Dragster cable snaps

No one was hurt, but it was interesting to see the cable wrapped around the track near where the sled disengages. Nice loud bang though.... Mikey (Olympic10086) and I were both immensely shocked to see and hear it.

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I own you!
*** This post was edited by joe 5/26/2003 10:10:29 PM ***

Anonymous said:
Replacing the cable every three weeks will get expensive, Jeff. It doesn't take an expert to know that.
I thought it would have been a smart idea to close the ride to avoid angry guests complaining about waiting hours in line for a ride they were told would have a much shorter wait, plus the fact that flying tires and snapping cables aren't exactly good for business. No expertise needed there, either.

OK, so the cable is going to break every three weeks? Is that your expert opinion? I was on Six Flags America's Superman when the chain broke in its third week of operation (2000). It was the second time the chain broke. Call me crazy, but I don't think the chain has broken since. So much for your ability to identify trends.

And I don't get your notion that they should close the ride. How does that make anything better? Market the hell out of a ride and then not have it open at all? This isn't Six Flags, you know. You make it sound like they planned for the cables to break, like some magic power could have predicted or prevented it.

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Jeff
Webmaster/GTTP - Sillynonsense.com
"Pray that your country undergoes recovery!" - KMFDM

i cant believe this happened on such a new ride... I wonder how long its gonna take to fix.

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thank you.....and enjoy your record breaking ride on Millennium Force!

I love Cedar Point - everyone knows it. I very rarely find fault with them or their operation, but I must admit Dragster has obvious problems.

I can understand downtime and slow intervals since it is a new complicated ride, but recent things are just odd.

Why would a cable snap after less then a month of public operation? Why would a tire fly off as it did? Why are there reported shavings being thrown from the launch track? Is it an Intamin thing? It seems like recently Intamin has been having problems with Twister, Xcelerator and now Dragster. It doesn't make too much sense to me why so many things are happening.

Jeff- Let him have his opinion. No one knows eveything.

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Eric Morrison (Coast)
Drag Races: 6
Point Hype
http://www.pointhype.com
*** This post was edited by Etrain 5/26/2003 11:05:34 PM ***

From what Mikey told me on the phone, there were people on a train waiting to launch... no one was hurt.

I will be at the park tomorrow from open to close... when I get home, if I have any energy left, I'll post what I know more, if anything.

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18 straight years of real thrills and counting...
Being watched? http://www.lavasoftusa.com [Support forums moderator]

Aaron, you gotta email me an instant messenger name or something to get a hold of you by.

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I own you!

"Replacing the cable every three weeks will get expensive, Jeff. It doesn't take an expert to know that." Not to be taken literally. The fact is, the cable has a design flaw somewhere, and it might take time to fix it. Unless they indeed were planning on this cable possibly snapping.

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That's Ridiculous™

Design flaw? It's just a cable! (Actually, it's three cables, to be exact... two pulling, one return.)

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Jeff
Webmaster/GTTP - Sillynonsense.com
"Pray that your country undergoes recovery!" - KMFDM

It's not a design flaw which caused this but something can't be right if it snaps after only a month of public operation.

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Eric Morrison (Coast)
Drag Races: 6
Point Hype
http://www.pointhype.com
*** This post was edited by Etrain 5/26/2003 10:46:55 PM ***

Not so much a design Flaw, but possibly something wrong with the makeup/grade of the cable (which I am sure Intamin contracts out)...possibly it is the cablemakers fault...as I said i am sure it will be figured out and steps will be taken to insure it doesn't happen again

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If you're scared of heights, you won't be after Cedar Point

Thank you, JoshBrown. That is what I had meant to say. 'Design flaw' is certainly not the correct term.

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That's Ridiculous™
*** This post was edited by Anonymous 5/26/2003 10:56:04 PM ***

"I think they should close the ride

for a few weeks and get everything right."

A few weeks? How would closing a world class, record breaking, customer attracting ride for almost a whole month solve anything? Like Jeff said, this isn't Six Flags, and Cedar Point won't take their customers for granted like that. You wouldn't be saying this were you driving 5 hours to Sandusky this Saturday to ride it for the first time.
*** This post was edited by Italics 5/26/2003 11:02:38 PM ***

After riding Dragster, I came to realize that waiting anything over two hours really just isn't worth it, even for a "first time" ride. Based on what I heard from riders in line, they would rather have had the ride closed. If that were the case, they would be able to find other rides to try without risking up to five hours *in line*, due mainly to mechanical issues.

If I haven't clearly made my point by now, I'm afraid my opinion is simply not the most popular among this group.

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That's Ridiculous™
*** This post was edited by Anonymous 5/26/2003 11:06:30 PM ***

5 hours? How about 18 hours, this weekend?? I am really upset, i hope they have everything up soon!!!!

Everyone calm down a second.

Here is a little history lesson, when most of you were running around in diapers a new ride opened in 1989, it was the tallest and fastest in the world. Guess what less than a month after it opened its lift chain broke! The ride was down for two weeks. Shorty after that happened within a 4 day period the ride rolled back twice and guests were stuck for several hours.

My point is every new ride has its problems, its just odd that the incidents happened two days in a row.

Theres nothing to worry about.

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'03 Magnum Crew * magnum count: 2275 * '03 count: 42 * www.dannyjphoto.com

*** This post was edited by Dan 5/26/2003 11:14:18 PM ***

Okay Dan - Point taken. :)

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Eric Morrison (Coast)
Drag Races: 6
Point Hype
http://www.pointhype.com

Here's the way I look at things...Top Thrill Dragster is a First Class Ride in my opinon..I haven't been on it yet but I am going in July and I am EXCITED...but everyone has their own opinon...some people would rather enjoy Carnival Rides than get thier feet 420 feet off the ground....some people will not like it if it was 800 feet tall and 175 mph...the point is even though people in line said it wasn't worth it....why were they in line??...anyways...I think it will be worth it...I mean most of us waited 2 hours for Millie....Just my honest opinion....plus personal opinions on the ride really don't go with the subject of the cable sanpping

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If you're scared of heights, you won't be after Cedar Point

As expected, Dan is correct - these things happen. Given CPs committment to customer service, I am sure it will be up and running ASAP.

It's up to me what I decide to wait in line for. I've riden the other coasters, and I'm anticipating something new. I know Cedar Point will have it fixed as soon as possible as long as it's safe, and that's what matters. But it's the opinion of those of you who believe that the ride should be shut down that is irritating to me. Mechanical problems are expected, and sometimes they aren't. What's important is working around them as quick as possible and getting the ride back on track. You can't predict when or how it will happen, and keeping the ride idle will NOT solve this problem. Something happens and you fix it. How will shutting the ride down permanently fix anything?
*** This post was edited by Italics 5/26/2003 11:19:05 PM ***

Well, because that way they can test the ride.

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That's Ridiculous™