No BackUps - At Cedar Point

[O3H]

Once the power goes out - you're stuck !!
In the heat, hundreds of feet above the dirt.
The amusement park apparently has no backup generators.

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/ne...tage/35454471/

https://twitter.com/cedarpoint

[Jimaz]

Envisioning Queen Victoria stuck atop a roller coaster looking into the camera and saying "We are not amused" — at the amusement park.

[bust]

Of course their rollercoasters weren't always as impressive as they are today. One was nothing more than an upside-down loop. For a while it was the only rollercoaster with an upside-down loop they had besides the corckscrew.

People entered the coaster from an elevation as high as the top of the loop. It descended to the bottom of the loop, circled the loop, and then ascended up a hill on the other side to an elevation as high as the top of the loop again, where it stopped. Then it repeated the loop in reverse. Simple as that. Ordinarily it was a very short ride.

Starting and stopping the coaster from that high elevation made it possible to propel the coaster without having to use much energy. Gravity took care of almost all of it. All it took was a little extra push.

Once I saw the rollercoaster give people a ride much longer than expected.

It propelled through the loop facing forwards, then either it didn't wasn't caught on the other side or it wasn't pushed back with enough force.

Gravity took care of the rest.

It returned through the loop backwards. But didn't make it all the way back to where it started, and wasn't caught there either. It slowed to a gradual stop, only to slowly reverse course and head down the hill again.

It repeated the loop forwards, ascended almost all the way back up the hill on the other side, slowed to a stop just short of the top...

And then slowly changed direction to repeat the loop backwards. It ascended almost all the way up to the top of the hill on the other side, slowed....

And then gradually changed direction to repeat the loop forward again.....

It repeated this over and over and over, ascending a little less high up the opposite hill each time.

The scariest part:

With less momentum to propel it, it passed through the loop more slowly, and more slowly... And hung upside down longer and longer at the top.

Just like it gradually slowed and reversed course at the top of each hill, it slowed pendularly at the top of the loop before achieving enough altitude to pass through to the other side.

Until it almost got stuck up there. The screams from the riders were especially shrill. And sustained.

Then it slowly reversed course to roll down the side of the loop it had just ascended...

And repeated a U pattern between the loop and the hill, again, and again....

Until finally it came to a stop.

[sirrealone]

I heard the outage was because a car accident knocked down a power pole. I'm amazed that they don't have redundant feeds into the park. It seems like getting rid of that single point of failure would be worth the investment.

[O3H]

The electricity outage actually surprised me when I read about it.
A park that big, existing for that length of time, could be taken
down via just one telephone car accident, amazing.