Number of trains running on a given coaster

I worked as a Ride Op at CP this summer and it's not that hard to transfer a train.  My first day at Raptor I transferred a train on, it's easy as cake.  Once we're give the ok from supervision and maintenance, we go ahead and transfer a train on or off during the day.  There's a simple panel near the maintenance bay on Raptor where it's all controlled.  I see no reason why maintenance would need to do that for us.  I'm sure if there was something seriously wrong with the train (ie. bogey problem)  they'd be there to do it.  It really helps capacity if you think about, because there's no time spent waiting around for maintenance to arrive.  All it takes is 5-10 minutes, tops, from when the ride stops to when passengers are loaded again.
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2001 Cedar Point Ride Operations Alumni
"Hey, cool my voice is on the lift!"

It seems easy to do (after stalking maintenace on doing it).  But, for us at SFGAm, there are certain things we can't do for certain reasons.  To put the ride into transfer mode requires certain things that they don't want us to have because it'd basically give us full control of the ride (which is a bad thing).  We'd be able to do almost anything we wanted and for some ride op's, it's best that they don't get that chance.  Otherwise, they'd be pressing e-stops for the fun of it to see how quickly they could reset it.
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"If two coaster trains almost hit each other, why is it called a near miss and not a near hit?"

If I remember correctly, I believe Jeff once said that the mechanics make the decision at SFWoA and was quite appalled to find that out.  Jeff, can you confirm this please?
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Christ how do you kids do it

actually adam, I was commenting on what Aaron said.
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Rob

"The doctor said I wouldn't have as many nose bleeds if I could just keep my finger out of there!" -Ralph

I think at all SF parks that in order to add a train, you have to put the ride in "maintainence mode" instead of "automatic mode," so a mechanic has to do it.  I wouldn't trust a lot of the rides people I have seen anyway.

yes rob, it would be cool, but it would get outta control, just like what pete said. The maintenance needs to do those things so rides hosts dont get over thier head in their duties and break the ride for good or something like that. Maintenance should have control. Sorry i can't spell.

Hmm...Great Escape never adds trains to their coasters...oh wait, they arent long enough!  I would love to see the try to run Bomerang with two trains...LOL...But seriously that park would benifit greatly by getting  a coaster with better capacity before the surge of Six Flags Junkies come in the next few years.
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Phly the Pheonix

We always transferred the third train on in the morning and off at night.  There never had to be any supervision for that.  It was part of our training, is explained thouroghly in each ride's manual, and it really isn't that difficult.  Basically on Magnum to transfer the third train on (And perform 2 parts of the block check.  A train should stop in the safety brakes if one is still in the ready brakes and a train should stop at the top of the lift if one is present in the saftey brakes.  Another test is the station sensors tested by making sure a train will not come in from the ready brakes when the station is occupied), you cause a setup by dispatching a train and leaving another in the ready brakes.  The dispatched train will stop in the safety brakes (after the third tunnel).  You then bring the train from the ready brakes into the station, lock the bars, wait for the station delay and dispatch that one.  It will stop at the top of the lift.  At this time, you switch to transfer mode (the person in charge at the time has the keys to do this) and someone out at transfers moves the transfer table over and releases the third train.  After the transfer table is moved back and secured, the ride is switched back to run mode, the safety brakes are released and the lift is started back up.  There is a 75 second clear blocks delay that makes sure nothing "bad" can happen during transfers.  After all three trains cycle through, we test ride each one and open the ride.  The whole process takes place at CP between about 9:25 and about 9:50.  Some ops have to report along with the team leader or assistant team leader at 9:00 to do a trackwalk (making sure track/ride area is clear, cleaning, and locking all gates) and walk the third tunnel.

As for having to have a supervisor or mechanic present, that really isn't practical in the morning or at closing since there aren't physically enough of them to be at every ride.  As The Montus said, in the event of mechanical problems, Maintenance and supervision would be there to assist, but for normal opening/closing duties, it is the crew's responsibility.

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-Matt
2001 Magnum Crew

*** This post was edited by MDOmnis on 12/10/2001. ***