On a few of my trips to the Point I noticed that the blue train was running very slow and half the time not running at all. It seemed like the ride itself was closed for a long time. I know that they have to weight the trains down on test runs, but are they starting to weight the blue train down all the time now?
Not any time I rode it last season. Those weight bags are pretty substantial, and they were absent from the car when I rode.
Gemini must be fully loaded when it is running cold for at least the first circuit. Why they switched from people to bags of shot for that process, I will never know.....
--Dave Althoff, Jr.
A cople of time the blue train was down because of computer problems with the mmid course brakes.
*** This post was edited by Andrew on 3/7/00. ***
I personally like the blue car better than the red, it is more thrill for some reason (come to think of it, the blue car was down when for the rest of the day when I went, weird).
I like the blue better myself. Having the inside track on the turn near the station makes for a good ride going into the head chopper segment of the ride.
When I worked on White Water Landing in '87, all the Ride Op employees from Frontier Town and Gemini Midway had to report to Gemini immediately after clocking in behind Stockade. We would load up the first two cars of each train and make about three or four uninterrupted circuits to get the rails warmed up. This would take about 15-20 minutes once the the Gemini girls got everything set up to go. On really cold days we would also go to Mine ride and do the same thing. All of this riding would mean we would not get to WWL until like 10 minutes to 10:00, which was barely enough time to walk the course and get the pumps started. I suspect they switched to the non-human weights to relieve the non-gemini employees and enable them to get their own rides started and running before opening time. B.T.W. Don't ever try to ride Gemini with the bar up and no seat belt (there were no seat belts in '87). I did it once and almost got launched out of the car at the top of the first turn around. That was the scariest ride on Gemini I have ever had. Also, How many remember when the head chopper was lower than it currently is? There used to be a board that was just low enough to clip with your fingertips if you stood up just a little. Ah, Those were the days...
Chris DeFouw
cwdefouw@netwalk.com
White Water Landing Crew '87