Cable shavings hit 4 riders

Too.

Much.

Information.

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Brian Noble said:
Too.

Much.

Information.

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Exactly.

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Pete said:

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Jeff said:
How is it not that big a deal?

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Jeff, relatively speaking, I don't think it is that big of a deal. No malfunction that causes an injury is good obviously, but this wasn't something like a high speed collision or a life threatening structural failure. I look at it as about the same as when the chain on the Corkscrew cut up a few people when it broke and piled up in front of the train.

It does seem like Dragster is wearing out cables very quickly though. Speculation, but maybe the bull-wheel at the launch point is a little too small in diameter? A cable fraying from a too sharp bend caused a fatal accident at Vail many years ago. One of the gondola lifts had a car derail when the track cable was frayed and the car fell to the ground. Maybe the cable problems with Dragster come from a similar engineering miscalculation.

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Pete brings up a good point, another factor with dynamic engineering of cables is heat. The cable is made up of many tightly wound tiny cables that hopefully all share an equal amount of tension. That theory works great until a couple 'tiny cables' weaken. What causes them to weaken? Bends, like Pete said, or heat. The problem with most metal or structural steel is that it loses significant strength, especially in tension when it is heated, and more so if it is heated, then cooled, then heated again continuously. Think of the World Trade Center disaster, same rule there- heat is what brought down the towers.

Is this serious? Yeah I think it was, if the cable had snapped, it is long enough and people are close enough that it would kill somebody, this cable would not give you welts, but it would literally slice you in half and keep moving on down the line as if you were not there. If this could happen, much worse would only have been a blink away.

Top Thrill Dagster is currently up and running but who knows if it will break again tomorrow.

I was there today, it opened in the early afternoon. They did not really fill up the queue but kept the line outside then closed for maintnence. When it closed it still ran for a half hour with four trains to empty the station before mechanics started to appear in large numbers, MF was also still broke when i left for work at 5pm, Dragster was scheduled to reopen today at a undetermined time

It's down for the night according to the web cam.

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tonymtdew said:

if the cable had snapped, it is long enough and people are close enough that it would kill somebody, this cable would not give you welts, but it would literally slice you in half and keep moving on down the line as if you were not there.

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Kinda like the opening scene in the movie Ghost Ship. OUCH! :)

I heard MF is up and running, has anyone tried it? (Launch cable not included.)

It looks like some people are still in the station from about 7pm when it broke down. They're awfully determined like I was on July 2nd. I waited outside the black fence for 8 hours. Probably the longest wait ever.

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Chief Wahoo said:
Mods, I am not one to tell anyone what to do but this thread has run its course.

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We have to leave one thread open for the kiddies to play in or we'll get new ones on an hourly basis with an extensive analysis of webcam activity.

cough **immature** cough

Who's exactly immature there, sandman1234?

-Eagle-

It would be nice if they do get this ride up and going, but reliablility remains the question. That's the problem!!!. Its always breaking down for something everyday and a lot of people are tired of it and would rather see Cedar Point demolish it. I mean its a great ride but Cedar Point has probably put 10 million into fixing TTD. They should just tear it down and put something more reliable in. I've talked to associates there and they said they can't stand the break downs. I think the reason Storm runner and Xcelerator have done so well is because it doesn't generate as much power as Top Thrill Dragster. That's one reason the cable keeps snapping is because of how much stress it goes through everyday. If they can get this to run everyday consistently it will be a miracle.

I woudn't say that this is the thread for the "kiddies to play."

How about the 8 page thread titled "TTD closed again".

Does anyone know if they take the trains off the track for weather because they're off right know after a huge storm.

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Shawn Meyer said:
It would be nice if they do get this ride up and going, but reliablility remains the question. That's the problem!!!. Its always breaking down for something everyday and a lot of people are tired of it and would rather see Cedar Point demolish it. I mean its a great ride but Cedar Point has probably put 10 million into fixing TTD.

Thank You Shawn, for being the voice of the Majority *sarcasm*

Ya know, I was there Thursday and saw Sandor working side by side with 7 CP Maintanence people...You could tell by the look on his face he is frustrated and wants to see this running as well. They are doing everything they can, with an experimental ride, just to troubleshoot basically...They have no form of written reference, everything they are doing is trial and error.

While I was watching thursday, after the cable got replaced, they had an issue with the park switch for the launch dog. It was laying on the catwalk next to where the dog parks. They got that straightened out and were still experiencing trouble with a brake fin...pretty sure it was the same brake fin that someone had commented about a while ago...After that, when the launch dog came back to the parked position, it was lightly hitting something, so they made some adjustments to the reinforcments on the track near where the dog parks.

The point of this is, a lot of times one failure will cause other things to pop up. nce they have a frame of reference, the problems should be taken care of. Noone wants this ride to work more than CP and Intamin...because I believe Intamin is still footing the bill for all these repairs. I am sure Sandor doesn't like making all these trips to CP and would much rather have a working ride. That way the pressure from the GP is off the CP execs, the CP execs are off of Sandor and Intamins back..

They are not going to demolish this ride because it is having problems. Even though you are taking the lead as the "voice of the majority" so to speak and saying that " a lot of people are tired of it breaking down" Maybe they are...but do they want it torn down? Probably not...

It'll all work out in the end...

The funny thing is that MF was having problems Tues Weds (I think) and Thursday....I don't see ANYONE wanting to tear that one down....isn't that Ironic....

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10 million? How do you come up with that number? 10 miilion for what?

Well...reading the post you will notice that that was a QUOTE from Shawn....not from me

Thanks

This is my first post, but I would just like to add one thing. Did we all forget about "X" out in California? It was horrible for down-time it's first year, and as far as I know, they still have it shut down all day every Wednesday for general service.

Maybe Cedar Point would be wise to follow that example? That's just a thought though.

According to the lastest news posted by Walt this morning - http://www.pointbuzz.com/news.htm?id=463 - they are going to shut down operation of Dragster from time to time to inspect and evaluate the cables. With the problems that the cables apparently have, they are probably making a wise move. I'm sure Cedar Point will also make it very clear when they will be shutting down the ride.