when do we decide to evacuate a ride?

ill go over some of the ideas and decisions we use when the decision to evacuate a ride is made outside of the obvious something broke in half and it can't move anymore.

[@ethal1222]

I was part of an evacuation as a kid on The Beastie at Kings Island. After sitting at the very top of the lift hill for 45 minutes (in the August sun, which wasn't enjoyable), we were unloaded and walked down the hill and along the track back to the station. I actually thought it was pretty cool. That's not a perspective everyone gets to see a roller coaster from.

[@danilyons2367]

I had a failure to launch on icon Blackpool pleasure beach last year, and the maintenance staff were excellent so shout out to them. Came out to talk to us, made sure we weren’t stressing, gave us the option whether to carry on or not and gave us a free go on enso. Was just me and my partner on the ride so was a very surreal experience.

[@ryantheridemechanic]

Nice. A lot of times we do give OPS the “it’s your call” option.

[@henriktiger9073]

I got evacuated off the Intamin Impulse at Valleyfair last summer. Before going up the front spike for the second time, the brakes kicked in and the train eventually stopped between the front spike and station. Maintenance was able to move the train back into the station and brought a battery pack to unlock each car’s restraints. As an enthusiast, it was actually a pretty cool experience!

[@ryantheridemechanic]

Awesome!

[@jzckvsn]

I operate Sidewinder Safari, which is a zamperla twister coaster at my home park. I never really have had to evac, but the ride did shut down once when the car was being dispatched into the pre-lift section and the car got stuck. We got the guests out when we were done, but very unfortunate experience

[@ryantheridemechanic]

No fun. Didn’t make the lift

[@CarlExplores]

I worked at Hersheypark as a ride operator. Great Bear was my coaster at the time and they made every employee go through a lift hill evacuation and then put us back on and hit estop after going down the first drop. We hit the brake run and stopped instantly. At that point they made us get off and walk it off. It was the most fun I ever had at an amusement park while working.

[@ryantheridemechanic]

Fun

[@martindooley4439]

Hi I was evac'd off the Mummy at Universal a few years ago. Was actually a really interesting experience. Staff were awesome really re assuring and we got a load of family fast passes.

[@ryantheridemechanic]

Nice. It helps when people getting off aren’t terrified of the situation. It allows those perks to come through naturally.

[@Davidvariance]

Last weekend of ops at CP this year it was pretty windy, Gatekeeper was empty cycling super slow. We were first riders (as we often were this year) and it was so eerie (no pun intended) to go from that noisy B&M lift to quiet, then wind and vibrating track and supports after it E-stopped (im guessing from the windy conditions) Also, you should check out the TV show Off Limits episode that shows the Millenium Force Morning check on all the guide wheels for the cable lift- they have to climb down to the last wheel assembly 100 ft or so down the drop and push a button every morning or the ride shuts down. Gives a good insight into what a crew would have to do to evac people on Millie 😂 There's nothing like a ride on Millenium Force on a summer morning. Its a beatiful view

[@danlastname9002]

There's a ride at the park I used to work at, not a roller coaster, but there was a very rare situation wherein if the emergency stop was hit, it wouldn't clear and we'd have to call the fire brigade or an abseiling team to evacuate riders, the nearest abseiling team is 3 hours away. I know that in some situations a roller coaster has to be evacuated by the fire brigade if, say, half the train is off the lift or dangling out of the brake run or station - but this was a dark ride! Flying theatres are no joke.

[@ryantheridemechanic]

Yikes. Wow 3 hours is so long and to not be able to recover it. That’s not good at all

[@1BillionMarbles]

Last summer, I was working at my home park in operations and there was a random power outage one day. All the rides had to be evacuated since all rides had to be e-stopped in case the power came back on. I was working the park's morgan hyper coaster at the time, and one of the trains stopped at the midcourse, so I got to evacuate it. It was stressful but it was a cool experience!

[@ryantheridemechanic]

Yea those power outages can be a pressure cooker for all ops and maintenance alike. It’s one thing to evac a ride. It’s different when you have to do 20 in a row

[@garywillis7253]

Take Millennium Force at Cp,evacuation on that ride is very time consuming . No stairs so they have a lil cart that goes up the hill..I've gotten stuck there 4 times this past season but never got evac'd.Usually 15 mins ..I tell ya what tho when that train stops halfway or more up that hill you can feel the hole thing shaking for a good 30 secs ,nothing more frightening than sitting up there at a angle with the whole thing shaking,that is the worst part

[@ryantheridemechanic]

You could probably also feel it sway in the breeze as well. Yea when they stop they shake the track. Especially the speed they go up the lift on the cable lifts.

