Log Ride @ Knott's

[wolfy]

One of the kids at Wolfette school today, mentioned his Dad works for Knott's. He made an unbelievable statment. Just want to see if this is possible, or if he got his facts wrong.

His Dad told him they can put through 4500 people per hour on the Log Ride.....somehow I just don't think so. He said this happened last weekend.

Can anyone give me an approximate count as to how many an hour that ride can put through?

[BFJen]

I don't know, but I was kicked off it once! (we all decided to ride backwards - I was 13 and stupid!).

[sir clinksalot]

Maybe it's capacity is that many people, with the dual loading stations, an adequate team and max logs ... but even then I doubt it.

4400 people is more than Pirates. And you can put 20 people in each of those boats.

[Karnever]

we can hardly beat 1500 at splash...

[PirateMunkee]

One of the kids at Wolfette school today, mentioned his Dad works for Knott's. He made an unbelievable statment. Just want to see if this is possible, or if he got his facts wrong.

His Dad told him they can put through 4500 people per hour on the Log Ride.....somehow I just don't think so. He said this happened last weekend.

Can anyone give me an approximate count as to how many an hour that ride can put through?

Last weekend the Log Ride was down due to an accident that happened the Wednesday before. I think it is still down pending an OSHA inspection.

[mini_imagineer]

^ What was the acident. I don't think this kid was right.

[barfownz]

Last weekend the Log Ride was down due to an accident that happened the Wednesday before. I think it is still down pending an OSHA inspection.

What happened? Did it go down the drop and the log flipped?

[mini_imagineer]

Oh, I remember! They added a loop but it didn't really work...

[Peabody]

What happened? Did it go down the drop and the log flipped?

Do you honestly think that's possible???

[Ranger Rick]

By my calculations it would be about 4000 an hour. This is just dispatch time, I don't know if there are enough logs to do it.

My understanding is there was some gunite ceiling that fell.

[SpaceMTFan]

Those Arrow logflumes can barely get 1000-1200 people through and that's with all possible logs. We're talking 25-30 logs at once, but due to the age of those rides, most of them don't have that many logs left. The log flumes with more capacity are those with rotating loading stations, like the ones at SFMM I think.

I worked at the local amusement park here in montreal and capacity is listed at 1200 an hour... but that was back when the park had 25 logs for it! Now, if they have 10-11 logs left, I'd be surprised.

[Ranger Rick]

Its a Hurlbut ride, Logs seat 5 people, and it has what might seem to be an unrealistic 3 second dispatch. In defense of the dispatch time, it does have dual load and separate, dual, unload positions. And the queue line does not have any gates, it runs right up to the edge of the water.

It was designed to run 32 logs, but the state reduce that to 25 last year.

[sir clinksalot]

^ Right, it does have dual stations, but Knott's RARELY uses them.

Couple that with a slow crew (which is likely at Knott's) and maybe 1,000 an hour.

[Ranger Rick]

Yes this is only calculated capacity. But you can see some action on Haunt nights. They will have all stations working, and the crews will have settled in.

[glowman]

I had the privilege of working for Bud Hurlbut for over 15 years and went to work for him June 1969 just before the Calico Log Ride (it's original name) opened. John Wayne and his son Patrick were the first ones to ride on opening day July 11, 1969. We opened cautiously with 9 logs and finally got it up to capacity running 28 logs at the fastest dispatch cycle we could handle which was 11 seconds. We figured the theoretical capacity on 4.5 guests per log. If my math is right that comes to 1471.5/hour. My memory tells me we use to say 1472/hour. Top day was about 22,000 riders. I understand that now the ride's fastest dispatch is 13 seconds probably based on their newer computer operated safety systems. Originally there were 32 logs, now I am told they have 31. This is probably the only Arrow Log Ride still operating all but one of the original log boats. The storage pond can hold 4 logs, while extra logs are kept in two storage racks that lower into the shop floor. My source tells me that it still is the top ride in the park as it is "family friendly" and many ride it often during their visits. It is still a great ride even though the "show" aspects have declined over the years. Anyone remember how great the 3 forest scenes smelled for many of the early years? Besides the natural smell, two effects were added in the 70's that people were talking about as they left the ride. We turned the lights out on the approach to the small inside down chute which was steeper in the early years, and there was a "falling barrel" stunt in the Machine Shop scene at the bottom of the second lift. This unexpected stunt was added in an early Halloween Haunt event and was kept in the show for a number of years. It was finally removed because it was too frightening for some guests that reacted violently to escape the scare. More trivia is that they have 4 pumps that can each pump 8000 gals/min. However, they only use 3 on line at a time, so when the ride is in operation, it pumps 24,000 gals/min. The "E" Ticket magazine ran a great article on Bud Hurlbut along with the Calico Mine Ride and Calico Log Ride (issue #35.) They found a photo (possibly opening day) of a young Tony Baxter (Imagineering Designer) looking over the fence at dispatch. Great memories of these rides and the first 13 Halloween Haunts.