Alton Towers Secret Weapon 7 (SW7)

[TylerDurden]

Question to those lucky few who have ridden:

What exactly does the Marmaliser do? Is it just a big prop, or does it enhance the ride experience in some way? And what exactly is the theme or plotline behind it anyway?

 

[Chaz]

I've ridden it 4 times, and followed construction since the day it was submitted into the planning portal.

The Marmaliser is essentially a huge prop. It is a structure full of near-misses, and effects (water, mist etc). Each effect (or leg) has a name and has a different effect on the body. you do feel the mist, get the water spray (if your in front row) see the lights etc etc.

The story line is basically an experiment facility that attempts to 'correct' you and make you smile. It is a creepy, kind of too-happy/friendly theme. Works well I think.

It is an amazing coaster though, and I'm glad all the issues seem to have been ironed out now.

 

[Dan_raven]

How is the smiler running now? I'm going up to Alton towers next Thursday.
Can't wait to try this coaster.
What are the wait times like?

 

[UK-Trigg]

Wait times are 2 to 3 hours, quietest time is around 2 PM

Single Rider 20 to 30 mins.

Fast Track is available from £5

Smiler has been runnung well up until yesterday when it was down for most of the day, I have heard has been down today too. unsure of the reasons for the latest down time. I will update if I get any more info..

 

[Blastiel]

Went on the ride July 28th, must say its quite good. The surprise got me and I liked the fact its all very near miss. Definitely the best ride they have built in sometime.

We had special access but the regular queue was consistently 2 hours or more.

 

[Hockeyman55]

Now im hearing The Smiler is having issues. What a crazy week for parks


http://old.towerstimes.co.uk/news/n...id=1374415179&archive&start_from&ucat=1,10,11

As schools begin to break up for the holidays and the busy summer period is about to be set into full swing at Alton Towers, the resort's latest £18million investment has hit yet another spot of trouble.

The Smiler has managed to get through most of this month with very few problems compared to June, running all five trains and even facing queues of thirty minutes over recent days. However, the resort's newest rollercoaster has now encountered a structural problem which has forced the ride to close.

According to reports on Twitter, numerous people heard a loud banging noise as a bolt fell from the ride and supposedly landed on the roof of the enclosed queue line. The queue for the ride was immediately evacuated and all five of the ride trains were stacked in the station and on the brake run. It was unknown by some at the time if the bolt had come from a ride train itself or the actual track.

However shortly afterwards, images began to circulate on Twitter showing the obvious gap between two rails on the track, in between the first inverted drop and the first dive loop.




Credit to @LynneSkeels on Twitter for the image.

Whilst it is unknown at this current time how long it will be until The Smiler reopens, engineers are currently on site and assessing the situation. The ride was in operation at the time of the incident, but thankfully nobody was injured.

It's more than just the track that has been suffering recently however. Due to the incredible heat that has been encountered by people all over the country recently, guests who have queued up for The Smiler have discovered that the projectors inside the 3D projection mapping room have been overheating, projecting text messages onto the walls rather than the usual 3D effects. As well as this, the exterior patterns on the queue line shop have already begun to peel off, no more than three months after being originally installed.

It is expected that the ride will be closed for the next day up to several days whilst the track problems are dealt with. Stay tuned to TowersTimes as we bring you all the latest information regarding The Smiler.
- See more at: http://old.towerstimes.co.uk/news/n...&start_from&ucat=1,10,11#sthash.DFGDD4sF.dpuf

 

[UK-Trigg]

Not Smiling now :down:

 

[sierrak5]

They say that things always happen in threes so I knew there had to be one more "incident" coming after Texas Giant and Shoot the Rapids. This finished off the three.

 

[bobwadd]

Found these shots on CoasterForce. Posted by user lisadj . . .

 

[Hockeyman55]

Im no expert on bolt so im going to ask the question. How does a bolt like that come loose? Isn't that thing put on with an impact wrench and on there tight enough that even Godzilla would have a hard time removing?

 

[bobwadd]

^ These hex bolts should have been installed with Loc-Tite threadlocker. This is supposed to prevent the nut from backing off. The downside is that it does lock the nut so the bolts can not be retorqued only check to see if they are still tightly secured to the threads. Retorqueing would break the bond of the threadlocker.

