What are the Magnum XL trains supposed to resemble?

Are the Magnum trains supposed to look like rockets or some kind of space vehicle?

Yes. The theme to Magnum is blasting into outer space.

Maybe a slight resemblance to the older TGV trains?

Years ago I noted that they have a somewhat Imperial design to them, although the nose actually looks more like that of an Incom T-65B...

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

The NASA Space Shuttles.

According to a ride op last year, it was supposed to resemble something in Star Wars

They resemble this guy's car.

(I'm still not sure why he has a gun.)

There's been talk of how it was influenced by Magnum PI of all things (which was hugely popular at the time), and a spacey-futuristic vibe.

So I guess the point is, it does have a theme. Under that space suit is this guy (Tom Selleck), who was somehow transported to the future and is now a private detective in the year 2064. And we're riding in what his car now looks like.

There is a documentary somewhere...and I feel like someone had posted it on here not too long ago for some reason...where they talk about the Magnum PI connection, or at least initial influence.

The character has a gun because he is a storm trooper ready to shoot any line jumpers.

Line jumpers know as well Stormtroopers can't hit squat.

Looks like a wannabe Star Wars storm trooper.

Magnum's trains rock! I wish the park would restore the strobe lighting on the lift hill.

That would be amazing; I think there are few of us left who actually remember that!

But since this is a thread about Magnum's *trains*, let me just say I want to see the grilles and buttons restored to the sides of the train. I think the stickers are ugly as sin.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

I do not remember the strobe lighting as I didn't go to CP those years, sounds neat. As for the grilles & buttons, they would certainly add to the appearance and ambiance, but it is possible they would also create a certain amount of "drag" or slowing to the trains. Or, perhaps it is just more "cost effective" to go with stickers instead.

The character with the fancy gun used it to shoot cell. phones out of ignorant riders hands while going up the lift-hill, thus eliminating the need for a crew member to make the prolonged walk up to confront a guest. His aim was pretty good as cell. phones back then used to be as big as a size 10 UGG boot.

It's only been a couple years since they switched to the stickers on the trains instead of the grills/buttons so I don't think drag is an issue. I am guessing they replaced the fiberglass bodies that year and it was easier/cheaper to simplify the design of them and just go with the stickers. Only the real Magnum nerds like us would probably notice. :)

And speaking of long walks for crewmembers... It used to be that if the ride "set up" (stacked all three trains), someone had to run out under the safety brakes to release the third train once they dispatched one to the lift and brought the second one into the station. They also used to have to call into park operations to get permission to do so. Now they can do it from the station and I don't think a call is required. The end result is it happens far too often - more in one day than it used to happen in a week. :(

It's still called in as downtime each time to Park Op (or whatever it's called now, One Team Center, I think). The increased number of setups is mostly caused by the increase in safety procedures that have come over the last decade, with iROC being the biggest culprit. iROC procedures do not jive well with a high efficiency operation. Especially being retrofitted to a ride that has existed for 25+ years. For example, from personal observation, it seems to have caused the distance any given Magnum operator has to walk for one unload/loading cycle to double from the pre iROC days. That extra distance obviously translates into extra time.

You are absolutely right about iROC and I've ranted about that in a number of other threads so I didn't want to bring it up here again, but there's no doubt iROC's procedures are asinine and are a solution in search of a problem that never existed (at least at Cedar Point). They make the unload 1 guy start at the front, check toward the back (in order mind you, no skipping and coming back for someone who's slow, no letting the guy working the back half of the train come check the seats you can't get to yet), walk all the way back up to the front to look at everyone again, and then walk back behind the control booth/elevater and clear from there. They also seem to be doing some weird stuff with the order of their clears - almost as if they wait until everyone is done for even the first person to clear and then they go around in a circle starting with unload 2 all the way around to dispatch enable, and then unload 2 gives a high clear. Back in the day when I worked there (well, the first year, we didn't have gates or enable and we knocked on the window and cleared back to front), we cleared front to back with dispatch being last and as soon as he was clear, the high clear was given by unload two. We would also clear as soon as we were done checking as we were walking back to the front of the position we checked (double checking) and triple checked as the train rolled out rather than trying to hide behind a pillar or behind a really far away red line. We hit 335+ straight intervals a few times and days with zero setups were't that uncommon.

At least they haven't started making everyone yell "clear" separately like they seem to do at Kings Island and I noticed it at Dollywood too, but the doing it in a certain order and only after everyone is done takes extra time too. I also haven't noticed the excessive "SCAN" (aka looking around like a moron for three seconds) by the controls person either at CP thankfully.

I do find it interesting that Cedar Point seems to have the ability to select certain procedures to disregard, in terms of iROC. You would think that if Cedar Fair were going to implement a program such as iROC to standardize operations across the company, that all the parks follow all the exact same procedures. Not that I want any Cedar Point ride operators "scanning" but I just don't get how they're permitted to be selective.

I realize I'm going on another iROC rant, but if the goal was to standardize operations across the company (which in itself isn't a bad idea as operations at many of the other parks certainly needed improvement), they would have had more success creating a program based off the years of operational success they had at Cedar Point. It's sad that for years the park was one of the industry leaders in operations, only to now fall back to what feels like the lowest common denominator.

^We are scanning each and every cycle, we just don't announce it like other parks.

Yes, exactly my point. Scanning has always been in the way you mentioned. Always been part of the process, gone by difference names, but same result minus the audible instruction and additional pause to look at what you just looked at already.

Do these iROC people have any connection with Six Flags, like maybe started by people who used to work for Six Flags? The reason I ask is because the ride operators now say "all clear" when in the past it was just "clear". Six Flags always used the "all clear" and always had slow operations, so I wondered if there was a connection.

Cedar Point still is pretty good but not like the pre iROC days when CP operations were virtual perfection. Too bad they didn't take CP operations chain wide instead of outsourcing to these consultants.