The Smiler (Alton Towers)

[Simba]

The Smiler has stalled this morning in testing. The stall was on the batwing inversion. X-Sector is said to have been evacuated. This is really had luck for Alton Towers, and I don't know how they will be able to stop it from doing this, as it has done it twice but in two locations.

[Thekingin64]

Yea, today hasn't been a good day for Towers. Smiler, Oblivion, Rita and 13 all shut and everything else has hour queues apparently. Not good.

EDIT: Now Air as well apparantly

[Simba]

Wow that was definatly a really bad day for Towers, at least Nemesis didn't chose to breakdown yesterday.

[Thekingin64]

As far as I know, it didn't anyway. Stuff like this is the reason I'm avoiding Towers for a while until Smiler queues die down a bit. I knew that the new ride would have huge queues and a couple teething problems but 2 major valleys and the ride hardly being open! That's just awful.

Plus, when the Smiler breaks down and everything is told to get out the queue, it has a major knock-on effect to the rest of the park as all the people in the queue would have to go somewhere else, usually into other queues causing longer waits throughout the park.

[Simba]

Yeah, I am also avoiding Towers till The Smiler has worked out all it's teething problems.
Now as Intamin have done a tower lift, If they were tasked with building The Smiler I am sure it wouldn't have had this many problems.

It really makes you wonder what happened in the planning discussions.

"Right, so if we need to access the ride with a crane to drag it through if it valleys, what will that entail?"

"The entire of X-Sector would have to be closed"

"That's a pretty major thing. Four rides down and an entire section. What are we donig to ensure it's not going to happen very often?"

"We've bought a Gerstlauer!"

"And we've no experience anywhere else in the Merlin chain of Gerstlauer coasters valleying regularly?"

"Nope, not that we can think of. Absolutely not at Thorpe Park a few times a month at all... Ever..."

"That's fine then, as long as we're clear that buying a coaster type that we have experience in the group of it failing that will cause us to shut down entire parts of the park would be A VERY BAD THING"

"Yes"

"Get building!"

[Dalek Sec]

Yeah, I think it would of been safer if Alton Towers had gone with the Intamin vertical lift coaster, even though there has only been one example of this type (Fahrenheit - Hersheypark), and I am sure it wouldn't have valleyed if it was by Intamin.

Don't get me wrong The Smiler is an amazing coaster to ride, but it has been plagued with problems.

[Simba]

Their is some brilliant footage of The Smiler off and on ride in this video by ukrides, including one of the trains rolling backwards down the vertical lifthill when it broke down.

[NightCoaster]

If there is a rollercoaster that intrigues me most, it is The Smiler. Never been on it before, but apparently it is meant to force one to smile. I am honestly curious as to how they can do that, with technology they have the ability to do practically anything but control a human being's actions. Sure a rollercoaster can make one scream but one can control whether they smile or not. I may sound so much like a novice to experienced coasterlovers but I honestly am curious as to how they make you smile on that ride. :p

[Simba]

The Smiler has stalled for the third time!

However with the most recent stall Towers kept the X-Sector area of the park open whilst the train was being removed on the batwing.

The latest stalling of the ride vehicle occurred again in the batwing element, though in this instance weighted dummies were being used. It is believed that the rides computer system caused the trim brakes on the first airtime hill to be applied unnecessarily, causing the vehicle to come to a halt. A crane is currently on site to remove the stalled vehicle, and X Sector will remain open to the guests, something which hasn't happened on the past two occasions.
 
Liz Greenwood went on to inform TowersTimes that Alton Towers are working closely with Gerstlauer in order to rectify the problem. We will have information regarding The Smiler opening again as soon as we get it.

[Thekingin64]

This is why trims are un-neccesary. Most of the time, they do ruin rides (e.g. 13) and as shown here, can cause are perfectly well designed ride to fail completely. Get rid of those trims and I might consider heading over to try it out.