Steel Vengeance dispatches... Wow!

I believe on that one it's an IROC thing to ensure someone doesn't sneak into a seat after it's been checked.

Yeah, I figure that's probably why, but it seems to me that a) it would be pretty obvious that someone was on top of the restraint, and b) people who are slow to put stuff in bins could easily return after the seat was checked regardless of what they are doing with the gates.

Yep - they don't seem to want you to skip a seat and come back to it either. Nor do they want two ops to "meet in the middle" having one that gets done quicker help out another one who is stuck on a seat. It's as though IROC assumes that all employees and guests are complete morons and can't handle watching 6 or 8 people sit down and make sure they've checked each seat. So you get this least common denominator type of system where it makes all employees as lame as the weakest one and the guests in line suffer.

I've noticed they're extremely aggressive in closing the gates quickly on most rides this year - especially Magnum. Can't say I blame them if they aren't supposed to check a restraint until the gates are closed. When I worked the ride, we'd always leave them open extra long in hopes of a single rider like Randy, Ralph or Magnum "Candy Man" Jerry coming in late to fill a seat that we weren't able to fill already by pairing two people up! Oh and by the way, we were able to comprehend what was going on and check the seat too and no guests or employees died while I was there and we didn't need IROC to save us from ourselves. Also, our typical day with a 10PM close was typically between 19,000 and 20,000 riders and that was without enough riders to need to stop anyone at the turnstiles for the first and the last hour of the day.

Also, 0g - don't give them any ideas. Next year it will be that you can't start checking until everyone's crap is in a bin, everyone has exited, and everyone has returned to their seat and sat down.

MDOmnis, Matt, are you sure you don't want to come back and work? Your ethic seems great and hey, they will pay you $20.00 per hour, plus a sign-on bonus! Seriously, sounds like your crew cranked the riders through safely and swiftly.

Magnum is the only ride that still dispatches as quickly as it did in the 90s. There are more setups than back in the day, but Magnum (and Steel Vengeance during a power hour) are the only rides that still operate with Bill Spehn style efficiency.

I agree. Those two stand out as the best in the park this year!

Also jimmyburke, I've been tempted to go back for a couple weekends just for fun and to help out, but the longer I go without doing it, the less likely it is. The adulting reality is that I'm about 4 hours away, have a full time job, a wife, two kids. and these "glory days" I talk about working on Magnum were coming up on 20 years ago. I'm getting old! I remember so much of it like it was yesterday though and it was some of the best times of my life. Loved working on that ride. Plus I'm not sure I'd be so good about following their new "rules" so they'd probably fire me on the first day. :)

MDOmnis, yeah, I was a bit hesitant to make my point "b" above for that very reason.

The coasters have been operating at Cedar Point for decades before the air gates were added. I don't know what year(s) the gates were added to all the different coasters except that I believe Millennium was first. Blue Streak operated safely for, what, ~40 years with no gates at all? I admit that the gates are probably needed these days for added safety, but the gates should not be tied to restraint checking.

In all honesty, if you run air gates the right way, it doesn't significantly affect capacity. If the crew opens the gates as soon as the train parks in the station and has the spieler say, "Please step through the gates they will be closing in 5 - 4 - 3 - 2 - 1", it forces guests to get nice and close with those unloading from the train. A good crew will have gates closed and restraints locked before everyone's even seated.

The first coaster in the park to have boarding gates was Gemini, but I think they were removed before the ride opened. The hardware (minus the gates themselves) was there for decades. What was interesting is that they finally replaced the railings in the station (eliminating the abandoned gate hardware)...and then had to retrofit with gates.

The first coaster to get functioning boarding gates was Mantis:TCFKAB. I think the State wanted them on any new ride from that point forward.

Millennium Force has the gate design that should have been implemented for most of the retrofits around the park. Especially rides like Gemini and Magnum where the boarding side space is limited. The double gate has two distinct advantages: first, it effectively opens faster as the opening gate produces a widening hole where it is needed. Second, it takes up half as much space between the shotgun and the side of the train, leaving more space for the operators to work.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

I remember the last day of the season, some year before gates were installed, when we were waiting for a rear seat on the blue side. One of the ride ops fainted and fell toward/onto the track just as blue train was coming around the helix. We all jumped into action and pulled her up in what seemed like the nick of time. I recall a lot of yelling and screaming.
Come to find out there was a big crew goodbye party the night before that included a lot of alcohol. She was so hung over…
I had always wondered about gates and how “staying behind the yellow line” prevented accidents. I seem to remember CP was one of the last parks to go with gates.

DisasterFan00 said:

A good crew will have gates closed and restraints locked before everyone's even seated.

This does not make any sense. Mantis is no more. On what coaster are you proposing this procedure? Sounds great if your goal is to send out trains with empty seats.

He might be talking about when the Operator doesn't release the lap bar lock even after people have gotten into the train. You sit down but when you pull the lap bar to you it just springs back up. Happens often on wooden coasters with PTC trains. If the lap bars were able to lock down right away, they could be checked right away and thus a quicker dispatch. I imagine most Operators don't lock right away because someone always hits the bar while getting in and it knocks it down enough that it needs to be released again so they can sit properly.

Great operations today... Oh wait, it's been closed all day. I knew the park had staffing issues, but didn't think it would affect the maintenance department. Alot of rides down today

This happens every time the wheels get put on backwards.

For those going tomorrow both Steel Vengeance and Dragster were finally up late afternoon although Vengeance was running just 2 trains. Maverick was down for awhile too.

Cargo Shorts said:

This happens every time the wheels get put on backwards.

All jokes aside I've been told by multiple ride-op friends from different rides that wheels are a legitimate problem this year. Magnum was out of extras a couple weeks ago so was down to 2 trains. I'm guessing it's part of the whole supply chain problem that has been causing stuff to be out of stock all over the country.

MrJohnJLewis said:

Great operations today... Oh wait, it's been closed all day.

One could argue that’s 100% efficiency

That One Coaster Guy said:

Magnum was out of extras a couple weeks ago so was down to 2 trains.

Oof. I was wondering why that was. Park seemed packed and their crew has been one of the best in the park this year. Guess that makes sense though.

They can get into a real mess pretty quickly if they are short because those wheels have a curation period. They need to sit around for a while before they can actually be used. At least that's the way it used to be.

Yes I was very impressed with Magnum crew when I was there recently. Haven't seen them hit interval that much in quite some time. It reminded me of the Spehn years.

Magnum down to two trains with the way their crew hauls is still better than pretty much anything else in the park this year.