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Times a coaster stalled/broke down while you were on it?

gavin

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Not much really and nothing beyond a few minutes.

Stuck on Air's brake run for a bit. Made me feel quick sick actually.

The train on Tower of Terror at Gold Reef City wouldn't move after the brakes, so the ride ops had to come out and pull it to get it moving.

That's it with coasters.

Had to walk off Mystic Manor twice. Once just from the first room, and another time near the end, so got to walk through the "Chinese" room and final room which was quite cool.

Also got evacuated off Magic Kingdom's Splash Mountain before the final drop. The walk past the stinking bins in the backstage area was magical.
 

toofpikk

Mega Poster
pretty much all the rides at thorpe for a couple mins, never properly evacced... same with towers & chessy (& valhalla). Only proper evac I've ever had has been on taron & th13teen, with th13teens on the drop section (that was weird) and tarons on the final brakes. cool.
 
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Dar

Hyper Poster
I've never been evac'd from a coaster, I did manage to get walked off Valhalla from just before the second drop. Disappointingly, the evac walkways were just black corridors with no chance to see any of the ride's workings :(
 

JJLehto

Hyper Poster
Couple of times, nothing anything major, usually just a few minutes.
Exception being Nitro at Great Adventure, we were stuck between half and 3/4 up (I think closer to half, was ages ago) and we did have to do the walk down.

Not a stall but once on MForce right near the top there was a sudden stop and the slightest touch of fall back (I'm sure it was literally like 6 inches as the safety mechanism or whatever was kicking in) and then it proceeded the rest of the way very very slowly. That was scary as all hell, It was like 250+ feet I'd say, not a time to have a sudden lurch! Also being used to how the lift usually is was very very caught off guard.
 

CanobieFan

Strata Poster
I've had that on El Toro at least twice where the cable stops and you slide backwards maybe a foot or two before the train stops. Everyone gave a big gasp. Haha
 

Mysterious Sue

Strata Poster
Eurgh. Half an hour sat on Joker's break run at Discovery Kingdom when I was in a huge rush to get off to San Francisco.

Does us breaking Space Mountain in Japan for being too heavy count? The faces of the staff as we rolled slowly into the maintenance shed were priceless.
 

CSLKennyNI

Giga Poster
In July 2016 I got an evac from Taron. Braced as the second launch approached and ... then the train just rolled along in the tunnel and came to a stop. What an anticlimax! Soon some staff came down the stairs to unlock the restraints and get us all off. So I got to walk along the launch trench which was a cool experience. They gathered us at the off load platform in the station and told us to wait. After a few minutes they launched the train backwards, and so it rolled into the 2nd launch and could then be launched full speed back to the station. After a few more test runs they let us back on to actually get a full ride. Only took about 15 minutes or so.

And then only last month I was on River Quest and they were having issues with the mechanism that rolls the boats into the lift. Eventually staff came to evac us. Had to walk through the lift and climb out through a panel that opens up in the back wall of the lift. We then got led out of the lift tower, along a path under Raik's lifthills, through a storage area inside the RQ building (that in days before Klugheim housed the Wild West antique photo shop - many embarrassing photos of me as child from there exist...) and up back into the queueline.
 

Hutch

Strata Poster
Got stuck on Magnum's hill for a minute, and stopped on Harry Potter and the Forbidden journey for about 10 seconds. Nothing major.
 

Pear

Strata Poster
Got stuck on Goliath at SFMM's lift about halfway up. Waited in the hot sun for like 10 minutes until two ops came up and made someone in the back sign something.

Also got stuck on Griffon's break run for like 10 minutes and when we got back into the station we were given free quick queue's so that was nice.
 

Dipper_Dave

Roller Poster
I hope this hasn't been done recently, a quick search didn't show any results.

This thread is inspired by my visit to Alton a few years ago. I was on Rita, and just before the launch, the coaster broke down (obviously, it's an Intamin). I was sitting in anticipation for about half an hour because the op said to "stay alert" in case the coaster launched! About another half hour later, they had to get air pressure canisters to get us out (I think?) and after a long wait, we finally got on the ride. Not a great coaster to wait so long for. Funny thing is, this was meant to be the last ride, so I got about an hour and a half extra in the park!

The only other time a coaster broke down while I was on it was on Big Dipper at BPB. Pretty boring tbh, stalled on the lift hill for about a minute, best part about it was the couple a few seats back freaking out that the train was gonna roll back and kill everyone.

So, has a coaster stalled/broken down while you were riding it?

Wow, that's a bit intense, having to 'stay alert' on Rita for half an hour. Surely the staff were pulling your leg, as you need ample warning & the light sequence etc to allow yourself to be prepared? I bet some people were bricking it for that whole time. Not to mention those horrendous seats. Its bad enough feeling like you're perched on a rock for less than a minute during the ride, let alone half an hour.

I'm not sure its a 'breakdown' as such but its not that unusual for Big Dipper to stall on the lift hill. Its generally for less than a minute. I'd be interested to know why this happens though. Also this is a different matter really but I've seen that ride stopped on the lift hill for the staff to tell an idiotic girl to put her phone away. She'd already been told in the station to put it away. She got it out as soon as the ride went through the station tunnel and the eagle-eyed staff member came out of the Ops cabin to speak to her on the stopped lift hill. Unbelievably, as soon as his back was turned she not only took the phone out again but proceeded to film the rest of the ride. Words fail me.

I have never been evacuated from a coaster, only from the Alice in Wonderland ride at BPB as a youngster. It was back in the day of ticket riding, so we followed the arrows out and were then given some free ride tickets so we were pretty chuffed really. I have an old 35mm photo somewhere of my parents & I having just disembarked from the Cheshire cat and proceeding to exit the ride.
 

Peet

Giga Poster
  • The first one was Big Thunder Mountain at Disneyland Paris, before I became an enthusiast. We were stuck on the second lift hill for about 20 minutes, and then we were evacuated through a backstage area
That sounds interesting - the majority of that coaster is on an island, you must have had to go through a tunnel under the lake to get out right? Quite a collector's item of an experience!
 

NeoXIII

Best Newcomer 2016
Got stuck on Oblivion's break run last year for 20 mins, they had to evacuate us off the ride afterwards. Was actually quite funny as the ride operators tried to keep us entertained until they could figure out what was wrong.
 

streetmagix

Mega Poster
The first time I rode Vampire (Chessington) we stacked on the breakrun for maybe 20 minutes. Whilst I had no issues with it (it was a horrible rainy day) some of the younger guests got pretty upset and started crying :( Not very much info from the staff which wasn't great. They claimed it was 'guest action' but I have no idea what the actual cause of it! We then moved into the station like nothing had happened.

So far I've had zero proper evacs :(
 

Matt N

CF Legend
That sounds interesting - the majority of that coaster is on an island, you must have had to go through a tunnel under the lake to get out right? Quite a collector's item of an experience!
I never thought of that, actually!
 

Efan

Mega Poster
Wow, that's a bit intense, having to 'stay alert' on Rita for half an hour.
Yeah, I don't think anyone took it too seriously, though she didn't even smirk or anything. Of course I wasn't braced for that whole time, but I was alert at least.
 

SwitchbackFanboy742

Roller Poster
I have a strange story. I was little and was riding the kiddie/family at SFOG, known at the time as Wil E Coyote, and I guess the drive tires at the end of the ride didn't engage or something(no clue how that happened) so somehow, on one of the fastest moments on the ride, we valleyed and were stuck there. I can't remember how they got us out of there, though. Just remembered not engaging with the tires and rolling back. Or maybe just a young ride op somehow operating at Coaster Con, as that was when I went this time.
 
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