What's the deal with Stardust?
Apparently, winds and temperature stalled Stardust Racers earlier last weekend. I haven't heard of this happening to any other coaster this far south, and it's still closed.
This is worrisome for me because my Epic Universe trip is Sunday. Is it going to be open by then (especially since there's a music festival at universal Friday and Saturday)?
Replies (8)
Checkout @bioreconstruct on Instagram. He has some great aerial views of the ongoing saga at Epic.
To answer your question first, from what i've been told Stardust Racers is going to be open tomorrow.
In regards to Robert, every coaster that I can think of at Disney has some sort of valley-recovery winch system in case that were to happen. In all my years working at Disney I've only seen it used at Space Mountain once, and I know it has been used on a few really cold mornings at Everest. Even Tron has one for that small outside part (if you are standing in right spot and look down you can spot the giant machine there).
That being said Disney really does not like rides randomly being closed as it creates a lot of problems for them. This is not the industry standard as its a lot of up front cost, more to maintain, and is not practical on a lot of big coasters. Pretty much all parks other than Disney will bring in a crane and take the trains off and then re-install them back in the maintenance shed. I remember one year Raging Bull valleyed between the camelback and the stengel dive (cold morning with no riders)...the ride has 3 trains so they just took it off and got the ride running a few days later.
I remember when DejaVu was new it valleyed while testing in the middle of the boomerang (it was either at SFMM or SFOG), so they put that staircase there in the middle of the element (on all 3 DejaVu's).
But then when it valleyed for the first time with people (I think it was opening day or the day after, 2002), it wasn't in that spot, it was between the boomerang and the loop...and it was like "you've GOT to be kidding," and there was no platform there so people had to be taken off with a cherry picker. And then the ride was closed for several weeks while they built the "party deck."
(it did valley once in the middle of the boomerang at SFGAm years later, but it was without people so they just went up there and pushed the train to fall back into the station).
Thank you for the new nightmare fuel of getting evac'd via cherry picker from a Vekoma Boomerang. That has to set some sort of record for theme park hell right there. Although, hey, at least they didn't have to finish the ride. /s
Ryan the Ride Mechanic has done a few videos regarding valleying a coaster (including the time he was responsible for it), but the short version is that literally any coaster has the potential to valley a train if conditions are right. The most common culprit is a cold train on a cold day running unloaded into a headwind, but even a fully loaded train running faster than usual could be valleyed if something mechanical were to happen (such as catching something and binding a wheel). Some attractions are more susceptible to it than others, of course, but all parks have plans in place to deal with the possibility should it occur.
With regards to recovery, if the train is just short of a block section it is usually possible to pull it up using a winch or crane. However, in pretty much any other situation, partial disassembly of the train and removing it car by car, then rebuilding it in the maintenance bay is the standard procedure. Assuming the valley is either due to external reasons or a problem confined to that specific train and a crane is available in a timely manner, the ride can usually reopen using other trains within two or three days, then the stuck train will return to service after it has been reassembled. It is not possible to simply pull the train to the top of the hill and release it, as that would be considered unsafe operation by virtually every party and risks valleying the train again as it would be running outside of intended parameters.
What I find interesting is that with advances in LSM technology, coaster manufacturers are building in systems to allow trains to be recovered at possible valley points. 2 recent examples...
1. On Alpen Fury at Canada's Wonderland, the main set of LSMs are located inside Wonder Mountain, but that's also where trains can be stored and pulled onto a maintenance track. This segment of track is the lowest point of the entire layout, and if the train fails to clear the first inversion coming out of the mountain, the system can swing launch trains until they clear that inversion. When the coaster is initially started up each day, trains go through that same swing launch to get them through the course and to the load/unload station.
2. On Flash Vertical Velocity at SFGAdv, there is a set of LSMs on the valley following the first hanging inversion. These LSMs not only provide an additional shot of acceleration to propel the train through the second half of the course, but it can perform a swing launch in the event the train valleys in this spot, which is the lowest spot on the entire course.
Coasters valley a lot more than people realize, and it can be an expansive and laborious process to get trains back to the station - older coasters used to utilize manual winch systems typically used for "pull through" tests to get trains back to a point where the train can have enough natural momentum to complete the course. However, more modern coasters that walk a fine line with speed and g-forces (some coasters naturally deliver g's that are right on the edge of what most people can tolerate), so it's not possible to crank up the initial acceleration a few MPH just to make sure the trains won't valley.
This isn't the first time Stardust Racers has valleyed - there were at least 2 documented instances that occurred during initial testing before Epic opened to the public - so I wouldn't be surprised to see Universal go back to Mack to see if they can install some LSMs at this valley point to make it easier to recover trains in the event they valley again.
Update: stardust is now open, boasting a breezy 90 minute wait (I guess that's what you get for taking off two trains).
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Both trains of the coaster valleyed over the weekend, and Universal had to bring in a crane to move the trains off the track. Then the trains will need to be reinstalled and checked before the ride can reopen. That is taking time.
All this raises the question of what parks do when coaster trains valley. I remember that Big Thunder Mountain had a winch system for that, not that I ever saw it used. Having to bring in a crane and take the coasters off the track seems extreme to me, but I defer others with more coaster knowledge here.