Even still, it's a good move by CP. I wouldn't normally pay the $10 to ride Vertigo, but I'll pay $20 to ride Magnum, Raptor, Blue Streak, and Vertigo.
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Bob M.
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UCSigEp
Isn't Disney World a people trap run by a mouse?
MF 2K1: 4
MF life: 12
Isn't Disney World a people trap run by a mouse?
MF 2K1: 4
MF life: 12
Live Long and Prosper
UCSigep, *who was watching the Star Trek movie marathon on TNN yesterday*
"Best of all, everyone who pays to attend Millennium Mania while Millennium Force is unavailable will receive a Millennium Force Boarding Pass, which allows you to enter through the exit ONE TIME and ride without waiting in line."
Still not bad...leave it to CP to make things as right as possible.
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2001 MF Count: 2
Favs:
1. Iron Dragon
2. Raptor
3. Gemini
4. Magnum
5. Cedar Creek Mine Ride
Lets face it, Cedar Point didn't want this to happen anymore than you or I wanted this to happen, but it did and Cedar Point is handling it the best way possible.
As for the Wire Rope Cable breaking, I sell wire rope cable for a living, that is my job. From what I have been hearing the wire rope cable broke 40' feet from the sled-dog. This is an odd place for a wire rope to break, if the wire rope was defective or if the end termination (wire rope spelter socket), which is what connects the sled-dog to the cable, was installed incorrectly then the break should have occured near the spelter socket, not 40' feet away from the sled-dog.
The only logical explanation for what had happened is the wire rope must have been hitting something at the spot in broke at. Whether the wire rope hit the yellow sheaves awkwardly time and time again at that point, maybe something at the top of the lift hill, but something must have caused it.
The main difference between Wire Rope and Chain is wire rope is much more flexible, the more wires the more flexible the cable is, however with the more wires comes less abraison resistance due to the fact that smaller wires are used to make up the cable. If something is rubbed a certain way time and time again, that something will eventually break. As is the case with the wire rope on Millenium Force.
Chain is more brittle, but much more abraison resistant. Meaning if the chain is shock loaded it will break apart more easily than wire rope would if it is shock loaded, and unfortunately that happens alot in the construction industry.
The type of cable used is a very specialized cable, it is a cable used on cranes everyday, probably something similiar to the cable that was used on the crane that erected the Millenium Force. The type of cable used is what is called a rotation resistant cable, where two cables, (one cable inside the other cable), both cables are layed in different directions thereby when the cable is being pulled both cable twist in opposite directions therefore the cable can't spin. Now between these two cables is a layer of plastic that fills all the crevices and vallies which gives the wire rope cable longer life.
Wire rope cable is sold by breaking strength, take a simple example, if the cable used on Millenium Force had a breaking strength of 100,000 lbs., if 100,000 lbs were applied then the cable would break. Wire rope standards say that a 5 to 1 working load must be applied for safety standards, meaning you are only allowed to have 20,000 lbs. applied to that cable. I am not sure what the actual cable strength is because I am not previed to the exact make up of the wire rope cable.
As for what caused the wire rope cable to break, I have no idea. Their is a whole level of criteria that one must follow when abraison is detected in wire rope and if the wire rope surpasses the criteria, then the wire rope must be taken out of service. (That is a standard of the AWRF, the American Wire Rope Foundation). My guess is the cable was either manufactured by Bridon of America or Casar of Germany.
Or perhaps I'm wrong. Just a silly high schooler sheding his thoughts.
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http://coolforce.cjb.net The Most Important Internet Web Site.... EVER.
It was Nikki's B-day, and Millennium Force breaks down. Coincidence?
*** This post was edited by MiLLeNNiuMRiDeR on 9/4/2001. ***
*** This post was edited by ryangs on 9/4/2001. ***
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"Sorry but Millennium Force is currently DFD."
MF total - 393 laps
VertiGo Launches - 28
June 11th, 2001 - Gemini 100
Oh well.... One time is better than none! Of course, parent passes do basically the same thing....
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Next trip to CP on August 25th - 26th!
Freaky said:
"It's interesting how much talk this issue has generated. I know that when a chain breaks, no big deal we have another in a box down stairs. But a cable ??
When a chain breaks on a coaster...well, the first few times it breaks, anyway...the maintenance dudes can frequently simply remove the offending links from the chain. I'm pretty sure that's what Hersheypark was doing with Sooperdooperlooper during one of my visits a couple of years ago. It's kind of hard to do that with a wire rope.
