The cable snapped again...

Judging by the huge line outside of the entrance on the cam right now, I think it's safe to assume that they're planning to open shortly.

If what Wingnut said is true, that makes life a bit easier I'm sure. Last year when the cable broke, it apparently made a mess of the nylon liner in the catch car's track and bent a whole mess of brass fins, and a couple of prox switches broke off and got wedged in the track with the catch car. All kinds of things apparently got damaged in the process.

Yeah, it looked as if a cable snapped. If it was a lauch cable, it must have happened when the sled had reached the tower on the previous launch, because they rolled the next train to launch before shutting down. (I was on the ramp when it happened.) It definitely wasn't like the last time as that was heard all over the place. (I must be bad luck, because I was near the ride when that happened.)

At least everyone who waited the added 30 minutes till they figured it out got special enterance passes for TTD and one for any other ride in the park. at 9:30pm, they had a spool sitting on the launch area and were feeding in the new line.

So you, Joe, are telling me if I would have waited in line another few minutes (I waited almost 30 after it broke down), I would have gotten exit passes? Man, that really bites.

I got 153 pictures yesterday, ones of the cable snap including one of the guys working, one of the crane, and one of the launch platform. Is there any way I can post the cable snap pictures out here for people to see?

Yep. They started at enterance and gave everyone in the actual queue passes. If you email me some of the pics, I can host them on my server, but I would ask that you don't send a crapload. (ie. send like 20 at max, not all 153.) My temp email for this is cbpics@joecwik.com.

("Top Thrill Dragster is scheduled to be up and operational today after a long night of tireless work from our maintenance crew," said Cedar Point Public Relations Coordinator Bryan Edwards.
Intermittent delays are expected for re-adjustment of the new cables.)

Those are the exact words from the news section for those of you who haven't already checked who are worried about going later this month.

does anybody know why the cable on the ride keeps snapping is it because the cable is weak and they need a stronger one or what?

"Keeps snapping?" It did it once last year, and this year it apparently just needed to be replaced and didn't snap. That's hardly a trend. Cables get worn out, especially when they have to pull a train weighing several tons to 120+ mph in a couple of seconds.

My guess would be the stess on it. Even though it calculates for least amount of stress. And last year they only replaced one of the cables...this time they replaced both. :)

Both? I thought it had three cables two that pull and one return. Maybe not.

No, you're right, it does have three as you describe. I don't think any of us know when or how frequently it has been replaced.

joe, how do I post the pictures (I have them uploaded on my hotlink-able server right now)?

i was at the park the day the cable snapped. it broke between 3:30 and 4 and they worked on it all night. this morning they were testing it but i left(unfortunately) and dont know if it was back up or not.

to add to my other post... it wasnt down as long this time b/c they had spare cables. last time they had to wait for the cables to come in from the intamin company and that takes a while so they were able to get the cables replaced and TTD up more quickley than last time.

Its back up if you guys didnt know.... i was the first to get back on it and didnt roll back :(

No, they didn't have to wait for replacement cable last time it happened. The snapped cable broke other things last year.

And for the record, the cable didn't snap yesterday, as mentioned in the news section.

O.K. here's what i seen today. 10:25am they shot off one blank. After that we didn't see anything until 12:17pm and then thay shot off 5 emptys. Then they started to load up 12. they went until about 1:30pm. after that it was very far between launchs loaded or not i couldn't see. Then when we took off for the day at 5:30pm, we seen it running. But we couldn't tell if it was laoded. So looking like after some fine tuning it sould be up smoth soon...

I have been wtching the webcams this evening and TTD seems to be running pretty well.

They were firing the trains off at 50 second intervals with no rollbacks that I saw; and I watched 15 or so trains.

All I keep thinking about during all of this is how are the cables attached to the sled? It must be a pretty strong connection if a cable snapped once and got badly frayed a second time. I know its not like a rope and they can knot it at the source of connection and I don't think a weld can be that strong. Does anyone know?

when we were their last year after the big break down I notice a crane too. It was instaling a/c for the little storing area by the speedomiter

Uh, that's no storage, that's the 10,000 hp hydraulic motor in that building.