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The Thorpe reliability thread - 2009 edition.

Went to thorpe today, and tbh was a bit surreal. everything was working fine (even got saw in twice). But got on slammer raised all the way to the top and it failed on us, a hour or so after was back up, det' stopped at the top for which seemed ages but most probs was only for about 10 mins or so, but we were dropped properly and not lowered. An also stealth was having problems quite a few failed launches.

Also closs'(sux) was running the highest que time apart from saw (obv) so if your planning a trip before the big rush next week be a bit cautious and get the good'uns in first!!
 
Well I went today and Saw was closed for most of the day. The website said all rides were available, and there was nothing at the entrance to suggest otherwise. However, on arriving at Saw we were told it would be opening later on in the day, but not given a reason for the late opening. It was due to open at midday so we went back then but there was still no sign it was going to open any time soon. We were initially told it was going to open, just that no-one knew when, then we were told there was no longer any guarantee it would open at all.

It finally did open at twenty to four and quickly gained a huge queue (much longer than it would have had if it had been open the whole day) but we managed to get on it twice in the end, so overall I'm not as disappointed as I feared I was going to be. It does seem that the ride is still having a lot of problems, though, and this experience proves that the website is not to be trusted. I don't really think the TV advert should be allowed until these teething problems are sorted out, because I can see many people are going to be disappointed. Perhaps today was a one-off, I don't know. To the park's credit, they did stay open a bit later to make up for the delayed opening of Saw.

On another note - are the mist and light effects no longer used on Nemesis Inferno? I used to think that was one of the best parts of the ride - speeding through the tunnel through the mist and the red lights, however today it was just like riding through a disused shed. I hadn't ridden it for a little while before today - how long has it been like this? I remember the mist effects on the volcano itself in the queue used to work but I can't remember seeing those in use for a long time, likewise the mist effects outside No Way Out. Does Thorpe have a policy of switching off effects over time?
 
^ It's not the case of not trusting the website, things happen unexpectedly and if you're going on that day, they you're going on that day regardless of what the website says just before you leave.
 
The smoke and lights on Inferno haven't been going for a couple of years now.
And I've never in the whole 7 years I've been going to Thorpe Seen mist/smoke outside X://NWO.

And it sucks that Saw is still having problems. It makes me wonder if it's going to shut for when I next go.
 
Fair enough that things happen unexpectedly but had the website said Saw was not going to be running then we would not have gone (our whole purpose was to go on Saw, everything else there we've already done countless times and we would have just waited for another day). The same may well not apply to the vast majority of other people, I can only speak for myself.

The mist effects outside X://NWO used to be on all the time when I first started going to Thorpe but I can't remember seeing them working since Colossus has been there. I think I've seen the Inferno mist and lights working in the last couple of years, though; at least I swear they were working during fright nights last year. For me they really make the ride, and I can't see what the point is in installing effects that just aren't going to be used.

I wonder how long it will be before the effects inside the Saw building are switched off - surely in a few years' time people will be talking about 'how Saw used to be much better because stuff actually happened during the dark section of the ride'.
 
Went to Thorpe yesterday. Nothing really to reprt, apart from SAW was not running until around 3:45. Managed to get a ride after a 25min wait, but the Q behind me went out of the main entrance for a while.

Everything else was working, Inferno was down for a very short time though.
 
The website is updated once every day but as mentioned it is unpredictable as to whether things will operate smoothly on the day of visiting, so I would always recommended phoning them prior. I have to praise Thorpe Park because they are now operating Stealth with both trains and Saw: The Ride is open a lot lot more than it has been. They are also having minimal to no problems with the other rides. They needed a smack on the wrists for that disastrous opening event but now they have got things up and running again. I will probably be there a good part of next week with my annual pass so they better not let me down ;)
 
I think to be honest they should probably have a warning on their website to the effect that Saw is currently experiencing minor technical difficulties, remaining until it really is sorted out for good.

To be honest, my main beef with Thorpe is their complete lack of respect for any of their rides. If they really cared about them they wouldn't let them get into such a state and gradually reduce the number of effects over time. I really think the higher the entrance price gets the fewer the effects they have working, and the less impressive as a whole the park is. What happened to that cool fireball in the Tidal Wave area - is that effect ever used any more??

In my opinion, Thorpe should take a leaf out of the books of parks such as Phantasialand and Europa Park - parks with immaculate theming, where all of the effects on all the rides are invariably switched on and, above all, parks which genuinely care about the state of their rides. Sadly, Thorpe couldn't care less - as long as they're pulling in the crowds and raking in the cash they couldn't give a monkey's what state their rides are in. The difference between these fine German parks and Thorpe is like the difference between a meal at a posh restaurant and a MacDonalds, and it saddens me, because I really wish we had just one park in the UK that came close to some of the parks on the continent.
 
The fireball doesn't work no more.
I read somewhere that the pipes was disturbed, may have been when stealth was put in, but i may be wrong.
And they never sorted it out, same with the water tower.

