It was an odd day from the start. The first indication I got was that the cross-winds on Route 4 were trying to blow my car all over the road. The next bit was just South of Attica, where the sky to the east of me was beautiful while the sky to the West was dark and stormy. It was just...odd.
The oddness continued as I made my way into Cedar Point. For starters, Magnum was down due to high winds, something which almost never happens. I continued down to Top Thrill Dragster, which, naurally, had a long line even though it wasn't open yet. By this time it had five trains, and each train has the full complement of five cars. As I walked past the entrance, I heard the cable sheaves spin up. I looked over just in time to see the green train fail to crest the hill and roll back down on the launch side. It came to a near-stop about halfway back down the launch track and proceeded to roll very slowly bckwards. To reset the train, the brake fins were lowered, allowing the train to move a whole lot faster, As it went, the fins were popped up and down to control the train's progress (regress?) down the launch track. After a delay, the train launched again, again not clearing the tower.
A speed radar has been mounted on top of the motor house, strategically positioned to catch the train just as it releases from the launch sled. This radar gun is connected to a digital display on the ride billboard cleverly captioned, "YOUR SPEED". The radar catches the train just as it disconnects from the launch sled, so you get to see the top speed, and you get to see the speed bleed off for the first few unpowered moments. I glanced over to see that the train had launched at 118 MPH. The system reset and they tried again. At 122 MPH, the train cruised up the tower and easily went over the top. Not long after that, the ride opened to its characteristic long waits and intermittent operation.
The cool thing is how amazingly quiet the ride is. During testing, the audio system ("Vroom! Vroom! Screeeech!") was turned off. Standing next to the train at the launch position, there is very little noise as the train takes off. At the other end, just outside the motor house, there is a whine as the tow ropes wind through their sheaves at high speed; you might call it a "ringing" in the sheaves. Then the train thunders up the tower and, with luck, down the other side. I looked more closely at the launch system. Now that trains were advancing to the launch track in pairs, I actually got an opportunity to look underneath. The flag that indicates the train position on the launch track is now on the fourth wheel carrier instead of the third, meaning that the car that was missing last week was in fact the second car, not, as one might expect, the fourth. Under the center of the 3rd car, just ahead of the axle, there is a slot under the train, flanked by a couple of canisters. I presume that the launch dog drops out of the slot, probably under the influence of a solenoid powered by contacts on the bottom of the canisters. The train advances to the staging position. The advancing wheel assembly is cleverly mounted on a truck-suspension airbag and spring loaded in such a way that inflating the airbag will lower the advancing motor assembly an inch or two. There is an audible "clunk" from the train, then the airbag is inflated. This disengages the feed motor tire from the bottom of the train, allowing gravity to take over. Remember that magnetic brakes will not hold a train, so even though the brake fins are engaged, the train rolls backward. It goes a couple of feet, far enough for the launch dog to wedge into the back of the launch sled. All of the brake fins on the launch track are retracted, and the train takes off. As the train clears each track section, the brake fins are popped back up to slow the train and keep a misfired train from rolling backward into the station at 100 MPH. In fact, if the train fails to clear the tower, the brakes will stop it about halfway down the launch track, making for a slow trip back to the staging point.
My plan was not to wait in the too-long line for Dragster, but rather to proceed back to Magnum before the crowd got back there. Unfortunately Magnum was down due to high winds. It would be a recurring theme throughout the day, with Space Spiral, Skyride, Demon Drop, Raptor, Millennium Force, Mine Ride, Mean Streak, Gemini, Witches Wheel, and Magnum down all day. That left Jr. Gemini, which I can't ride, MantisTCFKAB which I don't ride, and Iron Dragon, Wildcat, Corkscrew, Disaster Transport, Wicked Twister, Blue Streak, Woodstock Express, and, strangely enough, Top Thrill Dragster.
I met up with Scott and Howard, and we took a tour of the operating coasters. It was as we were climbing the lift on Woodstock Express that we got to watch a fully loaded train roll back on Top Thrill Dragster. When that happened on Press Day it meant the ride went down for more than an hour, but this time around it was only a few minutes later whenthe train launched again, still fully loaded, and easily cleared the hill. I guess the park decided that the incredibly strong headwind at the top of the hill amply explained the rollback, so no further investigation was needed.
We rode Wicked Twister, then bailed out of a long line for Disaster Transport, opting instead to have lunch at Macaroni's, the sit-down restaurant squeezed in between the employee cafeteria and the ancient Grand Pavilion, across from the Peanuts Playground. It's a bit of an out-of-the-way corner of the park. You know, Peanuts Playground is big enough to house a decent coaster. Combine that space with the Oceana property across the midway, and there is more than enough space for almost anything. Hmmm. On a related note, do you remember the mysterious concrete fence posts that were planted behind the Coliseum a couple of years ago? Well, there is a fence between them now, running from the Gazebo, behind Chaos, all the way to the corner of the Coliseum at the back of Kiddy Kingdom. That also means there is no short cut from Schwabinc...er...Chaos to the Pagoda Gift Shop anymore.
Anyway, we had a nice meal of sandwiches at Macaroni's. Howard quizzed us on the restaurant's previous identity, apparently not knowing that my family usually ended up eating a meal at the old Swiss Chalet, a one-trip smorgasbord restaurant. It was a no-refills version of the Midway Market. We finished our meals. My Philly steak sandwich was good, the fries were worse than mediocre, all to be expected. I do wish there were an alternative to fries in the sit-down restaurants. Well, there are, but the way the menus are structured they are generally "in addition to" rather than "instead of".
After lunch we proceeded to the Red Garter Saloon at the head of the Frontier Trail to see the show, "America Rocks," which had just opened this weekend. The show itself was decent, and included one...er...surprising scene. Pity I couldn't hear it. For some reason, it was so incredibly loud that it was actually inaudible. The best place to listen to this show was probably a bench on the other side of the midway. It truly sounded terrible. This isn't Dave who is getting old; this is Dave the former recording engineer who thinks that distortion is bad, and voices should be out in front in most mixes. I really hope this was just a case of early-season jitters. The show deserves better sound than this.
After the show we walked down the Frontier Trail. The wind had not slacked off at all, and we saw an interesting sight. Wave Swinger was running, but we agreed that it probably shouldn't have been. From our vantage point in front of the Addington Mill, we could see that the swings on the bay side of the ride were hanging straight down while the ones on the midway side were swinging outward at about a 60-degree angle. It was truly odd. We decided we had to ride under these conditions. It's the first time I have had to ride a Wave Swinger defensively! Certainly an interesting ride!
We continued to wander the park. We rode the Scrambler, which at Cedar Point is always a lackluster ride...it takes almost a minute to get up to speed, goes around once at full speed, then shuts off. Well, today it didn't even get up to speed, as it was battling the stiff winds. On Wildcat, it felt like we might not make it around the first curve because of the high winds. And there was no sign of relief in sight.
We decided we'd had enough. We adjourned to Chet & Matt's, a Perkins Township pizza shop, to talk coasters, talk Cedar Point, and eat pizza. We knew it was a good place to eat, and we presumed it was a pretty good endorsement when we spotted Cedar Point general manager Dan Keller at the next table.
It was an odd day at Cedar Point, but it was still a good day. I do hope to have a more typical visit to the park soon, but neither I nor Cedar Point can control the weather, so for now I'll take what I can get.
--Dave Althoff, Jr.
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