Skyride cable being replaced.

bholcomb said:
How else do they connect the two ends together then? I'm not exactly an expert when it comes to splicing a cable together.

lots and lots of duck tape? lol

Did I not make that joke in the 8th post in this thread?

While I am sure there are many bridges that have cables older than Sky Ride's, I find it hard to believe that Cedar Point hasn't replaced theirs, before now. It's been in service for almost 45 years?!? Incredible, if true.

MrScott

It makes me wonder how often they check the cable internally. It's a real pain to do. I've heard of cables that are 2 weeks old fail because of undetected internal seperations.

Yeah, with CP's adhesion to their safety standards, it would seem silly for the cable to not have been internally inspected somehow. Perhaps ultrasound? That sounds like a stupid suggestion, but I can't think of any non-intrusive method for checking the internal integrity of a cable.

Also, it would surprise me as well if this is the first time the cable has ever been replaced. Unless it was simply way over-engineered from the start, just to save the time & money involved in more regular replacement.

45 years?!? That would be impressive, to say the least.

We'll all find out soon enough, I guess. It sounds like the CP Blog is going to explain it all.

Gomez said:

Even though I trust CP's safety record. Sky Ride has always been the scariest ride for me. 20+ cabins hanging from one cable all the time, yicks. I like the view from the ride none-the-less.

Sky rides or ski lifts (technically called Ropeways) are extremely safe methods of transportation. There are lifts in mountainous areas that have many more cabins on the cable than Ski Ride (a couple hundred or more) and may be two or more miles in length.

The cable specs for ropeways are very conservative, I wouldn't worry about the cable breaking.

If you want to learn more about lifts, a great site is www.skilifts.org
*** Edited 11/22/2005 2:59:37 PM UTC by Pete***

When I worked Sky Ride in 2000 they told us the cable had been replaced during the offseason and that it would take a few weeks of operation and warm weather for it to "stretch" out correctly and the ride not to have as many technical stops (sensors shutting the ride down).

How would you check it internally? xray diffraction? Seems like it would be particularly hard to do with the cable installed...

In any event, early failure is just an example of the bathtub curve. If the cable has been in use for "a while", it's likely to last a while longer. Up to the "backside" of the bathtub, anyway, and that service time should be well known given the cable construction.
*** Edited 11/22/2005 4:12:51 PM UTC by Brian Noble***

I completely agree, regarding your failure analysis. However, it would also seem that there would still need to be an inspection process beyond just a visual one. This is CP, after all.

I used to work the ride a while back. If I remember correctly, there was a sensor next/near the cabe to set off an alarm if it started to frey.

I know that it is possible to do an electromagnetic inspection of wire rope for internal wear and broken strands. The rope goes through a sensor head and results are recorded on a graph, which allows trouble spots to be flagged.

I, of course, have no idea of CP's inspection program, but it could be similar to the ski industry's B-77 code. The ski industry code uses the following criteria to determine if a wire rope needs replacement:

Exterior condition, interior condition, lay length (distance a strand makes a complete rotation), excessive change in carriage movement (bull wheel movement, either counterweight or hydraulic), splice area condition, cable grip movement, existing damage changes (yes, the run damaged rope), date since the last replacement.

The source that listed the above information said that they have no knowledge of a haul rope ever breaking while in normal use at a ski area.

Sky Ride has a little 'box' of 'wire' that goes around the cable where it comes into and leaves each station. If it were to fray, it would short the two ends together, and set off an automatic e-stop, and light the E-Stop light for Cable Fray.

Well since CP is the best they get the best.

ForgottenEE clearly knows a thing or two about wire rope...

When I read about the Skyride cable replacement, I did a quick Web search, and learned that the standard for splice length is 1,200 times the diameter of the rope. I don't know how big the Sky Ride rope is, but if we assume that it is a 2" rope, that is a splice roughly 400 feet long. It's understandable that you might not see that splice as the rope goes past.

Looking at the Ryer site (above) and others that came up in a quick search, I got the distinct impression that wire rope splicing is a bit of an art form with these large haul ropes. I believe that Sky Ride is the only ride at Cedar Point that uses a continuous rope; Millennium Force, Top Thrill Dragster, Power Tower, Wave Swinger, Frog Hopper, Skyhawk, RipCord, and Space Spiral (did I miss any?) all use unspliced wire rope.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Though I'm guessing they won't, but it would be awesome for T&T to do a behind-the-scenes thing on the splicing of the Skyride cable. It seems like a considerable task with a lot involved, and I would love to see exactly how it is handled, start-to-finish.

Well, they inferred that they would be covering more by the reply to the question of 'How often is the cable replaced?'

So I guess we can hope.

I would love to be there for the cable replacement. I know it will take a lot of manpower too.

I'm sure Tony and Tylor won't be giving up much information in this case. I'm sure there will be photos, some lame comentary and a couple facts about Sky Ride, but not much else.

What are you looking for? A 100-page technical manual on how they do it? It's cedarpoint.com, not cableengineer.com.

*** Edited 11/24/2005 12:21:03 PM UTC by Walt***

Dave,
What about Demon Drop? Would that count or is it something different?

*** Edited 11/24/2005 5:48:40 PM UTC by TTD 120mph***