The Demon

[djsupersleuth]

And what caused this to snap?

Poor Maintenance, a lack of understanding of the critical importance of rope inspections and lubrication as well as the poor decision to allow a unsuitably qualified person to "look after" this attraction. I remember this afternoon well, I was the "cruiser" on this day and was called for a 61 Charlie position 13 so I dutifully attended to find the train parked not far off it's normal position in the station. What a mess, the rope had failed about 60 - 80 metres behind the catch car whilst the train was almost at the release point on lift 1 and hurtled through the station with the catch car attached taking it far beyond its usual stopping position and also laying the rope between the then opened brakes, the front of the train would have made it into the boomerang but luckily the resistance of having the catch wagon attached with the rope as well prevented a stoppage in the boomerang. The train then fell back into the station with the rope now on the outside of the brakes wiping out every prox switch and sensor in the station. There was a "birds nest" on the tracks near to where the diverter trolley sits and this section was later cut out and sent away for a multitude of tests.

[Daniel]

How about rocking up to work one Sunday morning to see the train wedged firmly in the boomerang? Apparently it happened on a test cycle on the Saturday night, and remained there until Sunday afternoon. It often got stuck at the bottom of lift 2 as well as on it. Not as bad as the cable snapping on Probe I guess, hey Channel 7? Good times hey Bussy?

[mickey_079]

The cable snaped on SP? Ok do tell.

[Wazza1]

The cable snaped on SP? Ok do tell.

One Cable snapped, but the cabin was still held up by another cable. As it fell the snapped cable badly cut a girl who was on the ride probably happened about 20 meters off the ground. They got everyone off relitively un harmed. Also reminds me of the time the probe magnets were removed for maintenece and a particularly nasty incident that occured with them in the maintenence workshop.

Thanks Wazza. As Wazza said Demon getting stuck on lift 2 or at the bottom of lift 2 was common. I remember the last cable snap on Demon very well. It was very luck that no one was hurt, including the operator.

If we are talking about the same incident here, where the operator was a rather tall and very lanky operator. I am pretty impressed that you remembered an incident that occured before you even started working there Bussy! Now that is impressive. Edited October 4, 2006 by Wazza1

[mickey_079]

Ahh now tell me the story with the magnets. lol its all very interesting.

[djsupersleuth]

A bloke named Gus who came to work for us as labour hire who wasnt properly inducted (what's that word mean?) when 3 hours into his workday placed one halve of a set of braking magnets next to the other and CLUNK together they came. No problem except he had his two thumbs between the magnets to which he lost. Police & Workcover were swarming within hours and kicked all of us out of the cordened off crime scene so we sat in the canteen for the afternoon.

[mickey_079]

Oh my, that has really got to hurt. But why did they close? The magnets that is.

[Wazza1]

Oh my, that has really got to hurt. But why did they close? The magnets that is.

It sounds as though you did not pay enough attention in science class at primary school Edited October 4, 2006 by Wazza1

[mickey_079]

If there electro magnets they dont just close without the added power. How am i supposed to know what type of magnets they are.

[djsupersleuth]

They are non switchable "rare earth" magnets, very powerful and very expensive.

[mickey_079]

They are non switchable "rare earth" magnets, very powerful and very expensive.

Thankyou DJ, see it didn't know that. How much?

[djsupersleuth]

$10,000aud per set, 1 set being two halves. 4 sets per cabin. Each halve of a set began with opposing polarity - North and South which attract each other and create the "eddie current" when a fin passes through them which slows the cabin.

[mickey_079]

$10,000aud per set, 1 set being two halves. 4 sets per cabin. Each halve of a set began with opposing polarity - North and South which attract each other and create the "eddie current" when a fin passes through them which slows the cabin.

That sorta made no sense but hey, thats science for you.

[aidan]

I got it and he said it very good and easy.

[Bussy]

I remember that Daniel I had to stand down the bottom of the stairs for most of the day and tell people the obvious, all I did was turn and point when they asked me why the ride wasn't operating, it always amazed me how stupid people were, you would get the same people coming back again and again while the train was still stuck asking the same question. Wazza considering I was the operator of Demon when the cable snapped I think I have a fair understanding of what happened and how close not only myself but the guests in the rear carriage were to getting hit by the cable, how close the train was to stopping in the boomerang and how brown my pants were after it happened. There were large metal rollers that the cable sat on under lift one several of these were bent at right angles which give you some idea of the force. When I called it in to security I told them that the cable had snapped, when the supervisor called me to ask where the cable had snapped he thought it was the back of the catch wagon, when I told him that it had snapped somewhere near the winch he quickly hung up and the next thing just about everyone was at the ride, all of the ride supervisors, the operations manager, security, first aid, maintenance. We used the get pretty quick responses 61 Charlie calls but that was amazing. Mickey the magnets were able to work during a power failure so they were not electro-magnets. "The Bus is now leaving for Snap Creek, Victoria"

Edited October 5, 2006 by Bussy

[Wazza1]

I remember that Daniel I had to stand down the bottom of the stairs for most of the day and tell people the obvious, all I did was turn and point when they asked me why the ride wasn't operating, it always amazed me how stupid people were, you would get the same people coming back again and again while the train was still stuck asking the same question. Wazza considering I was the operator of Demon when the cable snapped I think I have a fair understanding of what happened and how close not only myself but the guests in the rear carriage were to getting hit by the cable, how close the train was to stopping in the boomerang and how brown my pants were after it happened. There were large metal rollers that the cable sat on under lift one several of these were bent at right angles which give you some idea of the force. When I called it in to security I told them that the cable had snapped, when the supervisor called me to ask where the cable had snapped he thought it was the back of the catch wagon, when I told him that it had snapped somewhere near the winch he quickly hung up and the next thing just about everyone was at the ride, all of the ride supervisors, the operations manager, security, first aid, maintenance. We used the get pretty quick responses 61 Charlie calls but that was amazing.

