Millennium Force cable breaks, shutting down ride

No, it started open that day, so they get credit for it. :)

Yes, they do inspect the cable. Word on the street is that the cable was fraying in one place, and that's why they were closing short-term last week once a day in order to inspect it (according to some GTTP members). My guess is that they don't have a procedure to change the cable quickly. Normally, I'd think that was uncharacteristic of the park, but I'd have to say that I can't even begin to know how you'd hoist that cable up the lift and thread it through the track down to the drum.

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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com
"From the global village... in the age of communication!"
Watch the grass grow!

The things I would do to get a walk down like that...;)

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-Matthew Couts
Rct Recreations (just e-mail me for these)
1.Cedar Point(voted best CP Recreation ever)
2.King's Island (only pki recreation)
3.coming soon... Idlewild

Well, if my memory serves me correctly, this happened about this time LAST year on Corkscrew... They seemed to get everything worked out well, and there was no major problem.

You do have to give CP credit. A ride of that size and speed (not to mention the extra torque necessary to tug a ride up a 45 degree lift) should really have this happen more often, and you might see it happen more on the other gigas that will be built in the US. CP has done a great job of maintenance to keep this evil off for such a while.

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Loopscrew.com: Your brand new, and only, editorial based coaster site!
6/8/01

Maybe some of you (especially Rideman) could answer a few things for me...

First off I'm asking the same question as beastnum1, when the cable snapped wouldn't the cable whip back around?  Another thing is that when the cable snapped, did the computer stop the drums so that there wouldn't be cable spinning off of the spool all over the bottom of the hill?  That would be one messy situation having cable strewn all over the place.  Another question that cannot be answered now is how long will it take to replace the cable?  That will be one heck of a job!!

I'm assuming that MF will be closed for a while.  But I'll still be there Labor Day and "Millennium?" Mania.

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***Why can't all parks have a Millennium Force (That works)?***

I think two years ago Magnum's chain broke and I was going a couple days later and was worried it wasn't going to be running when I was going. Alas the first day of my trip was its first day of operation. Maybe getting a new cable lift would take longer than a standard chain...?
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Assistant Webmaster
Kennywood Park Unlimited
http://www.kpunlimited.com

Since I watched the whole thing I will try to answer a few questions...

As of 6 PM today the cable was gone... yep thats right they took the cable off. Red train was stopped at the top and workers were evacuated(took at 1 hour, it was cool to watch). CP and LE Railroad was down part of the day so they could get stuff into the site. I am at the Point right now... I will keep you up to date(I can see the Force through my cabin window).

I do not really think the cable broke and slide down... Since I didn't see anything laying on the ground. I really didn't hear anything... In fact I thought it was the monring block(setup) test. No one was hurt but it was strange to see a few silver tags run with the bulls(but today most people ran to Mantis).

After talking to several employees they *hope* to have to ride up for Millennium Mania on Thursday, but they suggest that you call the park( (419)-627-2350 ) to check the status.

The park can fix the chains so quick since they are made right near the park. The cable has been having problems all week... So I bet Cedar Point has already had one on order...

UPDATE:
My friend just got back from the park... and he said that word is that it WILL(99.9% yes) be open for Millennium Mania.

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Andrew Hyde
http://www.experiencethepoint.com
Author- Experience The Point: The Unofficial Guidebook To Cedar Point

*** This post was edited by Andrew on 9/2/2001. ***

Andrew, I am glad to hear 99.9% yes. :)

Actually, the ride was closed at least one day last year *all* day long. IIRC, it was May 22nd (the very first time I had a chance to get to the park last year, yes, I am a jinx) and the ride was closed for what *rumor* suggested to be a broken part on the lift mechanism. Higher ups said a replacement part was being flown in which would resolve the issue they were having. I will never forget that day because (w/out getting into specifics) the park handled the incident *horribly*. It was a disgrace and the worst day I've ever had at the Point.

I was there today also.  I saw the cable on teh ground near the pulleys.  They rolled it up and put it into a front end loader tractor and drove it off somewhere near the rear parking lot.  They definitely were working on it all day as there were people at teh top of the hill most of the day.  I left about 9pm and the train was still at the top of the coaster.

