Raptor closed all week?

We are going to CP for the first time beginning next weekend. I've been following the wait times using coasterqueue.com.

It's shown Raptor as CLOSED anytime I've looked since Monday. Anyone know if this is accurate? And if so, the reason? Maybe something to do with the fire in the marina?

highly doubt the marina fire had any ill effects on the ride.

I've also heard it's been down this week so that much seems accurate. Not sure of the reason. Corkscrew has also been down due to them somehow causing the trains to collide while empty.

Yes, coasterqueue is accurate. Raptor has not operated since Sunday and had already been down all morning / early afternoon the day of the fire. I'm sure the fire is entirely unrelated.

In other news, the blue side of Gemini is only running one train because the other decided to suddenly start to have terrible issues.

Yes, its true. Raptor has been down at least since Monday. They would test it empty at times throughout the week, sometimes with one employee on it, but it wouldn't open.

As I was leaving yesterday I noticed the train in the station had the plastic dummies on it.

Someone lost their wallet a few days ago and they still haven't found it.

That's the best zinger I've read all week.

The rumor with Gemini is that some sort of safety chain came unhooked and began hitting the track, creating some awful noise. I presume they mean the chain that goes along the top of the couplings between the cars.

I did hear one awful noise from Gemini yesterday, but nothing too concerning (just a one off clanking noise right before it entered the block brake.) They are running the blue side now, but with one train. (basically, every other cycle races.) The other blue train is on transfer, with one car missing, and another car decoupled from the remaining 3.

For Corkscrew, it is a bit more clear what happened. During transfer-off operations, the red train rear-ended the white train. Both trains have a car removed now and the ride is, of course, closed.

Raptor is open!

GigaG said:

For Corkscrew, it is a bit more clear what happened. During transfer-off operations, the red train rear-ended the white train. Both trains have a car removed now and the ride is, of course, closed.

Still want to know how in the hell they managed that. Seems like a rather monumental f%^& up.

Rumor about Raptor is that there was so much static electricity when operating that it was loud and visible. Maintenance came through and lubed the heck out of the track. They put too much lube on, that when the trains ran the course, it screwed the wheels up so bad that it felt worse than riding Mean streak. So they had been sending empty cycles to smooth out the transitions and wear the lube down a bit. That's what I understood from this rumor.

^I mean I posted how it can happen...This is why alot of rides have switched from simple relay based systems to more advanced PLC systems. The fact that Corkscrew and rides like Gemini have stayed outside of this realm for so long surprises me.

After all these years the coaster is only now having this static issue?

I've noticed what sounded like static on Raptor and even worse on Rougarou this year. I didn't think all that much of it, but it's something I had never noticed in the past. I know there used to be little strips of something behind one of the back wheels on each train which dragged along the track. I thought it served to discharge static somehow. MF has always had them too. Are they using different wheel material? Did they forget to install those during the offseason or think they were unimportant? I honestly haven't noticed if they are there or not this year. Hard to imagine something like that being forgotten. Is lubing the hell out of the track of a steel coaster something that's commonly done?

As for Corkscrew, I guess I overestimated the capabilities of its control system. If it's possible to release a brake (or not have a brake set) when the block in front of it is occupied), then it's definitely different than the ride I worked. And I agree it's surprising they still let it exist that way given how anal the park is about everything safety.

When Transfer is enabled, the ride operates almost manually. Also, if the block clear is set, this will remove the setup status for blocks and the ride has to relearn where the trains are. Either scenario could cause a collision.

The last element not discussed entirely could have been a ride fault. It's practically never happened but there could have been a solenoid/brake failure, who knows. None of us actively work the ride or were there...so.....

Interesting stuff. The Arrow I worked (Magnum - and probably next to none of this is relevant today due to the controls re-do) called for trains to be parked in the safeties and on the lift in order to transfer (either on or off). We'd only switch to transfer mode to actually move the transfer table over and if transferring on, you could release the transfer brake from the panel at transfer to let the train roll off the transfer track halfway into the station. As soon as that was done, we'd move the table back to its normal position and switch back to "run" mode. The manual did call for clearing blocks after transferring on or off although I never completely understood why it was needed when transferring on. Nonetheless, since the trains were parked in front of proximity detectors before the transfer, they were "known" right away and movement wasn't a requirement for it to learn which blocks were occupied. I thought a lot about dumb things you could do to potentially knock trains, put two on the lift, etc and they all involved putting a train somewhere unknown to the control system and then clearing the blocks. I'm not sure if Magnum really let you do much of anything while in transfer mode aside from lock/unlock/move the table and release the transfer brake. Maybe it did. I never considered finding out!

I always had the impression that people smarter than me had thought through a lot of these and put logic in to prevent someone hungover from a long night at Louie's from doing bad things. Of course people have told me you can drive a train right off the transfer track on Maverick, Dragster, or MF and I always found that odd along with the stories about using coins to do block checks. Maybe Magnum wasn't as fool proof as I always thought it was? Can't imagine the feeling I'd have if I screwed up and wrecked two trains or worse yet hurt people.

That would surprise me if the standard operators could drive a train off the transfer track. It seems like it would be so simple to put a sensor near the end, if you've gone this far, stop. Of coarse I could understand not wanting the operators to rely on them, but why not include them?