Cedar Point affected by power outage?
Along the lines of what Jeff mentioned, it did seem ridiculous that many riders in simple unload positions had to wait in the hot weather for so long while ride operators stood by them but could do nothing but offer water. For example, most if not all of Magnum's train, which had stopped halfway up the hill, had completely walked down as riders on Top Thrill Dragster continued to wait uncomfortably in the two trains in the launch position.
It was amazing to watch the mass exodus of people from the park between 5 and 6 o'clock. I honestly had not seen so many people leave the park at once. By 7:00, the park truly was a ghost town. It's a shame that the power didn't come on any sooner or else it would of been a great night of riding for those who stayed. The absence of the sound of rides and music was truly bizarre. Most of the food stands were closed, except for a bratwurst cart near Millennium Force a few smoothie stands. Around 7:30 a ride worker informed me that the park was officially closed and that security would eventually be clearing the place out. She told me that there was talk of compensatioin for those who came today, but as I left the park I was not given or offered anything. Of course, I did leave the park well after most others did.
It was amazing driving past a nearly empty main parking lot as we left at 7:45 P.M. on a beautiful day in August. Just 3 hours earlier, that parking lot was pretty full. I'm sure it will be something I'll never see again. Although I missed the rides and the atmosphere of a busy park...today's power outage allowed for a different, more tranquil experience at the park with beautiful weather. Those who were there I am sure will not forget it.
RideMan said:
The other nasty one would be Space Spiral. I imagine if it is loaded, they might be able to release a brake and use the load to bring it down. But if it is a light load, would it still come down against the counterweight? If it is a heavy load, could they keep the speed under control as it descends? I know it bothers me just a little that there is a rope ladder in the cabin under the operator's seat... :) I know there has to be an easier way...if nothing more than to bring over a portable generator and crank it down!
I know somebody said not too long ago that there is a hand crank. I'm not sure if it's in the cabin or in an access panel at the bottom of the tower. I can't vouch for the accuracy of that statement, just repeating what I heard and remember.
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- John
I Snap Flyers
I concur, the Needle was the most miserable spot in the park at 5 PM. I'm very glad I was on the outside. I felt for those folks bigtime. My friend and I talked about heaving them up bags of ice, but figured the ops had enough to do without some dudes coming up with great ideas ;)
GOES, out of curiosity, about how long did it take you to get out of Sandusky?
RideMan, you were spot-on in how the get-downs would happen, based on what I saw. I like reading your posts.
IMHO, the CP staff did a commendable job. Seriously, when has anyone ever seen CP without power? They have to be plugged in ten ways from Sunday. So I don't fault anyone for not immediately springing into action and executing "the plan". Everyone was pretty much kind and understanding of each other, and I didn't see any injuries, although I did see a gurney being hauled somewhere, hopefully someone was just a little hot. I also hereby flame anyone who starts griping here that CP owes them something for today. Unless you can show they have jurisdiction in Canada, leave it alone.
On a personal level, very disappointed to drive (6 hours) home without getting the multiple short-wait rides on a warm CP night the kids and I were anticipating :(
Not to mention we were waiting till later for our first Dragster :(:(Ran awesome today, almost nonstop.
*** This post was edited by Howard 8/15/2003 1:12:59 AM ***
*** This post was edited by Howard 8/15/2003 1:14:59 AM ***
My guess is that the brakes are closed by default. When the ride is running with power, there is a force holding the brakes open. When power is lost, no force holds the brakes open, and they clamp shut as a result?
Therefore, with air brakes, there must be enough pressure to always stop the train by default. But when there is power, pressure is released when the train passes, so that the train will not stop.
I've been stuck on Sky Ride before, and it made a pleasant ride very scary. We were just about at the highest point, and the the cable stopped. A storm must have been approaching, as the winds became intense, and those cabins began swaying like I've never seen. After 20 minutes of death jokes, the ride restarted. I can't even imagine having to walk down Gemini, with those clumsy wood planks nailed to slanted wood and the low wood rails. The ultimate fear would have to be getting stuck at the top of Power Tower down; that is probably the one thing that always makes me nervous when riding. I wonder if it could happen...
At that time the unload procedure for coasters was employee-guest-employee and could only be initiated once a manager or at least a supervisor was present. I would say this is mainly a CYA procedure for liability. As stated some rides like Gemini and Cedar Creek Mine Ride have slatted wooded planks for the lift walk ways. Those are particularly difficult to get guests with wobbly knees down. One employee is there to keep the guess from falling forward and one there for falling backward. It's extremely slow and generally done car by car. The worst spot to unload from is Gemini's C-brakes where the guests have to walk down the hill just before the brakes to get to the ground. Interesting to not, Mean Streak opened in '91 with the same slatted planks on the lift. This was quickly changed after a few unloads from the top. Also, Mean Streak only ran two trains the first few weeks as there wasn't a set up stairs from the safety 1 brake area. A stop from there would have been next to impossible to unload.
Space Spiral does indeed have a hand crank. Maintenance climbs to the top of the tower and can open a hatch near the top for ventilation. It is painfully slow.
