Yankee Clipper

[Demonlover13]

I don't see why they'd need to tear it out.

[rideaddict124]

they never use the run.
After they took out the yankee clipper the 2nd run never ran.
The Gate switch thing stayed to the left always since then.

[Demonlover13]

^We know that already but it was asked if the not-operating side would be torn out.

[rideaddict124]

it was asked already?

[ttd rox]

Every time I visit Yankee Clipper or Logger's Run at SFGAm, I only see the same side going every time. I never see the 2nd side going. Yes there is a little bump. Nothing big or anything like another small drop though.

[Demonlover13]

Many flumes with two drops closed down the other. I don't really know why but there might have been some acident because of it.

[MGA1]

The reason they only use one side of the chutes is a combination of safety/training/maintenance issues. I worked at Logger's Run in 1978 and we used both chutes all the time. By designing the rides with two chutes, they could run a few more boats on the ride which allowed the rides to have a greater guest capacity/hour. The rides used to be VERY popular...in Gurnee, the average wait time was between 60-75 minutes on any warm sunny day...and that was with all the boats and two chutes running.

At the top of the chutes, the flume branches into a Y shape. There is a hold-gate at the point where the flume branches into two, and there are hold-gates at the very top of each chute just before the boats descend. To avert collisions at the bottom of the chutes, only one boat can be going down a chute at any one time. The next boat is held at the top of the chute and is then immediately released once the first boat clears the bottom of the chutes. Using two chutes allowed there to always be one boat holding at the top of the chutes just waiting to descend. So the boats were kinda held in a staging-pattern at the top of the chutes to increase the ride capacity.

While the chutes alternated sides automatically, if two boats approached the the first hold-gate bumper to bumper (where the flume split two ways), the operator had to manually take over control, or two boats would end up in the same side of the chutes and the ride would automatically shut down (it was a safety precaution). Some operators were either careless or too stupid to figure out how to operate the chutes manually and caused a lot of downtimes due to messing up on working the gates.

Also, if a boat had lost a guide wheel (the rubber wheels on the sides of each boat), person at the top of the lift belt would call the person at the chutes and tell them which upcoming boat was missing a guide wheel. The person at the chutes had to manually work the chutes to make sure that damaged boat was directed into the chute closest to the operator (the side they use today). The operator would lock the chute gate and unload the guests at the top of the chute. Then the ride lead would come up and walk the guests all the way around the catwalk and back down the lift. After the guests were out of the boat, the operator let the boat go down the chute empty. The reason this was a safety issue is that if a boat was missing a guide wheel, it could get stuck on the metal gate part at the bottom of the chutes (it did happen more than once).

If the operator ended up with a damaged boat getting into the left chute (far from the operator), there was NO possible way to get the guests unloaded at the chutes and they'd have to go down the chute and just pray the boat didn't get stuck at the bottom of the chute. If the chute operator did this, it was an automatic written warning. If the boat actually got stuck at the bottom, I think the operator would have been terminated.

Anyway, as the rides have gotten older, they have become less popular so the need for maximum capacity is not as critical. Also, I'm pretty sure the maintenance on these 30+ year old rides isn't as good as it was when the rides were only a couple years old, so it's easier just to leave one side of the chutes closed and reduce the total number of boats that can run at one time.

I guess they could remove the unused chute if they wanted, but seeing that both Great Americas are pretty run down and need a lot of other maintenance and painting done, I don't think either will bother spending the extra money to remove the extra chute unless one just sort of falls apart from neglect.

One thing that I'm really curious about is the catwalk and railings alongside the flumes. When I worked there in 1978, it was freakin scary walking on those things especially when it was windy. The catwalk floor was just made of a couple 2"x8" board and the railings seemed to be made of flimsy metal electrical conduit tubes. With all the water splashing on the board from from flumes and also being exposed to the weather, I was always scared the board would break or the railings would break off while I was walking between the lift and the chutes. Now that the rides are over 30 years old, I'd be scared that the metal braces that the catwalk is attached to would break off due to corrosion and metal fatigue. I wonder how often those wooden boards are replaced?

[WhizzerSFGAm]

^ Don't quote me on this, but I'm pretty sure, at least at SFGAm, that neither flume still has wooden catwalks.

[Demonlover13]

I think they would get a large fine if they kept them.

[dpxtreme]

Loggers Run at the Santa Clara park still has wooden catwalks.

[geostevphen]

is a final 60' decent with a 'hydro jump' which by the way, is why the landing on Clipper was a lot dryer...that and the shape of the boat deflected water. But go to KI and do Kenyon Keel-boats (Defunct) and the boat shape had little to do with wet or not.