Theory on Late MF ERT Starts

While at the Pointbuzz event today, I was lamenting my #1 pet peeve about CP to the individuals seated at my table, which is when MF is not ready to run at the beginning of the daily ERT.

All who visit the park regularly know just what I'm talking about.... The ride opens at 9AM, but only the very first train is ready to run. The other two still have the water dummies in them. So, the first train goes off, then sits to get into the station while all the employees empty the water dummies, one at a time. Normally, it's 9:15AM before that's done and all three trains are in operation. All the while, the line is building. So ERT ends up being one or two rides for an hour spent waiting. Not much of a value, especially when you can get several Maverick rides in during the same ERT time.

Rideman, sitting at my table, postulated that this is all done on purpose, because the trains need a certain amount of passengers in them in order to make it back to the station. So, by allowing the line to build they ensure full trains going out. This makes a little sense to me, but if that's true, it's horrendously inefficient.

If a train must be full before going out (unlikely, IMO) then why not just hold the train until it's full? There's no sense killing 15 minutes of valuable ERT so we can watch the crew empty water dummies, right?

One time, when the park was exceptionally slow, I was riding TTD, and they would not send the train until it had the requisite number of people in it. This created a one or two minute wait for each train, no big deal really, and if this can be done on TTD, certainly it can be done on MF.

So, what say you? Plausible, or no? This has been a thorn in my side, and really irritating, cause I expend a lot of effort making sure I get to the gate before 9AM, but all for not when the ride is not ready...

During times of colder temperatures, the trains need weight to get them through the course until they warm up. Generally, after their morning test runs, the trains are still not warm enough to cycle empty. For this reason, only one train of water dummies is emptied and filled with guests. The remaining trains are emptied as a line develops to ensure that the train can be completely filled and not cycled partially or completely empty.

Such is not the case in the middle of the summer, when the air is warm enough for the trains to cycle empty first thing. If you visit often, you'll notice that as it approaches mid to end of June, the number of water dummies decreases until reaching zero, while in August it increases until it reaches the maximum put in, generally 12-20.

The trains are not held before dispatch to prevent a fully loaded train from being held in the waiting block outside of unload.

...So what Dave was telling you is correct; it's done intentionally to prevent the trains from rolling back, but not as an intentional inconvenience to guests.

Dragster is a completely different story, as the computer system makes adjustments based on train weight to decide how hard it needs to work to get the train over the tower. The temperature of the trains and number of riders also play an important role in this. Again, done intentionally to prevent trains from rolling back, but not meant to be an inconvenience.

Thanks for the answer. It's somewhat refreshing to hear there is actually a reason for this. But still, I don't see why they can't either:

1. Run the trains through more cycles with the dummies, or
2. Hold the trains in the station until there's enough people to fill them.

I can hardly remember a time where there wasn't enough people there during morning ERT to fill trains. Even on slow days. I guess if MF has this limitation then we just have to live with it, but it really makes me more likely to ride other rides during this time, as MF is not much of an ERT value as stated earlier.

I know a couple times last fall I jumped on the raptor for the first ride in the front seat, after the first ride everyone else would be in line for the front or the back and no one in the middle. the ride op's said they needed to fill the train and told me if i wanted i could go sit in a row that didn't have anyone in line, I than did 5-6 rides without even having to get off the ride before anyone got in line for the middle rows.

^^Cedar Point will never wait for riders to fill the train for an extended amount of time. They may wait a few seconds but CP in general does not run their rides that way. Actually it really wouldn't be any different waiting 5-10 min for the dummies to be taken out or waiting 5-10 min sitting on the train when ERT starts. They also do not want people on the third train waiting to pull into the unload station for up to 10 min.

I have at rare times when it is really cold and breezy seen them at times transfer a train off during halloweekends and open with 2 but still if the line builds up there is a delay to transfer the third on. Trust me that is the quickest way to open the ride on cold days.

The other employees nailed it on the head here.

I will speak to your first point though too. You have to remember that the employees working these rides work 6 days a week. We have to be at our rides usually at least thirty minutes before it's scheduled to open and then usually AT LEAST thirty minutes after the last person gets off depending on the ride. So, in order to have the crew there even earlier to run more cycles would cut their already short time they have to sleep. I know many times where we would be walking out of the park around 11:45p(while I was on Dragster) and then have to be back in at 8:30a the next day.

I should point out that my explanation was only theory based on what I saw at a NAPHA early morning ERT when Millennium Force was called in to pinch-hit for Dragster. It was a cold enough day that they had propane torches on the wheels of the parked train, trying to get the bearings warmed up.

It's worth noting that is a bit of a different situation from mid summer, when they spray water on the wheels in the station to cool them down!

(They don't use propane torches anymore; now they run a big heater under the track)

Great to meet some of you at the park yesterday!

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

MagnumFan said:
Thanks for the answer. It's somewhat refreshing to hear there is actually a reason for this. But still, I don't see why they can't either:

1. Run the trains through more cycles with the dummies, or
2. Hold the trains in the station until there's enough people to fill them.

#1 doesn't really help matters if they have to have weight in the trains period to run them. #2 only works if there's a 2 train operation because otherwise you'd have a train of people sitting on the brake block for an extended time, which the going theory here says they're trying to avoid with the current process.

As others have said, I've seen it open on time on the mornings they don't need the water dummies.