Mine Ride having problems?

I was at Cedar Point yesterday and noticed the Mine Ride was not operating. We walked by it 3 times yesterday and only noticed some men working on the track just outside the main queue building. Anyone know if it's back up today and why it was closed?

It must be on the chopping block, thats why it's closed.

^ Oh I wish.

Rides tend to break down, especially older ones such as Mine Ride. I'd imagine it was just a common mishap and it should be fixed within the next few days.

You wish Mine Ride would be torn down? Why?

It would be sad to see it go, but they need to replace it with another mine train, or find a company that could manufacture track to extend it now that Arrow is out of business, or even rebuild a new ride using some of the same supports. What I don't like about Mine Train is that it has two long, straight sections and little theming on the ride itself besides the buildings involving the ride. No mine scenery and a short ride that is not that good in my opinion.

EDIT - I'd want to keep it, but at least add some theming. Maybe preserve the ride for the history, but seriously, Cedar Point needs something with actual theming that doesn't stop operating after a few years.

Maybe they could borrow some wood from the Son of Beast? That would be a heck of a mine train................ unless of course the wood is bad and cracks apart.

It was down for mechanical reasons, nothing terribly exciting.

You wish Mine Ride would be torn down? Why?

I view Mine Ride the same way I view Corkscrew; as outdated and bumpy. Perhaps my overactive imagination is to blame for my feelings as well, because when I look at the ride I see the potential for something that could be so much better in terms of both theming, smoothness, and thrills (while still being a family coaster).

I spoke my opinion about it on another thread, and was nailed by a lot of members who disagreed, so I'd rather not talk about it anymore. It's just important to remember that no ride in the park is immune to future development, especially when the park officials don't have unlimited space to work with. I just feel that Mine Ride would be a good candidate for a "sacrifice" if it meant we'd be getting an amazing new family ride that would be well worth MR's farewell. If I liked Mine Ride, I would probably not want it to be replaced, so I get why people are so against the idea of it being replaced by something new.

It'd be great if CP didn't have to destroy anything to build new rides, but it really looks like they're running out of room.

I actually like mine ride. Sure, it's a little jerky and it's hard to fit in the cars, but there's something about it I just really like. In a way the jerkiness is why I like it. It makes it feel like a runaway mine train, with the jerkiness, quick dips, and sharp turns. I'd be sad to see it leave. I also love it's location and how it goes over the lagoon at one point.

Mine Ride is the ONLY ride in the park that I know of where you can not put your hands up. I have struck my hands on the metal sheet as the train passes under the overhead track. This ride does not pass the "board test". How about a big dark building around the helix at the end.

I should have said "shouldn't" not "can't". Miss-typed since my hands still hurt from hitting the ride.

@Ryan - And I totally can relate to that. I was one of the people who loved Disaster Transport, despite so many others who felt it was boring and short. But at the same time I can see why it was replaced; if CP wasn't a peninsula I can't imagine they'd have any reason to remove it. It just seems the limited size causes the officials to force judgement upon rides when they wish to build new rides.

Just imagine if they decided to remove Raptor instead of DT. Age and popularity are sure to come into play as parameters for determining the investment of replacing the old for the new, something that CP's size limitation forces upon the process of updating the park with new attractions.

I shouldn't of said I wished Mine Ride would go, because I don't. I just place it in my list of things I would rather see go instead of others to improve the park in the future.

This thread made me laugh. Just because a ride is down a few hours a day, does not mean its ready for the scrap yard. :)

Mine ride is not going anywhere.

Mine ride is actually one of the longer coasters at Cedar Point if I'm not mistaken. (in terms of ride cycle time)

GigaG said:
... What I don't like about Mine Train is that it has two long, straight sections and little theming on the ride itself besides the buildings involving the ride. No mine scenery and a short ride that is not that good in my opinion.

Trivia: Those two long straight sections used to be block brakes. That means the ride blocks were:

Load station
Transfer table
First lift
First block brake
Second lift
Second block brake
Holding brake
Unloading station

That's eight places to hold a train, which was more than enough to allow the ride to be designed for five train operation. I don't know if it ever actually ran with five trains, but it was designed for five, and I think more often ran with four in its early days. Now they can barely run it with two.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Corkscrew Follies said:
It must be on the chopping block, thats why it's closed.

Cute ... But since MR falls under the "at least it doesn't totally suck" category, which is more than can be said about the Corkscrew, I think it's safe.

Titandwedebil said:
...park officials don't have unlimited space to work with.
...they're running out of room.
...if CP wasn't a peninsula I can't imagine they'd have any reason to remove it.
...CP's size limitation...

Yes, the park is on a peninsula, but that's not necessarily the limiting factor here. Because attendance at the park is relatively static, so too is there revenue (to an extent). As such, the park can only spend a certain amount on maintenance, and that maintenance crew can only work so many hours every week.

Every spring, the park sprints to the finish in order to get rides running by opening day. And often times, rides won't be running at full capacity until weeks into the season. That seems to indicate the maintenance staff has neared the limit on quantity of rides.

In short, the park will run out of maintenance staff before they run out of room, in all likelihood.

With that in mind, it's not a guarantee that replacing CCMR with something new would lessen the demand on maintenance. In fact, it's conceivable that a new ride on that plot would have a higher maintenance demand than does CCMR. After all, CCMR seems to run more reliably than, say, TTD or Maverick, probably because the latter two are newer, more complex rides.

And maybe that's why the ride is still there, after more than 4 decades.

Super Stew said:

Corkscrew Follies said:
It must be on the chopping block, thats why it's closed.

Cute ... But since MR falls under the "at least it doesn't totally suck" category, which is more than can be said about the Corkscrew, I think it's safe.

I thought it was cute also, but I was being sarcastic. I am just sick of threads on here that people seem to think this ride or that ride needs to be torn down because they don't seem to fit some peoples ideas on here of what CP's standards are.

Granted, I voiced my opinions on MS's roughness enough, and my refusal to ever ride it again no matter what they do to it. IMO that is the primest real estate on the peninsula. But, CP seems to keep sinking money in to it year after year so obviously it isn't going anywhere anytime soon, and I have come to terms with that.

Last time I checked, the original thread question was just an inquery into why the ride was down, not about the future of the CCMR. :)

I was there on Sunday, too, and wondered what was wrong with it. Yes, I realize that rides can be down for days for minor reasons. I only wondered because when we walked by there (around 11 am or so), the entrance was blocked by one of the little EMT carts. There were people in the line, and one of the cars was stopped on the final helix going into the station. There were about 4-5 maintenance workers on the tracks. There were also about 4 cops around the area, keeping the gawkers moving.

I'm not saying that there were people on the ride, nor am I speculating in any way that something occurred; I am just saying that I personally have never seen that much attention paid to a ride experiencing minor problems (especially since MF kept breaking down all day). We walked by it again around 7pm, and it was still closed.

It's no different than Gemini rolling back in the helix. It can be difficult to have people get out of a train that is on it's side, or tilted, but that's all it was--a rollback in the helix.