Millennium Force Cable Issue

Could anyone have gotten hurt during this? I always feel so safe on coasters, but these are the kind of things that scare me.

The metal on metal sound you probably heard were the anti-rollbacks. It sounds like metal dragging loudly on metal. I heard them a lot on opening weekend. That sound is typically nothing to be concerned with. It's actually a safety system

As far as the mechanical issue today... I'm going to leave my speculation at just that. The official reason for mechanical failure will probably never be posted on this board unless someone opens their mouth who shouldn't. There is no reason for anyone from the park to give an official explanation as to why the ride went down. My hope now is that they get the ride open as soon as possible. I'm just glad that it appears that no one was injured.

Josh M. said:
The metal on metal sound you probably heard were the anti-rollbacks. I heard them a lot on opening weekend. That sound is typically nothing to be concerned with. As far as the mechanical issue today... I'm going to leave my speculation at just that. The official reason for mechanical failure will probably never be posted on this board unless someone opens their mouth who shouldn't. There is no reason for anyone from the park to give an official explanation as to why the ride went down. My hope now is that they get the ride open as soon as possible. I'm just glad that it appears that no one was injured.

Thats what I thought. They are ridiculously loud if they are the anti-rollbacks.

Well, a few friends and myself have been here the last two days. Two of them rode Millie front row on the very last train last night (presumably the last one in awhile), and I was on the second to last train. Definitely snapped this morning, as everything seemed to be normal 30 minutes after close last night (we rode it 6 times in that last hour and 9 times overall, thank God).

As we drove by to the Soak City Lot this morning we saw a 10 maintenance types staring at the lift wheel, and we guessed (rightly) that something was seriously wrong with it. As we drove back, we saw three cranes in position and some work going on in the area.

Also, the park seemed eager to hide what was going on. The train didn't appear to be running (it was sitting at the Millie Station the only time I saw it at all), and the parking attendant instructed us to merge right into the main lot even though we were in the far left lane to head toward the resort entrance (which we went to anyway). That might be normal, but I had never had it happen before.

I would assume it was more of a safety issue with the train passing through as cranes were moving about, same for vehicles passing along Perimeter Road as opposed to the park was trying to hide what was going on.

True. I hadn't thought of that. Although there weren't any cranes when we passed in the morning. That would certainly explain the train not running though. I didn't mean to suggest a conspiracy, just thought it was interesting.

Yeah a couple ton catch car slamming into a train car or a automobile would not be good.

David Sagert said:
From what I know about the "catch car" the actual hook or "dog" that hooks onto the third car is spring loaded so that the car if it ever overruns the catch car will not rip itself to shreads.

The catch car does not have anything that attaches to the train. The train has a pin that drops down when the magnet that holds it up is released by an electrical current. The catch car has a trough that is similar to what you'd see at a pole vault. As the train crests the hill it slides out of this trough and goes back up into the train.

Well I hope that no one was hurt. I don't think they would be, or the media would probably already be all over it. I think it is better that none of this hits the news. I know that people were freaked out after Wild Cat's mishap last year. I could only imagine what they would think of riding MF after this.

Jesz said:
Well I hope that no one was hurt. I don't think they would be, or the media would probably already be all over it. I think it is better that none of this hits the news. I know that people were freaked out after Wild Cat's mishap last year. I could only imagine what they would think of riding MF after this.

Incident happened very very early this morning, no riders

Oh, that was probably already written in the thread somewhere. I am very tired right now and probably skipped right over it. I am done posting for the night so none of my other stupidness comes out. :)

For what it is worth, the police office guarding the entrance said the ride will be down for 2 or 3 days.

If the channel that contains the catch car is open at the end, I doubt there is much damage to the catch car. I agree with speculation that it was a problem with the return cable. The most time consuming part of the fix is probably replacing the cable.

BTW, those who missed the ERT missed a really good time. TTD was great as always, but Magnum was especially entertaining. No trim brake and a light crowd meant I was able to stay on the same train for four consecutive rides at the end of ERT. Total of 6 Magnum rides and 3 Dragster rides.

yeah it was soo awesome how Tony let us wait on the exit ramp for TTD

StrataCoasters said:Yeah a couple ton catch car slamming into a train car or a automobile would not be good.