It's not good when something breaks, but these are machines and you have to expect some form of failure sooner or later.  The good thing is that no one got hurt, they found the problem during testing, and that no park visitors were on the ride.  Can you imagine the media's hype that would have surrounded this if a carload of park patrons had to be taken off from 300 ft. in the air?  This would have been a big, overblown baloney story about how unsafe these rides are.  Hey, it happens to the best of them.

Im sure Cedar Point is doing their best to rectify the problem, especially since Millenium Mania will be hinging on whether MF is up or not.

I never realized how many people MF keeps away from other rides.  Magnum's queue lines were the longest I have seen in years.

I remember the dreaded May 22. The day before that there was a terrible storm, i mean awful. It was raining so hard you couldn't see the ride next to you.  I was at the balloon race in camp snoopy and i was looking at MF.  Suddenly the lift of MF was hit with a huge lightning bolt, the biggest i've seen, and there was a loud boom sound.  The next day MF was down all day.  I heard that something with the comp screwed up with the big bolt of lightning.  Needless to say they sent us to the snoopy theatre because of the dangerous weather. 

Shoewee

Jeff:

I thought that MF valleyed out on a test run without the water dummies and never opened that day.  Am I confused?

it would suck if the cable on dejavu broke, then u would ether stay in that positon, or it might brake halfway and stop halfway through the cobra roll!!!!!!!!!

My bad... I looked back at some old threads. The day of the rollback they re-opened that afternoon with two trains. And that other day they had the part flown in, they did open the ride that night around 10pm, if I remember correctly.

Maybe someone can tell me... was the cable that broke the lifting cable (the fat one that pulls the train) or the return cable (the thinner one that pulls the sled back down)?

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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com
"From the global village... in the age of communication!"
Watch the grass grow!

Cryptkeeper, you should've still been happy... After all, a bad day at Cedar Point is better than a good day anywhere else! LoL (I dunno, is that just a GTTP thing?)

Hopefully after this, CP will refine their 'tactics' so they could have MF up and running perhaps same-day, if it should ever happen again.

And yes, we all should be happy it happened during a test run, and not during a normal operating run (can we all say 'markey food'?)

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http://coolforce.cjb.net - The Most Important Internet Web Site... EVER.
"I have no legs. I HAVE NO LEGS!! YEAH!!"

Jeff... I belive it was the return cable. I saw people looking at something on the ground under the start of the lift and later in the day I saw a guy taking the lifting cable off the drum.

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Andrew Hyde
http://www.experiencethepoint.com
Author- Experience The Point: The Unofficial Guidebook To Cedar Point

oh ui work at cp and mf was down last sat for mechanical so peeps this isnt the first time this year its been down all day and we should have it back up my mm
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Cryptkeeper wrote:

I will never forget that day because (w/out getting into specifics) the park handled the incident *horribly*. It was a disgrace and the worst day I've ever had at the Point.

I know you told me before, but I'm drawing a blank...what did they do that was so disgraceful again?  Seems uncharacteristic of CP.

Was anyone else there that day who can comment also?  And was it down because of the computer being fried or something from a lightnig bolt?

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"No listenin', you hear me?"

P> am so glad that got to experience MF when did. See, am a typical college student (meaning 'm pretty much poor) and saved up all year to go on an Ohio Thrill Trip. We went to PK, CP, and SFWOA. Thank God got to ride MF two days in a row for a total of 13 day trips and the unforgettable last trip at night. See, am afraid of hieghts, but love coasters. 'm am so glad that it didn't brake when was on it. Although, that would've meade for a great story to tell at home. remember, just about all 14 trips on MF we got the yellow train. Only once getting the blue one... heard the red one got stuck...so probably if that happened when was there, it wouldn't have happened while was on it./P>
P>FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff">Well, 'm sure CP will do everything they possibly can to fix MF as soon as possible. The lift hill seemed like it was more of an angle then 45 degrees. mean, felt like was laying on my back as it suddenly started pulling us up faster half way up the lift hill. Coasters break down. 'm just glad t didn't happen when the park was open and was next in line after waiting in an hour and a half line. That would suck. /P>
P>Wishing MF to be fixxed really soon! /P>
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CoasterLuvr

For some reason my comment just now took out all my I's. (eye's- since they might be missing there too.) Just so you know. Sorry for the confusion.
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CoasterLuvr