Cedar Point celebrating Blue Streak roller coaster's 50th anniversary

If they could care less means they actually care. If they couldn't care less...

Pagoda Gift Shop said:
A few years back, Cedar Point made the decision to have that Canadian group do some work on Blue Streak which made them give up its "classic" coaster status. I'm glad they did because it is still a great ride. Let's hope in the next 50 years it can get some more comfortable seats/restraints.

The work the Canadians did, along with most of the work Cedar Point has done, has not made the ride any less classic. Even when the park redesigned the station in '94, both ACE and the park were clear that the ride's classic status would not change. Then the park decided to do unspeakably nasty things to the train, which made ACE very disappointed.

Cedar Point retracks and maintains their coasters on a combination of a regular maintenance schedule and on an as-needed basis. The result is that there may not be any track on the Blue Streak more than a few years old. What I have heard is that they replace about a third of the track every year, and a portion of the structure.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

I can vaguely understand seatbelts *and* lapbars because insurance carriers aren't particularly knowledgeable about train design (although the actuaries should be able theoretically to set them straight). Seat dividers serve no purpose other than to add discomfort...they annoy me to no end.

Seat dividers are necessary with individual lap bars to keep you under your lap bar. They are useful with the old drop-bars to keep you from turning sideways in the seat and therefore coming out from under the handlebar. I can deal with the seat dividers provided we also have to contend with the individual lap bars, provided the dividers are tall enough to prevent landing on them and short enough to fit under a drop-bar.

The accessory I can't stand is the headrest. That one is worthless on a wood coaster so long as the train isn't going backwards.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

For the record, it is my understanding that Cedar Fair parks are self-insured. Thus, any changes in ride design or operations are self-driven by Cedar Fair management.

...or by the State of Ohio, or by business needs, or by maintenance considerations, or...

Actually, thinking about it, self-insurance would be amazingly risky unless you set up your own insurance carrier and handled it as if you were insured by a third party. Third party insurance has a nifty feature that self-insurance does not: policy limits. In the event of a loss, third party insurance will only pay to the limits spelled out in the policy. But if a company elects to assume that risk directly, I would assume that there would be no limit to potential liability. Any experts on risk assignment here?

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

I am fairly confident that Six Flags parks are also still self-insured. How these parks structure this I am not privy, but there must be some benefit? It would be interesting to hear from any experts out there how this might all work.

As for Blue Streak, it's just never been the same for me having grown up with the former load-n-dispatch system or the old trains. There was just something magical in the pace at which it all had to function, I know the ride crews loved it.