PDA

View Full Version : Rocket Rods?



disneygeek87
12-07-2002, 10:42 AM
What ever happened to the Rocket Rods in Tomorrowland? Does anybody know why they were taken out?

cemeinke
12-07-2002, 11:04 AM
Someone was decapitated.

Rallymonkey23
12-07-2002, 11:13 AM
Originally posted by cemeinke
Someone was decapitated.

BWAHAHAHAHA!!

cemeinke
12-07-2002, 11:35 AM
Actually I have it from reliable sources (the voices in my head), that the Rocket Rods were closed to save the Matterhorn. Of course we all know that the ground over in Tomorrowland is unstable due to the leaking of the sub lagoon. Well it seems the overall popularity of Tomorrowland in the past caused the Matterhorn to sink as much as 1cm/year simply due to all those people swarming to Tomorrowland to ride all the cool attractions.

The situation became more and more critical as more American fell into obesity increasing the weight and structural demands on the already unstable ground. Disney Imagineering quickly determined that the only way to save Disneyland from a potential catastrophic collapse of the Matterhorn was to make Tomorrowland less popular. Thus the systematic closing of attractions to slowly ease the traffic out of the land.

Let’s hope that the current Matterhorn rehab and the revising of the Food Pyramid by the Department of Agriculture will stabilize the grounds around the mountain.

Ghoulish Delight
12-07-2002, 12:02 PM
LOL!!!

Okay, now that I can breathe again after reading that.....

They were closed because the ride system sucked. Because of the lack of banked turns, the computer control system had to perform a series of speed ups and slow downs to get around corners. This proved to be very flaky. Plus, because it used rubber racing slicks to move, rather than steel/hard rubber wheels like most coasters, if it rained, the traction would be terrible, and the computer system had to switch over to "rain mode" (slow the vehicles down, increase braking distance, etc.), which introduced a whole new series of glitches. So they shut it down, initially to reprogram the control system. I figure that it eventually became abundantly clear that the only way to ensure safe, smoot operation was to slow it down even more, making lamer than it already was.

That, or Tomorrowland was built over a giant underground mine run by gnomes and is in danger of being enveloped in a sink hole should that mine colapse.

The Jazzman
12-07-2002, 03:56 PM
Originally posted by cemeinke
...Well it seems the overall popularity of Tomorrowland in the past caused the Matterhorn to sink as much as 1cm/year...

Oh my gosh! A whole castmember a year! It's no wonder that turnover is so high, if there's a whole graveyard of sunken CMs underneath the Matterhorn. Maybe they could throw in some management to shore up the sinking completely! ;) :D :D :D

Matterhorn Fan
12-07-2002, 08:28 PM
Originally posted by cemeinke
Well it seems the overall popularity of Tomorrowland in the past caused the Matterhorn to sink as much as 1cm/year simply due to all those people swarming to Tomorrowland to ride all the cool attractions.In that case it's a good thing they're tearing all those holes in the Matterhorn. Maybe if it's a little lighter, it won't sink so fast.

Doodle Duck
12-08-2002, 10:31 AM
Enough with all these dopey answers! The truth is needed here.

Because of the popularity of The Matterhorn it was decided that futuristic Hot Rods just didn't cut it with the public...so the system is being re-designed to feature vehicles which are exact (though a lot smaller) replicas of The Matterhorn! These little mountains will hold 4 people inside...though two small children (or keeping it Internationaly Correct, two Pygmy Tribesman) can be acomodated with hand holds on the exteriior.
These Mountains will basically follow the track and course of the former 'Rods'.
This explains all the new HOLES in the original matterhorn which are designed to reflect the viwing holes in the smaller Matterhorn Vehicles.
This will be a "True Life Adventure" ride and in keeping with realism..the Mountains will move VERY slowly so that motion is not percieved from inside the vehicle as Mountains don't really move that fast in real life.

ldsguy
12-08-2002, 02:39 PM
Allright, if anyone wants the real answers, yes they are multiple:
One is, the pilars aroudn the Autopia were not meant to support that much weight at those kinds of speed and made it unsafe to run.