What if Sky Ride's cable, "just snapped" ? I don't know. Cedar Point is rather lucky the cable broke with employees on it. I have been up in the funicular when I was doing a site check last year for a video production. Let me say that the funicular has a lot of up and down play to it (also cable driven). Someone who is scared of heights would not have been cool with coming back down on that thing. Also, (help me out RideMan) I don't recall seeing a anti-rollback device on the funicular either.
As Just Coasting more-or-less pointed out, wire rope almost never "just snaps." I probably shouldn't say this, but I think it's fairly common knowledge by now that the catastrophic failure of the Millennium Force lift rope was not entirely without warning. People who visited the park over the past week or so have reported that the ride has gone down briefly several times a day for "routine maintenance" which is code for "cable inspection." My thought is that Cedar Point did as they often do...they examined the problem cable, they monitored its condition, they analyzed the probable consequences of a catastrophic failure, they decided the consequences were such that the increased risk of a catastrophic failure was acceptable, they prayed that the part would last through Monday night, and they let the ride operate. Unfortunately, the odds caught up with them and they had that catastrophic failure, and as predicted, the worst thing to happen to a rider or customer was inconvenience. And a handfull of employees finally got to ride in the man-basket. The point of all this? A broken cable on Millennium Force results in a ride that goes down hard for a few days at the end of the season, and the possibility that riders will have to be brought down in the man-basket. That is an acceptable risk. A broken cable on Sky Ride would result in dropped cabins, lots of injuries both on the ride and on the midway, and is not an acceptable risk. If Sky Ride's cable had the kind of problems the Millennium Force cable apparently had, the ride would have been shut down.
As for agoraphobics getting into the man-basket...Given a choice between sitting in the train for a few days or riding down in the basket, which would you choose? Two equally unpleasant options, the lesser of which is clearly the ride down in the little car. Which, by the way, I know very little about; my guess is that it has an elevator-style safety system on it. It does appear to have multiple lift cables. If that goes out along with the main lift, then it's time to break out the climbing belts.
Oh, Just Coasting, a theory for you...The cable goes over the top of the lift, then down over a couple of guide pulleys and straight to the winding drum. Perhaps the break point is at the point where the rope contacts the topmost guide pulley when the system reverses?
--Dave Althoff, Jr.
Hopefully Cedar Point will do some off season testing with Intamin. I know that Euro Disney uses a cable lift system as well on one of their rides, I believe Euro Disney uses a Casar Eurolift cable and to my knowledge Euro Disney has had no problems what-so-ever.
The cable for the Sky Ride over the Midway is a completely different cable than the cable on Millenium Force, If I recall Cedar Point replaced the Sky Ride Cable 2 years ago. The Sky Ride cable is handspliced together and an endless loop is made for a continious circuit.
For example, handspliced means the wire rope cable is cut a certain length and after reeving the cable through the guide wheels on the towers as well as the cabin house sheaves the wire rope cable is interwoven back into each other to form a smooth splice only noticiable if looked at very closely.
If you notice when you ride Sky Ride, inside the cabin the maximum total weight is 800#'s per cabin. The reason for that is if there is too much weight in a zone then, you could overload the cable and have a major catastrophie. The reason for the spacing of the cabins on the Sky Ride is so that there is not too much weight in between any two towers or a tower and a cabin station.
The weight is calculated from one tower to the next. So if there are 3 cabins in between 2 towers at 800# per cabin, that means on that piece of cable is 2,400 lbs., however the total weight on the cable combined throughout the ride could be 100,000 lbs., that weight would certainly bring down the entire ride if there weren't any towers, since there are 4 towers if I'm not mistaken, the working load is on the amount of cars inbetween two sheave points. All the pieces of cable inbetween two sheave points can hold the same amount of weight, lets say 10,000 lbs., each, but that doesn't mean that the cable could hold 80,000 lbs., with no towers.
Regardless It appeared to me there was still considerable damage caused to the sled, and that is what we are waiting on. Whatever stopped it probably caused damage to itself and the sled/catchcar. There also could be damage to the track itself (I beam) which would explain why I saw them jostling with it so much.
Since the sled it heaver and attached to trackwork, I think it would fall either faster or slower due to friction. If it fell slower than the cable, the lower part of the sable would be pulling it and both ends of the cable would likely stay in its grove. However if the sled fell back faster than the cable, the lower cable may have bunched up and came out of its grove.
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