Ride Maintenance

RandyV · Post by **RandyV** » Fri Feb 24, 2006 11:56 pm

Ok -- question for your maintenance people out there.

When a new ride was installed (say, Shockwave) -- what type of training was done to allow you to keep the ride up and running? Were there just regular maintenance manuals that were followed or was there specialized training provided by the ride manufacturer for each new ride?

Obviously, basic mechanical aptitude comes into play, but there had be some special knowledge for each ride that you had to acquire -- basic adjustments, etc.

I envy you guys who worked at the park. Always wanted to do that, but didn't live close enough to make it happen.

customfabricators · Post by **customfabricators** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 8:53 pm

It depends. Some ride manufacturers are very good at setting up and properly informing the maintenance personnel. Some companies aren't (a certain Italian one comes to mind........)

But you would be surprised on how much rides are the same. We can specifly in the contract on how we want certain things so they conform to other stuff we already have. Yes we do get manuals and service bulletins.

Quite a bit of the older rides at Gurnee have knowledge that has been passed down. There aren't manuals for these anymore, but the fact is we don't need them. Rides like the Scenic Railway for instance. Custom Fabricators is no longer in business. But we know so much about it that we just don't need a manual anymore.

that_guy · Post by **that_guy** » Thu Mar 23, 2006 9:49 pm

customfabricators wrote:It depends. Some ride manufacturers are very good at setting up and properly informing the maintenance personnel. Some companies aren't (a certain Italian one comes to mind........)

But you would be surprised on how much rides are the same. We can specifly in the contract on how we want certain things so they conform to other stuff we already have. Yes we do get manuals and service bulletins.

Quite a bit of the older rides at Gurnee have knowledge that has been passed down. There aren't manuals for these anymore, but the fact is we don't need them. Rides like the Scenic Railway for instance. Custom Fabricators is no longer in business. But we know so much about it that we just don't need a manual anymore.

So how do you get spare parts needed for worn parts if the company no longer exists?

Italien company? Zamperla? Pinfari?

RandyV · Post by **RandyV** » Fri Mar 24, 2006 9:29 pm

Thanks for the reply. I suspect that there is a lot of custom fabrication that the park does itself or has to out source. A local park here in Denver (Lakeside) has rides that are way older than anything in Gurnee and I'm sure they do a lot of on-site fabrication.

customfabricators · Post by **customfabricators** » Wed Mar 29, 2006 8:01 pm

That Italian company is Zamperla. I am not impressed with some of their stuff. But on the other hand, some of it holds up well.

We do A LOT of fabrication here at Gurnee. Whizzer comes to mind as a big one. But just about every ride here that is original to the park has had something fabricated for it.

And just because a ride manufacturer is out of business does not mean parts are no longer available. Schwartzkopf comes to mind as one. We can get parts for these rides from several sources, even other ride manufacturers like Intamin and Zamperla make parts for these rides that have manufacturers than have gone under. And in the case of the Antique Car Ride, Arrow still makes and distributes most of the components needed, as well as stuff for the Demon.

Still yet a lot of amusement rides have general industrial components that are easy to come by. The Scenic Railway locomotives are Detroit Diesel engines on a hydraulic system, all of which have parts that are readily available.

that_guy · Post by **that_guy** » Wed Mar 29, 2006 8:46 pm

Oh ok, makes sense
Do you think the new Disko Coaster will hold up well?

Papas · Post by **Papas** » Sat Jul 05, 2008 8:58 pm

TDK was actually built very unorthodox, there was some fall out with the construction workers and SFGAms maintenence guys actually built the ride while Mack's engineers supervised it. Basically when they got the ride running the Mack guys just explained how everything worked and what checks to do for maintence. Onsite manuals for all types of maintenences are kept in onsite at the ride (normally in the electrical room) which specifically says what maintenence to do in certain situtions and what parts are acceptable and when they need to be replaced. The Mack guys were there up until the ride opened.

Theres always a big "crunchtime" leading up to a rides actual opening where construction is going on literally overnight. For days leading up to TDKs opening the engineers were there literally 24/7 making adjustments (no sleep for them). The night before media day they brought international lifeguards who were in HH training so we could test out the flow of the ride and so we could get a feel for how to operate it. Well the workers who were putting up railings [in the hallway leading from the preshow to the station] were not happy with people running down the hallway all the time and became very upset and one of them went off "How the **** do you expect us to put in all these railings tonight if these *** **** lifeguards keep running up and down the hallways!?!?!?," it was quite comical. They were also testing out the camera for media day that night and I ended up in an AP video.