[@Scjheinen]

From a professional perspective ride evacs can be quite the challenge, but I have to admit that I do enjoy bringing the situation to a happy end. That being said, it should be avoided as much as possible. I will always try to get the trains unloaded in the station as a break-down happens, even if that means transferring trains of the track and back on again. I also find it interesting how different parks in different countries handle ride breakdowns and evacuations. I’ve worked in two different parks here in the Netherlands and their procedures are massively different, while at one an evac will take place before any attempt at an repair (every fault that can’t be soft reset) the other will try and do everything before an evac is necessary. Block faults are always the tricky ones, I usually want to start an evacuation if the train is going towards an high speed part of the ride. I’m quite the geek when it comes to ride faults and how to resolve those by the way haha.

[@ryantheridemechanic]

Funny about that. Some people say hog did you get things done with all those procedures in the way. I would look at those people and say how have you not killed anyone with the lack of your procedures. Does it balance out? Maybe, but I’d rather be safe when it comes to peoples safety.

[@Scjheinen]

@@ryantheridemechanic People's safety should always be the highest priority in this industry. Better safe then sorry.

[@Geckogamer19]

Fire department training in theme parks is quite a bit more common than you might think! In the Netherlands fire departments and other emergency services go once a year to walibi Holland to do specialized training. In belgium a similar thing is done at Plopsaland de panne.

[@ryantheridemechanic]

They used to practice swift water rescue from our rapids ride but they stopped that before I started working there.

[@Colaholiker]

I have been evac'd twice in my life (not counting unloading in the station before being dispatched, as this is not an evacuation imho). Once on a water coaster in the Netherlands, we were like 3-4 boats away from the station, but there was already a kind of sidewalk platform. Not more thrilling than boarding your average flooded mine ride. The other was a bit more fun, Lost Coaster at Indiana Beach. The front car was already in the station, we were in the rear and had to somehow climb out. It was quite a step, but doable. It would never even occur to me to call 911 for a stopped ride. The only time I would do that is when there is either actual danger (partially derailed ride vehicle, fire or similar) or when someone is injured. But not for just a regular ride stop. What it's like to have a machine gun pointed at you... well, I can tell. And in my case all of them (about half a dozen) were loaded and ready to fire. And believe it or not, I was just doing my work too. 😅 (Not going into more detail here in public...)

[@ryantheridemechanic]

General in rides, if it can stop there then they place an evacuation platform. Anywhere you can be unloaded that does not have automatic unlocking for restraints would be considered and evacuation in my book. The gun want bad because I knew what was going on hand happening. Still king of an odd feeling starring down a weapon pointed at you. If I had not known that it would have been a different story.

[@HaroldKuilman]

At my home park all tech are certified for full operations. Manual override is ALWAYS done by a tech with a rides op supervisor doing a checklist. Different parks different rules

[@ryantheridemechanic]

Yes. No two parks even in the same company are the same. No two rides are the same either!

[@dogsinthedark]

Shout out to Knott's Berry Farm's maintenance team for restarting Silver Bullet's lift hill in about 2 minutes after it stopped. Also shout out to Pacific Park's maintenance team for getting West Coaster to operate in an hour after the first car of the train got pushed out of the station due to strong winds overnight. Those are the 2 best maintenance teams I have ever seen. Also shout out to Knott's Berry Farm (on the same day as the Silver Bullet thing mentioned earlier) for evacuating my mom and dad first from the ferris wheel after it broke down, and me and my brother last. I know they have no real control of that, but I found it funny that it was like a 45 minute difference between my mom and dad getting off, and me and my brother getting off the ride.

[@ryantheridemechanic]

Evacuation times on a Ferris wheel can be difficult depending on the load placement. It’s harder to move one direction. But can’t get too far out of balance.

[@BrennanWhoLikesRollercoa-ki1uf]

Once got evaced off of Maverick in the second launch tunnel - which is really rare. Only there for 20 minuted and the CP mechanics were friendly (I got a free exit pass that I used on Millennium Force that was epic)

[@ryantheridemechanic]

Nice

[@damonappel]

That was an AWESOME video. So much to learn from this one. The one thing you didn't clarify, though: During an evac from a lift hill (let's say, 80--150ft in the air or more)...do the mechanics and/or operators put a climbing harness and help walk each person down the stairs? I'm afraid of heights, but being strapped-in on a coaster, I'm perfectly fine. But being evac'd from a lift hill, and having to walk down the plethora of tiny stairs is not an experience I'd ever want to take part in. 😊

[@ryantheridemechanic]

It depends on the ride, park, company. We only had to put a harness on when evacuating the suspended rollercoaster and that was only the front row. And for the front row the guests needed a positioning belt to be worn. But none of the other rows or rides needed that. The park did not require harnesses to be worn on normal lift inspection either. Everything was a designated path or accesses area that met OSHA standards.

