The Gatekeeper upkeep?

With the brand new "The Boardwalk" area this year, I would think that the maintenance upkeep of the section would be a priority. The Gatekeeper's train lights are not working again/still. This looks bad for the park in general, but especially for the new shiny gem The Boardwalk.

Sometimes, no matter how much you want to fix it or regardless of how much cash you throw at it, the item you need to solve the problem may not be available.

That or they don't care because it isn't a priority and that specific feature will not cause any negative impact to the guest experience.

Onboard electrical systems that are not critical to the ride experience are notoriously neglected. And I would argue that on GK, 75% of the time, those lights don't mean anything. It's also interesting to think about how much battery tech has changed in a decade. Lithium battery systems that can charge fast are easy to come by now. In 2013, not so much.

The ride is still amazeballs.

Jeff that's an interesting point. I'm curious what battery technology is on the gatekeeper trains.

I don’t know what they used originally on the ride. Although today I would think capacitors would be a better choice than rechargeable batteries. Capacitors do have many limitations, but driving a few display LEDS for five minutes would be relatively simple. Probably easier than using lithium batteries.

If you asked 20 people leaving the park at closing time whether the lights were working on Gatekeeper trains, how many do you think would know? How many of them would even know Gatekeeper trains had lights? How many would care if they were working? I would expect at least one of them wouldn't even know what Gatekeeper is.

If you asked 20 members of Pointbuzz, how many would know that it is simply called Gatekeeper, and not "The Gatekeeper"?

It's not exactly a land-grant research roller coaster.

It is, however, about to be researched by a private liberal arts college, but that's another post for another day.

We were in the park Friday night and when we were leaving I saw Gatekeeper pass many times. I can't tell you whether it had lights or not. Who cares if Gatekeeper has the lights on or off?....Oh sorry, I forgot, CoasterHawk does! And the Sky Ride was operating Friday night.

I am a fan of Cedar Point, a former employee of 11 years, and a member here since 1999. I learned in this thread, this week, that the Gatekeeper trains had lights. Imagine what the general public knows.

We rode gatekeeper one Independence Day. It was cold. They had a parade I couldn’t break away from. Anyway once we were on the platform my buddy just went to the center row, I told him there had to be something better than in the middle so we sat up front. That’s where I saw it, gatekeepers light. Only one was working. When we left, getting to our beat up pickup, the engine wouldnt Turn. We got it going and she ran until there was nothing left. Fun day.