Off-season updates underway...

Lots of little changes happening in preparation for the 2003 season. Noted in the past three weeks...

o New fencing around Mine Ride queue (noted 10/06)
o New exit gate at bottom of Mine Ride ramp (10/06)
o New handrail on Mine Ride ramp (10/20)
o New doghouse for Blue Streak operator (10/20)
o Markings on platforms of Mine Ride and Raptor for new queue systems (10/20)
o New signs on Millennium Force kill-zone gates (10/20)

Okay, so what did I miss? :)

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Wildcat is getting painted too. You can see part of the track has been painted purple while driving along Perimeter Road.

Gemini's trains are being painted.

Woodstock Express now has an automatic parking system ;)

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Brent Haley
Gemini Crew '02

kill-zone gates?

new queue system? like what? i skipped Raptor and Mine Ride this weekend...

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not to be confused with Tservo...

Each gate leading into a Millennium Force kill zone now has a new sign which reads, "RESTRICTED AREA - DO NOT OPEN". Those signs were not there on 10/6.

If you look carefully at the platforms on Raptor and Mine Ride you can see measurements and markings which indicate where the gates are going to be. It's particularly obvious on Raptor where the location of the co-dispatch control stand is marked. I first noticed those markings on Raptor on 10/6. Oh, another one I noticed...

o Gemini now has a new, printed "wait time/don't jump the queue" sign. Looks a lot like the old hand-painted one, actually...

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Yeah, I love the new sign ;)

kill-zone = low-zone...meaning that area is restricted while the ride is running. You can see one of the signs if you look at the fence right by the entrance.

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Brent Haley
Gemini Crew '02

Mean Streak got a brand new computer in the control booth and they replaced the station brakes. Earlier in the season there were gate markings on the yellow line but I don't know if they are still there.

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Brad Wagner
The Ohio State University
Mine Ride/Mean Streak Crew 2002

The stairs leading up to and down from the Mantis station received a fresh coat of red and white paint.

I noticed several new "Restricted Area" signs around the park (all by coasters of course). Ones I remember are WT, Mantis, and Raptor.

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"Meh."
Wicked twists: 10
Danger: Hgih Voltage!

I have heard that Wildcat, Iron Dragon, Mantis, and Magnum are all getting painted. Maybe that's why they are starting already? Wildcat will have purple track and lime green supports, which we can see now. It's definately going to look different.

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Steve Sergent
MF count: 222

Wow, I didn't even realize I was talking to you Dave on the way out past Magnum, Sunday night. Small world...Anyways, I have yet to see the new signage around the park. I will definitely be making my rounds this weekend since I won't be on Magnum all the time.

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Michael McCormack CP '02: 52
Magnum XL 200: 498 (623)
Millennium Force: 13
Wicked Twister: 33

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shorty said:
Wildcat will have purple track and lime green supports, which we can see now.

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Mr. Spartan! Right colors, wrong coaster!

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Tommy Penner - Variable X
Cedar Point FanBoy since 2001. || Cruiser Boy since 2002.
"Pessimistic people are the happiest people on the planet. They're either right or pleasantly surprised."

Yeah, Mean Streak did get shiny new station brakes, which became even more obvious when I noticed an October date written on them.

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Jeff
Webmaster/GTTP
"There's nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, when it's all in your mind. You gotta let go." - Ghetto, Supreme Beings of Leisure

Probably has something to do with the fact that one Oct 5/6, the ride wasn't parking properly and the ops had to manually release a number of seats on every trip into the station... :)

-Matt
2001 Magnum Crew

The manual seat-release dance continued into the next week, too. Several trains had to be released while we were waiting on Oct 12. More unfortunately, the ride pride on the platform was having a hard time doing it.

Let me tell you, that manual seat-release dance was a blast! Not only did we have a platform of mainly ride prides but we only had two lapbar keys until later in the day. I'd say probably 9 out of every 10 trains either short or long stopped. The problem was that it was a two week old computer with two week old brakes and it was cold out. They finally shut us down that afternoon to work on it. I sure was happy when they sent me to Mine Ride that evening! I hope all the bugs are worked out for this weekend!

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Brad Wagner
The Ohio State University
Mine Ride/Mean Streak Crew 2002
*** This post was edited by BradwagsCP 10/22/2002 5:11:56 PM ***

Also new is the fencing at the exit to Millennium Force. I don;t remember seeing that the last time I was there.
*** This post was edited by MillenniumMan 10/22/2002 5:28:35 PM ***

Gemini Games is receiving a fresh coat of paint. It looks like Monster might be freshly painted too next season. We noticed a test car and Paint Test spots on Monster.

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- Chris -
http://www.thepointOL.com/~simplycp
2002 ATL Monster/Witches' Wheel

Lots of new paint!

Ok, so Mantis, Wildcat, and Trokia are being painted?

Any other major improvements?

I've heard that Mantis will be receiving FreeWay next year, we'll see if it happens.

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gravity: down to earth, without the sugar coating.

www.geocities.com/gravityjmb

Where would a Mantis Freeway merge point go?

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I fool so feelish...

I was wondering the same thing about if raptor would get a freeway pass but knowing CP they will most likely find a way to make it work.

BTW IMO the Automatic brakeing system on woodstock express really, really SUCKS. It also tends to periodically overshoot the train too.

"When you were in that fire did you make your own gravy?"