[@damonappel]

@@ryantheridemechanic 😳

[@kylea9022]

Can you do a video on how you got into the industry and what training you had to do and how long it took , we want to know your journey!😊😊

[@ryantheridemechanic]

Hmm an RMR origin story….

[@dindog22]

I've never been evac'd from a ride. knock on wood. I was wondering how block zones work on those really old woodies that are manually operated. like Cyclone at Coney Island.

[@Bogarttherideop]

I’ve seen several evacuation on rides. But I have only ever seen one happen at the ride I was operating at the time. I was at cobra a giant Tivoli coaster and it was because the train only slightly overshot. The restraints wouldn’t open and then maintenance came out and manually unlocked all restraints and then they just rolled the train up and went backwards and it was all good. Super weird but was kind of cool too

[@ryantheridemechanic]

Yea. Probably wet or hot? Happens with those.

[@Bogarttherideop]

@@ryantheridemechanic it was hot. It hadn’t overshot in a long while though. It’s been running pretty well recently.

[@HushHushFamily]

Found this really interesting!! Watched til the end. Why would you advise not to give out dip and dots?? 😂

[@ryantheridemechanic]

Haha! Well it actually stemmed from another video. Someone thought they were going to die on a ride and apparently comped dip-n-dots. And I had a funny reaction to it. So I keep bringing it up from time to time. Thanks for watching! Link for video below. What to do with amusement park guest complaints kzbin.info/www/bejne/bpbbhWaZa5qEd9E

[@thenorthboundmaiden8418]

I love watching your videos you have such a positive demeanor! Can you make a video about winter maintenance during the off-season, or the trainings you have to do, or a video about your interactions with operations??? I am excited for next season to work at my 3rd park on a supply chain internship in the warehouse! (Which gives me another good idea for a future video suggestion- ride parts procurement/purchasing and working with the warehouse on that!) (I have worked at cp and sdc in the past)

[@ryantheridemechanic]

I have the first two videos I made early on in the channel but I could remake them as well

[@friskyent1]

Stay OFF the AIR GATES!!! ❤

[@MythicHellebore]

Mercifully I havent had to be evacuated pretty sure when it happens it will be either Magnum and the 200ft walk down or Millennium Force. Cedar point has had a rash of stopping for cell phones at the top of the hill😂. The local fire departments do regular drills at Cedar Point too especially during the long off season. Press occasionally makes a big deal about the drills with lots of pics, lol.

[@ryantheridemechanic]

Yea they do that! Opinion can be either good or bad on that press coverage. Most general public will swing to the bad side. (My opinion)

[@MythicHellebore]

@@ryantheridemechanic I think it's a bad look from press. Last year Magnum made it in the news several times because of the cell phone rule. The press played it up a few times that it had broken down with people stuck on the lift hill. Which happened one time the rest were cell phone related so they got to finish the ride but the news never mentions that. Although it is more entertaining for the gp watching them get the little cart out to retrieve a phone on Millennium Force.

[@ryantheridemechanic]

@@MythicHellebore right. And they keep Saying (probably) “it did it again!” Making news clickbait

[@thisguy_w0n]

When's the "Stay off the airgates" Merch coming out? I need a new baseball cap and tshirt

[@ryantheridemechanic]

Yea I really need to work on that. I’ve had many requests so far

[@MythicHellebore]

@@ryantheridemechanic I agree I need a cool ryantheridemechanic T-shirt to wear to opening day in May.

[@NewEnglandModz]

One time on Revenge of the Mummy in Orlando, while being transferred off the turntable into the launch hill, it felt like the cart was having a hard time making it up the initial incline from the flat to the sloped part. I’m not sure what it could have been, but I’ve ridden that ride a million times and never felt anything like that. It felt like whatever drives it forward was having trouble. Was hoping for a breakdown/evac. It took about 3x longer to start going up the hill than normal. Do you know what that could have been?

[@ryantheridemechanic]

Not quite sure. Sometimes rides can slow when the block ahead is occupied. I’ve been working rides that faulting a lot and I could have been you were being moved into position in a maintenance mode. Just some possibility’s.

[@ShaunPuzon]

Why do Vekoma brakes fail open? That seems like it goes against all laws of ride safety.

[@ryantheridemechanic]

Not 100%sure but they still make them like that and company’s buy them. So it just be enough to argue it’s fine. A lot of their new stuff fails closed however.

