Wednesday 7/18 TTD incident

During the extra ride time Wednesday nite for Season and Platinum Passholders on TTD, we got quite a scare. Instead of going all the way around through the queues, the staff allowed guests to line up on the left side of the platform after exiting the cars they just rode. Once the riders (not many) in the regular loading area were seated, guests could then fill-up the front two cars. While waiting for what would have been our 5th ride in the 2nd car, we witnessed the 1st car launch and come to a screeching halt before ascending. It took a little time to reverse us back into the station and by then there were EMT's with an ambulance and police, along with 3 or 4 maintenance men. I don't know if anyone was hurt, but it was sure frightening. Made me very happy that I didn't rush to the first car. As we left, I overheard an employee (not from the TTD) say "that is messed up" and point to the track. We walked over and saw that the railing was bent and pulled apart. There was also a white section further up that looked charred, although my husband said it could just be normal oil splatter. TTD was down all day Thurs. but re-opened yesterday. I sure hope that everyone is ok.

I worded that wrong, I meant to say that it came to a dead stop before it could ascend. So zero to 120 to zero..........ouch!

I was there Thursday 19th and they had a small crane and utility truck right at the launch area. We were standing in line for Corkscrew and they had a large circular saw cutting into some (pipes?) I guess directly under the track. I'm going to guesstimate it was around 130-2.

Regardless of what happened, the ride didn't get to 120 and back down again.

And since it is back up and running so quickly, it was obviously a non-event.

And yes, for the first time in your marriage, your husband was right.

Ah, I wondered what was up. I was there all day Thursday and could tell that there was something much more wrong with TTD than its normal stuck brake fin here or there.

There were around 5 mechanics working on TTD every time we walked by from 10AM until 10PM, and as mentioned, there was a crane in front of the ride. The trains never moved from the transfer track all day that I saw.

Anyway, it was nice to see how hard Cedar Point maintenance works to keep this ride up.

I saw someone comment on CP's Facebook saying that the launch cable had snapped. I'm not sure if they were right or not.

On the basis of the source, I'm gonna go with, "Uh, no."

I heard they have a very effective way of telling just when a cable needs to be replaced. Of course you can never predict everything with a ride as complicated as Dragster. Though IF it was a cable fray and the ride was opened again after one day of work, then that sounds about right. Plus, a crane, circular saw and utility truck are the same things I've seen during a cable replacement. And I'm guessing they wanted to bring the paramedics just in case there were any rouge shards of cable that found their way into any riders. So that COULD have been what happened.

To the extent of my knowledge, it's been a while since the cable was replaced. Also, I wasn't there so I can't give my full assessment. ;)

TTD 120mph said:
I heard they have a very effective way of telling just when a cable needs to be replaced.

When it breaks........? ;)

On ride photo booth reporting that the people in the front seat have rogue shards of cable in their face? ;)

The cables are actually replaced each spring and also halfway through the season.

Every year.

JW Addington said:

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When it breaks........? ;)

On ride photo booth reporting that the people in the front seat have rogue shards of cable in their face? ;)

Ouch...to both the sly reference & the actual occurrence :)

btw: I LOVE the spell check! When did that come about?

So... what happened exactly? Obviously the train didn't defy the laws of physics. The railing was bent? What railing, the fence beside the track? The track is always blackened around that area.

Wow. I thought the cable was coated in wax so the shards don't hit people anymore.

The cables have never been coated in wax. They constantly having water pouring on them to prevent overheating.....but that's it. Plus, wax wouldn't prevent shards from hitting people anyway.

^^I can't think of any "railing" that would become "bent" as a consequence of any kind of incident.

I was thinking he meant the track railings, but I'm pretty sure thats not right.

Yea, those aren't that easy to bend. :)

Not sure why/how these cables tend to break without any warning so often (not just at CP), is it poor inspections?

Generally cables give some type of warning prior to failure... If it has multi-strand cable, they have inspection devices that can check the condition of the strand electronically for signs of failure.

Some info on cable inspections:

http://www.ndttech.com/Papers/Crane%20wire%20rope%20damage%20and%20...ethods.pdf

I'm betting that cable inspection is part of the routine checks after the park closes. I know they check Power Towers' cable by slowly moving each carriage while feeling the cable for frays or any visible wear. I'm guessing they do something similar to that on Dragster. All I heard is they have a way of knowing when it's time to replace the cables aside from a scheduled replacement.

I bet "Deuce" knows! ;)