Magnum

I got a few questions about Magnum.

How long did the Magnum have seat belts?

What happend the the special effects in the tunnels?

If the magnum is not sinking but it getting taller on stats. Is the land around the Magnum sinking?

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Chris Knight
How many sea gulls is there at CP?

1-ask Magnum Dan

2-still there just not in use! (ask Magnum Dan!)

3-False!

~~~~~Jesus-Freak~~~~~

1. I think Magnum in opening year did not have seat belts or even padding on the lap bar. I remember being so freaked when I hopped in the train and there was not much holding you in.***
***( I as only 8 then, so somebody would know about this better)

2. Already Answered

3. Magnum is not sinking but is moving slowly, on the north American Plate

*** This post was edited by Joe E. on 3/19/2002. ***

1. No. The first year had no seatbelts and no seat padding.

2. Answered

3. Ride it now, or within 40 years it will be gone! heh

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Back from lurking
New account, same name
KW 2002

Well two and three have already been answered. I was only ten when the ride opened. From my understading the ride did open wtih no padding and no seatbelts. If you have seen an stock video or stock pictures from '89 you will notice this. The urban folklore that I heard that when they cracked the crates opened that held the trains they park was shocked not to see any padding. The story goes that the folks at Arrow didn't think the trains needed the padding.

Now I don;t have my almanac handy but when the lift chain broke early in the season the ride was down for two weeks. During that two week downtime thats when they added some padding. I'm not 100% sure if they added the seatbelts during this time period or if it was during the offseason.

The ride also opened with upstop plates, similar to what Gemini and Mine Ride have, the plates were replaced with wheels in the offseason after the ride's frist summer.

Please correct me if I'm wrong.

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Danny J
Magnum Count: 2166
www.spiritofthepoint.com

Haha, I think Jerry said with the upstop plates, the ride used to spark on the return hops. :) That would be quite a cool sight. I didn't even ride Magnum until '98, but I can honestly say, it is the ride that got me totally addicted to coasters.

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-Matt
2001 Magnum Crew

As I recall, there was minimal padding in the cars (I think) NONE on the lap bars, but no seat belts the first year. After the lift broke, they did increase the padding and paddeld the lap bars and grip bars. The second year saw the instillation of the seat belts and more permanent padding. This also saw the first of many reprofiles of the third hill/turnaround area. If you think the third hill has air now, you have no idea what it was like the first year. The drop was steeper and you were really yanked upward, only to be SLAMMED downward at the bottom of the hill which was much closer to the ground and had a far shorter radius at the bottom. Though the air was shocking, it is not as fun as it sounds, actually it was pretty painful. In fact, many people were bruised on the ride the first year.

Idora Wildcat

Many people are still bruised through the entire ride. I've seen some of the bruises some of my smaller friends have gotten on Magnum, even as late as this past Auguest... still not pretty... :(

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I remember someone had a camcorder with them when a walkdown occurred. The train was stopped at the top and they got them walking all the way down the lift It was on the news an everything. Does anyone remember if this was the chain snapped the first year?

A little while after this happened, we went to the Point and got in line for Magnum first thing in the morning. When they block tested and the train stopped on the lift in what was almost the exact spot were the walkdown occurred, I freaked out (not knowing what block testing was at this time). I already rode magnum before, but because of this I refused to ride it :(

Being only 8 or 9, this is the last time I would refuse to go on a coaster though. :)

I imagine a few employees remember when the chain broke...especially the ones that had their cars parked under the lift. Many of their cars were smashed by the massive chain links.

[edit]changed cares to cars[/edit]

*** This post was edited by CP_bound on 3/20/2002. ***

Probably their cars too.

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Jeff
Webmaster/GTTP, Sillynonsense.com
"As far as I can tell it doesn't matter who you are. If you can believe, there's something worth fighting for..." - Garbage, "Parade"

From what I recall, the train was closer to the bottom when the chain broke, maybe about 1/4 of the way up. I was there on the day the chain broke, but didn't get there in time to see it happen. I saw the chain pilled up at the bottom of the lift hill, and the maintenance people started removing it in sections.

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It's very hard to drink all day...
Unless you start first thing in the morning.

I don't know what you're talking about, Jeff. ;)

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MF count: 23

*** This post was edited by CP_bound on 3/20/2002. ***

Worked on the Blue Streak in '89... First year for Maggie. Got to be one of the test riders before park opened for the summer. That was pretty cool.

In any case, the lap bars were not 'dipped' yet. Steel only. Don't think they had seat belts yet. I know that there was minimal padding. I don't think the seats were dipped yet (just hard plastic) and the sides of the cars had padding strips. But those strips still allowed your elbows to get through to the plastic sides.

Yes, you walked away bruised and battered. Tops of the thighs and elbows took most of the beating.

They added more padding during the shutdown when the chain broke early in the season but it was the off season before they completely padded the trains. I don't remember hearing that cars were crushed when the chain broke. IMHO, that didn't happen. Chain just piled up at the bottom of the lift.

I do know that twice that season they had to call the fire deptartment to cherry pick people off of the pretzel turn. Somehow the wind stopped a train twice that season.

No trim breaks on the third hill that first year. Lots of airtime.

Lots of other stories from that summer about the rides (my ride included... lol). Too many to tell. Good times.

Murph

Idora Wildcat said:
If you think the third hill has air now, you have no idea what it was like the first year. The drop was steeper and you were really yanked upward, only to be SLAMMED downward at the bottom of the hill which was much closer to the ground and had a far shorter radius at the bottom.
Man, do I wish I could have experienced this! Even though the third hill still has phenomenal air, this description sounds like pure roller coaster bliss (call me sadistic). I suppose the unpadded seats and lapbars may have taken some of the joy out of it, but I still wish I were old enough to experience this. I rode Maggie for the first time its second summer, but still even then I was too young (8 years old) to remember anything except for the first drop and the tunnels, so I guess I shouldn't be too upset about missing it by only a year.

*** This post was edited by MooreOn on 3/20/2002. ***

Judging from the fly-by video from 1989 in the Gallery, Magnum's third hill looks exactly the same. I never got to ride it in it's first few seasons but are you sure that it did get reprofiled?

I can still imagine that there was tons of airtime on that ride before the trims were added to the base of the third hill.

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I'm NOT one of them...

It definitely is not exactly the same as it is today. Its pretty obvious to notice that the trims were moved from the top of the third hill (as seen in the video) to down at the bottom as the train is entering the pretzle (where they are today). Also, the train used to dip down lower to the ground after the third hill. I was under the impression that there were always trims, but they moved from the top of the third hill to the bottom.

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-Matt
2001 Magnum Crew

Check out this photo. See where the horizontal beams are? That's where the track used to go.

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Jeff
Webmaster/GTTP, Sillynonsense.com
"As far as I can tell it doesn't matter who you are. If you can believe, there's something worth fighting for..." - Garbage, "Parade"

needless quotation removed -J

Does anyone know when the done this reprofileing of puting the track on a higher point there?

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Chris Knight
How many sea gulls is there at CP?

*** This post was edited by Jeff on 3/21/2002. ***

I believe it was reprofiled after the CoasterMania of either 1993 or 1994. I'm not sure which year.

You have to remember that back then coasters could be, and were rough, and not a lot of people complained because that's what they expected. Now that they have super-smoothe rides, people compare them and say that they are rough. Although I think that something had to be done, especially when hearing that people would come back to the station with bloody noses from hitting the seats in front of them on that drop. The vintage footage of Maggie's third hill looks like some killer air, but that third pullout looks nasty.