Millennium Down Indefinitly

After riding the CP&LE around 5pm, Rideman and I noticed that maintenance were removing the lift sled segment by segment. Looks like they're going to do some testing on it to see if taking the lift backwards at high speeds caused some damage not easily seen.

Needless to say, long lines today. More coming after rest and a trip to Pittsburgh.

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Scott W. Short, Rail Junkie
mailto:scott@midwestcoastercentral.com
http://www.midwestcoastercentr

Well this realy sucks, since I'm going to CP today (labor day). At least they are fortunate that GP wasn't on the ride. I would expect them to have the ride up and running by MM, unless the sled is in realy realy bad shape.
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AKA...Somewhatchewy

Kind of makes you wonder if there shouldn't have been some type of anti-rollback system for the lift-sled itself. I guess it only engage if the sled came down too fast or something. Kind of a wierd one to think of how it would work, but I'm sure someone smart could figure it out. Was there another train in the station when it came barrelling down? Was any damage done to the train? Was Magnum and Raptor open an extra hour again? :)

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-Matt
2001 Magnum Crew

Saw this on the local news here (West Michigan) on Labor Day. Thank God it wasn't the guests stopped up there...it would have made CNN....

Scott

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"If we go any faster, she'll blow apart for sure!"

Anyone else notice the park webcam was stopped at 5:59am in the dark so we can't even see the stopped train.

yeah they had to order a specialpart for it i was at the park yesterday and we asked

hey the park cam is not updating has not since 5:00am today hmmmm must of took it off

Is the train still stuck at the top, or has it been removed or something like that?

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http://coolforce.cjb.net The Most Important Internet Web Site.... EVER.
'OMG Tommy you're obsessed!'

Does anyone have any saved shots from the PowerTower cam where it's light enough to see the train stuck up there?

I believe the train's still up there; I think I can see it from the cam on the top of the Demon Drop.

I saw on CB that MF has 2 cables, one for pulling the train and one for returning the sled. How does this work? I have only noticed one large cable which appears to do both jobs.

Thanks

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Be there through the thick and thin.

ryangs, I got a saved pic, you can just e-mail me for it!
Cedar Point must not want people looking at the stuck train for some reason.. I know I know! They still want the buisness! How clever
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"You're obsessed"
"..yeah, I know"
you wanna. YOU gotta.
YOU HAFTA HOLD ON!

*** This post was edited by MiLlEnNiUmGuRl on 9/3/2001. ***

Saw it on CNN Headline News. Sheesh! Slow news day or what?
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"If we go any faster, she'll blow apart for sure!"

coast..you basically just described it...as far as what CP said about a special part...Its just cable.

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http://www.msu.edu/~armbrus9/cp.html
mf laps = 100! No More No Less!!
Wheres the Electricity!

It was weird. The other day I was with a friend. We were talking about the problems they had on the cable. We make a joke like... It would be funny if the cable snapped, and sure enough it did. They are extremely lucky this happened with employees! Though it was kind of weird riding the train and seeing Millennium without a line or cable!
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2000 MF LAPS: 117
2001 MF LAPS: 147
Gemini 100: 100

OK, here is an update as of what I saw last around 6PM today

The cable is here and the "return" cable is already attached to the flywheel. I don't see the "up" cable (larger one) on all the way yet although it could be at the top. The cable I can tell is different and appears has a metallic shine too it. I'm sure it will take no time for them to get the rest of the cable on.

But Cable shamble! The most important part, the catchcar has been pulled off. It was in shambles yesterday and it appeared to me it was in very bad condition. It all rest on what kind of condition the catchcar is in. Who knows what could have happened to the thing coming off the back of its track and slamming into the ground and a fairly good speed.

Matt brings up a good point, why is there not a rollback device on the catchcar itself? I too though there was one on there and when I first saw the wreckage I thought something else must have broke for it to slide down the whole way. Later Dave and Scott told me there is no such thing and it only catches the train for it's drive up. if there was one, it would have not slid back which could have been a catastrophe if people were in the station.

Red Train is still up there, although it appears higher today and he front is about to crest. I bet the will somehow send it over soon. I also saw what could have been some Intamin engineers in the cart because they were not wearing the standard blue mechanics uniform.

I think it depends now how soon they can get the catchcar in working order and if repair any damage to the trackwork caused by it sliding down

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2001 Force Laps -130
2001 Magnum Laps-283
6/11/01 Gemini Laps- 100

Putting an anti-rollback on the sled would be a feat in itself. Think of how it works... it goes up.. it comes back down.. there would have to be another system installed to say "It's ok to send it backwards now" adn then a mechanical system to actually allow it..

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"Sorry but Millennium Force is currently DFD."
MF total - 393 laps
VertiGo Launches - 28
June 11th, 2001 - Gemini 100

I'm going to ask this as simply as I can... What's a catchcar?

(Obviously not too familiar with the inner workings of the Millennium.)

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http://coolforce.cjb.net The Most Important Internet Web Site.... EVER.
'OMG Tommy you're obsessed!'

If the sled is attached to both cables at once (which I would think it is), they could put some sort of braking device on each cable so that the sled can grab on to the cable that has't snapped. I would think they could devise a device that would apply brakes if the sled exceeded its regular speed.

There must have been some sort of safety catch on the sled... I can't believe the Intamin engineers would miss such an important design point. Perhaps there was one that failed or didn't work like they were expecting it to.

Jeffrey Spartan said:
coast..you basically just described it...as far as what CP said about a special part...Its just cable.

No, I meant how do the two cables work? Where is the smaller cable attached? Where is it's drum? I have never seen a smaller cable.

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Be there through the thick and thin.

*** This post was edited by coast on 9/3/2001. ***

Rob has a good point about adding an anti-rollback device to the sled. How do you prevent it from rolling backward when that is one of it's two main duties? Intamin's downfall in engineering the sled isn't in the inability to stop it when it's freefalling backward, but how it is stopped if this does happen. Some type of device should be implemented so as to dampen, or slow, the speed of the sled rather than having it roll out on to the ground under the station. This could be done using some sort of friction brakes, adding a composite material on the sled's track, or even a shock device similar to those used at the end of subway lines. This would surely cause less damage to the sled than to let it freely roll out onto a bed of rocks as it did the other day.
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James Draeger
http://draegs.tripod.com/
"Legend is a wooden Jesus"