A Slammer Worry/Concern...

I was just thinking about Slammer (S&S Sky Swat) at Thorpe Park: Is there anything to stop it getting stuck upside-down? Now I'm sure the designers of all these rides think of this, but really, how failsafe is it?

Thinking about it, I really don't ride things like this that hold you upside-down mechanically. I ride coasters that go upside-down by gravity and flat rides that don't invert, but use momentum. If I ride an Afterburner or Frisbee, in a power failure it'd probably just swing down to the bottom.

Just something that occurred to me!

I know nothing about this or ny ride for that matter, but I guess like anything that is held upside down it held in an off centre position, with coaster I guess with some sort of electro-magnetic brake, if the power fails then the brke releases and the ride just falls back down.

There is only one time I have seen (part) of a coaster upside down and tht is when I worked at pleasure island, the boomerang got stuck in the helix leaving the front and rear cars upside down.

> I was just thinking about Slammer (S&S Sky Swat) at Thorpe
> Park: Is there anything to stop it getting stuck
> upside-down? Now I'm sure the designers of all these rides
> think of this, but really, how failsafe is it?

> Thinking about it, I really don't ride things like this
> that hold you upside-down mechanically. I ride coasters
> that go upside-down by gravity and flat rides that don't
> invert, but use momentum. If I ride an Afterburner or
> Frisbee, in a power failure it'd probably just swing down
> to the bottom.

> Just something that occurred to me!

Yeah i think it is a worry. It hasnt even opened yet does anybody know when it is going to open as i may be going soon but i want it to be open so can you let me know on here or email me at liverpool_rule30@hotmail.com please within a week.Thank you

> I know nothing about this or ny ride for that matter, but I
> guess like anything that is held upside down it held in an
> off centre position, with coaster I guess with some sort of
> electro-magnetic brake, if the power fails then the brke
> releases and the ride just falls back down.

> There is only one time I have seen (part) of a coaster
> upside down and tht is when I worked at pleasure island,
> the boomerang got stuck in the helix leaving the front and
> rear cars upside down.

Personally I dont know the ride either but I do know that if there is a power failure, if it came back down then its "failing to danger". If there is a power failure then a "fail to safe" mechanism will not release any brake without an over-ride.

The answer to the question is that it is more likely the ride will stay in the locked up position until the carriage can be levelled then more than likely released by a system of Hydraulic/Pnumatic release.

> The answer to the question is that it is more likely the
> ride will stay in the locked up position until the carriage
> can be levelled then more than likely released by a system
> of Hydraulic/Pnumatic release.

OK, thanks for the answers. It just struck me that this is effectively a huge "table" that turns upside-down, and it spends just as much time inverted as it does upright. There really haven't been many things like this before (part of the appeal, of course).

Apparently it did get stuck today (although not upside-down), and they had a lot of trouble getting it working in the first place, so I hope people can see where I was coming from.

> Apparently it did get stuck today (although not
> upside-down), and they had a lot of trouble getting it
> working in the first place, so I hope people can see where
> I was coming from.

Definitely, being ex-Industry, it was always a concern of ours when a new ride came in that we were not sure about. Public fears were always quite high on our list when it came to commissioning rides for the opening. With “table top” rides (or ones that have people sitting above the workings, you tend to find that manufacturers design them so that in the event of a power failure, the Centre of Gravity (CoG) is lower than the rider position so it always eventually ends up upright. We had a MegaSpin (built by ARM) that was like this, in the event of a power failure, the CoG was lower than the main rider car so it always ended uppermost).

The ride could be a pain though as if it wasn’t in a totally upright position (as determined by proximity sensors), the brakes wouldn’t disengage and it was stuck until the car could be perfectly lined up! This could take some time so increasing the time that trapped passengers had on the ride, however, it was a built in safety feature as such could never be over-riden.

