RNR breakdown: Is it even possible???

[jann1033]

FYI...From coasterquest.com, a site about how coasters work...

i couldn't get most of the site to work but i did find one place it said they can stop due to if they have recently greased it( somethng about the grease getting cold, and basically gumming up the works). they said they usuallly do the greasing before the season but at disney there is not off season so not sure when they do it there. i was trying to get the lap/ restraint part open cause if they said they can't open mid ride i know that's not true.( happened to me on space mountain and they pulled the car so evidently it has happened before). i would think the news photo i saw was put in upside down or something except the people on the ride had their hair hanging down so they were upside down and obviously stopped i wish i could remember more details but it did freak me out as i am the more " aw that would never happen, ignorance is bliss" type and i saw the photo shortly after my restaint opened so together they were hard to ignore and made me think maybe this grandma's rnr riding days should be over

 

[jezebella]

Well, lets just say a huge "NO"....that just considering that until 2 weeks ago, my father was the manager of operations for rnr and if anything EVER happened I heard all about it that night.

 

[agnes!]

Dh was reading a trip report on another board (not the DIS) and stumbled across some guy who claims to have been in line for RNR when it broke down. The guy says that the coaster got stuck upside down in the middle of a loop and the riders had to be rescued with a crane/cherry picker etc. This sounds quite implausible to me as A) those waiting in line cannot see any part of the ride so how would know where the ride broke...B)aren't the coasters designed now to prevent them from getting stuck like that (gravity would pull the car either forward through the loop or backawrd out of the loop.

What do yoiu think? Was he making it up, or was the ride queue playing a game of "telephone" about why the ride broke down.

I'm on your side with this one, but would like to know the board where the original trip report was posted.

I have found a couple of mentions about this event, definitely not RnR.

The ride stoppage/accident took place in 1998 at Six Flags Great America in Gurnee, Illinois on a coaster called The Demon. This accident is mentioned on three Usenet Newsgroups: rec.roller-coaster, rec.arts.disney.parks and alt.disney.disneyland.

The accident is also here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Demon_(roller_coaster)

and here:
"Six Flags ordered to pay $450,000 to riders trapped in 1998 Demon accident"
(This was in 2001, three years after the accident happened.)
http://www.rideaccidents.com/2001.html#jan16

hth,
agnes!

 

[doombuggy3]

I can't comment on the RNR possible malfunctions, but I can for the Demon at Six Flags Great America in Gurnee, IL. Here's the article that explains why it was stuck upside down with 23 riders in the car. I was young, but I remember they were stuck upside for a good two hours and were taken down with huge machines that usually work on telephone poles or high tree branches.

http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1416611

 

[damo]

Getting stuck upsidedown in a LOOP is physically impossible without a major mechanical failure (as in the coaster above). News like that would have been widespread.

 

[Jennasis]

DH and I figured as much (not possible). My theory about this guy is that while waiting in line for a LONG time he and everyone around him started talking about the ride breaking down and the whole thing got blown out of proportion. I don't doubt that the ride may have broken and stropped somewhere enroute...but certainly not upside down. I don't know what the website was...I'll ask DH.

 

[agnes!]

But it did happen. At a different venue from RnR, I agree.

Unfortunately, specific source citations of the accident are somewhat inaccessible...I have, however, been able to find free abstracts on the Chicago Tribune website that prove the story happened on The Demon in 1998. I cannot quote the abstracts since I do not have permission from the Chicago Tribune, but here are some of the headlines:
COASTER UNDERGOES INSPECTION AFTER ORDEAL GREAT AMERICA RIDE STRANDS 23 PEOPLE WHEN IT STALLS IN LOOP (April 20,1998)
and
SIX FLAGS ACCIDENT BLAMED ON AXLE FLAW ROLLER COASTER GETS NEW SAFETY PART AFTER STRANDING 23 RIDERS (April 21, 1998)
I did start to post the various URLs here, but they're incredibly looooooooong.

Every source on this accident agrees on the following...
*Demon Coaster at Six Flags Great America in Gurnee, Illinois
*Riders stuck *upside-down* on ride for two hours
*23 riders were rescued by "cherry picker" cranes
*The accident/ride-stoppage happened in April 1998.

So, even though I thought it was impossible, every story states that the riders were stuck upside-down (in a loop, no less!), including the Chicago Tribune article. Everything2.com & the Chicago Tribune state that the cause was a broken wheel assembly/axle flaw, which could explain why the train/cars were unable to roll to a "brake" point. (That's also the major mechanical failure a previous poster was looking for.)

agnes!

 

[TXMommy]

...going from about 50 mph, to 0 mph in less than a second is really not good for the human body...

