Extended Closure

Currently at the park. No activity at the ride and blue is definitely without wheels. But silver and black trains are in the station with water dummies positioned next to both trains. Seems like testing will, possibly, resume tomorrow.

From the Screamscape update: “…a train is being made ready for make test runs so that they can watch and study the issues that took place in order to create a future re-design that will address those same problems.”

This doesn’t seem to make sense with the new wheel assembly that was pointed out. If they designed a new part and are testing it - why would it to be watch and study? Isn’t this the redesigned part already?

Am I misunderstanding - anyone else get this?

I read it too and had the same reaction. It doesn't make sense as written.

Could be that the new wheel assembly is a stop gap for testing purposes and not expected to be the final design.

Since 2 trains have the modified bogies, I'd wager that it's, at least, the short term fix to make it through the season while they work on a complete redesign of the entire. Assuming that's what they're doing here.

The impression I get is that if they intended it to be a test set, to see how it goes with no initial intention of opening the ride with them , then they would have only done enough for one train......not 2.

They could be testing more than one solution, or if there are multiple components involved, having multiple trains allows for testing to occur with one train while modifying the other one.

To me, the lack of testing over the last few days doesn't seem promising. If they found what they believe is a solution, wouldn't they want to get as many cycles on it, even if moving forward with manufacturing components for the third train? That they're not could indicate they're going to back to the drawing board. Hopefully not though.

My thought is that they do not want to do the initial testing on the altered parts while the park is open. If there were some unforeseen clearance issue or problem with the new parts it is much safer for the initial runs to be while the park is essentially empty. The next few days will tell us a lot but there are light plants and several pallets of material in the Top Thrill infield so today is most likely a day off before additional work begins tonight/ tomorrow.

It would make sense to take care of testing at night.

Exactly. The park is open every day now, the only time to test without guests in the park is at night. And yet nothing the last two nights, as far as I'm aware.

Silver and black were both testing Friday night. So far, there just wasn't any testing Saturday night and we'll soon see if anything happens tonight. I'm gonna try and stay as late as possible to see if any personnel show up, which could indicate night testing.

I’m putting salt on my fries at dinner tonight.

TTD 120mph:

So far, there just wasn't any testing Saturday night

Gotta have a night off. They also could have been crunching data or still working on the issue without sending any trains though so I wouldn't look at night without movement as a bad thing.

I don't agree that the team trying to get a ride open nearly a month late should have a night off, especially considering they appear to have only returned to being on site a few days ago.

That said, I didn't realize they were testing Friday night. One night without testing is less alarming than two.

It’s not just Zamperla here working the past several days but Cedar Point maintenance crews have been working as well. They do not have unlimited maintenance manpower so any crews pulled to work on this is extra strain on the staff. Having a night or day off makes sense, especially if they have a fatigue policy like most places do.

Given that the original Zamperla design failed so quickly after pre season testing was completed, it seems that months of testing should happen before they consider reopening this ride. Given Zamperla’s lack of experience/abilty to build a good riding coaster bigger than a Wild Mouse (the thunderbolts track terribly). How can Cedar Fair have an confidence in a redesign since the first attempt failed so miserably?

^ Damn, dramatics much?

Is it true that OG Top Thrill Dragster was still being worked on all the way up to July?

I’m going to be the dissenting opinion here and say the fact that only 2 out of 3 trains have the new look parts lends more credence to this being testing for a final solution than the final solution itself. If they really thought they had the solution surely they would have all 3 being put back together at the same time and be absolutely slamming as many test runs as humanly possible. Instead we see one train with nothing attached and intermittent at best testing on two trains. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if this is a long term closure and they are essentially live prototyping a solution as they go (what we are seeing now).

If it were only one train I would agree but the 2 trains having the same updated wheel assembly re-installed is interesting. There are also pallets of wrapped materials in the infield so who knows what they are, could be parts for the 3rd train or it could be extra cups for the drink stand.

I am a bit skeptical of the idea of this updated assembly being a test to study the situation for a permanent fix. However, there are a number of things here and there pointing to a mid July time frame so if that information is correct then it does make sense.

What number of those things are those? I mean, besides Internet speculation.

blauer:

How can Cedar Fair have an confidence in a redesign since the first attempt failed so miserably?

That's a little dramatic, don't you think? Since everyone likes to dissect words around here, "failed miserably" to me means they never even launched a train. They'll figure it out.