new(er) policy?

there have been many discussion regarding CF's "rain" policy...today, i realized how RIDICULOUS and how it makes absolutely no sense...

i was at the park today, and throughout the day it sprinkled....not enough to see on the ground or even on your body, but enough just to feel it...each time, almost all (if not all) coasters would stop operating.....

by 8-9, it was insane...i have never been so pissed in an amusement park in my life.....my g/f and i got in line for maverick at around 8:30pm.....it starts sprinkling, like i mentioned before, and they shut it down for a good 15-20 minutes....then they finally open it after doing all the test runs, and closed it AGAIN 10 minutes later...for sprinkles....

the ride opens back up and we discuss that if it closes down again, we'll leave the line because it won't be worth the wait (although i love maverick)....well, about 10 minutes later, it starts to RAIN...i'm not saying it poured or anything like that, but it was a steady soft rain....and the ride continued to operate...and continued....and continued...and we finally got to ride

now i'm not complaining that i was able to get on, rain or not....but....does anyone know why this would happen? to me it makes no sense...and for a majority of the park, a few light sprinkles should not cause the coasters to close...

thanks for reading my rant, but i just wanted to know if i'm the only person aggravated by this new policy???

Even since two of Magnum's trains bumped into each other they stared the new policy. Ether the ride closes until it stops raining or on some coasters they take a train off.

Well if they kept it running during rain, it's possible they took it down to transfer on/off a train or had a mechanical failure.

Dragster has always shut down in the rain, even a light sprinkle. But I've ridden MF in what could be considered pretty close to a downpour. Are you tellin me that they're shutting every coaster down in light rain now???

When I was there on 8/12 (Sunday). MF went down for a 5 minute sprinkle as well. Not only was it a light sprinkle, but the sun was still out. Even after it stopped they still sent empty trains and watched each one come back into the brakes before they started loading trains again.

Josh M. said:
When I was there on 8/12 (Sunday). MF went down for a 5 minute sprinkle as well. Not only was it a light sprinkle, but the sun was still out. Even after it stopped they still sent empty trains and watched each one come back into the brakes before they started loading trains again.

I was in line for Maverick during this time...sprinkled for 5 minutes (at the most)...by the time the rain stopped, the sun came out and they shut down the ride due to "weather conditions"...I could see MS was also shutdown.

Now, i'm all for safety, but I really don't think that the isolated magnum incident should lead to this kind of overreaction...

There are no "new policies" being enforced, and frankly you don't have access to the weather gear they have either. There was a severe thunderstorm warning in the area last night too. Sometimes there are other factors you're not even aware of, like a flaky computer or some other trouble condition.

Wildcat has never run in the rain. Millennium Force trains slide around on the kicker wheels when they're wet, which is what ultimately brings the train to a stop. I bet Maverick has the very same burden. Remember, magnetic brakes don't ever stop a train on an incline, they can only control its speed. The rubber wheels touching the bottom of the train do stop it.

yes, but my main point is that they let it run in the rain, but not when it sprinkled......and it happened more than the few times i mentioned above, because we several times got out of line because the line was far out of the gate and it would start sprinkling, and they would close it due to weather conditions....usually by the time they closed it the sprinkling would stop........there were no storm clouds, no thunder, no lightning, just light clouds that were dropping a few bits of rain.....

i know some coasters have never operated in the rain - i'm not referring to those...i'm referring to, as i stated, "a majority of the park".....

^ - did they announce that it closed because of weather?

Or is it possible that it was a coincidence? It is possible that they had a computer fault at the same time that the rain started.

Jeff -- I have to disagree. Working at MF in 2004, we could run the ride in a steady rain as long as it was not heavy. I remember rainy days where we never went down. The policy on MF is to now go down for any sort of rainfall. In addition, Opening Day at Maverick it was clear that it was cleared to run in the downpour that occurred that morning (the same downpour that is the cause of the Magnum incident). After that incident, Maverick now must either go down, or transfer off trains for any type of rain. And although they aren't the best source of info, I have heard this from multiple Ride Ops.

Although these are the only coasters that I know the policies for sure, I have noticed others have followed in similar fashion. (Mantis went down for the same sprinkle on Sunday). As a side note, the sprinkle on Sunday was an isolated blip on radar. There was no other activity within 100 miles of the park.

Bottom line, I don't know how you can say "there are no "new policies" being enforced", when, at least to me, it's pretty clear that there are. Now I will say, that we must be careful not to assume how the policy is carried out (ex: 5 empty trains after the rain stops), because this has been very inconsistent, but it is obvious there is a new "standard" for ride operations in the rain.