Another is they were going through way too many tires (something like 30 or 40 a day minimum)

Also another was that apparently, it was originally meant to only be a test system for the technology that was going into the GM Test Track in Florida, but they found that, that it would be a cool ride and decided to open it to the public, but since it was meant to be a test only, they used parts that weren't exactly the highest quality and they kept breaking as a result.

Or so a couple of people from imagineering have told me.

Bruce Bergman
12-09-2002, 08:56 AM
Originally posted by ldsguy
Allright, if anyone wants the real answers, yes they are multiple:
One is, the pilars aroudn the Autopia were not meant to support that much weight at those kinds of speed and made it unsafe to run.

As I heard it from a structural engineer, the original reinforced concrete track beam and piers from the Peoplemover weren't reinforced to take the added dynamic loads of the Rocket Rods cars - and they really didn't check too closely until after it was up and running, and a few cracks appeared.... :confused:

One RR car weighed (my guesstimate) less than half a loaded Peoplemover train, but that's static weight. Unlike the pokey PM trains the RR cars accelerate and brake hard, and cornered as fast as they dared on the unbanked turns, creating much higher dynamic loads and vibration levels.

Oh, and the tubular steel center guide rail they added for the RR cars was supposedly developing nice stress cracks in many places, and was going to literally start coming apart without major repairs and/or a redesign.


Another is they were going through way too many tires (something like 30 or 40 a day minimum)

Michelin Light Truck radials, and they had to cost $100+ each, even figuring wholesale and in bulk - and then add in the labor to mount & balance and install... :eek: Those brown stains on the side of the beamway were rubber dust mixed with rain water. And those brown "dirt-drifts" in the hollows of the beamway? More rubber crumbs...

My educated guess at the main underlying tire problem: The rear drive axles pivoted on the center guide rail and were 'steered' by 4 urethane casters (roller coaster tires) - but the 'steering' geometry looked like it was wrong, it just kept the rear axle at a constant 90 degree angle to the center guide rail.

With no mechanism or linkages to 'lead' the axle's turning angle into the turns by a few degrees each way, the tires were scrubbing whenever not going straight ahead. Kind of like driving your car with the alignment way off, you wear out tires really fast.


Also another was that apparently, it was originally meant to only be a test system for the technology that was going into the GM Test Track in Florida, but they found that, that it would be a cool ride and decided to open it to the public, but since it was meant to be a test only, they used parts that weren't exactly the highest quality and they kept breaking as a result.

Or so a couple of people from imagineering have told me.

I'll bet it was more like 'we have the engineering all done for the prototype, so it would be a cheap move to retrofit our prototype system onto the Peoplemover track.' And once they got the operational bugs worked out, it was a nice ride for the year or so it was running.

But they weren't willing to spend a ton of money solving all the mechanical problems once the ride was open, and the theming problems were another problem - you dodge a mirror image of your car, get a peek into the Star Tours queue, the Space Mountain dome, and Innoventions, take a trip around Tomorowland, and get the 'flash and poof' at the end. And now that the word is already out about the ride... :rolleyes:

They can't get nearly as much publicity 'buzz' for fixing and reopening an old ride as they do from building a brand-new one, so better to rip it out for something that really is new. Unfortunately RR will sit vacant until they do something with it.

--<< Bruce >>--

refurbmike
12-09-2002, 09:27 AM
Does anybody know what happened to the ride vehicles?

Ghoulish Delight
12-09-2002, 09:46 AM
Originally posted by refurbmike
Does anybody know what happened to the ride vehicles? I was told by a very reliable source that the ride vehicles were converted into half scale working replicas of People Mover vehicles and that a working half scale exact replica of the People Mover (including the Tron speed tunnel) was errected in Paul Pressler's backyard. Not beause he liked the ride, but simply to anger fans.

RStar
12-09-2002, 10:20 AM
Originally posted by refurbmike
Does anybody know what happened to the ride vehicles?

