Lift evacuation question...

Raptor's evacuation car is gas-powered. You can see the lawnmower-size tank on top of the engine.

The Millennium Force catchwagon is mechanically just a gigantic piece of lift chain with only one link and a set of wheels. The lift clutch that engages from the underside of the train is pretty much the same as the lift clutch on any conventional coaster, designed so that the train can easily over-run the catch car when it goes over the top of the lift. Mechanically, the chain or catch car going backward is identical to the train moving forward, so the catch car wouldn't have had any difficulty going back down the hill until it either crashed into the pillar under the station or got tangled up in the return cable.

On the one hand, I am glad I wasn't in the station when it happened. On the other hand, it would have been something to see!

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

ForgottenEE said:

I've always wondered what exactly happened to the ~40' section of rope still attached to the catch car during the whole ordeal.

There never was any recoil from that section of wire rope that was still still attached to the catch car. Why there wasn't one is a mystery to me. The riders in the front seats didn't even know what was happening at the time the cable snapped. Maybe the recoil just didn't come back close to the front of the train.

Most of the damage to the ride did come from that section of rope though. The track that the catch car rides in was mangled and buckled all of the way down the lift and some of the lift speakers were smashed and broken (but thats ok, they didn't work anyway.) I don't remember seeing any damage at the front of the station aside from speakers.

The return cable danced around the station quite a bit during the ordeal. It was draped over and under the queue stalls for the first several rows and even went far up onto the platform. It was "sheer luck" that the ride had not opened and that there were no guests on the platform standing where the return cable ended up.

It also seemed lucky to me that the funicular system wasn't damaged by the havoc the cable caused.

Oh, and Dave, the lapbars were unlocked with the battery pack one car at a time (yeah, the battery was fully charged and had no problem). The order of the unload was quite random though. For some reason they completly skipped over car 5. ;)

Interesting, it seems Cedar Point has a lot of "close calls" when something goes wrong, but nobody ever gets hurt. I.E (MF cable snap, Dragster wheels falling off, Corkscrews chain snapping, Dragsters cable snapping)

It does seem like a pretty good list of "close calls". But I'd bet that most other Amusement parks have their fair share of "close call" incidents too. We just know more about what is going on at Cedar Point because of this website and others like it. There are a lot of Cedar Point watchdogs around here.

Good Karma.

Rihard 2000 said:

The other evac was due to a Power Outage.

Oh Noes!!

You mean Blackout 2003?! The Horror.

Nah, it was a just a late night power outage. It happened during the summer of 2001.

I had the day off during the Blackout of 2003. :)

Lucky you. That must of been hell for the employees working.

lets see....

Hot day....check

No A/C.....check

No lights, unless you have fire....check

Yep..musta been hell :D

Speaking of a Millennium Force evac. on the hill, I was at the park on 5-11 and at about 7pm the blue train stopped near the top of the hill. They had to bring everybody down from the ride on the maintenance bucket, and me there today without a camera to bring you all some pictures. I'm upset with myself for that one.

They evacuated from the top of the lift for a bird (as stated in MF breakdown thread)? I'm thinking there was something else going on.

How do they get people off at that angle, safely.

Very Carefully and slowly.

I'm still curious if they anchor the people with a fall harness before they move them from their seat. I would assume they do, but I haven't heard one way or another.

I would think not, Chris, because getting them into the harness would present more of a hazard than simply holding on to them while they step into the funicular.

If I were doing it (and clearly I have not...) I'd consider tying the 'rescuer' to the bucket to keep him from getting pulled out by a scared passenger, but rely on due care to get the passenger off.

I suppose to make the person feel better they could out a belt around the rider, just slipped under the arms, kind of like you see in movies when they yank someone out of the ocean with a helicopter. But I think trying to get the rider into a climbing belt or a proper fall protection harness would be more trouble, and more important more danger, than it is worth.

Just an opinion from someone who has only been up there while seated in the train...

--Dave Althoff, Jr

The six students from my school that were on the full train told me after about a half hour of sitting up there, they were brought up blankets, jackets, cookies, and hot chocolate (keep in mind this was after that cold front pushed through Wednesday). They were up there about 2 hours, while the process of getting off the ride was about 30 minutes using the elevator bucket thing.

I would imagine that the people who ride up in the evac vehicle help the people get out of the cars by having one foot in the evac vehicle and the other actually in the MF car. Then they can hang onto the railing of the evac vehicle with one hand and help the person get out with the other.

As far as close calls go, CP has been very fortunate. As many times as Dragster's cable has snapped its amazing to me that no one has been hurt or killed. The people being injured would be employees walking through the "employees only" wooden fence area right in front of the hydraulic motor building. There is no cage or safety net around the track or cable--you can actually look up and see the trains shoot past directly above you. I just think it's a matter of time until something bad happens.

I have seen a few evacs in my life time. Once in 2000 while I was there for a class trip. One in 2002 and 2003. None in 2004. Yup, slowly and carefully.

But in 2003 I saw an employee go up there and yell at some kid who took off his seatbelt and when the ride came back into the station they escorted him off.

I was stuck up there for about 45 minutes today (VERY cold!!!) at about 7pm. They finally managed to get it over the top but couldn't get it working enough to get us into the unload station so they "evaced" us from the catwalk by the breaks. The MF lift is definately NOT a comfortable place to hang out for a while, but after we finally got back to the ground and off of the catwalk they had blankets and 2 front-of-the-line passes for everyone. After what happened last week, we were just glad we were able to make it over.

--James

Yeah, I saw that breakdown just as we were leaving. Where were you sitting on the train, jdoty? I was there taking pictures from the sideroad for about 10 minutes. A few people near the back were waving at us and I was trying to ask them what was up [besides them, obviously].

Maybe one was you!