Great maintenance or a huge risk?

[Geno21K]

By now, many of you already know that Top Thrill Dragster has re-opened, just five days after the July 12 incident in which frayed pieces of the launch cable came off and hit riders. With such a small amount of downtime, it seems likely that they simply replaced the cable with a new one. Does it strike anybody else as a huge risk to simply replace the cable, rather than trying to modify something to ensure that such an incident doesn't happen again. Now, I'm not a ride op at CP, so I don't know what happened during the five days that the ride was down. Therefore, it is possible that more was done than meets the eye, but is that likely in only 5 days? This seems like either incredible maintenance or a ridiculously high risk on CP's part. Sure, they can try to do a better job of watching the cable to make sure that it can be replaced before fraying occurs. However, it seems like a risky proposition. There is no way of knowing how many cycles can go through before the cable needs to be replaced. Sure, the above incident only resulted in a few cuts and pin-sized knicks which, while painful and unnecessary, are not all that bad. However, what guarantee is there that this can't happen again? Who knows, maybe next time someone takes a piece of that metal in the eye or something. If somebody knows more about what was done to get the ride back into operation please advise. If nobody knows of any such measures, what do you think about the ride being back up so soon with no noticeable measures taken to avoid another incident?

[Do I Know You]

I think it's good the ride is back up.

[coastercrazy111]

I myself think that they should have kept the ride closed for a while to make sure that nothing at all is wrong with this ride. Top Thrill Dragster has become a tremendous safety issue to Cedar Point.

Don't get me wrong I am thrilled that it is open again, but I don't think that mechanics working on the ride have taken every precaution to make sure this ride is 100% safe.

So in my opinion the ride should have stayed closed and undergone some changes in itself both mechanical and physical.

[Ilovthevu']

I have to agree with Geno21K because you have to realize that the cable has to move fast enough to make that train move in excess of 100 mph. I don't know how you can change that so quick. It might happen again. I really have no idea what you could do to change that. A cable can only take so much. The cables on D Vu are a little different because they are not moving that fast. It is more likely TTD would have it's cable snap than D Vu. If we had that ride, SFGAm should close that down and ask Intamin to design another way to reach the high speeds without a cable.

[rct2wizard360]

Might I also add, 1-2 of those days must have been spent in testing.

[Virtua Tennis]

CP does everything possible to get TTD running, and we all know that.
-Brad 'at least it's not tagged off by OSHA' Papas .

[Danhockey04]

I think it is a great thing that they have that ride running again because it is the park's center-piece. People go to CP just to ride TTD, and they do not want to disappoint people, in my opinion. Also, the cable has snapped before last year, but it was down for a month, I think that they learned from that, that it is safe to re-open the ride with the new cable. I think the pieces of metal came off after too much stress on the cable, they need to give it a little longer break between launches.

[FParker185]

I think from now on they are just going to replace the cable when there are the first signs of wear, instead of running the cables to the absolute max (often breakage) til they are replaced. That is actually the second one that has broken this year.

Also if it opened in 5 days they knew at least a few weeks ahead of time that it was about ready to go, as such a cable does take a while to fabricate and it was most likely already ordered if not already in the park. I know when MF's cable broke they had known about it for weeks that it was fraying and caging, and the new one was being shipped at the time the original one actually broke.

[Timmy179]

I belive Cedar point has a large reel of cable on hand at the park now.

[Ilovthevu']

I wouldn't be surprised if they do. Cables like that are really expensive.

[Aero737]

Now we have the enthusiast paradox...Enthusiasts whine and moan when they go to Cedar Point and their favorite coasters (mainly TTD and MF) are not running. Now when they quickly get a ride running again after it being down people jump at the chance to critisize Cedar Point saying that they opened the ride too fast.

Perhaps enthusiasts should leave the decisions to the people who are truely educated in the fact. There is no way in hell that Cedar Point could get that ride running again if it was not safe..espically if there was just an incident where people were injured. Enthusiasts should so thier part and just go back to moaning whenever a ride goes down and they are minorly inconvienced (well...sucker...you shouldn't of flown 2000 miles just to ride ONE ride)

[Geno21K]

Wow, Aero, I thought mods were supposed to be the ones keeping people from bashing one another's topics and posts, not starting that kind of garbage.

First off, I wasn't whining about TTD being down, as I don't whine about any ride being down. I understand that downtime is a part of the industry.

Second, I asked this question because I was curious to hear a response from others that know more about these things than I do. Isn't that what these forums are for?

