Millennium Force Cable Issue

That thread ends by saying that:

For those wondering about Millennium Mania this week, MF is slated to be down Thursday and is questionable for Friday. To make this up, CP is opening Blue Streak, giving free rides on Vertigo, and giving boarding passes for MF good for 2001 and 2002, which I think is far more than fair. More info is available on www.cedarpoint.com

Since they've come out and said that MF will be down Thursday and possibly Friday, the catchwagon must have survived the crash, or any damage can be repaired relatively quickly.

The ride broke on a Thursday, so, if it is indeed the same problem, it sounds like it's a quick turnaround to fix.

In September of 2001 the Main cable broke as the train was ascending the lift. This looks to possibly be a return cable break as the catch car was preparing to return down the lift. In the 2001 break, the catch car did not fall forward down the drop, as it appears to have done today.

Doesn't sound like the same problem to me...

Sorry, I'm just trying to look for some kind of good news to grab on to on this.

From my observation the cable dosen't connect to all of the catch-car sectons, it only connects to the top section. This allows the rest of the catch-car to go under the train in the station. Remember the cable dosent go under the station. It also looks like the cable didnt snap but the back part of the catch-car came out of the trough and is over the front which is still in the trough.

Josh: Good pic of the channel the catch car rides under. Question is how far down the hill this channel runs. If it ends well before the stopping point on the far side of the hill for the car, then it could simply have run out the channel and doubled over on itself. That channel looks pretty beefy, so my guess (ain't speculating fun!) is that that is still in place.

This is a very large picture of the first drop (thanks Wikipedia). If you make it full size you can see the channel runs all the way to the end, however you can't see if there is something to stop it from rolling out of the channel.

Here's a much better picture of the trough. Its not something the catch car should easily slip out of to double over like it appears to have done.

I don't think this is going to be an easy or quick fix.

I like Rapids' answer better than JuggaLotus'.

After comparing this picture and this one it looks as if (as other people stated) some part of the cable broke, and the catch car slid out the very end of the trough. In the first picture you can clearly see the stairs, and in the second picture that looks to be where the trough ends. The catch car is clearly past the stairs at this current moment.

Just my 2 cents.

For the catch car to slip out of that channel has to be severely damaged or destroyed. Then again we still aren't sure what even happened. There are alot of factors we don't know.

^ Not necessarily, do we know if the channel at the end is open or not?

^Nice investigative work. I feel like a member of CSI! Based on those two pics, the car seems like it could run out of the channel. Then its a matter of rethreading the whole setup and reattaching the cable, assuming the car isn't damaged.

I'm looking for picture of the first drop from what i found it seems like the is something that is preventing it from coming out, but i'm not sure yet.

From the damage picture, it looks like the last car in the catch has some sort of system to stop itself, but let the rest of the system dive out the end. This could possibly be to not put compression on the joints (if the front part of the catch car had a stopper). The car is designed for tension in the joints, but I doubt compression. Having the last car have the stopper would mean only tension would be on the system.

If you look at the picture, the last car in the catch is stopped at the end of the I-beam troughs. There has to be something there to stop just that piece, or else the wheels have broken off every car (which you can still see them attached). The pieces may have to be x-rayed (and possibly that section of track) for cracks, I wouldn't anticipate this ride being up too soon unless they do have a replacement laying around, or can fabricate one in a few days.

I gots my hammer and some bungee cords, I'm on my way to fix!!I just hope nobody got hurt during this!!

^Duct Tape! Don't forget your duct tape!

The more I look at it the more I think the leading end of the catch car did stop at the end of the channel but it stopped with so much momentum that the rest of it folded over top of it and jumped the channel.

So we probably have some major track damage then.

^^ That guy hs some sweet pictures. Not legal pictures but sweet anyways.

If the track ends up being damaged, would they have to order a whole new track piece in that section or just weld it somehow.?