I rode RNR for the first time last week and going 0 to 60 in 2.8 seconds didn't seem to be good for MY human body!! But hey - I did love it, and even rode it again!! Yay me!

If I had read ANYTHING about it getting stuck upside down I probably would not have ridden - glad I saw this AFTER our trip!

 

[seashoreCM]

Rock & Roller Coaster is not a true coaster; it has motors in its trains. It is not guaranteed to coast out of a loop if power is lost.

Disney hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/disney.htm

 

[peter11435]

Rock & Roller Coaster is not a true coaster; it has motors in its trains. It is not guaranteed to coast out of a loop if power is lost.

Disney hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/disney.htm

Where did you here that?

 

[goofyforlife]

But it did happen. At a different venue from RnR, I agree.

The one I saw in Jersey would have been the sea serpent during 1989 or 1990.

 

[malibuconlee]

It can happen. several years ago at Six Flags outside of Chicago one of their big roller coasters malfunctioned and people on the ride were stuck upside down and had to be taken out from that position by a huge lift with a bucket.

I remember reading about it because only a year or so before we had been on that ride.

 

[seashoreCM]

Roller coaster trains also rely on momentum to prevent their getting stranded before reaching the next hill with a power chain (or the unloading station). Application of brakes will almost always cause a coaster train to be stalled somewhere in the middle of the track. A coaster such as Big Thunder or Space Mountain has more trains on the track than there are power chain locations so in case of power failure it is not possible to just let trains coast to the next power chain where the momentum is almost all used up and where normal operation would resume after power is restored. Therefore track brakes are applied and trains stopped reasonably quickly. Then guests have to get out of those trains and the trains pushed or towed.

 

[MomofCKJ]

Just checked out that rideaccidents.com site. That made me feel good about going on any rides.

Allyson

 

[damo]

Rock & Roller Coaster is not a true coaster; it has motors in its trains. It is not guaranteed to coast out of a loop if power is lost.

Disney hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/disney.htm

Isn't Rock n Roller Coaster a LSM coaster? LSM meaning Linear Synchronous Motor. Linear synchronous motors use magnetic electrical waves on the track to attract and repel magnets mounted on the underside of the train. I don't believe there is an actual motor on the train that moves the coaster along the track. And these LSM's aren't located continuously along the track but are used to launch the coaster.

 

[agnes!]

Yeah, rideaccidents.com is why my family and I don't EVER go on carny rides anymore & also why I don't like the inflatable slides/"rock walls"/etc...

But Rideaccidents.Com makes me feel good about WDW because I can see that WDW has relatively few serious accidents, especially considering the number of guests that visit. The accident reporting requirements have gotten more stringent, plus Disney has so many people watching that if they did try to hush something up, the news would still get out. Travelling carnivals, on the other hand, *shudder* certainly seem have a dispropotionate number of the serious accidents.

agnes!

 

[lvlurker]

If the train doesn't have enough momentum to complete the loop, it won't roll back as the cars themselves have brakes to prevent rollback.

Think about Splash Mountain, as you go up the hill you continually hear clicks, there are little one-way blocks that you are passing that prevent the log from falling backwards.

Anyways, I have seen a roller coaster stuck on a corkscrew before, so it definitely can happen. Did it happen at Disney? I don't know, but I would only expect this to make major news if they had a picture, and since RNR is indoors the only people that would have taken the photo were the people on the train (and Disney).

 

[Squirlz]

Isn't Rock n Roller Coaster a LSM coaster? LSM meaning Linear Synchronous Motor. Linear synchronous motors use magnetic electrical waves on the track to attract and repel magnets mounted on the underside of the train. I don't believe there is an actual motor on the train that moves the coaster along the track. And these LSM's aren't located continuously along the track but are used to launch the coaster.

You are correct. It has no motors and it could not possibly get stuck upside-down.

 

[MouseWorshipin]

One morning, first thing, we were in line for RnRC and we waited without moving for about 20 minutes. They told us it was broken, issued us no-time-limit FPs, and sent us on our way.

A woman ahead of us told the CM, "You don't understand," and held up a piece of paper, "I have a plan here and this is going to ruin everything!" She was mighty upset.

Had to feel bad for her!

 

[damo]

Isn't Rock n Roller Coaster a LSM coaster? LSM meaning Linear Synchronous Motor. Linear synchronous motors use magnetic electrical waves on the track to attract and repel magnets mounted on the underside of the train. I don't believe there is an actual motor on the train that moves the coaster along the track. And these LSM's aren't located continuously along the track but are used to launch the coaster.

Here is a picture of the LSMs on the outdoor version of Rock n Roller Coaster in Six Flags Holland (or Walibi World as it is now called).

Here is a picture of the track. This is the same track layout as RNR coaster. You can see how difficult it would be for the train to get stuck upside down