A couple tons? I don't think it's more than one.:)

And to answer your earlier question Jesz, even if this happened during the day (thank god it didn't) the chances of someone getting hurt (based on our guesses) are very, very slim. The drop area...well that whole area in general is off limits anyway and the only scenarios I can think of is a low zone check in progress or if the catchcar fell all the way to Perimeter Road or a passing CP&LE RR train. Of course those are VERY unlikely scenarios since the catchcar ended up getting jammed in the track. Though I'll say anything is possible.

They were still working hard after I left at 10ish. I suspect like always they will have it up ASAP.

I have pictures..not sure how good yet.. taken using friends camera while in the passenger seat. I will have them up in a few. They were taken around 6ish.. right when the first crane was getting put together.

^They always do. One thing I can say about most of the recent problems with coasters, they do try their best to get it done ASAP. Some other parks can't say that.

Cedar Point will always work on a problem 24/7 if its during the operation season. That you can be sure of.

Here are the pictures I got.

They are very large.

First one is of the crane.

http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/8314/p5280011v.jpg
http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/5696/p5280013.jpg
http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/7980/p5280014n.jpg

Okay, it is time for...

Millennium Force Lift 101

Before I continue, please be aware that I was NOT at the park today, and have not seen much in the way of photos of what happened. So let me explain to this group how the lift system works, and add my own 'educated guesses' about the failure and subsequent recovery.

The Millennium Force lift is a bi-directional wire rope lift system. A catchwagon runs in a channel located in the middle of the lift hill track. The catchwagon is slightly longer than half the length of the train, and is constructed in segment. Each segment runs on steel wheels. A large diameter wire rope is attached to the front of the catchwagon, and runs up the hill and over the top, running down the downtrack side of the lift hill to the winding drum. A second, smaller rope runs from the winding drum, across the base of the lift to a point just outside the station, then hooks to the front of the catchwagon.

The catchwagon has a ring at its back end, which engages with a clutch under the center of the train. This clutch is similar to the chain clutches found on conventional coasters. This connection is near or slightly behind the center of the train. This is so that the lift mechanism can move the train's center of mass past the top of the hill. As soon as the bulk of the train's mass is past the peak of the hill, the train will easily over-run the catchwagon, in exactly the same way that a conventional train overruns a conventional lift chain.

The track pitches in two directions between the station and the top of the lift. From the station to the lift, it pitches up, then at the top, it pitches downward. This is the reason the catchwagon is so long. If Millennium Force had a short catchwagon as on Top Thrill Dragster, the hoist rope would drag against the bottom of the train, much like the lift chain on the Wildcat. Instead, the articulated catchwagon extends past the front of the train.

This means that at a minimum, the entire catchwagon must continue over the top of the lift to guarantee that the train will make it over. THAT means that the entire mass of the catchwagon ends up hanging over the top of the hill. The system reverses, and the return rope pulls the catchwagon backwards over the hill until gravity can pull the catchwagon back down the hill, its speed regulated by the hoisting rope.

The upshot of all this is that the only time the return rope is actually under significant tension is from the point where the catchwagon reverses until its center of mass gets back past the top of the hill.

It appears that the return rope failed. What is not clear is why the catchwagon didn't simply drop out of the slot and land on the ground in a large heap. I wonder if there is some kind of limit in place which prevented this failure from being more serious than it was.

I also think the ride might be back up and running again a lot sooner than some of us might expect, depending on the degree of damage done to the equipment.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Pete said:BTW, those who missed the ERT missed a really good time. TTD was great as always, but Magnum was especially entertaining. No trim brake and a light crowd meant I was able to stay on the same train for four consecutive rides at the end of ERT. Total of 6 Magnum rides and 3 Dragster rides.

Darn, sounds like it was an awesome time. I was going to go after work (literlly in my car ready to go) when I remembered it was my grandpas birthday. I'm with Josh and hope they somehow work Dragster and Magnum in for their original ert date as well as something with Millennium.

So if your reading this Tony, I'm gonna bug you till you get the powers that be to do it. Don't doubt me, I'll do it! There's nothing like a disgruntled Dragster fan who had to miss out on a surprise Dragster ert session.:)