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Superman Tower of Power removal

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Postby [jonrev] on November 30th, 2007, 9:48 pm
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Postby FRD714 on November 30th, 2007, 10:46 pm
Wouldn't be surprised if they all were eventually dismantled.
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Postby Trailblazer Tony on December 1st, 2007, 12:33 am
I'm not surprised, although it was a freak accident, it still just wouldn't be right to ever open the ride again.
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Postby rct2wizard360 on December 1st, 2007, 1:42 am
Apparantley they plan on putting a ride there instead of a fountain.
Let's not expect anything big though...
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Postby coasterkid94 on December 1st, 2007, 2:16 pm
The whole incident is just so sad. I feel very bad for the girl, however I don't think that the ride should be demolished. I think that this is just one very unfortunate incident, and I think that it could be corrected by getting extra-high duty cables which are monitored by computers. I know it might cost a lot, but probably not as much as it would cost to demolish the ride. Also, think of how many people have ridden on Intamin Giant Drop rides and have not been injured.
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Postby FParker185 on December 1st, 2007, 7:52 pm
with the publicity around what happened, I dont think you will ever get the GP on that particular GD ever again. I wouldnt doubt SF trying to sell it though.
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Postby CoasterDave316 on December 1st, 2007, 8:12 pm
While it doesn't surprise me that they are removing it from SFKK. Id be surprised if they scrap the ride itself, since it was such a freak accident.

Give it a year, the media and GP will forget about the accident. So if it's put into another park across the country or sold to a park overseas and installed nobody besides enthusiasts will even notice.
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Postby Coaster Justin on December 1st, 2007, 11:15 pm
Great Escape could use it.

As for a replacement, how about one of the flats being removed from Magic Mountain or New England?

Or how about some new Zamperla like their Sombrero ride themed to the Riddler to promote Dark Knight?
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Postby FParker185 on December 1st, 2007, 11:24 pm
Sombrero is a maintenance nightmare, I've seen 4, out of those 4 only one was running. To many hydraulics.
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Postby FRD714 on December 2nd, 2007, 9:05 am
CoasterBoy wrote:Great Escape could use it.

As for a replacement, how about one of the flats being removed from Magic Mountain or New England?

Or how about some new Zamperla like their Sombrero ride themed to the Riddler to promote Dark Knight?

I can guarantee you it will not go to a Six Flags park.
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Postby cycamps on December 2nd, 2007, 11:39 am
Let's say they remove all of the Intamin drops. Would S&S drops like Power Tower be more reliable?
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Postby w00dland on December 2nd, 2007, 1:11 pm
^No way, S&S drops have so many different moving parts compared to the Intamin drop towers. For S&S you need the air compressors to launch the ride either up or down and stop it, Intamin drop towers only need a motor to drive the car up the tower at a much slower speed, then gravity does the rest of the work.
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Postby FParker185 on December 2nd, 2007, 9:24 pm
Actually S&S towers are simpler mechanically. After the shot tank is filled off the compressor, and the valve opens launching the ride either up or down, everything is gravity after that as air simply bleeds out of the system bringing the ride to a stop. Outisde of that it's a set of pulleys and a few pnuematic cylinders and you have the major parts of the ride right there, most of the real work is done by the rides programming.

With Giant drop, each track has a motor, gearbox, cable drum, mechanisms to drop the cars, all the parts of the catch car and on top of all that each track has a metric assload of sensors (over 100 per track is what I hear as each one is a set of 2)

Though S&S is still a gondola supported by wire ropes, though really it's the only way to do that, without resorting to a lift chain dragging the cars up the tower similar to a Fabbri Jungle Drop, though for a 200 foot tower a single lift chain would add many tons to the weight of the ride, times that by 3 or more depending on the drop ride in question and that isnt likely either.
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Postby cycamps on December 4th, 2007, 10:41 pm
^I thought they were simpler also...
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Postby Coaster Justin on December 5th, 2007, 8:04 am
How about a Zamperla Superspin, Power Surge or Shocker, themed to Riddler?
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Postby BrianPlencner on December 5th, 2007, 8:21 pm
Just wanted to post an update on the girl that was injured. She began walking again last week with the help of a prosthetic leg and crutches, attorney Larry Franklin said.

See the full story below.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22116539/wi ... ?gt1=10710

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Postby Dmrbug on December 5th, 2007, 9:57 pm
^^ thanks for the update.
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Postby Cove26flags on December 8th, 2007, 6:52 pm
It is a bad decision to dismantle the ride. If this this accident happened because of bad lubrication of the catch-car cables, than apparently this happened due to neglect from park maintenance and therefore shouldn't be torn down. There is no real risk to this ride, it is one of the safest rides on the market. The problem comes from the owners and human error.
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Postby FParker185 on December 8th, 2007, 7:25 pm
I dont think the GP will see it that way. All they know or care about is that a little girl lost both her feet on it.

If it's sold out of the SF chain or out of the US and it's history can be kept under wraps it would be a nice addition for a smaller sort of park, though really unless a park wants to replace a 1'st gen freefall or has a really low height restriction, it's sorta short compared with other drop towers nowadays. I sorta doubt it will be scrapped though, it will find a home somewhere.
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Postby Chitown on December 9th, 2007, 12:41 am
^Exactly. It is being removed because of the publicity surrounding it now. It doesn't help that it is the entrance piece to SFKK also.

Same example would be with the Edge when it was at SFGAm. The publicity behind the accident involved with it prompted the park to move it to another park. It ended up as Mr. Hydes Nasty Fall at Geauga Lake after a couple moves.
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Postby cycamps on December 9th, 2007, 1:16 pm
^So the original Edge is history now?
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Postby Chitown on December 9th, 2007, 2:54 pm
^Yep
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Postby ZForce Rider on December 10th, 2007, 1:04 am
Chitown is right. Given the severity of the accident, there's nothing park PR is going to be able to do to salvage the rides reputation.

The Edge incident was far less severe that what happened to this poor girl, and the park still got rid of it due to guests feeling that the ride was not safe. The Edge ran for one more season after the accident before being removed.

I think it was scrapped last year after being up for sale with no takers.
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Postby tillenterprises on December 10th, 2007, 1:49 pm
^ It's a shame, too. The Edge was one of my all time favorite rides. I actually rode it for the first time after the accident happened and it reopened. I actually felt safer on it, knowing that they would've fixed that problem that caused the car to come back down the tower. However, based on how short the lines were, I'm sure the general public didn't feel the same way. Now, with Magic Mountain removing their Freefall, there's only one left in the US- at Cedar Point, so if you want to ride it, better hurry. I love those first generation freefalls, as much, if not more than the newer tower drop rides.
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Postby cycamps on December 10th, 2007, 10:10 pm
Crap! Cedar Point has the only one. Hopefully they plan on keeping it for next year.
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