MillenniumForce lift hill

Has The MillenniumForce ever gotton stuck and then the people ever had to get out and go on the evelvator on the side to get out? If so do any of you have a video of it?

Yes, when the cable broke.

When did that happen, and how long did it take for the people to get out? *** Edited 5/24/2006 12:33:21 AM UTC by CoasterMan23*** *** Edited 5/24/2006 12:38:36 AM UTC by CoasterMan23***

That happens all the time.... It's more common to see it get stuck and the riders stay in the seats. I've been stuck about 30ft from the top once. Really nice view from up there...... But they just had the elevator thing come up, check if we were alright, and then checked the cable for problems.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the only time they've actually unloaded an entire train from the hill with the cart was when the cable broke... and those were employees. They'd much rather just get the train over the hill if they can than unload the train. It may take longer, but it's safer.

I have gotten stuck on millennium's first hill, but they didn't unload the train
*** Edited 5/24/2006 2:07:19 AM UTC by Hassnobio***

Correct me if I am wrong, but doesn't MF's lift cable pull the train "over" the hill? And if so, doesn't that mean the first car could get stranded just slightly past the top (on the 80 degree drop)?

Makes me shudder to think about it!

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drink300

Correct me if I am wrong, but doesn't MF's lift cable pull the train "over" the hill? And if so, doesn't that mean the first car could get stranded just slightly past the top (on the 80 degree drop)?

As far as I know, I don't think that has happened. When I got stuck, I was about three fourths the way up the hill.

I was at Cedar Point Monday May 9 to Thursday May 12 last year. I was wondering if anyone else heard a similar story to what I'm about to tell. There are several threads on this in the Millennium Force topic posted a few days after what happened if anyone is interested in going back to look, but this is my first-person account of what happened.

Wednesday May 11, late afternoon between 5 and 6, my sister and I were in line for Dragster when it started raining. The ride was shut down, but she wanted to wait for it to reopen. Then it started to ge really windy. I told her I wasn't going to wait. I was going on Millennium Force and would meet her back at Dragster afterward. I walked to Millennium, but the ride was shut down because a girl got hit in the face by a bird (the forum posts from that week said other people were told it was a duck or goose, but the girl at the entrance just told me it was a bird) and it broke her nose. The ride was down to clean up the blood. I went on Iron Dragon and Mantis and came back. Millennium was open. YAY!

After about a 30 to 40 minute wait I was almost at the entrance to the loading station. I was watching the train ascend the lift hill when it stopped. The catch car disengaged from the train and came back down the hill into the loading station. At this point I freaked out for a second because when this happens on a gigacoaster breakdown in RCT2 the train rolls back down the hill and crashes into the station. But of course Millennium Force has anti-rollbacks underneath the train, so the train was just stuck on the lift hill about 3/4 of the way to the top. I knew this was a BAD thing to happen. I debated whether I should get out of line or not, but the ride ops said they didn't know how long it would take to fix the problem. I thought for a few minutes that perhaps they could run the cable back up the hill to re-engage the train and send it on its way.

As I was debating whether or not to leave I saw my sister walk down toward the area on the frontier trail adjacent to Millennium's stations. I saw her talking to another young woman. They both looked nervous. After shouting her name for several seconds my sister heard me and found where I was in line. She pointed up to the stuck train and then back at me and put her hand on her heart and signed wiping her forehead to let me know she was afraid I had been on the stuck train and relieved I wasn't. The other girl's boyfriend wasn't so lucky. He WAS one of the people on the stuck train. If my timing had been just a few minutes different I might have been on it too. As we were leaving we saw the evacuation of the train with the funicular.

The train was stuck on the lift hill all day Thursday. We saw the maintenance crew working underneath Millennium's lift hill. At one point I told a supervisor (don't know who he was, sorry) on the frontier trail observing the workers what I had seen when the ride broke down. He told us that the catch car is SUPPOSED to come back to the station like I had seen, that there is a SECOND lift cable that takes the trains over the top of the hill. WHAT? Has anyone else ever heard this before? I was pretty sure he was outright lying to me, but why would he need to? I guess they didn't want people to gossip that the ride would be down for and extended period of time? I don't know.

So that's my story. I hope it provides information and entertainment to whoever reads it. :)

The catch car is about half the length of the train. It engages the train under about Axle #5 or #6 (of 10) and extends forward under the train to connect to the hoisting rope just ahead of the nose of the lead car. That way, the hoisting rope doesn't come out of the catch car track at the bottom of the hill. A second rope, used to bring the catch car back to the station, is attached to the front of the catch car and passes through the track at the bottom of the hill (the return rope does not pass through the station.

At the top of the hill, the catch car has to go over the top of the hill far enough to get the train's center of mass over the peak. That's why the catch car connects to the middle of the train instead of to the front end. As soon as the train's center of mass is over the peak (usually just before the catch car makes it all the way to the top) gravity takes over and pulls the train off of the catch car and down the hill.

The return rope then lifts the catch car back over the peak of the hill, then gravity brings it the rest of the way back down to the station.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Wow thanks that was a sweet explaination with big words that i totally got

RIDE ON

About the goose, I was right there for that. i know what you are talking about. Yes, it was a goose.

I skiped school that day and went to CP with two of my buddys. I was waiting in line for front row on MF and about 2 or 3 people behind me was this girl. she was not bad looking so I noticed her. I was next in line, then the rain came. i decied to wait it out and it took about 20 minutes. I got on and had a great ride. since we went in May the lines were super short so after the ride i went and got back on. i get to about the ramp at the unloading station and notice the ride was down to clean up the blood. to my suprise it was the girl who got hit by the goose. how do i know it was a goose? she was yelling curse words about this goose that struck her. in all it seemed that she was laughing more than crying. but it was a goose for the recored.