Gemini 25 Years old - CoasterBuzz

Double gates wouldn't be that big of an issue on Gemini IMO Dave. The ride op only has to check the outside restraints. If they are opened as soon as the ride stops they shouldn't have a problem at all ALA Maggie. It woudl make sense if double gates are faster.

Nothing erks me more then rides where the gates dont open until all the people on the train that just stopped are half way down the exit ramp.

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CP has come up with a fix for that problem. I noticed it on Iron Dragon. The gate control is in the hands of the co-dispatch operator, who has two controls. One is a manual switch (OPEN - AUTO - CLOSE), the other is a push button (CLOSE GATES). With the switch set to AUTO, the gates open with the lap bars; the operator then closes them by pushing the button.

My point is that double gates only have to open half as far as single gates, and therefore can make a hole twice as big in half the time. Besides which, double gates require less space to open, and in fact, until just a few years ago, Gemini already had all the hardware in place for double gates (part of the orange handrails). I still don't know why they changed out the rails. Now they need to reinstall exactly the kind of stuff they took out!

(The gates were not there, but the shafts were, you could see where the grease zerks had been painted over, and if you looked at the underside of the platform, the actuator arms were still there. By the time I took my first ride on Gemini, though, in 1979, there were no gates in place. I don't know if it ever had them when open to the public.)

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

I've said it before and i'll say it again - I'd ride Gemini over MF or any other ride at the point just about anyday.

~me

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I think as with Millenium and Mantis and WT, the gate control will be the job of one of the load/unload ops, the person on the oppisite side back on the Millenium platform controls its gates, the op on the load, back of train side of Mantis control its gates, and the op in the same position on WT controls its gate, I thought I also heard Mean Streak was getting gates but they would be useless as there is never any one waiting for it.

Sorry I shared my thoughts at all...
My point about Gemini being novel was that it's essentially a giant, out & back, wooden racing coaster like SFMM's Colossus or the one in Mexico (La Monta Russa?), except it has steel track. Otherwise it looks like a wooden coaster and probably most GP's don't think Maggie, CCMR and Gemini are all runaway mine trains. They are all completey different rides.
That said, what other giant, racing, out & backer with steel track can you name?
Also, I'm not sure what Arrow calls them now, but before S&S, they had the Gemini listed as an example of their "Wooden Coaster" and they had a separate category for "Runaway Trains. on their website"
Gemini looks nothing like any of the mine trains I've seen.
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-Matt in Iowa
195 coasters ridden -- Faves: Shivering Timbers, Ghostrider, Twister, Hershey Wildcat, Lightning Racer

I've only been to Cedar Point once, back in 2000. I highly anticipated riding Gemini, as I had seen and heard much about it. Turns out the ride was fun but not terribly thrilling... the racing was great, though! (It was my first racing coaster.) The one thing about Gemeni that sticks out in my mind it how 70s the station architecture and logos are. This is not, bad, it's cool in a retro sort of way.

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Gemini is such a great and FUN coaster. It's one of those coasters that has something in it for the whole family! Except Top Thrill Dragster, CP has put in a major new coaster every 11 years. What will come in 2011?

CP should conduct a little experiment. Take one of the trains from Cedar Creek Mine Ride and place it on the track of Maggie. -Let's see if those old cars can take the speed!

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YOUNGSTOWN 2010

There are coasters that get your heart racing, and then there are those that are a ton of fun. Gemini may not be in the former set, but it is definitely in the latter.

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Matt Scott said:
That said, what other giant, racing, out & backer with steel track can you name?

I've been on three others:

Daidarasaurus

Vertigorama

Fujin-Raijin
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Lake Compounce-So Fresh and So Clean Clean

It might be worth mentioning that Mr. Kinzel mentions Gemini's 25th anniversary in the third paragraph of his message in Cedar Fair's annual report (pdf).

-Matt
2001 Magnum Crew
2003 Magnum Crew

Vertigo said:
I've been on three others:
Daidarasaurus
Vertigorama
Fujin-Raijin
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Lake Compounce-So Fresh and So Clean Clean

Wow, cool! I'm impressed. Still, I maintain my position. There's not much out there like the Gemini. I love it.
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-Matt in Iowa
195 coasters ridden -- Faves: Shivering Timbers, Ghostrider, Twister, Hershey Wildcat, Lightning Racer

Dont forget Excaliber (sp?) at Valleyfair, definatly too fast to be a normal mine train.

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I don't care what anyone says, Magnum is better then Millenium Force.

jkpark said:

CP should conduct a little experiment. Take one of the trains from Cedar Creek Mine Ride and place it on the track of Maggie. -Let's see if those old cars can take the speed!
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Technically speaking I believe they would work fine. The cars have no real differences aside from the lapbar mechanism and I believe Gemini has larger wheels.
Does anyone know what the exact differences are? Dave?

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It's like a Whirlwind inside of my head!

CCMR and Gemini have the same size wheels (8 inch?) compared to Magnum's bigger (10 inch?) wheels.

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- John
Dag, yo
Support Rob in the Great DDR Challenge!

They are more similar then even I thought then.

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It's like a Whirlwind inside of my head!

Speaking of which, Dave did explain to me once exactly what the differences are between the 3. It was some obscure stuff that we could depend only on him to know... I don't remember what it was now.

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- John
Dag, yo

Speaking of which, Dave did explain to me once exactly what the differences are between the 3. It was some obscure stuff that we could depend only on him to know... I don't remember what it was now.

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- John
Dag, yo

Mine Ride has steel-framed cars with plywood outside walls, 'Glass seats, single-position lap bars, bench seats, and the chassis was originally configured for skid brakes. The center beam is actually angled at the ends.

Gemini has a steel chassis with a 'Glass car body on top, ratcheting lap bars, and I am not certain whether the ends of the center beam are angled or not, but Gemini had fin brakes the day it opened.

Magnum XL-200 has cars similar to the ones on Gemini except that they are larger, and they have 12" road wheels (instead of 8" road wheels). I understand that when Magnum opened it had the same upstop arrangement as on Gemini and Mine Ride, but in the first season wheels were added to the upstops. Incidentally, the train on PKI's Adventure Express is, for all intents and purposes, a Magnum train, though the seat padding is a little different.

Gemini, of course, is the ride that spent the most years as my favorite coaster. :)

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Magnum did have plates when it opened. I still remeber watching the thing spark along on the return to the station. What a sight.

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It's like a Whirlwind inside of my head!

Gemini is also the one coaster that has spent more years as a favorite coaster than any other coaster. Even now, we never miss grabbing a couple rides on Gemini on each trip.

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