Dave, Demon drop has a winch at the top of the tower. If an unload is needed, they simply crank the car to the top and unload it.
Giant Wheel, from what I remember, needs an entire team of maintenance personnel. Some hold the brakes open on the drive wheels while others physically push/hold the wheel. Obviously at some point balance would come into play but I'm not certain how they get around this.
Disaster Transport has battery operated lights. While it's still very dark it's not completely black.
Raptor has moveable carts in the transfer area that can be pushed to anywhere on the brake run to help unload. We didn't have these the first part of opening year and would have let guests hold our hands and shoulders to jump out of the cars.
Thunder Canyon is also quite interesting. Once the pumps shut off the water pours into the station and the rafts race for a pile-up. Since the turntable won't turn any longer, the ops have to pull off the rafts into the storage flume as quickly as possible. Ultimately, some won't make it and will have to be unloaded in a dry flume. The problem is, if they don't pull the rafts to the storage flume, the weight of the rafts pushing on each other will eventually cause enough pressure to start sinking and flipping rafts. A very dangerous situation to say the least. That crew gets periodic E-stop training for situations just like this.
That's about all I can think of. We had a massive power outage in '91. It only lasted about an hour but the unload was handled in much of the same way.
At Disney there was an emergency in Pirates of the Caribbean. There aren't nearly enough ride ops at a given time on Pirates to evacuate all of the people so emergency procedures call for ride ops from Jungle Cruise to go over and assist. Ironically, this happened my first day on the job and we ran to Pirates, weaved through the maze of emergency corridors and unloaded guests. It worked very smoothly.
Just when I start getting down on my fellow Americans for the state of our society, an event like this happens and citizens step up. It was good to see.
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"You can dream, create, design and build the most wonderful plance in the world...but it requires people to make the dreams a reality."
The B&M's I think are the reverse, but I've never looked hard enough to know.
The Intamin rides I think need power to retract the brakes, and when lost, they drop down/spring up/close.
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Jeff - Webmaster - GTTP - Sillynonsense.com
DELETED! What time does the water show start?
It was really bisare, because we just left the park to go eat, and when we came to my parents hotel room, all of the hallways were practically pitch black. since we couldnt eat, we tried getting out of there to just go home since it didnt look like the power would be coming back anytime soon.
truly a wierd day, but i still had fun and will be posting a trip report very soon.
and another thing, as we were driving out, it was hilarious to see all of these little kids smiling as they were driving those sports cars, the line looked huge though, and i imagine that was the only thing running.
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Guess what? I got a fever! And the only prescription... is more cowbell!
*** This post was edited by johnz 8/15/2003 9:57:44 AM ***
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AKA Cobraroller on Cbuzz
Mr. Scott, we considered driving to Muskegon last night.
Instead, we lit up the propane lantern, and set up the tent to sleep outside rather than in the very stuffy house after a dip in the pool. The hubby immediately filled up pots with water within 10 minutes of the outage, but we had plenty of Corona to keep us happy.
Luckily our power came back at 8 am this morning, although we are now forced to boil water. Good old Detroit and their antiquated water system.
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I'd rather die living than live like I'm dead
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-Eric
"Keep on rockin' in the free world"
RideMan said:
Monster has a no-power procedure, but I am not sure how it works. On an Octopus it involves having roustabouts walk up and down the sweeps to unbalance the ride to move it around, but on the Monster I am not sure what they have to do to release the brake. Giant Wheel would also be interesting; I'm not sure how they're gonna move that, but I think if they can operate the brakes the load on the wheel should provide the force needed to turn it.
If power is lost on the Monster, the ride ops would operate the eccentricity control and, through the weight of the guests, the cars with the guests would lower so that they could be unloaded. If there is not enough weight to bring them down using the eccentricity, than the rotation control would be used instead. Just for clarification, eccentricity is the name used for the motion that causes the sweeps to go up and down.
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Courage is not the absence of fear. It is over comming it.
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"You can dream, create, design and build the most wonderful plance in the world...but it requires people to make the dreams a reality."
Seriously, I was trying to imagine CP's energy consumption, which has to be tremendous, but with the nuke plant a few miles away, I would suspect they have plenty available. I wouldn't think the park was responsible for the problem.
Off topic, wasn't it reassuring to see that all the affected areas maintained good order? As a previous post noted, it brings back some faith in our fellow citizens:)
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June 11th, 2001 - Gemini 100
VertiGo Rides - 82
if not, they should..;)
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meleth nin Balan in Andrann
it aint the size of the arrow, its what you do with the bow....
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I'd rather be in my boat with a drink on the rocks,
than in the drink with a boat on the rocks.
Red Garter Rob said:
The nuclear power plant to the west of Cedar Point is not online and hasn't been for almost a year.------------------
June 11th, 2001 - Gemini 100
VertiGo Rides - 82
And I think that plant doesn't even supply northern ohio with any power. I think it is southern ohio and other places. But I thought I remember hearing that even though it is in northern ohio, northern ohio gets no power from it.
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