Leaderboard

Hi there ― Sorry for jumping in here, I just came across this discussion. I’ve never been to Australia, but I know the history of the Sea World Monorail very well, because it’s the “sibling” of the EP Express Monorail over here in Germany. The World Expo 88 in Brisbane had a monorail with 4 trains, it was the same make and model as the one in Sea World (“Von Roll Mk-II”). So, when the World Expo was over, one of the trains went to Sea World, not far away (so its fleet grew from two to three trains). The other 3 trains from World Expo 88 went on a much longer journey ― they were bought by “Europa-Park”, one of the largest theme parks in Europe. This monorail is now called EP Express, and it’s still in operation today. In fact it’s one of the main attractions, and the Europa-Park engineers are keeping the trains in excellent shape. I’m very sad to hear that the sibling in Sea World Australia has been taken out of service (apparently forever). It would be nice if Europa-Park bought these three trains, too, and expanded the track of the EP Express. That would make sense because Europa-Park has grown considerably in the past 30 years and covers a much larger area now. However, I’m afraid that is just wishful thinking. So … Farewell, Sea World Monorail. I’ll be thinking of you next time I ride EP Express. Best regards ― Oliver from Germany

Simply - having the cable wound up inside the tower protects it from wind and weather. If the catch car sat at the bottom every night, there'd be ~119 metres of cable (times two) whipping around the tower all night. (Ever seen a naked flagpole in the wind? the rope whips it back and forth against the tower!) Although the tower has guide rails to support the cable down the length of the tower, there's only a couple of them and that still leaves large spans of cable flapping in the breeze. No, better to put it away at night. hope this explains things.

I would expect that the door between load/unload on Superman would need to be integrated much the same as ST's switch track is, would it not? Failure of the door would need to result in the dispatch being halted until it was fixed/bypassed as it's in the ride path.

TO answer the question - the train doesn't leave the station if the track isn't locked. The launch doesn't start if the track isn't locked. At both times, the train is stopped, and it doesn't move until the PLC confirms the track has reached the correct point. It also has prox sensors configured by the manufacturer to ensure the track is exactly where its supposed to be, with multiple redundancies. I've seen them all up close. The ride is certified to fail safe. TL:DR Dean is trying to prove a point by saying that an essential element of the ride design, built into the PLC and designed by the manufacturer is somehow comparable with an off-the-shelf product that 'talks' to the ride control system.

But ST’s switch track is integral to its design. Why would they purposefully add another, non-essential risk/downtime factor to a ride that’s continuously had abysmal operations already?

Ahh so now your an expert in concrete spraying?

Please enjoy my very poor amateur matching skills and this is very obviously not to scale and only a 'best guess' lineup based on the two images and the red\blue lines added.

The hexagonal formwork there makes it look like they're planning something. The blue ocean parade pathways were also a coating applied over the top of existing concrete. As the old adage goes - never show a fool an incomplete job - and in this case i'll wait until construction is a bit further along to see what the finished product is going to look like. I wouldn't want to be doing a fancy decorative concrete surface when i'm about to build a rollercoaster in that space - noting all the heavy equipment and the damage it may do to my shiny new concrete.

So those shade sails are for the dolphins, right?