They were dismantled and then sold for scrap, with the exception of one or two that were sold sans the internal workings. They documented each and every car's demise so that they could rest assured that none of the technology on these wonderfull works of enginearing would fall into the wrong hands.

No, I'm not joking. It's the truth.

But some of you people out there are just too funny.

RStar
12-09-2002, 10:31 AM
Originally posted by Bruce Bergman
As I heard it from a structural engineer, the original reinforced concrete track beam and piers from the Peoplemover weren't reinforced to take the added dynamic loads of the Rocket Rods cars - and they really didn't check too closely until after it was up and running, and a few cracks appeared.... :confused:


I heard one engineer say he wouldn't put his family on that ride with all the cracks and damage they found!:eek: . That was only weeks before it perminently closed, and I never rode it again after hearing that.

I liked it, and wish they could have built it right the first time with banked curves like test track.:(

80S ERA
12-10-2002, 06:56 AM
You are all wrong....

THE REAL REASON the Rocket Rods were shut down were due to countless guest complaints. You see, the Peoplemaker..*ahem*-mover was a favorite among guests to have hanky-panky in the dark. When guests tried to do the same things in a fast-moving Rocket Rod, it became very difficult. Then they told Disney management.

hbquikcomjamesl
12-10-2002, 07:34 AM
Bottom line (at least of all the serious answers): it turned out to be far more trouble than it was worth. The one or two times I rode the thing, it wasn't worth the wait. I've been on Test Track, and RR was no Test Track. (On the other hand, for the record, the "panic stop without antilock brakes" demo in the inside part of Test Track doesn't begin to approach reality; to approach reality, they would have to put you through at least a partial spin-out! I speak from experience. . .)

ldsguy
12-10-2002, 08:01 AM
One RR car weighed (my guesstimate) less than half a loaded Peoplemover train, but that's static weight. Unlike the pokey PM trains the RR cars accelerate and brake hard, and cornered as fast as they dared on the unbanked turns, creating much higher dynamic loads and vibration levels.

Actually one unloaded ROcket Rod weighed 1,100 pounds, where has I believe the people mover whieged approximately 700 pounds, both are unloaded wheights.....add that fact with the speed and vibration and it's not safe, plus add in people's weight

Bruce Bergman
12-10-2002, 08:48 AM
Originally posted by ldsguy
Actually one unloaded ROcket Rod weighed 1,100 pounds, where has I believe the people mover whieged approximately 700 pounds, both are unloaded wheights.....add that fact with the speed and vibration and it's not safe, plus add in people's weight

That's about what I guessed, but let's see what we can pencil out with your figures...

Peoplemover: (4 cars X 5 guests each = 20 guests per train) x 150 pounds average = 3,000 pounds + 700 train = 3,700 pounds

Rocket Rods: 1,100 pound car + 5 (150 pound average) passengers at 750 pounds = 1,850 pounds per car .

(I put that weight estimate at 150 pounds because the Disneyland crowd tends to skew way young, lots of children and infants. For an all-adult venue, I'd move that up to a 175 or 200 pound average.)

Sounds like my guesstimate was pretty darned close :D - the static weight is about half. :cool: Of course, the problem was dynamic loading, all that weight moving around at speed, speeding up and stopping... :eek:

--<< Bruce >>--

HeeHeeHeeHoHoHo
12-10-2002, 11:12 PM
Perhaps we haven't seen a brand new attraction in so long because of the one two punch of Light Magic and Rocket Rods

I'm actually sorry I never to see Light Magic - reading these posts about Rocket Rods brings back memories of that trip to Disneyland and my roommate waiting in the car because she was sick of being at Disneyland and me almost not going on RR because of the 120 min wait.

She was ****ed but oh well! RR closed shortly after that trip and I'm glad I did it

HeeHeeHeeHoHoHo
12-10-2002, 11:13 PM
opps I'm sorry about that! Mark me down for my first censored word.....

Sorry again