I was looking at the Willard's Whizzer pics on the site and wondered if anyone knew when the catwalks were added. Did both parks start with none and then add them at the same time?
Andy
When Did Whizzer Get Its Catwalks?
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SFGAmLover
- Yankee Clipper
- Posts: 54
- Joined: Mon Jul 11, 2005 11:10 pm
- Location: Midwest
Whizzer catwalks
The Whizzer ended up breaking down quite often, (As opposed to what was said in court when the park was being sued over the death on the ride.) and power failures were often. This would strand riders on the part of the ride that needed full power to move the trains. The catwalks were added to evacuate the passangers.
The same thing was added to the Tidal Wave on the far side of the loop after misfires (breaking cables) or breaking failures would strand the train on the other side of the loop. Again to evacuate the passangers.
It was interseting to see them reset the Tidal Wave when this happend as they would get one of the Jeep pickups they had and load the back of it with maintanace men, hook a cable up to the back and tow the train to the top of the end of the ride, and then let the cable go and the train would fall and arive back at the station.
Once when a cable broke that held the weight that propelled the ride, the weight dropped free fall. I was in the Bugs Beanery at the time, which was right next to it. It scared everone inside so bad we all ran out to see what had happend. When the cable broke it had spun wildly and threw 1 inch long freys of wire all over the sevice road, and many had stuck into the wooden fence that ran along the Grand Music Hall. I wish I had a picture.
The same thing was added to the Tidal Wave on the far side of the loop after misfires (breaking cables) or breaking failures would strand the train on the other side of the loop. Again to evacuate the passangers.
It was interseting to see them reset the Tidal Wave when this happend as they would get one of the Jeep pickups they had and load the back of it with maintanace men, hook a cable up to the back and tow the train to the top of the end of the ride, and then let the cable go and the train would fall and arive back at the station.
Once when a cable broke that held the weight that propelled the ride, the weight dropped free fall. I was in the Bugs Beanery at the time, which was right next to it. It scared everone inside so bad we all ran out to see what had happend. When the cable broke it had spun wildly and threw 1 inch long freys of wire all over the sevice road, and many had stuck into the wooden fence that ran along the Grand Music Hall. I wish I had a picture.
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Shockwavegirl
- Yankee Clipper
- Posts: 55
- Joined: Wed Aug 31, 2005 3:53 pm
Another thing about the whizzer lift is that it isn't driven by a chain like other coasters, it is an electrified track like a subway rail, and in light rain in tend to short out, leaving passengers stranded, it's also there so that in the event of a lift stop for a ride malfunction an employee could go up there to calm down passengers and keep the stupid people from standing and goofing off.