Starting rides up for the day, Dispatch

Your content is always worth the time it takes to watch.

Popcorn ready!

I like your "name any German manufacturer" game when you were talking about the hydraulic drive wave swingers. You almost got it, but it's Zierer. I don't even think that Gerstlauer or Mack ever built wave swingers, in fact the one at Mack's showcase Europa Park is a Zierer Model. (Fun Fact: This ride was actually designed by Anton Schwarzkopf's brother Franz who worked at Zierer back in the day.) There are some Zierer wave swingers that have an electric drive system for the rotation though. But it's rare. When it comes to AC drives vs DC drives, many manufacturers are moving to AC variable frequency drives for new designs. That doesn't necessarily mean they redesign the electricals for existing designs, but anything more new is more likely to be AC. Just for comparison - the good old Huss Breakdance, like most Huss rides, used DC drives (many operators today have them converted to AC by third parties because they are cheaper to get and you don't need to worry about the brushes anymore), but when Huss came up with the Booster, they went to AC drives. For those who don't know the background: The main reason for them to use DC in the first place is that DC drives were a lot easier to control in variable speeds. You basically just had to add some resistors in series and the motor would go slower. That could even be done using contactors, you didn't need power electronics. To change the speed of an AC motor (beyond the two fixed speeds you get with a delta/star switch), you need to change the frequency, and that requires power electronics that weren't readily available back then. Despite being about 20 years old, the Technical Park Streetfighter swing ride has an all AC drive system, just as an example. The temperature issues aren't necessarily a DC thing - I remember working with a Huss Breakdancer, that you could basically switch on even during a cold morning, and it would just run. Sure, you'd let it run at a low speed for a while to make sure the gears and bearings give the grease time to warm up, but that's it. I hate to say it, but Italian rides are kind of notorious to be unhappy when temperatures are outside of a certain band. Especially when it gets cold, a space heater in front of the control cabinet works wonders. 😂

Run-up crew was the best shift ever at Magic!❤ If you got picked for it. It changes every week.

Love your videos! Very informative! I've always wanted to work on roller coasters, but had to settle for working on cars instead.

I have a photo of a gerstlauer euro fighter coaster in the uk with a birds nest on the 1st loop thay ran it all season with the birds still there

Some newer B&M have a block test function on the panel views for ops. You would go to that screen hold the HMI Enable button and then press the hold on section button theres one for each block section typically we will do a hold on service brake first in a 2 train operation. Dispatch the train after we have enabled the hold the train will go around the course and hold in the service brake. We then dispatch the 2nd train ans it will stop on lift park we then on the HMI enable hold on safety and then release the safety the train would roll Forward and stop. Then we would press hold on transfer and release from safety. After that the lift will now allow us to strar it back up and the train would continue and stop in service. We then bring the train into the station with advance and then the train in the safety would automatically roll forward to the transfer when the teain in the station parked. Fury 325 has the same block check mechanism on its HMI screen for ride ops to do block tests with

Cool that you used a video of raptor at cedar point at 55:47

Always amazing!! Fantastic information to know.

Ayo dog don’t forget to make your announcement …..before you start your list/test lol. 😂 and yes I’m a rides mechanic too . Keep up the good videos brother 🤙🏽

I love all of your videos. Keep this amazing content coming!

Great video! I think it would be really cool if you did a video covering all the different type of brakes and how they work (with schematics). I’ve been super confused at the pinch brakes on space mountain and big thunder mountain at Disneyland, I’m not sure exactly how that mechanism works. Thanks! Edit: To add on, I have pictures and videos of the brakes and such if you would like any.

Hey Ryan! I worked at Cedar Point many moons ago and to my knowledge, park operations still transfers all trains on in the mornings, does block checks, and then would transfer off. On Raptor we would always run three trains, no question, so block checks were easy. Mantis, the B&M stand up cannibalized train 3 for parts back in the early 2000s, so we only had two trains but with an identical block set up to Medusa. With that extra block, to block check on the lift we would have to go up to the block brake and use a legit canoe paddle to break the photo eye and confirm the train would stop at the top of the lift. First, is it common practice for park ops to do this themselves because I typically only see maintenance so it at other parks? Second, if you have a B&M with 5 blocks (lift, block, main, transfer station), and only two physical trains available, would you also trip the photo eye or was it considered okay to park a train in the block brake and then dispatch the next up the lift?

Interesting video once again. Always fun to hear how other mechanics at other parks do their daily start-ups, but you will always hear they put safety as their number one priority. Weird to hear you have had such issues with the Tivoli model, in my experience that thing always runs cold or not. But guessing by the train length you had a Tivoli Large, while I work with a medium (might be a difference). Just wondering, I once worked a B&M with a Siemens operating system made by EMNIS engineering (German programmers) and it required some daily sensor checks. We had to trip all block sensors, gap sensors, maximum reach sensors, light curtains etc before the ride would even start for the day. Doesn’t the one you worked on do that? Because I see this more and more on newer ride from different manufacturers these days.

I look forward to your videos. Let’s go!

Another nice video keep them coming! Speaking of Zamperla did you see that beautiful train they made for TT2. I definitely thought about you as I checked out those sweet road wheels. Quite a few nice trains for this season from the major players in the US.

I would love to see a deep dive on ride lockout. Many folks may have only seen the procedure used with high voltage / gas line shutoff. The idea that the master key for the ride is not present- thus it is safe to work on the ride is what people may have in mind. Having a physical padlock for each person involved is not intuitive for many.

Yep!! Thanks

Sometime consider making a video about proximity limits, photo eyes, and other sensing devices. I can't remember if I asked you before but I'd like to know why some coasters have both proximity switches and photo eyes for occupancy detection (in the same block) while others only use proximity switches. Some used photo eyes on every block and some rides only used them in some blocks. Is it just manufacturer preference?

Very interesting video! Also, I spy a racing video on the monitor lol