Ride Problems...

OK - I know that this is being discussed everywhere but this topic is a little different. Has anyone noticed that there have been a lot of opening week glitches with the rides? I have not really visited Cedar Point near the begining of the season, nor have I checked this site as much as I do now, but I think that there is a lot going on with a lot of different rides...is this a "normal" thing or does it seem a little worse this year.

I haven't noticed anything unusual, except for maybe the weather.

Part of it might be that as the site grows, more and more people are reporting more and more of what they see. If the Tilt-a-Whirl was down for 10 minutes yesterday, someone wants to know why.

*** Edited 5/17/2005 5:31:18 PM UTC by Walt***

I don't know, actually. I think the weather plays into it some, but they had a couple days of downtime with MF last week, they've had problems with Wicked Twister (Although, not full day downtime). They've had problems with Dragster, and it is, yet again, down. They had problems with Iron Dragons lift motor last week as well.

So I think to answer your question, there has been more rides that are 'down all day' this year than normal maybe, but overall, the downtime hasn't been so bad. There's just been a few problem children this year.

sorry to change the subject...but is it probable that Dragster will be up and running again by next monday? Thanks!

Magic 8-ball says: "Outlook not so good"

Top Thrill Dragster was down two of the four days I went to CP. Millennium Force had two 20 minute down times while I was there. The first time MF broke down, a couple of teenagers in the back of the yellow train unbuckled their seatbelts, and it stopped the lift. On the second breakdown, I didn't hear about what had happened.

Magnum had also broke down yesterday, it was stuck at the top of the lift hill. The Turbo Drop side on Power Tower was down on one day. Iron Dragon was down on the first day of my trip. Raptor was experiencing problems with the weather, they had to run empty trains for a while. Mean Streak was down yesterday as well because the restraints weren't locking.

Ok, random thought here. All of the downtime, et al. does anyone think some of this is an after affect from the big blackout last year across the Northeast? I know it hit CP as well. Just wondering.

Bill in Morton

The blackout was 2 years ago....I HIGHLY doubt that it is still having a lingering effect on anything.

If were on the topic of ride problems, this weekend I was working the birthday game in the front of the park and somebody came over and had what I originally thought was throw-up all over them. I asked them what happened and they told me that Raptor had rust flying off the ride and it was landing on people and that the park was supplying him and the other guests with new clothes... anyone else hear anything like this?

I don't think the problems are worse now than they usually are at the start of the year. The three times I've visited I actually thought things were running rather well. I did notice on Sunday that it looked at if they may have been replacing the cable on of the the PT drop towers. It was closed, and there were some tools and four large spools of what looked like cable sitting around it. As far as rust and grease flying off of rides, I have heard of it happening before.

Anyone know if Mean Streak is back up and running? Also did they fix the problem on Magnum?

You guys are freaking me out here. but then I have to think, there are park even worse than that but they are just not made public. and I have probably gone to them.

anyway, it's the beggining of the year, the weather is crappy, let the rides warm up and more employees get hired. Sheesh.

Also did they fix the problem on Magnum?

what was wrong with the Magnum?

Magnum had also broke down yesterday, it was stuck at the top of the lift hill.

I was just wondering if it was fixed?
*** Edited 5/17/2005 8:58:55 PM UTC by wingnut***

Oh, I missed that. I thought you were talking about the sudden jolt on the second sprial thing.

Schureman said:
Ok, random thought here. All of the downtime, et al. does anyone think some of this is an after affect from the big blackout last year across the Northeast? I know it hit CP as well. Just wondering.

Bill in Morton

No, because with Solid State Electronics 99% of the time the part is either good or bad, it does not weaken like old tubes. So after the blackout when the power came on if there was a surge then it either destroyed parts in power supplies (most likely there) or didn't harm a thing. Now on rare ocassions transistors can be leaky which means they measure the same resistance across certain legs (base emitter collector). For instance when measuring the positive lead of the VOM on the collector and negative on the base after you reverse the leads of the VOM on the same legs of the transistor you don't want to see the same resistance. That points to a bad transistor. And the possibility exists that it could happen from a surge, but is unlikely.
*** Edited 5/17/2005 9:37:55 PM UTC by Hooper***

Yea I didn't understand a word you said.

Magnum had also broke down yesterday, it was stuck at the top of the lift hill.

Or, they parked one train at the top of the lift while they were putting another one on...

Honestly, I can't think of a day I've been at CP where at least one ride I thought about riding hadn't been down for some reason or another. Usually, it's a handful of minutes at most. Sometimes, it's worse. These days, unless we're talking about TTD, it's not usually an hours-to-days sort of thing.

Ok, basically the transistor breaks down inside itself and starts to leak current, or short internally to itself.

Or normally when a transistor is bad you read a dead short across the pins or 0 Ohms. When it is leaky you would read a certain amount of resistance across the pins say 600 ohms any way you measured it. It can't conduct electricity (or work properly) if the resistance is the same.

Its typical for rides to run into problems this early in the season, it happens every year.

You have to remember that cedar point tears the rides apart in the winter and reasembles them in the spring. Alot of it has to do with minor problems like a photo eye that is getting too much glair from the sun and has to be aimed differant.

If people only relized how many proxys and photo eyes that dragster had. If just one of them has a problem the whole ride shuts down.

It's somewhere around 3,000 I believe..... :)