Power Outage

[Hatetofly]

Oh man I feel for the team members at guest services that seriously sucks! Also the parade and Cinespec were cancelled tonight if anyone was curious.

 

[jtsalien]

Don't the breaks need to be open and then they close to stop the car? What happens if they are closed and train goes into a closed break? I'm not all that familiar With the inner workings of this stuff but and intrigued
After this happened today

Well physically yes. I was using "open" and "close" to try and explain in terms of a traditional braking system. They physically open in the sense that they expand to make contact with the train.

 

[Hatetofly]

Don't the breaks need to be open and then they close to stop the car? What happens if they are closed and train goes into a closed break? I'm not all that familiar With the inner workings of this stuff but and intrigued
After this happened today

Where is Spideyfreak when you need him

 

[maxairmike]

Don't the breaks need to be open and then they close to stop the car? What happens if they are closed and train goes into a closed break? I'm not all that familiar With the inner workings of this stuff but and intrigued
After this happened today

The stop is very hard, likely minor whiplash inducing hard. Now on newer coasters (and I believe Hulk and Dragons have been updated with the B&M mag brakes), most of them have at least a short section of magnetic brakes that (usually) don't rely on power at all, so that helps from keeping it being a harder stop.

 

[DK745]

Oh man I feel for the team members at guest services that seriously sucks! Also the parade and Cinespec were cancelled tonight if anyone was curious.

I'm sure people complain about everything/anything, but what are they going to do? Why are you going to wait in that long line to tell them something the 200 people in front of you just told them? You want a free ticket or AP because 1 hour or so of your time was interrupted by a power outage? Unless they were on a ride and stuck for hours and there to complain about that, it just seems really ridiculous.

:fist:

 

[Jakemeister]

Unless they're handing out compensation to people at the turnstiles I can see frustration.

 

[graspthesun]

I look forward to more info. Goodness knows what the protocol is for such an event... if they even have a protocol. Fascinating.

I'm certain that each of the rides has a procedure for power loss. Retail and food service outlets are pretty easy to fly on not a lot of specific planning.

 

[IzzyB]

No bad weather that I know of and it is not like up North where high heat causes this, they know the systems are going to be overloaded because of air conditions running full blast and build for that. So it was probably some freak thing that the transformer blew. The only other thing I have seen down here is a car hitting a pole, but sounds like it was in the park, so my guess is something freakish happened. But I am sure someone in the know will find out what happened at some point.

 

[the_ultimate_evil]

Damn imagine being on something like et or mob and then just utter blackness

Your brain would be first it's part of the ride ok, then after a few minutes you'd start to realise it isn't right

Wonder if anyone started a panic.

 

[bobwadd]

Remember that most if not all structures will have emergency egress lighting.

 

[Hockeyman55]

Damn imagine being on something like et or mob and then just utter blackness

Your brain would be first it's part of the ride ok, then after a few minutes you'd start to realise it isn't right

Wonder if anyone started a panic.

I don't know if its the same with theme parks, but I know commercial buildings are required to have those emergency flood lights and if so they would have kicked on as soon as the power got went out prevented total blackness inside at least.

Edit - Bob beat me to it :thumbs:

 

[Roll N Fear]

I was at Cedar Point right after Millennium Force opened and the entire park lost power for almost 3 hours. I had waited in line for 2 hours for MF only to be told that the power went out and they advised us to leave the queue. The only ride that was operating was the train that went around the perimeter of the park. They offered no comp tickets. Instead, they extended their hours that evening. Worst day at a theme park ever.

 

[TomTheRiddle]

I look forward to more info. Goodness knows what the protocol is for such an event... if they even have a protocol. Fascinating.

I would hope they have a worst case scenario and have protocols for the situation. I would hate to be on any of the rides when this happened.

Protocol calls for an immediate e-stop to prevent power from coming back up, and to evacuate the ride and the queue as soon as power loss is detected. The ride systems will slowly start to be initialized afterwards until all systems are fully online.

After the second powerless, they immediately shut down most of the rides temporarily and switched to the backup transformer.

Rides like Forbidden Journey were not affected however because of their back up generator system and surge protection.

Where is Spideyfreak when you need him

When a roller coaster's train enters a brake block it will stop regardless of power because of the brake design. However, the breaks will not release until power is restored and the computer determines its safe. I know my ride operations too

I was at Cedar Point right after Millennium Force opened and the entire park lost power for almost 3 hours. I had waited in line for 2 hours for MF only to be told that the power went out and they advised us to leave the queue. The only ride that was operating was the train that went around the perimeter of the park. They offered no comp tickets. Instead, they extended their hours that evening. Worst day at a theme park ever.

There was a day a couple of months ago where all of the UO resort lost power. Not just ride power, but EVERYTHING. The park basically closed early because they couldn't restore power in time to a lot of the big attractions.

 

[Paul9251]

I always wondered how often the nice Lithonia Lighting emergency lights get used.

 

[Teebin]

Wow, this power outage thread turned into a real learning session! Open/closed brakes, magnetic softening brakes, FJ power generator and tons of stuff I had never thought to wonder or know about. Do they have battery power for the speaker systems, to tell riders what to expect/do?

 

[OLSinFLA]

I was working at Disney when we had a park-wide power outage at the Magic Kingdom. We discovered that apparently the batteries in the emergency lights in Pirates hadn't been checked in year (We had one light come on, way down in the que). Also the flashlights were safely locked up and no one had a key. It was an interesting experience (My wife at the time said they formed a conga line at the Mansion and led the guests out that way)

 

[Hockeyman55]

I was working at Disney when we had a park-wide power outage at the Magic Kingdom. We discovered that apparently the batteries in the emergency lights in Pirates hadn't been checked in year (We had one light come on, way down in the que). Also the flashlights were safely locked up and no one had a key. It was an interesting experience (My wife at the time said they formed a conga line at the Mansion and led the guests out that way)

I take it the fire marshal doesn't inspect them once a year then?

 

[Teebin]

I take it the fire marshal doesn't inspect them once a year then?

Only when Disney invites them.

 

[Hatetofly]

I was working at Disney when we had a park-wide power outage at the Magic Kingdom. We discovered that apparently the batteries in the emergency lights in Pirates hadn't been checked in year (We had one light come on, way down in the que). Also the flashlights were safely locked up and no one had a key. It was an interesting experience (My wife at the time said they formed a conga line at the Mansion and led the guests out that way)

Would of loved to of been there for that!

 

[Kevin38]

I take it the fire marshal doesn't inspect them once a year then?

The fire marshal is on their payroll .Or on the town they own payroll .

I know the firefighters are. They are/were in union contract talks with Disney.

The firefighters/ambulance/rescue people are under direction NOT to take notes/reports ect.
because they have to be turned over in a lawsuit.