SkyRide Closure - Now Reopen

ATJakee96 · Sun Jun 19, 2011 7:55 pm

Knowing Alton they will probably just leave it till next year,
also because of the effort of taking the gondolas off and putting them back on.
But it is nice to stroll through the gardens but after abit it gets abit annoying when your at for example Adventure Land and want to get to Fobbiden Valley.

Sun Jun 19, 2011 8:34 pm

The gondolas are taken on and off quite regularly!

Mon Jun 20, 2011 9:31 pm

If this is the end of its life I presume it will either be approaching a Fatigue or Creep failure. Both of these occur over a long period of time and should have been noted during off season checks as not being able to last the year. The fact the ride has been closed now shows they are monitoring for these failures, so they must have spotted it before. It was foolish to wait until it passed the safety margin before deciding the cable needed replacing.

I second this, they would have known that the cable was very much near the end of its life span, and would almost certainly be able to tell in the closed season that the cable wasn't going to last the season. Due too the slow nature of fatigue and creep failures its almost certain that the cable would not be in much of a worse state now, if any at all than it was in the closed season. The cable is probably still useable, just its not worth the risk.

But it could of been a case that they were not able to get a new cable manufactured in time for the new season, and therefor decided to operate the ride for as long as possible into this season before it was deemed unsafe to operate, which is very much feasible to be fair. As Diogo said, they dont usually have these things lying around, seeing as every single cable car in the would would require a different length of cable.

Tue Jun 21, 2011 12:28 am

[quote=""siralgenon""]The gondolas are taken on and off quite regularly![/quote]
As far as I know all gondolas are stored in TS Garage every night aren't they?
I think this is a bit silly though we are only 3 and half months into the season and it's just been decided the cable is not up to scratch. I would of thought this would of been picked up in closed season just gone or why didn't they replace the whole cable closed season 09 10 when dark forests was done?

Tue Jun 21, 2011 4:55 am

I'm going to hazard a guess and say it'll be open by the end of the season.

Tue Jun 21, 2011 8:25 am

How exactly do they fit new cables onto this? Seems like it would be a massive job with cranes etc to get it through the pulleys on the pylons in the valley etc.

Tue Jun 21, 2011 10:22 am

[quote=""Tom G""]How exactly do they fit new cables onto this? Seems like it would be a massive job with cranes etc to get it through the pulleys on the pylons in the valley etc.[/quote]

Iv'e been told they somehow cut the old one and link it to the new one and gradually pull the new one onto the system as the old one gets pulled off and is then winched on to a big coil

Tue Jun 21, 2011 11:51 am

Yea, its done in a similar fashion to how they put mainline electricity cables into pylon systems, by using a guide cable (in this case the old cable) to pull the new cable through.

Tue Jun 21, 2011 2:33 pm

I don't understand why Mutiny Bay etc. would need to be closed to allow this to happen?

Crofty · Tue Jun 21, 2011 2:36 pm

I guess it's because the cable is pretty heavy and there may be a H&S risk with people walking underneath.

Jem8472 · Tue Jun 21, 2011 2:37 pm

[quote=""Altonator""][quote=""siralgenon""]The gondolas are taken on and off quite regularly![/quote]
As far as I know all gondolas are stored in TS Garage every night aren't they?
[/quote]

the old gondolas in storage.

Tue Jun 21, 2011 2:39 pm

[quote=""WillPS""]I don't understand why Mutiny Bay etc. would need to be closed to allow this to happen?[/quote]
I think it might some something to do with clearance? Or there could just be some health and safety regulation that Alton Towers have to comply with which prevents them from changing the wire with members of the public walking right underneath it.

Website · Tue Jun 21, 2011 2:57 pm

[quote=""WillPS""]I don't understand why Mutiny Bay etc. would need to be closed to allow this to happen?[/quote]
I think you would understand if you were the person hit by a falling cable whilst standing in Mutiny Bay if something was to go slightly wrong. It would be a huge H&S risk having these areas of the park open whilst the cable was changed and it would rightly not be allowed to happen.

Tue Jun 21, 2011 3:04 pm

These cables are very heavy, much more so than they look.

If something was to happen and the cable slipped and fell from the height it is above mutiny bay it would be almost certain and instant death for anyone caught under it. Even though the chances are slim of it happening, there is still a risk of it happening while its being replaced, so for that reason its an absoloute no no for the public to be anywhere near the cable while its being replaced.

Tue Jun 21, 2011 3:05 pm

Surely it would be possible to build some sort of protective 'tunnel' so people could get through? You'd probably still have to close Mutiny Bay, the Flume, Haunted Hollow and the path alongside the gardens, but at least there would still be full access to Katanga Canyon, Gloomy Wood and Forbidden Valley.

Tue Jun 21, 2011 3:15 pm

It would have to be a pretty strong and sturdy (aka epensive) structure to guarantee that it would also not collapse if many many tonnes of cable were to fall down onto it. Plus it would need to be certified and tested by an external company to make sure that it does what its ment to do, aka protect people. As I dont think there is anything like it about currently. By the time all this was done it would be closed season anyway.

It's not really worth the effort and is quite uneconomical to do that really.

Jem8472 · Tue Jun 21, 2011 3:30 pm

[url=http://www.pdqwirerope.co.uk/dynamicdat ... g-load.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;]http://www.pdqwirerope.co.uk/dynamicdat ... g-load.pdf[/url]

If you look at that chart it details the weight and breakloads for cable.

a 40mm diameter cable (I am guessing it is diameter) steel cable will weigh about 654kg per 100 meters. I am sure the cable that holds the skyride is bigger than 40mm. So imagine something of that weight hitting any of the buildings in Mutiny bay. I think it would do a lot of damage to a building, it would make mincemeat of a person.

Thu Jun 23, 2011 9:14 pm

altontowers.com have now said that the Sky Ride is currently unavailible on the Sky Ride section of their website

I dunno why im smiling because im annoyed lol

Dormiens-Dave · Thu Jun 23, 2011 9:27 pm

Interestingly they used to put all the gondolas in the garage everynight but Poma told them a few years back that with the new gondolas they could leave them on the circuit unless high winds are forecast.

As already said when they did the other side in 2010 there was huge wooden platforms built to do this in Dark Forest. If you junp back to the february half term pictures of Thirteen construction you can see for yourself.

This will almost certainly mean they will have to do the work in the closed season.

EDIT here is the pic

Thu Jun 23, 2011 9:40 pm

[quote=""Dormiens-Dave""]Interestingly they used to put all the gondolas in the garage everynight but Poma told them a few years back that with the new gondolas they could leave them on the circuit unless high winds are forecast.

As already said when they did the other side in 2010 there was huge wooden platforms built to do this in Dark Forest. If you junp back to the february half term pictures of Thirteen construction you can see for yourself.

This will almost certainly mean they will have to do the work in the closed season.

EDIT here is the pic

[/quote]

Is that what these planks were for then? Surely it can't be for taking the gondola's on and off because they were off the other week and then on by lunch?