work going on at top of lift hill

I haven't heard of any modifications.

Along with torquing bolts, do they ever have to replace supports or maybe even a piece of track? I know that's not usual because it's steel, but I was wondering if that was common.

I don't think anything on Millennium Force has been replaced, although at least one support has been *altered*. Hmmm...can't find the photo of that at this moment.

Anyway, some track has been replaced on Magnum XL-200, specifically the entire turnaround knot. I'm not sure about the other steel coasters.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Wasnt the piece that was altered on the first overbank turn right after the lift.

CPfan200, yes. People were smacking their hands on it from what I heard. But take that with a grain of salt.

Im on it and nothing is going on now.
*** Edited 4/3/2005 7:11:35 PM UTC by cpfan101***

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I didn't personally hit the supports in 2000, but I know of a few who have. Red Garter couldn't be in a better spot. :)

There have been many minor mods made over the past 5 years, I'm sure there will be some this summer. An obvious one was the steel plates added to the brake areas and the turn between them for easy access in 2002. The above support change is obvious to some, but not others. The stainless steel noses were replaced with fiberglass noses in 2001.

joe said:
CPfan200, yes. People were smacking their hands on it from what I heard. But take that with a grain of salt.

How is that possible? They send around cars with reach templates...

Yes, well...

Let's just say that nobody's perfect, okay? :)

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

What are these stainless steel noses? Are they the "hoods" of the train?

Right. Where the Millennium Force logo appears on the front of the train. Originally those were stainless steel; Cedar Point replaced those with Fiberglas parts, and nobody has ever officially said why.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Lets say you have a train that... keeps going at around 5 MPH. The train says HELLO train in front of it. A stainless steel hood would crumble like aluminum foil. It would require replacing. A fiberglass shell would crack but be repairable fairly easily. Someone who knows the in's and out's of fiberglass repair could have it fixed, repainted, and decals added in a night.

Hoods, noses and shells OH MY!

But the MF trains have nice big bumpers that I think should protect the train in a low speed collision.

What I noticed about the stainless hoods was that they seemed to have areas where cracks were welded. I bet the flexing or vibration of the train caused cracks at the stress points in the metal. The fiberglass is much more flexible and can absorb the flexing without cracking.

It doesn't matter, because once they put that horrible graphic on the front, the beauty of the stainless steel was gone.