Finally, since it seems you know, I am curious as to what weather equipment the park actually has. I know of the anemometers on many of the taller rides, and I know that Park Op uses the CLE NWS Doppler radar for monitoring incoming storms. But do they have additional equipment on site?

*** Edited 8/16/2007 3:04:34 PM UTC by Josh M.***

i spent most of the afternoon in soak city yesterday and it sprinkled twice. each time i watched how long many of the coasters were closed and then the painfully long testing time. just thankful i was hanging in soak city instead of being in a park full of fuming guests. we left at nine o'clock when the sprinkles got heavy and put another trip in the books.

I think the park has some sort of lightning detection system as well. Anything beyond that, I'm not sure.

They do. It's called Thor or something similar. I believe this is it: http://thorguard.com/ (crappy website warning)

*** Edited 8/16/2007 4:13:20 PM UTC by Michael.Darling***

Josh M. said:
Jeff -- I have to disagree. Working at MF in 2004, we could run the ride in a steady rain as long as it was not heavy. The policy on MF is to now go down for any sort of rainfall.

If that's true, it wouldn't surprise me because I know they've bumped trains since. You know better than I do how man variables can affect how fast the train comes out of the brake run.

After that incident, Maverick now must either go down, or transfer off trains for any type of rain.

That makes sense to me. Fewer trains means an extra block to create a buffer zone. Given Maverick's shiny newness, I'm sure the operating procedure for that ride in particular is a work in progress.

Bottom line, I don't know how you can say "there are no "new policies" being enforced", when, at least to me, it's pretty clear that there are.

The only thing is clear to me is that a kid is pissed off because the weather interfered with his day. Given the relative dryness of this summer, I don't think it has rained enough for an outside observer to draw any conclusions. I mean, I've been on Millennium Force in a "light rain" this year, so there must be some other factor.

yes, each time they announced it was due to "weather conditions"....and it certainly was no coincidence since it happened numerous times throughout the day....

i understand safety is a necessary precaution, but being this overly-cautious is just plain ignorant....

JuggaLotus said:
^ - did they announce that it closed because of weather?

Or is it possible that it was a coincidence? It is possible that they had a computer fault at the same time that the rain started.

At least for the maverick line I was in during this time, yes, they specifically said it was closed due to weather.

Chris Holderfield said:
i understand safety is a necessary precaution, but being this overly-cautious is just plain ignorant....

If I owned the park and with the general population being made up of a large amount of ambulance chasers I would proably close the rides for the rains as well after the magnum scare. Liability is a b*tch these days. *** Edited 8/16/2007 5:31:28 PM UTC by JTaylor***

I also noticed the interesting new rain policy at the park. I don't visit the park when it is supposed to rain much (as I have a season pass), but I remember how everything ran in the rain, except TTD. I even remember riding Mantis in the pouring rain.

The current rain policy does seem a bit excessive... Everything closes now even with the slightest sprinkle. Maverick ran in hard rain during media day, but as said above, now it literally does close down in a slight sprinkle that can't even be seen on the ground. The same goes for Mantis, Raptor, and others. When they re-open, they are usually running fewer trains, Mean Streak was running one, which creates absurd wait times.

I know they had a rule about lightning being within 10 miles of the park. Even though sometimes Sandusky is on the edge of the storm front, they still for safety reasons need to close the coasters and other tall stuff down. Mean streak a couple years ago is a good reason, I do believe it got hit! There's a big difference between rain and thunderstorms. Just because you don't see them don't mean they aren't nearby.

Jeff said:
Remember, magnetic brakes don't ever stop a train on an incline, they can only control its speed. The rubber wheels touching the bottom of the train do stop it.

I like the fact that you mention incline because on level track, magnetic brakes are easily capable of stopping a train. During an emergency stop on Millennium Force while a train in partially loaded or empty on the course, the train will stop dead inches before reaching the drive tires.

When it comes down to wet operation of the waiting area drive tires, I have found that it's more in the programming of the retractable brake sequence. Often time, a pair of brakes are engauged to assist in retarding the train. The problem is other times the brakes open too soon allowing the train to fly into wet tires even when the end of unload is still occupied. It would be easy to program the brakes to assist the drive tires in slowing the train down under all circumstances when the end of unload is occupied. If the end of unload is clear, than the tires will be driving the train into unload.