Dragster cable snaps

Well, there is a train on the turnaround, and there are a few people in the grandstands, so possibly.

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2003 Statistics
Top Thrill Dragster: 3
Millennium Force: 8
Wicked Twister: 7

One one train on the transfers now. And it looks like one is in the launch position.

One point that I haven't seen brought up is the tremendous forces this cable has to endure during a day. The catchcar that the cable is attached to accelerates to 120 m.p.h., stops and then returns to the next train sitting in the launch position. It does that all day. Now, I'm not claiming to be an expert on cables, nor would I agree that it should have broken so soon, but the daily stress put on this cable must be incredible. This is a first of its kind launch that reaches a speed never before attained on a roller coaster. Superman the Escape out in California may reach 100 m.p.h, but it uses LIMs to do it. A larger gauge cable may be appropriate for this ride, so long as the grooves on the cable winding drum are large enough to accept it.

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forcedude04 said:
V Dogg,

You have nothing to worry about. It will definately be fixed by the time you go. I'm pretty confident it will be done by the time I go, tomorrow!

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I'll take your word for it, man. Have fun tomorrow.

Yikes! Knowing what we went through with the MF cable snap in Y2K, I can't say that I envy the kids working at Guest Services this season! However, I know the CP staff is the best in the business and they will have TTD up and running ASAP.

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Rich Genthner / PTC99 & TL-Guest Services Y2K

Raptor, will all do respect, the technology on TTD has been used for years on aircraft carriers (cables and all). I suspect the sub contractor for the cable made an error. FYI, the takeoff speed for a jet us 180 MPH in under 2 seconds (now that would be a ride).

Tom

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Anonymous said:

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.

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That's Ridiculous™
*** This post was edited by Anonymous 5/26/2003 9:26:41 PM ***

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If you, or anyone for that matter, has ever bought a new car, the majority of the problems happen within the first 3 months of ownership. There have been numerous tests on TTD over the past few months, probably tests that have put an enormus amount of pressure on the ride itself. I am not talking of everyday wear and tear pressure, but the kind of abuse to see what the ride can do. It is difficult to predict what is going to happen to any ride/ car etc. until it is in operation. If it is so easy to predict how something is going to break down, why do NASCAR cars break down? It is easy to point the finger and say "I told you so", I hope your comments are praising CP when the ride is operating smoothly a year from now (most likely a month from now).

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The best thing about Six Flags "Worlds of Adventure" is that Cedar Point is nearby!

Tom:

Aircraft carriers do not rely on Cables to propel the aircraft off the flight deck. The Shuttle on the flight deck is directly connected to the piston that runs the length of the catapult. Steam from the Reactors on the Carrier is used to propel the Shuttle forward.

I was actually on the platform when it happened. I was waiting for the front car, and there were only 5 more cars of people in front of me after waiting for about 2 hrs. I was watching the launch, and when it fired off, the train jumped and there was a loud noise. It stopped within 10 feet, and I noticed something fall underneath the train. I then saw the cable just kind of "flop" out of the groove in the track and lay down in the gravel pit on the infield side of the ride near the entrance. After looking at it closer, I noticed that it had fallen out in several places, and was kind of twisted around the ride. After about half an hour, the ride ops cleared the platform back through the queue rides. A couple of people were really pissed. I was dissapointed, but I know that this kind of thing happens. Hey, we got a free head of the line pass for any ride but TTD though, so that saves me another wait someday :)

I don't specifically remember the brakes on the launch dropping, so maybe they malfunctioned and there was too much strain on the cable, or I might have just not noticed. What makes me think that they might not have dropped was that by the time the train had stopped ( and it only rolled about 10 feet ) the brakes were already up, I know this for sure. They could have popped up really fast, so maybe there was a problem. I did notice a guy with a vid camera, and was tempted to ask to take a look, but by the time the line cleared he was gone :(

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Admin- http://rollercoast.proboards16.com/

Agreed skibum. However, cables are attached to a carrier's catapults in order to return the shuttle to its starting position. Of course, cables are also used in concert with the arresting gear in order to "trap" aircraft aboard the ship. See this webpage for more information on the inner workings of aircraft carriers.

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Rich Genthner / PTC99 & TL-Guest Services Y2K

Any updates? i see the trains in the turnaround, are they testing, i am going this saturday and i don't really care if it is running, but i have finally talked her into riding this one, oh well we can wait for another day, thats what a season pass and bonus weekends are for huh?

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If beating old people is wrong, i don't want to be right! hehe

trips to CP:3 Dragster:1 MFer:4 Magnum: 8 doesn't get any better then a nice day in may!

Well, water dummies are in the trains...so if they haven't tested, it appears they are close to doing so.

where do u see this, i cant see the track and stuff so well from the webcams, is there any other site there are pics or something?

I' ve noticed now that all of the cosmetics on the rear-end of the trains have been removed (engine & spoiler) to go along with the tires. The trains look naked.

Couldn't understand why they left us hanging and waiting in line for a good half of an hour after the ride went down. I mean the problem was painfully obvious and they knew from the get-go they could stick a fork in it for the rest of the day..

They did score a bunch of points back though by handing out immediate boarding passes to everyone that was in line.

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I was super before Superstew was cool!

I think there was some confusion among the ride ops. I was standing on the midway observing, and the person at the entrance made an announcement that the ride would be down for the evening. That was also obvious to anyone looking at the ride from the midway. It was kind of amusing, though I'm sure not to people waiting on the platform, that the platform host made an announcement that they didn't know how long the delay would be, and not to swing on the queue rails. Obviously, they didn't know what happened and that the ride would be down until the cable was replaced.

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Florida may have Disney World and Key West,
but Ohio has Cedar Point and Put-In-Bay.
It's great to live in Ohio!

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lpth5 said:
where do u see this, i cant see the track and stuff so well from the webcams, is there any other site there are pics or something?

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I saw it on the station web cam....the trains in the station had water dummies on them. Of course it is dark now, so you probably cannot tell.

I just thought of this: Remember the queue wall that was pissing everyone off earlier and maybe still is? Maybe that is in place for just this situation. I'm sure that a cable like that moving at the speed it does could cause serious bodily harm to anyone who gets in its way. IMO a big concrete wall would be sufficient protection.
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-life without danger is a waste of oxygen-

I can assure you that is not the point of the wall. The midway is about 5 feet away from the launch track, and they just have a short wire fence in between them.

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-Chris Woodard
"If you're standing in an uncomfortable position, that means you are in the right position because you are riding Mantis!" - Mantis ride op doing spiels on closing day.

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skibum said:
Tom:

Aircraft carriers do not rely on Cables to propel the aircraft off the flight deck. The Shuttle on the flight deck is directly connected to the piston that runs the length of the catapult. Steam from the Reactors on the Carrier is used to propel the Shuttle forward.

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Although it's true that carriers launch using a steam catapult system, remember how they bring the aircraft back in, using a cable that catches the tail hook. That cable has to be pretty damn tough to stop an aircraft. Just a thought. A Tomcat weighs 19,000 Kg's, and lands at some 125 Knots.
*** This post was edited by stratus7189 5/27/2003 9:37:32 PM ***

I was at the park today. At about 11am they had all the old cable gone and had spools of new cable near the station.

By about 6PM they had most of the cable in the track.

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"I can't make a movie or write a song either, but that doesn't mean I'm not entitled to think they suck."
-Jeff

Drags: 1 Forces: 2 Twists: 3 Kick the Sky: 3
*** This post was edited by Rider 5/27/2003 9:41:55 PM ***