Tmcdllr

Thanks for the Edge info. The car getting crushed seemed unlikely. Damaged, sure but not crushed- no way. I remember riding The Edge at CGA prior to the program change and you are correct. It was really cool going up the lift having another car scream down it right in front of you. I thought I remembered one of the lift chains broke causing this but after thinking about it more your explanation makes 100% sense. I worked the CGA Edge in '89 with the new program, they also ran only 3 cars most of the time.

Absolutely no problem Robb, no need to apologize I understand. That's ok, if I need my 'coaster fix' I have 3 RAW DVDs I can watch...lol. As soon as the next one comes out it is going into my collection. Is there a way to set up sort of an automatic billing/ship so as each new volume comes out I would automatically be billed and it would ship? If you could keep the price at $10 I would so do that!

Today I was already logged in to TPR and I clicked the coaster tube link, a small window opened saying TPR is asking for authentication and asked for my username and password which was odd because I was already logged on. I closed the window. Thought I would pass this on as it didn't seem right. Darn, I wanted to watch some POVs!

Glad to hear it was packed... that's good for the park.

I don't know why but I'm really likin' the sexy black track!

^I totally forgot about Kong..... that ride is absolutely horrible!!!

Best: All of the big coasters at MM with X2 being the exeption only because it is so painful on the outside. But if I have to pick one hands down it would be Tatsu. Worst: Grizzly! Slow, boring, rough. Why is this coaster still around?

Thank you! I was going to post earlier but this had turned into a silly and stupid argument. But I will say I find these cable snapping incidents to be nothing more than coincidence. The cables snapped, nobody got really seriously injured, they will be replaced and repairs will be made, the rides will re-open, so let's just move on shall we? Besides, it was probably going to snap sooner or later it just happens that it was sooner- no big deal. And FAR MORE people get injured or killed just in auto accidents per year than a cable snapping on a roller coaster.

YES PLEASE!

Has anyone checked out the 'Sideshow of Freaks' mentioned in the blog?

^The bitchy neighbors are not helping. If the 49er plans fail, (I should say when they fail), don't forget the park can always expand into the main lot, even if it means building a parking garage, if they WANT to do it THEY WILL- and CF did mention they had future expansion plans and I don't think they would say that if it were not possible. As far as the woodie, if that's true that sucks and I would hope they have plans for another coaster up their sleeves. How long would it take to build the woodie?

^Then that throws this whole "just put a floorless train on it" thing out the window.

I believe the brakes consist of fins on the track and large permanent magnets under the train which don't bend easily if at all. The damage to the fins on the track was likely caused by the snapped cable directly or indirectly, causing the train to be jarred out of alignment with the brake fins. It's also possible a piece of the cable or other metal broke off and stuck to the permanent magnets in between where the brake fin would run, causing damage.

Thank you for clearing that up. That was a more informative answer than just simply saying "B&M will NOT allow a floorless conversion" and not at least trying to explain why. I appreciate that. Even if this is not the reason why they wouldn't do it, it at least makes a lot of sense as to why they shouldn't do it.

I've never ridden Pony Express. Is it really that bad? Please explain with every excruciating detail!

Agreed. And, if the damage was isolated to the first car I see no need to replace the entire train, that would not make sense.

I think you are right, it ends in 2034.

^^That is a very good point and it answers my question, thanks.

So IF the restraints were changed they would all have to be changed on all the trains, very costly and I don't see that happening even if they are discontinued. Why go through the expense of replacing them all when you only maybe need to replace a few. Even if they couldn't get them from Intamin why couldn't someone else make them? Would be far less expensive and they would just need to be made up to Intamin specs. Mix-n-match, sure no problem.

Who said anything about changing the restraints, there is absolutely no need to. I think what will change is the cable inspection procedure/schedule and maybe a different or stronger cable. If park maintenance is not at fault the cable supplier might be looked at. Does anyone know if since these types of rides have been installed and with the instances of problems with the cables, has Intamin changed the recommendation regarding when the cables should be replaced? I don't recall hearing anything about it.

I think TTD and KK use two cables for the launch and I'm guessing this one uses one? If that's the case, maybe it should be changed to 2 so the load can be shared by both cables instead of having it all on one. And the fact that these cables are supposed to be good for a year and this one did not last a year points to a defective cable, possibly, in which case the cable supplier should be looked at. Another possibility is that the cable got damaged somehow without notice until this happened.

... fixed

No matter what the cause/who is to blame this is not acceptable. Something seriously needs to be done whether it's stronger cable, better monitoring of the cable, protective guards under the train... something as long as the cable launch system is used. To say those people were lucky is an understatement. I am guessing the cable broke off where it attatches to the front of the catch car. Just to clarify, does it use 1 or 2 cables to launch? I don't remember.

^I think that lease is the key. Wasn't it for something like 50 years? What would this park be like in 50 years? How many wonderfull things/coasters will happen? I remember in the CGA blog awhile back it was mentioned some very exciting things are going to happen in the next few years- I hope by 'exciting' they mean 'coasters.' When will the 'new for 2010' announcement come out?

I think if CF wanted to unload this park they wouldn't be going after the 49ers. They were also fighting the stadium deal because they said they had future expansion plans for the park. Why would they say that if they were going to sell? With no stadium they could expand into the main lot easily and still have plenty of parking. I don't buy this 'unload the park' thing and I don't want the stadium either, it's just not a good thing.