Magnum - Behind the yellow line

Anyone have any idea why they still yell at you to stay behind the yellow line on Magnum? I would think that they would have stopped doing that when they had the airgates installed, but apparently not.

Airgates must be too dangerous, we must make people stay away from them.

Yeah, I noticed that when I was there last week. They didn't do it on any other coaster there though, which was odd.

They don't want you by them because if they give way and you fall on the track then you can kiss your *** goodbye. But thats only what I think.

They're attempting to keep people away from the airgates to prevent anyone from leaning up against and pushing the gates. Why this is such a problem, I am not completely sure yet.

Is it that big of a problem? Just stand behind the yellow lines...They're not asking alot.

The reason it is a problem is that the air pressure that holds the gates closed is not enough to keep a few hundred pounds of waiting coaster riders from pushing the gates open far enough to trip the GATE_!OPEN switch, prompting the computer to shut the ride down.

Just another annoyance with Magnum's "improved" control system. Easily one of the biggest ride modification CF's in the park if you ask me...

--Dave Althoff, Jr.
(Co-dispatch at Load 6. What were they thinking???)

They ask you to stand behind the yellow line still because if you shake the gates too hard (which people do allot) the train entering or leaving the station will stop which could cause a setup.

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RideMan said:

Just another annoyance with Magnum's "improved" control system. Easily one of the biggest ride modification CF's in the park if you ask me...

--Dave Althoff, Jr.
(Co-dispatch at Load 6. What were they thinking???)

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and I don't think you mean Cedar Fair huh?

I am not a fan of the air gates. The biggest problem I noticed is on WT. Someone passes their hand just beyond the gate and it trips the "light curtain" (haven't exactly seen what or how that works, maybe and idea for an article Dave). Why they gates weren't put farther back to eliminate this possibility would have been a good idea.

[rant]

I don't know about anyone else, but whenever I rode Gemini, I never noticed a problem with keeping people behind the yellow line that a well timed reminder from an Op couldn't fix. I don't remember anyone getting thrown into a train, but maybe I missed something.

Anyway, my opinion is that air gates, with the exception of a very few rides (like WT) are just a bad idea, especially when retrofitted onto a ride that has worked perfectly for years.

[/rant]

Tell that to the lawyers.

whats also not hard to understand but happens all the time anyway is on dragster, HANDS DOWN HANDS DOWN

Didn't they have to put airgates in to be in compliance with the safety comission or somthing? It has an acryonym<sp?> but I dont remember what it is.

Later,

The ironic thing is that far more people are hurt by the air gates then were ever hurt by falling in front of an arriving train. I've seen people, especially children, get hit or pinched by those gates and get hurt. The worst was two years ago at Hershey. While waiting for Trailblazer, a young boy's arm got in the way of the gate. I'm not sure if the gate broke his arm or not, but he was definately in a lot of pain. They took him away on the first aid cart.

A few years back, my brother got pinched by the air gates on the Vortex at PKI. A ride op whom was being distracted by unruly guests, closed the air gates not noticing that he was still in the path. I think it kinda clipped him from behind. Then, it took a lot of yelling to get them to re-open the gates.

just remember while in the magnum station "The yellow line is our friend; we don't step on your friends, you don't step on our's." :)

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JuggaLotus said:Someone passes their hand just beyond the gate and it trips the "light curtain" (haven't exactly seen what or how that works, maybe and idea for an article Dave). Why they gates weren't put farther back to eliminate this possibility would have been a good idea.

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If you look on the track supports in the station you should be able to see a long vertical bar on each of the supports. Those are the sensors for the light curtain. If people in the station were close enough to trip those, that must have been why they have those diamond plates on top of the gates now. I was wondering why those were there. They must have corrected the situation with Steel Venom at VF though, because I have never seen it go down due to that happening.

As far as airgates go, they just installed them all over VF. Wildthing, Cork, High Roller, Excalibur, and Thunder Canyon all got them this year.

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Guy with a name said:
just remember while in the magnum station "The yellow line is our friend; we don't step on your friends, you don't step on our's." :)

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We said that about the silver handrails a lot when I worked at VF. :-)

I never found the airgates a problem with capacity or operation of the ride. They help in the ride host pay attention to locking people in other than telling oncoming riders to stay behind the yellow line. It only makes sense to keep your arms and hands to keep away from the train moving so fast throught the station.

A few years ago the airgates caught my shoe. They really shouldn't be strong enough to break arms or catch something. They should close with very little force then lock when the train is cleared or a five seconds after they close all the way for people have time to get uncaught from them.

These Gates on platforms are mostly to bring the rides up to code... Double Loop at Geauga Lake has the same problem when Guests push on the gates... Dave nailed it. The error board thinks that there is low air pressure in the load gates, and puts the ride into maintenance mode (Instead of E-Stoping it). It's a pain in the rear some days, but smart and observant operators can prevent injuries to guests from closing gates, as well as stop guests from rocking the gates.