily be enough for a stall to occur.

Regardless of the chances of a train stalling it could all too well of happened.

[Employee5thousand]

They would nether leave the same train in the maintenance shed unless it had a serious problem. The longer a train is out of use the more problems it will cause when being operated. Alton Towers wouldn't leave one train in the shed just because it's the last one in line.

Throughout the season there is always one shuttle which is not used which is kept within the Oblivion garage. This is so that it can be stripped down completely and re-built, mending any worn joints along the way. Oblivion has more shuttles than can be physically run on the system at a time, and so there will always be a shuttle in the garage - makes sense to keep the same shuttle in the garage all season so it can be renewed.

[Big Dave]

Yes but not for several seasons and Oblivion was designed to run with all the trains, but the system in place could not handle the amount of shuttles. As a matter of fact, Oblivion was originally designed to have 1 more train than it has, but B&M decided against it as it would mean the shuttle would have to stop in the first set of brakes and there would be no safety brake as a backup.

[Rocket]

Doesn't oblivion have 8 trains? I'm the summer and scarefest I was 6 on the track, 1 in maintenance so therefore 1 completely somewhere else? If I am correct. Oblivions needs the extra brake as a safety as previously stated so cannot run all 8 cars. It can only stall in the hole if the great mass/body of water is in the way or a large object jams the wheels.so is very un likely to occur and if it did get jammed then it would most likely be stopped on the lift hill or at the top? There are so many safety features on coasters to prevent stalls.

[Big Dave]

Above member pretty much summed it all up.

[SheikhSam]

To be frank, a how many tonne car?, with an immense amount of kinetic energy built up isn't really going to let a mere 'puddle' get in its way..

however, if Noah starts building an ark, we know not to go on..

[Big Dave]

Think the trains are around 6 Tonne

[El Patricko]

As much as i want to believe you Big Dave, and have good reason to do so i somehow still don't, my reasons mounting follow.

The system you have described would need to be patched into the failsafe computer system, otherwise there could be a possibility of fatalities, The ride is not going to get signed over if there is any chance of somebody dying on it.

The in event of a "flood" it would be left up to human judgement to determine the fate of the shuttle (which i am assuming is not in sync with the PLC's as it could not be if this event occured) the ride operator may not even notice that a shuttle is in the hole until it is too late, and if there was a possibility of enough water accumulating in the tunnel to hinder the trains progress, there could well be enough to drown everyone onboard the train if the impact failed to kill them

What i think here is that there is some drainage in the tunnel, perhaps at each end (at the entrance where the tunnel inclines enough to cover the gap which the entrance creates as mentioned, a sump with a pump) and at the exit (where you would have a portion beneath the track to handle the water coming in through the hole) it seems far more plausable from an engineering perspective than just having a pump down there and a sensor that has failed. not to mention this pump would need to be maintained (inlets etc).

Either way i feel as though they would not compromise riders safety in any way.

[Islander]

You certainly raise some interesting points, but there are two things I don't quite agree with.

Firstly, the PLC's are going to know where the train is, at least to the extent that it has left the drop chain, and not reached the brake run. Nothing's going to be allowed to leave the drop chain until the last car has entered and then left at least the first brake run, therefore human judgement doesn't come into it.

As for the possibility of fatalities: really don't see it. There is a massive difference between enough water to cover the tracks / slow the train or anything like that, and enough water to drown the riders. The former would definitely be noticed well, well before the latter could occur.

Those two things aside, you've got some good points. Overall, it definitely does seem like a far-fetched story, but I personally don't see it as too far-fetched to be believable.

[oldgitBEN]

^ this patrick makes so much more sense than any possibility of oblivion stalling in the tunnel.

Im sorry Dave, I appreciate your input normally but perhaps on this occasion do you think someone was pulling your leg?

[El Patricko]

Here is a picture demonstrating my explanation to the problem

[url=http://old.towerstimes.co.uk/history/co ... vion13.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;]http://old.towerstimes.co.uk/history/co ... vion13.jpg[/url]

This looks to be a sump, i may be wrong as it could just be that they hadn't finished the concreting as then, but i cannot see any re-bar showing out of the face but this would constitute what i described in my earlier post. who knows aye, time for a "CSI" style picture investigation :P

[kingbling11]

Regardless of whether it is possible, or ever has happened, noticed in half term that there are indeed steps in the tunnel, either side of the track for such an eventuality. It wouldnt be that hard to evac as the exit side is not very steep at all. People could just walk up and out of the hole by enterprise.

[I_Am_Your_Nemesis!]

Yo

I have done some snooping and have "tried" to see if there looks like a pump or anything on any images of inside the hole but could not find anything.

Images from Alton Towers Almanac.

[url=http://gallery.towersalmanac.com/thumbn ... ?album=201" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;]http://gallery.towersalmanac.com/thumbn ... ?album=201[/url]

Ohhhh BTW I'm new hehe Hope you guys are okay dokey and not suffering from withdrawal symptoms of the long wait from are good ol' Alton Towers to re-open! And get back to my sexy girl NEMESIS! :P

George!

[El Patricko]

^^Thanks Nemesis, those were the pictures i was searching for. I found pic no12 corresponds to the earlier pic i posted perhaps? It looks like a flat plane there to catch water only with overflow channels leading down into the hole, Very interesting indeed

EDIT: Here are the two together.

Post construction:
[url=http://gallery.towersalmanac.com/displa ... 201&pos=11" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;]http://gallery.towersalmanac.com/displa ... 201&pos=11[/url]
Construction:
[url=http://old.towerstimes.co.uk/history/co ... vion13.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;]http://old.towerstimes.co.uk/history/co ... vion13.jpg[/url]

[I_Am_Your_Nemesis!]

year, if you look closely at the flat surface when the track leads into the whole there are two holes me thinks there are drainage holes to.

George

[Hark]

I remember the days when Oblivion could run on 8-10 shuttles!

[Mi-Nigle]

[quote=""I_Am_Your_Nemesis!""]year, if you look closely at the flat surface when the track leads into the whole there are two holes me thinks there are drainage holes to.

George[/quote]

Hmmm, if the water ever reached that point to drain, most the track would be underwater!

Sent from my Desire HD using Tapatalk

[I_Am_Your_Nemesis!]

[quote=""Mi-Nigle""][quote=""I_Am_Your_Nemesis!""]year, if you look closely at the flat surface when the track leads into the whole there are two holes me thinks there are drainage holes to.

George[/quote]

Hmmm, if the water ever reached that point to drain, most the track would be underwater!

Sent from my Desire HD using Tapatalk[/quote]

I didn’t mean it would go that high silly! It could just be for surface water. In my view water would not cause a problem it has survived this long without being flooded

[danny13]

I did once have a dream that I was on Oblivion and then when I was at the top a loud crack happened and the hole started to flood. Then as I went down the drop I woke up screaming. So embarrassing.

I do not think it's possible though [-o<