[@ChrisCooper312]

It depends what is meant by "fail". It sounds like they are safe in that a single point of failure will not cause an accident. A failure of a single brake will cause it to open, but the other brakes will be enough to stop and hold a train. A failure of the air supply to the brakes will cause the air to leak out and the brakes open, but it must take at least 20mins. Train brakes work the same. Air pressure applies the brakes. The "fail safe" comes from the fact that the control is via reducing air pressure to apply the brakes. Each individual brake assembly though is independent though and a failure will only affect that brake assembly. Remember, spring applied brakes can still fail open, if the spring breaks, or the linkage

[@kenames8849]

But why no dip n dots!

[@ryantheridemechanic]

Park looses money hand over fist because there’s no price break to the park so….. NO DIPP’N DOTS!!!!!!

[@SkeledroMan]

Did your boomerang ever get stuck in the middle of the cobra roll?

[@ryantheridemechanic]

One time yes.

[@ryantheridemechanic]

More common for inverts

[@circuitbreaker1434]

@@ryantheridemechanic how did this happen? 😱

[@ryantheridemechanic]

@@circuitbreaker1434 just need a poorly timed Estop or power failure while the train is passing in the station. Boom valleyed.

[@circuitbreaker1434]

@@ryantheridemechanic now i have to hope this doesn't happen with the train full of fursuiters next time when we are at the themepark again 😅😅

[@exhibit13productions]

If you ever had to evacuate a train from a position that wasn’t designed for evacuation, I’m assuming you’d comealong the train so it stays in position. Are there typically specific pick point areas on a track to support the weight of a train or are all the track ties or rails typically capable of that sort of weight?

[@ryantheridemechanic]

Yea you want want to chain both sides and use a come along on both side to 100% sure the train can not shift even a CM either way. The track can easily support the train anywhere. And gravity will find the lowest spot. In a corkscrew you would want to move the train a bit to try and make each row unloaded as level as possible.

[@bocahdongo7769]

Sir, may I ask a bit stretch from this topic. Nowadays there's more and more Rollercoaster that use double final brake block (such as B&M Giga, or Velocicoaster). It provide more tighter dispatch time (by clearing the first final block on almost full speed) and much easier evacuation since most likely all train would stack near the station. But, why we don't see more and more something like this assuming there's enough room to implemented? Is it exponentially more pain in the butt to increase the number of block? Or simply the park didn't really care THAT much about capacity?

[@matb9027]

Why would a manufacturer design brakes to fail open? I was always under the impression that brakes require power to release (usually air) to overcome the spring tension. What would be the reason to have it the other way around??

[@ryantheridemechanic]

The air applied brakes are super simple to fabricate and control. So I’m GUESSING that’s a good chunk of the reason. Most all manufacturers make spring closed brakes but some still offer the others as a cheaper lower maintenance brake.

[@udoeiblmaier25]

For me it is intersecting thing is I was never evacuate from a ride* in Europe (I'm Germany) but on my two Vacations in the USA I was both times evacuated from Coasters. This keeps me thinking what is the cause? Is the maintenance in Europe better than in the USA? Is this a cause of there different safety procedures in EU and US? Do EU parks take a path of more reliability when buying a new ride than the US parks? Did some experienced the same? Can someone prove my subjective observation wrong? Or can someone explain it to me? Edit: * this includes traveling rides like "Olympia Looping" and "Eurostar"

[@ryantheridemechanic]

Just my opinion nothing more. Your country is not run by lawyers and lawsuits. The US is run by lawyers and lawsuits. For example fun time, in Austria, we had a ton of trouble with their restraint monitoring. They informed us they don’t normally monitor restraints on that type of ride. I asked but if a person fell out in Austria because they opened their buckle mid operation. The fun time tech said “this is their problem” hahaha!!! That’s the way it should be but lawyers in the US make tooo much money from sewing everyone over everything. Again just my opinion.

[@arcadebuilder533]

Specialized assistance = Ladder Truck??? Lol

[@ryantheridemechanic]

Could be. Or rope access team. The specialized part needed it the ability the take a person out of a seat sitting at maybe a 95° angle. Parks are not used to that. If the coaster is level or on a flat incline, no big deal, but twisted it might be a bigger problem than the park can safely handle.

[@m_ianO]

I just went down the rabbit hole with the Chinese coasters KZbin. I just got back. I was gone a while!

[@m_ianO]

Also these folks got stuck on the inside part of splash mountain during a pandemic. Some luck!

[@ryantheridemechanic]

Some odd ones out there. What a ride.

[@elo4533]

Hello. First comment ☺️

[@MrMakoFL]

2nd