Thats fine, I was thinking of another time that it happend. The one I was thinking of was late 2001, it seems crazy that it happened again (late 2003? When u were operating. Is that right) like 18 months later It happened one other time, that caused the ride to get stuck in the boomerang. (without guests on it) cause a certain lunatic maintenence manager decided he would play with the train and was reversing it out of the station manually. For some unknown reason he thought it would be a good idea to keep stopping at starting the pully, and before he knew it he had the train ocillating on the cable, (sort of bouncing forward and back) and on one of the bounces about 1/2way up the lift the cable could not take the stress and the cable snapped right where it attaches to the catch car, sending the ride down through the station, up into the boomerang, where it came to rest Edited October 5, 2006 by Wazza1

[mickey_079]

wtf.... some of the operators from wonderland sound like real tossers. What happened to they guy who made the cable snap?

[djsupersleuth]

The cable only snapped once between 2000 and closure and that was the 2001 occurance. The incident where the maintenance mabnager was in control was prior to my start which was early 2000. I was told the train had weight bags in it and he was manually hoisting it up lift 1 and got a case of the "death bounce" and thats when the cable broke. It was always a bitch to hoist in manual because the proportinal control was bypassed and you only ever had full pressure to the winch, this is where you got the uncontrollable bounce.

[djsupersleuth]

Wazza considering I was the operator of Demon when the cable snapped I think I have a fair understanding of what happened and how close not only myself but the guests in the rear carriage were to getting hit by the cable, how close the train was to stopping in the boomerang and how brown my pants were after it happened. There were large metal rollers that the cable sat on under lift one several of these were bent at right angles which give you some idea of the force. "The Bus is now leaving for Snap Creek, Victoria"

Ok Bussy, now I think I know who you are, did you go on to work for the major road construction based out in the carpark? Good memory about those rollers, I forgot about those - how could I as I had to put them back on and that was a dangerous job hanging out over the ground trying to locate those HEAVY metal rollers back into place. The cable actually whipped itself around those rollers as it shot past and ripped them right off the mountings. 1 of them was half buried in the grassy mound under lift 1.

[Daniel]

I'll let Bussy say if that's him or not DJ Good thing there was no unloader standing outside the opera... ahhh I mean behind the exit gate... at the time. Could have been a little messy.

[Gazza]

That sorta made no sense but hey, thats science for you.

Well, heres an alternate explaination on how magnetic brakes work... For starters, you have two paralel magnets placed a little bit apart, with the north side of one magnet facing the south side of the other. That makes a magnetic field exist between them. Now, when you move a length of conductor (Eg a wire, or in this case the copper brake fin on the freefall car) through a magnetic field a current is created in the conductor. (Generators actually work by this principle, since coils of wire spin around in a magnetic field, since the coils are rotating, they are moving, and thats why you get current from a generator) So in this case, because the copper brake fin goes in between the pair of magnets you get a current in the fin. NOTE THAT BECAUSE THE BRAKE FIN IS MADE OF COPPER IT IS NOT ATTRACTED TO THE MAGNETS (since only very few metals can be attracted to magnets, like iron for example) Since the copper fin has a current flowing through it (yes current does flow) the copper fin acts like an electromagnet. (It is like when you wind coils of wire around a nail, and then let current flow through the coils by hooking it up to a battery, you make an electromagnet) Because of the direction of the current in the fin, the electromagnetic field created actually opposes the magnetic field from the pair of magnets mentioned at the start. Because these fields are opposing each other the freefall car is forced to slow down. And for those of you that already know this stuff, im sorry that I used "Current" instead of EMF, but i wanted to keep it simple. Edited October 5, 2006 by Gazza

[mickey_079]

Thankyou Gazza, that helped. Im sorry for being a pain, but I'm still only learning, and I would seriously appreciate it if you guys taught me more of this stuff, I have always been interested in it.

[SP7Queen]

hehe I still have the certificate for "excellence in an emergency situation" for the cable snapping incident. I was unloader, the e-stop was hit, and the worst IVT Sup was on duty at the time...she should've stuck to managing hamburgers..

[Wazza1]

hehe I still have the certificate for "excellence in an emergency situation" for the cable snapping incident. I was unloader, the e-stop was hit, and the worst IVT Sup was on duty at the time...she should've stuck to managing hamburgers..

Was it the one with the firey red hair and freckles? I saw her in the city the other day. looks as silly as she ever did, and I am sure she is still as un-intelligent as ever!

[Bussy]

Ok Bussy, now I think I know who you are, did you go on to work for the major road construction based out in the carpark? Good memory about those rollers, I forgot about those - how could I as I had to put them back on and that was a dangerous job hanging out over the ground trying to locate those HEAVY metal rollers back into place. The cable actually whipped itself around those rollers as it shot past and ripped them right off the mountings. 1 of them was half buried in the grassy mound under lift 1.

Yeah that would be me. Sounds like a fun job putting all the rollers back in place. I remember the day after it happened I went up to the ride with the operations manager, maintenance manager and the OH&S manager and expained what had happened etc. I got to walk around and have a good look at the damage to the ride. I couldn't believe how badly damaged (destroyed is probably a better word) the brakes were, there were bits of metal all over the place. "The Bus is now leaving for Metal Creek, Queensland"