Third, while I'm not accusing CP of putting people deliberately in harms way, how can anyone be sure that such a thing won't happen again when it appears as if they did nothing to change what is obviously a flawed and dangerous system? Replacing the cable and simply trying to watch more closely for wear, to me, does not seem like a safe solution. However, that is just my opinion, and that's why I posted this question. I'm not criticizing them for getting the ride up and running again; that is their job. I am, however, wondering whether or not they've actually done anything to prevent such an incident from happening again. Perhaps they have, that is why I asked what others thought.

If every post makes you mad, perhaps you should think of giving up your job as a mod.

Thanks to everyone who posted quality responses in this thread.

[Galvan]

Geno, Aero was 100% right, and shame on you for calling him out specifically on that.

First, after reading the initial post about Dragster being down, you can clearly see that some people on this board (im not going to name names) said something to the affect of this..

"Aww, man! im going to CP on such and such a day, i hope it will be open."

Forget about the people the could have been seriously injured or even killed on the ride. No,no we dont worry about them.

Second, TTDs cable has broke twice this year already, one time (this past last time it broke and injured people) What is going to happen the third time? kills all 20 people on the ride?

My point is, sure its back and running 5 days after the latest incident, but what will happen the next time?

To answer your initial question i think CP could be making a huge mistake opening this ride so soon.

As for people flying 2000 miles and not riding the ride they hoped for, h well thats life and it happens. Hell, it happened to me too i was looking forward to riding on Mr. Freeze at SFSTL this past week, but it was broken down, oh well. life is like that sometimes.

[Geno21K]

Galvan,

I can see your point. However, I felt that he called me out simply for asking the question. Was I being over-sensitive? Perhaps. But isn't it a moderator's job to allow for discussion, and not to trash people's opinions? Personally, I think that CP is making a huge mistake, and I wanted to know if others felt the same. I do care about the safety of riders, not just about whether or not I get on a ride. I saw his post as an attack on me and this thread. Again, if I was over-sensitive, I appologize. However, I don't think that I would be the only person in the wrong on this one.

[Virtua Tennis]

I think that CP is making a huge mistake

With what? For openining ther'ye ride as soon as possible (don't say it's unsafe, because it's not).

[Aero737]

Geno, I didn't mean anything pearsonally twords you, its enthusaists in general (their attitude mainly) that I dislike. This thread just kind of set me off. I havent seen you do this but a lot of people change their stance in an hour.

You have nothing to worry about. I don't see you complaining on whether the ride is open or not.

And papas, when you quote someone, you normally don't change the original text. It should say COULD in there. By changing the text you just bend the post to your liking more.

And about me leaving this website. I love coasters and I love Great America. I just dispise enthusiasts. in my opinion they are some of the snottiest people I know. Not everyone falls into this catagory (many people who post here don't) but a few bad experiences at the park have changed my opinion on the whole group (Mainly ACE).

[coastrcorey]

Yeah, CP knows when it's okay to open a ride and when it's not okay. The last thing they want is for people to be injured. I'm positive they'd rather have it closed and a whole park full of people be disappointed, than have it opened and one or two people be injured.

[twixmix0303]

I know this sounds stupid, but why would you even design a coaster to reach speeds of 100+ mph and use a cable? Why not LIMs?

[planea380]

I was thinking the same thing.

[coasterfreak11]

So was I!

[planea380]

The only problem I could see is...The power consumption.

[sixflagsguy5]

Yes LIM's would be safer, but wouldnt they overheat going that fast.

[FParker185]

LIM's would have required a far longer launch that CP does/did not have room for(was CP's official reason). Plus power consumption would be though the roof.

It's really a very safe and reliable system for the most part, most of the problems have been due to it being one of the largest hydraulic systems ever built for that specific application, and there are bound to be problems with something of that nature.

Also for them having a reel of cable, that isnt standard off the shelf cable it has to be manufactured to Intamins specs., and where it connects to the sled has to be integrated into the cable during the fabrication process, they cant just cut a length of cable off a reel and tie it off at both ends.

[coasterzak]

Yes very well said FParker. The amount of LIMs to get that thing over that hill would be ridiculous. CP is always going bigger and faster, so what better than to try bigger hydraulics? I know they were asking for problems when they tried it, but it seems pretty economical when you talk about space. Who would have thought the world's tallest, fastest coaster would have such a small footprint? I'm sure if it used LIMs there would be plenty of problems too, look at V2 and S:UE - they are always having problems.

[Ilovthevu']

I wonder if they could use the small tires such as they use on The Incredibla Hulk to reach speeds that high. I know that IH only goes 67 mph, but if they added more couldn't they get TTD much faster. Of course I don't know how long the track is until it reaches the top.

Aero I can understand where your coming from, but when a cable snaps and injures people, there has to be a big change. The ride was not just broke, like so other many rollercoasters, but it actually injured people. I don't remember how long Demon was down after the accident, but it should have been longer than five days if it wasn't.