Also notice the blue lines on the nut and continuing onto the bolt. This line serves as a movement indicator for visual inspection. If the line has moved the nut has moved.

--- Edit ---

Went back through the thread and found a shot of an impact wrench being used to secure these bolts.

 

[Hockeyman55]

^ These hex bolts should have been installed with Loc-Tite threadlocker. This is supposed to prevent the nut from backing off. The downside is that it does lock the nut so the bolts can not be retorqued only check to see if they are still tightly secured to the threads. Retorqueing would break the bond of the threadlocker.

Also notice the blue lines on the nut and continuing onto the bolt. This line serves as a movement indicator for visual inspection. If the line has moved the nut has moved.

--- Edit ---

Went back through the thread and found a shot of an impact wrench being used to secure these bolts.

Bob, in your professional opinion, if those bolts were put on correctly, what are the odds of that bolt becoming jarred loose?

 

[bobwadd]

^ If a threadlocker compound was used the nuts should not have unthreaded from the bolts. If you look at the picture below you can see that the other nut on that connection is loose. This makes me wonder if Loc-Tite was used.

I would like to state once again there is a downside to using threadlockers. It is possible that a locking compound may not have been used so they could easily retorque the nuts as needed. In that case they would be relying on the blue indicator. It also possible that they used an "After-Loc" compound. This is applied anter the nuts are installed and correctly torqued. In that case that would be the blue material you see on the other nuts/bolts. In my opinion this method is not nearly as good as a compound applied to the threads before the nut is installed.

The other possibilities is structural movement due to the expansion and contraction of the steel due to temperature variations. In this case I believe that the bolt would have stretched and possibly sheared. I do not believe that is the case in this instance.

 

[Bubbles1]

I think you can blame it on the weather, as the UK has had a heat wave recently, with temperatures exceeding 85 degrees Fahrenheit. In contrast, it was raining and cold same time last year, and most previous years

 

[Alex23]

Down again, someone on Towers Times said that it went down about 17.40 and tested a few times at 18.00 but he heard on the radio of one of the Ride-Ops that the same bolt had gone again. Not sure how true but that's the rumour going around, obviously there are some serious problems with the ride!

 

[LikeMike]

This ride seems very similar to Rip, Ride, Rockit in terms of its recent history. Delayed opening and now this, hope they get this sorted out!

 

[Cruiseshipfan]

I think you can blame it on the weather, as the UK has had a heat wave recently, with temperatures exceeding 85 degrees Fahrenheit. In contrast, it was raining and cold same time last year, and most previous years

I doubt that would be the issue. As there are coasters which withstand a much larger difference in temperature and have no issues. If the weather was a fact then the engineers need to be fired, as that temperature is nothing extreme at all, it is a pretty average temperature (for example it was 78 degrees here a couple of weeks ago but in the middle of winter not summer) and the changes in temperature should be been taken into account, including a safety range (factor of safety, I tried to find the exact value of coasters but I only found on source [it was a quick look] but its reliable but it is 10, meaning that it should be able to withstand 10 times the amount of force which is planned), which is one of the first things you learn when studying to become an engineer. If the bolts were tightened in winter then broke in Summer it would be understandable, due to the expansion of the metal, but it was tightened in summer and broke in summer, plus it would of been checked for this type of issues.

A real world example of a roller coaster withstanding massive temperature change is here in Australia. As you may of heard for the last few years we have been having annual floods in the north east. At the bottom of this flood zone are our big theme parks. Some of the parks ended up flooded. It was only about 77 degrees in the middle of summer then within a week it went from floods to the a country wide heat wave, reaching around 115 degrees, in that day there was only one issue in the parks and that is a roller coaster car got stuck upside down on one of the roller coasters for hours, but that happens a lot on that ride.

 

[Blastiel]

Alton Towers (and other parks) have a history of rides failing / shutting down in certain weather types. One thing I noticed was that there doesn't seem to be a great deal of shock absorbers when it comes to the structures supporting the track.

 

[Hockeyman55]

So has anyone heard if this new problemis from that same piece of track and bolt that was giving them problems not too log ago?

 

[Alex23]

Evidently not, the fault seems to be something else. "Code Zero" was heard to be said and that is a vertical lift hill problem, there is more here