about Gemini
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Please visit the small parks. We don't know what's happening behind the scenes
Woodencoaster.com
I think you're right about the Magnum road wheels being 12" vs. 8", and I think the car bodies might be just a little larger than the ones on Gemini. The other significant difference is that Magnum's cars have upstop wheels instead of the flat plates found on the earlier Runaway Train coasters. There was an article in some magazine ca. 1989 or so headlined, "Megacoaster to run on compound wheels" or something like that which noted the change in wheel size for Magnum from 8" to 12".
Also, if you look at the Magnum train and set it next to a Morgan train, mechanically the biggest difference is that the Arrow axles are above the center beam, and the Morgan axles are below. That, and Morgan puts a shock absorber between one end of the axle and the car body, presumably to reduce the axle hunt. Or at least to keep Arrow from claiming patent infringement. :)
The Cedar Creek Mine Ride train is indeed similar to the Gemini train but only under the floor. Obviously the car bodies and lap bar mechanism are quite different.
--Dave Althoff, Jr.
i second with Bigkirby...can you imagine a steel tracked MS? may sound stupid, but it sure sounds like a killer idea to me...good job man ;)
Tim....who wonders if CP would really spend the estimated $5million or more (just a pure guess) that it would take to retrack MS and build trains.....hmmmm.......
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proud PKD homer :)
(currently a Dorney Park homer though...thanks to college:))
ALF is cool said:
Dusa65 said:
Plus the obvious - Cedar Point always races it, which makes it twice as fun,
When I was there in July, my ride didn't race. I am not bashing on purpose. I am just saying, don't say always. Things do change.
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Same here. All three consecutive days when I was in Sandusky this summer, only one of each of the sides ran.
IMO Arrow should have built alot more rides like this one. I believe that Excalibur at VF is the only other ride like it built by Arrow. Somebody tell me if there are more like them and I will go ride them. This design gives the fun and look of a wood coaster and has to be cheaper to build and maintain. They both have a steep hills and fast turns. Magnum was the next step and its too bad things fell apart and there weren't many more Arrrow hypers built
But, the point of the discussion is Gemini, and being a racing coaster it gets the people cheering. Also it is one of the few racers that let people slap hands and interact almost the entire length of the ride. Friends always like to get in opposite cars and slap hands and trash talk. They also like to pass things back and forth. The best one I seen was a double hat pass. A kid near the front of one train passed his hat to a buddy in our train who passed it back to a third buddy in the back of original train.
The best thing about this ride is that it is a capacity monster. With 4 trains, even on a crowded day it is only a 10 minute wait.
Combine all that and you can't lose.
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I can't be bargained with, I can't be reasoned with, I don't feel pity or remorse or fear and I will not stop EVER until I have ridden them all.
I would say the trains race at least 75% of the time. They rarely race in the morning because nobody rides it in the morning, but it is rarer to see them not racing then racing.
On another note I have thought about tubing MS for a while now. But from what I have heard the problem is not the track but the underlying structure itself, oh well.
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Coming in 2003-The Spawn Of Magnum!
Rideman, Didn't Maggie open with upstop skids though?
I know a major modification was made after the first season.
Chuck, who thinks it was replacing the skids with wheels.
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Charles Nungester.
Is it about coasters or friends? I say both!
Its the racing aspect that makes it so much fun. It has some nice hills. The turn arounds are slow, but they add to the rider interaction. CP actually wants their guests to have a great experience on their rides, so they take the care to race them. Hershey is also excellent at this. Lightning Racer always races. Whereas parks with sloppy operations and lackluser employees such as Paramount and Six Flags waste what could be a fun experience on their racing coasters by no operating them in that way.
Jim Fisher commented on the steel structure that CCI used on some of its rides...it's worth noting that the steel structure also allows the ride to be built taller in a narrower footprint because less lateral bracing is required with the steel. A good example of this is Zeus at Big Chief's, where the top of the lift hill has a steel structure. A wood structure wouldn't have fit into that space.
Finally, getting back to the topic of this thread, what's not to like about Gemini? With six trains it can move about 3,400 PPH without even trying; it's a classic wood coaster figure-8 layout, it usually races so there is the interaction with the other train, it's got some nice moments of airtime, and it has two of the most effective head-chopper elements (one of them on the first drop) around. It opened as one of the world's biggest coasters, and it's proven over the years that while it was 'biggest' when it opened, it doesn't matter that the park now has ...ummm... six (seven) coasters bigger than it, Gemini has proven that you don't have to be 'biggest' if you're a good ride.
The most important point? Gemini is FUN!
--Dave Althoff, Jr.
*** This post was edited by RideMan on 1/6/2003. ***
I was with a group of friends this summer that had never been to CP, and when we rode Gemini, I couldn't wait to see their reaction (i.e. pulling their hands down) on the headchopper effects.
Gemini has the best headchopper-psych-outs of any coaster I've been on.
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Men are like parking spaces... the good ones are all taken and the rest are handicapped or too far away.
www.TiggerMan.com
~me
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peace, love, coasters.
Gemini IS fun.
i had the best ride i have ever had on it last October....lots of handsmacking and just laughter all around. our group split up and hit the same lap, half of us on each side. we actually got the entire train on both sides to handsmack the whole way!
what a great ride it was...Gemini rocks!!
too bad #16 being so close will make the lines for Gemini longer....
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formerly known as servo3000...mela en coiamin Legolas
LadyLegolas - Did you see what Dave just said?? 3,400pph! You don't have to worry about the lines getting too long ;)
It's like saying that the line for the train went from 10minutes to 15minutes due to Millennium Force being right next door. 5 minutes is nothing at Cedar Point :)
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Corey
"I make it a rule never to get involved with possessed people. Well, it's more of a guideline than a rule." - Dr. Pete Venkman/Bill Murray
*** This post was edited by rOLLocOASt on 1/8/2003. ***
yeah, i saw it...but look what MF did to Mantis' lines...
i myself have done this..."MFs line is too long...lets hit Mantis" or "MF is down...let's hit Mantis"...
thats what i meant...i know that 3400 PPH is amazing but Gemini doesnt always run 6 trains. 3400 is the ideal number but it doesnt always happen...
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formerly known as servo3000...mela en coiamin Legolas
boblogone said:
Gemini's wood support structure requires more footers... resulting in less sinkage than its monster steel supported mine-train neighbor. In the future Gemini may once again be the Points tallest coaster.
Woah, you did NOT just seriously say that Magnum is sinking, did you?
Magnum is NOT sinking! (Nor is it Cedar Point's tallest coaster)
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- "I used to be in the audio/visual club, but I was kicked out because of my views on Vietnam........and I was stealing projectors" - Homer Simpson
Cedar Point may start running more trains on the ride if they had a reason to. They don't want to run trains mostly empty and that is probably one of the biggest reasons that they don't run more trains. With the "New Coaster" comming next year they may start running more trains. I have a hard time seeing large lines when the ride can handle 3400 PPH.
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