> Apparently it did get stuck today (although not
> upside-down), and they had a lot of trouble getting it
> working in the first place, so I hope people can see where
> I was coming from.

It certainly did get stuck.....stuck for over an hour in the pissing rain. It had been out of action and happened to re-open just as we were walking past....as there was no queue we jumped on.
Excellent ride, and worth getting stuck for ..just.Raised the platform to the top, three turns clockwise, then 3 turns anticlockwise. Then we didn't move for a while.....saw them bringing out hot coffee below...then taking it away again. The tannoy anouncements weren't very clear and said no more than it wouldn't be long.Engineers in and out of the control room, much hissing of compressed air but no movement. They shut and cleared the rides in the area and then the Fire Brigade turned up with 3 tenders with monster ladders. By now, the driving rain was chilling and the scantily clad kids were in some discomfort. Eventually, the manual controls did get us down.....off to the recovery area and hot drinks/thermal wraps for all tended to by ambulance services and 20 or so Thorpe Park staff......obviously well rehearsed. We went back the following day and we happened to bump into the big cheese who was around in the recovery area the previous day....he said they were testing all day by deliberately stalling it and making sure they could get it down..... and that they had phoned the victims and that there would be something in the post in the next day or two......better be more than an annual pass as we already have one.

> It certainly did get stuck.....stuck for over an hour in
> the pissing rain....

That is the most important thing you said really.

The ARM Twin Spin we had used to get stuck in the rain all the time due to the brake system used on it.

Imagine a big brake disc (same as in a car). Then there were two massive brake pads either side of this. That was what was attatched to either side of the platform of this Twin Spin.

The rain would come and the the drive would attempt to engage the brake pads on the disc. Due to the watre on these, it would slip slightly past the proximity detectors (saying it was lined up horizontally). If the ride was not 100% lined up, the disc locking pin (a 3 inch steel bar) would not engage the disc and the ride couldnt be moved because of the safety mechanisms.

The pnumatics you heard hissing were probably attempts to line everything back up.

All sounds very familiar, most likely a design fault (but safe as it wont disengage the brake) :(

> I was just thinking about Slammer (S&S Sky Swat) at Thorpe
> Park: Is there anything to stop it getting stuck
> upside-down? Now I'm sure the designers of all these rides
> think of this, but really, how failsafe is it?

> Thinking about it, I really don't ride things like this
> that hold you upside-down mechanically. I ride coasters
> that go upside-down by gravity and flat rides that don't
> invert, but use momentum. If I ride an Afterburner or
> Frisbee, in a power failure it'd probably just swing down
> to the bottom.

> Just something that occurred to me!

Hi people - right - here goes - I work at TP myself, and I can give you all the answers you need - 1. Yes, Slammer has a HUGE failsafe system, to ensure that it can NEVER be stopped upside-down, for safety reasons, 2 - both rollers - Colossus and Nemesis Inferno are free-fall coasters - once they get to the top of the lift (the bit where you get dragged up) - they are not controlled in any way by us, the staff until they get to the brakes, and therefore cannot stop in any places other than the lift and brakes

> 2 - both rollers -
> Colossus and Nemesis Inferno are free-fall coasters - once
> they get to the top of the lift (the bit where you get
> dragged up) - they are not controlled in any way by us, the
> staff until they get to the brakes, and therefore cannot
> stop in any places other than the lift and brakes

Not so true, as I mentioned earlier, Boomerang in Pleasure Island stopped in the helix, this was caused by the cars being released from the lift hill and the E.Stop being hit at the same time (badly timed practical joke by operator I guess).

This caused the cars to hit the station brakes at full speed, for whatever reason these couldnt stop the car and it continued into the helix before finally coming to rest in the centre with both ends of the car hanging nicely upside down.

Unfortunately, I have been vindicated. Slammer did get stuck upside-down. Video linked below.

Allegedly, something actually fell off just beforehand.

Although I was looking forward to Rush, this has put me off going on any S&S ride.