Ther original Magnum design?

Michael Darling said:
What's with always calling Rideman when people don't know something? Just because he knows practically everything there is to know about the amusement industry...
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We need a "Rideman Signal" like the bat signal, that we can shine into the sky and get Dave to come straighten out our facts.

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A rollercoaster? What's that?

While I was on Gemini a few weeks ago I noticed these "upstop plates" for the first time. Why use these instead of wheels? I would think that they would be very harsh on the track, eventually even grinding thin spots or even holes in the rails. What other rides use these?

WOW, and I would have thought that I would know something like THIS! Thanks for the history lesson. Are there any more pics?

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A lot of mine trains use upstop plates because they don't go too fast to begin with nor do they catch much air. Dahlonega @ SFOG uses plates on its car frames.

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the member formerly known as MisterX

Magnum's lap bars and hold bars were originally bare metal, also, which didn't help prevent bloody noses when a nose smacked into them on the original third drop. That first season, CP improvised padding on the hand bars and lap bars simply by taping it on. Also, the seats used to be bare plastic, no side or bottom cusions.

As for upstart plates, Gemini surely is ok with them, but one couldn't help but wonder why they put those on Magnum with all those bunnyhops.

Incidentally, the entire pretzel turnaround was retracked many years ago (Don't know when). You can see the the main track tube is thicker in that section, though origianlly, it wasn't.

*** This post was edited by faster-faster! on 9/10/2002. ***

I always found the entrance to the pretzel to be a little awkward. The track begins tilting to the left a lot earlier than it should for the upcoming turn. Maybe this was the easiest solution for this transition when they did this modification.

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signature withheld for no apparent reason

Gemini has those Metal Plates as Upstops, but I guess they have added Polyurethane to them or something maybe some kind of padding - I was that the other day...

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jdancisin, i also notice this. I always found it weird how the track banks way before it is needed.

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The cleveland browns suck, if its brown flush it down, Go Bengals!

Jdancisin & Beast_Rocks - at the speed trains enter the pretzel turn imagine the slam you'd get if trains weren't banked first before hitting the turn....OUCH!

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"Mmmmm....forbidden donut!" - Homer Simpson

Wow... I never knew that the Magnum had been re-worked! How did I miss that? You learn something new every day.

I'd love to see the before and after pictures side-by-side, so I could get a better idea of what changed, and how. That pic Jeff no nicely posted helped a bit (they moved the track up a few feet there), but it still goesn't give me a very good idea of what all changed.

And even though I've ridden it every single year since it opened, I don't remember any major change in the ride, and don't remember it ever being violent or rough before. Maybe that's because I always ride in the front car? Or is my memory just going?

A lot of people missed that Magnum was reprofiled after it's opening season. This brings up a big question....what other Arrow coasters have been reprofiled that we don't know about or never realized? Are there many? Drachen Fire had a whole Corkscrew removed. (what a beautiful coaster very sad to see it gone)

The Magnum reprofile happened early on, I believe after the '89 season. The turnaround was replaced in '93-'94 with thicker steel with a larger spine, but I am reasonably certain it wasn't intentionally reprofiled at that time...but they did something wrong because in the middle of the '94 season (beginning the day after CoasterMania! weekend, in fact) the ride went down for a week or two to have two additional track sections replaced to re-do the transitions into and out of the new turnaround.

I believe that the up-stops on Cedar Point's older Runaway Trains are steel, but with metal plates of some soft metal, probably brass or bronze or something like that, bolted to the contact surface. That way the plates will wear instead of the underside of the rail. Sort of like using Grade 2 bolts in Tilt-A-Whirl platform hinges. :)

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

I always found the entrance to the pretzel to be a little awkward. The track begins tilting to the left a lot earlier than it should for the upcoming turn. Maybe this was the easiest solution for this transition when they did this modification.

Amen jdancisin. That twist prior to the pretzel is both irritating and irrational.
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Talk to the claw...

HA!!!its not just me then!!!! i knew magnum looked different from when i went when i was little to now. i knew there was a third big hill. i just didnt say anything cause i thought it was just because i was a young kid when that was built, and everything looks bigger when youre younger.

There was no "third" big hill. The third hill is the same height as it has been since day 1. Besides the fact that you would have been three before it was reprofiled. I don't remeber much at all when I was three.

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All I need is 4.5 million bucks and a half a mile long sliver of land and maybe someone could build me my very own Shivering Timbers.

*** This post was edited by MagnumForce on 9/15/2002. ***