In other news, I believe Earthquake to be going under a slight refurb in the near future. This is not official, strictly hearsay from drivers/guides. But after having prop pieces literally fall onto the floor from being jostled so much (prop lights, worker scaffold, payphone), I believe a refurb is in the near future for the attraction.
As one of the few attractions at the park to work
nearly flawlessly consistent (minus the electrical arcs) for years and years, it still seems to have a few minor issues that regular upkeep would mitigate. The biggest issues that come to mind are actually quite minor, just prop pieces (which are moved to coincide with the movement of the tram), falling from their mounts and falling to the ground.
I'm aware several of the lights on the far platform had fallen from their tripods long ago, but pieces closer to the tram such as the cable that lowers the scaffold that tips over during the "water main breakage" has actually snapped mid-day. I took a tram about a month ago at park-open and again around 4:00PM and the cable had snapped in that short period of time and the scaffold was laying across the platform. It's not a danger to guests, but it is a large, non-working prop pieces.
Not to throw Universal under the bus (again), but maintenance and tech svcs seem to let attractions such as Earthquake get
really bad before they decide to work on it instead of working on it to do preventative maintenance. Thank you to Cowmissing for clarifying that there are, in fact, new TS members joining, hopefully things change.
Rant and ramble over
Best,
-CW