May be wrong but I am sure I read that somewhere. :)
 
As prompted, I'm going to take a little while to justify why some of Thorpe's rides arn't as reliable as one would expect, to put it very nicely.

So, lets look at the main offenders:

Rush

Ok, my favourite ride in the UK. Whats up with it? 2008 was obviously aweful for Rush, spending around half the season broken down. Several major flaws occured last season. Of these, one was completely excusable, being the ride dismantling itself. As the health and saftey report states, S&S are responsible for the ride falling apart due to fatigued metalwork.

Otherwise, the ride has generally being quite tempramental. It is a prototype and pushed boundries within its own ride type, which will obviously create potential problems. It's also clearly not the best design, you can see the major differences between Rush and the later models, clearly improvements could be and were made. This doesn't completely justify the problems, but you have to remember all spares have to come from America, so when one is needed it takes a while for it to get here.

This season, according to guest services, it was ready to go, but, an electrical fault was found just before thrill chill which required some serious work on the ride. I can't excuse them for this, especially remembering they had all of 2 1/2 months to find this problem. Yes, the snow may have held them back but I really feel they should of given Rush a big bit of attention early in the closed season, but that said even if it was ready at the end of Decemeber the cold weather for example could of had an effect on it - some factors cannot be controlled.

Slammer

According to staff it was having it's towers inspected for fatigue over the closed season. This work HAS to be done and is absolutely saftey critical. The work started straight away at the end of 08 and if it took a little longer than expected, that can be justified, in my eyes, because the work has to be done and fixed to secure a reliable future without it having to be patched up regularly, so to guarantee its open more, a bit of down time at the start of the season is acceptable, I feel.

Stealth

I explained this in the 'Missing Intamin' topic. Basically it was also having some major work done on it and it's acceptable, again, for it to take more time than expected because it's not as though they left the work until last minute and it has to be done to make sure the ride is more reliable form the future.

Vortex

Its not too bad, infact, often one of the more reliable rides. However, it sounds as though it hasn't had a brilliant start to the season. I don't know the exact reason, but all I can put it down to is Vortex is an old ride, the occasional problem could be justified. I think Vortex has had a great run as far as reliability is concerned and a short amount of downtime at the start of the season isn't anything worth crying about.

Detonator

Detonator has also had a great run. It really amazes me how Thorpe even manage to keep Det going. It IS a fun fair ride, and it simply isn't designed to be operated as intensively as it is. Think about how funfair rides operate; they un for a few weeks, are dismantled and maintained, and run another few weeks. Even when they are run, they certainly arn't run for as long as Det is. Quite simply that type of ride just isn't designed to be thrashed as much as it is. As such I completely understand any problems they my have with Det.

I think the main problem with Thorpe's reliability is as much the type of rides they have installed as the engineering. Many of the rides are fairground rides not designed to be thrashed like they are, yet these rides end up being the most reliable. This is quite a credit to Thorpe's maintenence; The Beast is down a lot more than Samurai from what I hear. The main flats to suffer problems are high tech, and spares do take a while to get here.

Coaster wise - Colossus seems to have the most mechanical problems mid season. This I cannot justify, I would have thought Thorpe would have managed to figure out why it keeps stopping on the lift, maybe this has been fixed over the closed season.

Another credit to Thorpe's maintenence is Samurai. It was ready either on opening day or very soon after, yet on Feb 20th, it was in pieces on the floor. The ride was put back together very quickly and was working again. This is obviously good and prooves Thorpe can get there rides ready when they have everything the need in their hands. Chances are both Stealth and Slammer needed parts, which is out of Thorpe's hands and could justify their lack of being ready.

Anywho, excluding the first few weeks, this season has so far been fantastic for reliability and the park management clearly seem to have put a high priority on maintence and I think the Merlin re-assignment of higher ups is fantastic for the park. Clearly they are doing the right things and prioritising correctly. Lets hope for this good record to continue.
 
Hmm... throwing in what I know:

Colossus was closed on Thursday, for no specific reason other than "mechanical problems". Stealth didn't run before 12 or so. The carousel was also down, and Saw took half an hour's break from time to time throughout the day. The blades were spinning flawlessly, though.
 
MouseAT said:
Thorpe's site is now showing both Slammer and Stealth as being down for the count. Joy.

Slammer wasn't running yesterday,they were testing it in the morning,but it was simply raising,staying there for a minute or two,and then lowering again.Didn't see much action on it in the afternoon though.

Stealth did break down in the afternoon,I know because I was queueing for it at the time. :lol:

It kind of launched,before stopping and the brake fins came up.The engineers were working on it when we left the queue,although I'm sure it was running again towards the end of the day.
 
Rides going down every now and again I can understand - if there's a technical fault with it then that's (usually) not the park's fault and they get it fixed as soon as they can.

Turning off effects which really make the ride, however, is unforgiveable in my opinion. I'm really hoping that they turn all of Inferno's effects back on at some point, because it does make a difference to the ride. If they don't, well, then that's just indicative of their sloppy attitude.
 
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