6/7.. not so good

I was at the park today. I will be there 2morrow. TTD was not running to well. it was up about 40% of the day:( It reminded me of last season. Just thought I would post to let ya'll know

well imagine that considering they just replaced a cable....apperently Cedar Point themselves knew of the possibility of intermittent downtime, otherwise it would have been in the news release...I think we will not be experiencing last season and to assume so is ridiculous *** Edited 6/8/2004 4:54:54 AM UTC by JoshBrown***

Two of the days that I've been to CP this year I've been on TTD 4 times in 2 hours. I definately consider that a huge improvement over last year. Every ride has it's downtime. I wouldn't worry.

The one night i was there this year i rode it twice in 12 minutes, so i think there has been improvement.

I was there yesterday as well and unfortunately witnessed the TTD downtime. It ran a couple times in the morning, then reopened for about an hour around 1, then reopened again around 5. Luckily I was right there when it opened in the evening and waited only 5 minutes or so. Throughout the day (while it was closed) the crew was all on the platform (as well as people from morning ERT), seemingly just waiting for the go ahead to reopen the ride but it just didn't happen. Probably had something to do with cable adjustments, but who knows. On a good note, once it did open in the evening TTD was hitting great intervals, the best I've ever seen it.

I was at the park on Monday as well and I considered myself pretty lucky to ride Dragster. The cable adjustment was news to me when I got home tonight but I do know that from 6 o'clock until close they were having periodic trouble with one of the brake fin actuators along the launch track. The mechanics kept going back to the same cylinder a few times. I personally got stuck twice in the station for close to an hour while they tried to fix it. Would the cable brake have anything to do with the cylinder?

Face it folks...its still not a reliable ride. When it runs for weeks at a time without more than a half hour downtime here and there, then it can be called reliable.

But until then, be aware that it's likely that you're going to have to wait for a breakdown.

You mean like it has all season before the cable snafu?

They seem to have been fixing that same brake fin over, and over. I saw them working on it yesterday (6/8) also. I was just about to get on my train and they rolled it backwards. The mechanics walked over to that same fin on the launch side. After they fixed it they waited in the station to see how it ran, they were conversating and One mech. seemed to be explaining to the other how it got stuck. If the brake is not going down all the way it would surely be slowing the train on the launch. If it is not going back up, it could present a problem during a rollback. I hope that they got the problem fixed. I think the only way a cable could have affected it is if a piece of the cable hit the brake fin. They are very close together, less than six inches.

Jeff - not sure if you're classing dragster as reliable here or not, but...

In 5 visits to the park, I've yet to see it run reliably to the point where I'm going to get in line for it. The only ride I've had on TTD this year was when I got a Freeway Stamp as a "fix" for the Joe Cool entrance, and even then it broke down twice while I was waiting....

Two breakdowns between the time I entered the Freeway merge point and got to ride...1.5 hours for a freaking FREEWAY entrance.

On my other visits, the thing has been broken about half the time, or if it was working, the trains weren't full for a significant portion of that time. Maybe I just hit some bad days, who knows?

I'm going to be at the park from Sunday 13th through to Wednesday, with my brother who is coming in from South Africa. Hey - at least if it breaks down when we're in line, we'll have time to catch up on the last 4 years. :)

You must just have bad luck. I've been four times, had four laps, never experienced more than a five minute delay.

I agree. I was there almost every day during the first week of operation and Dragster was hardly ever down for more than 5 minutes. I thought it was even more reliable than the end of last season, when it was fairly reliable through Halloweekends and even extending back to most of August. Rides have downtime and TTD should have the most since I'm sure it is the most complex, but CP has done a great job of keeping it up as much as possible. I consider a ride to be reliable when I can get up in the morning and not worry that it won't be running when I get to the park. And I don't worry about TTD anymore.

Monday was definetly not one of Dragster's high points. It took me an hour to get a ride in, and the line was walk-up to 2 ramps. I boarded the 2nd train, and luckily (or un-luckily..at least we were sitting.....) ttd went down just before the train on the launch was sent. So that meant.......train stuck on launch, 2 boarded trains in station. They relaxed the lap bars for us, and waited about 1/2 hour. Ride op: Lap bars, seat belts, cheers!! The train launched, and made it over. 4 trains total made it over before it broke again (launch pad, train #1, train #2 (my train), train #1.) From that point, train #2 was ready to fire, and sound effects stop, and ttd is down again.

I walk down to the launch area, and the mechanics were concerned with the area right where the train "catches" on the catch car. This from what I could tell was the same problem from 4 launches ago. They picked up the white phone......and in the little phone cubby, was a piece of what looked to be steel wool. One dude was sanding the catch car area (lip) and possibly some of the catch car itself. The other dude had the electric gauge out testing electric current in the same vicinity. The catch car was backed all the way up to launch position while this was going on, and after they rubbed the steel wool, the catch car would inch up, then back again. The train that was backed up not quite to the station and then advanced forward. Arms down, head back, hold on! Wait....wait....wait.......same problem again. Back the train up, and they actually unloaded the train from the track, manually released the lap bars, and had the people walk back into the station. At this point it was 10:30 and I had to go. As I left, I saw the tower lights on, so I'd imagine they fixed it. Anyone have an idea of what was wrong, or possible what new problem has surfaced??

It sounds like maybe the electrical contacts on the track were not making a good connection. These contacts provide power to the train so that it can lower its launch dog and engage the sled. That would explain why they had to stop right before a launch and what they were using the steel wool for (clean the contacts). It also might explain why on Tuesday they had to stop to take a train off (could be a problem with the train, not the track). Keep in mind this is just a guess and I could be wrong.

You sure could be wrong. There are about a thousand different things that could stop the ride, some things as odd as a broken switch on a gate in a low zone.

Just a suggestion, but I'm sure a lot of people come to this website for CP Information, but more specifically in some cases to hear about TTD's status. So, why not make one permanent thread just for posting about Dragster's status?

And just to get back on topic, I've had horrible luck with Top Thrill. Once I waited 3 and a half hours for nothing, and every time I go it seems to be broken down most of the day. I was there Wednesday (6/10) and it was down all day except maybe an hour and a half when the park initially opened. It tested around 7 o'clock but rolled back, and that's all I saw of it the whole day.

There's no status to report. The ride is open, every day. Go to the park and enjoy yourself.

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Jeff said:
There's no status to report. The ride is open, every day. Go to the park and enjoy yourself.

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What a novel idea Jeff.

The ride is not reliable yet. Your best bet is to allow yourself at least two hours waiting time or ride it as the last ride and manage to endure the late night waits. I got in line for the ride at 930 and was in the station by 10 on 6/9 and did not end up riding until 1145. During that time the ride operators seemed more focused on discouraging people from waiting then focusing on the status of the ride. But once you cross that finish line you realize that the wait, no matter how long, was worth it. TTD is a great ride and when it does become a reliable ride it will only get better.

Well, at the risk of sounding like a stuck record...TTD is yet to be proven reliable in my book.

Monday 12th I was there the whole day, and watched it worked for about 3 hours...

Tuesday 13 it was down most of the day - heck, the Joe Cool line for MF got up to about 30 mins by my 3rd ride, since they didn't even bother to try and open TTD in the morning, but just gave out hand-stamps immediately. It started up late that afternoon, but we left the park around 7.00pm as it got going, so I don't know how it ran for the rest of the day.

I don't want to hear about "bad luck" with the ride - at the moment I'm 7 for 7 this year with the ride being down, or crippled at best. As far as I can see, the fact is that it doesn't work properly yet.

If any other ride at CP behaved like this it would be slammed on this and other forums.