Thorpe Park: General Discussion

[jon81uk]

They struggle with their prototypes (I’m old enough to remember Air!)

I do wonder how some of the “it’s not ready to open, needs more testing” people on here would have coped with Air opening and the issues with rasing the seats up. No amount of testing with water dummies would have helped as it was the unique shapes and weights of real humans that gave the issue on Air.

 

[RIPCorky]

They really need to move away from these "gimmick" rides, because as we have seen in the past it usually makes for a bad and troublesome/unreliable ride (smiler and Thirteen) Has Burton actually designed anything decent or can operate for more than 6 days of the year yet? Thank god he was forced to keep Nemmy

 

[Josh555]

I do wonder how some of the “it’s not ready to open, needs more testing” people on here would have coped with Air opening and the issues with rasing the seats up. No amount of testing with water dummies would have helped as it was the unique shapes and weights of real humans that gave the issue on Air.

I was there on AIR’s opening day and returned a couple of times that season.

Granted it was 23 years ago so I may not be remembering this correctly but I’m fairly sure it didn’t go down for almost 2 weeks shortly after opening and then go down a few times since to the extent this has?

 

[Manchester1894]

From: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGegYpMnA/
hard to keep up with social media these days. It's great for relaying breaking news but it seems news of the roll back being way off wasnt true. Here's a better video.

 

[Benzin]

Yeah a week and a bit of it was for the first breakdown, which happened within 24 hours of it being open, I’m not sure how that detracts from the point?

I cant personally remember a ride having this amount of downtime this soon after it’s opened, I think it’s reasonable to at least ask the question as to whether it was wise to open it at the point that it was opened.

TT2 is currently still down no?

Closer to home, Dragon's Fury had some major issues when it opened. I'm sure there's a plethora of rides that have suffered issues. Some worse than others.

The first breakdown, as discussed at length at the time, clearly was something that all the testing time possible could've not discovered. Then had to wait to actually repair it which didn't take long at all. Most of the waiting was probably for the part(s).

 

[LordOfDarkness]

I think the most concerning thing is we've got several unrelated issues seemingly at play.

• Whatever went wrong at the top of the lift hill
• Block zone issues / end trim issue
• Engineers looking at the lift hill motor the other day
• Stalling / speed issues following drop 2

Quite a bad wrap sheet for a brand new ride. I'm not a seasoned old timer enthusiast unlike some on here, but I don't remember a ride having this many unrelated issues in such a short space of time.

 

[Josh555]

TT2 is currently still down no?

Closer to home, Dragon's Fury had some major issues when it opened. I'm sure there's a plethora of rides that have suffered issues. Some worse than others.

The first breakdown, as discussed at length at the time, clearly was something that all the testing time possible could've not discovered. Then had to wait to actually repair it which didn't take long at all. Most of the waiting was probably for the part(s).

Referencing Top Thrill Dragster 2, a ride receiving universal criticism for going down so quickly, which is going through a fairly public blame game between park and manufacturer isn’t really helping combat the point. It’s fairly clear that wasn’t ready to open hence why they’re now having to redesign the trains for jt.

If there’s a plethora of rides where this has happened then it should be fairly easy to name one that has managed to run for less than a week of it’s opening month.

It’s an incredibly bad look for the park I don’t really see how that is in doubt.

 

[Islander]

They really need to move away from these "gimmick" rides, because as we have seen in the past it usually makes for a bad and troublesome/unreliable ride

This isn’t really a gimmick ride though… yes UK’s tallest, but by no means world’s tallest, and no new or untested tech, unless I’m missing something. It’s a fairly standard coaster, surely?

 

[Dave]

Yeah a week and a bit of it was for the first breakdown, which happened within 24 hours of it being open, I’m not sure how that detracts from the point?

I cant personally remember a ride having this amount of downtime this soon after it’s opened, I think it’s reasonable to at least ask the question as to whether it was wise to open it at the point that it was opened.

Air
Thirteen
TTD2

They struggle with their prototypes (I’m old enough to remember Air!), but as far as their hyper installs the only issue that comes to mind is the cracking on Fury (which was caused by the fabrication company) I don’t think any B&M hypers have ever stalled either.

I know people love Mack, but we simply would not be in this situation if they had gone for the full length B&M instead of the cut down layout we ended up with

Yes but you could argue B&M are quite stale these days compared to other manufacturers so not much to go wrong really.

I have no strong opinion on Mack as manufacturer, I think they build good stuff but I also think Vekoma is more interesting at the moment and Intamin are having a good run.

I do wonder how some of the “it’s not ready to open, needs more testing” people on here would have coped with Air opening and the issues with rasing the seats up. No amount of testing with water dummies would have helped as it was the unique shapes and weights of real humans that gave the issue on Air.

Two different things.

Anything to do with the seats or trains there comes a point when dummy testing stops being useful as you need the real world to drag out issues (idiots actually riding and doing annoying things). Mechanisms such as lift hills or brake runs whether there is a dummy or a person makes no odds what you need are enough cycles so that any weak points come to failure prior to opening.

Air actually probably could have done with a longer testing phase as one of the big early failures was the H bar snapping.

I think Mack need to pull their finger out but I think the hysterics about quality are a bit extreme.

 

[RIPCorky]

This isn’t really a gimmick ride though… yes UK’s tallest, but by no means world’s tallest, and no new or untested tech, unless I’m missing something. It’s a fairly standard coaster, surely?

I'd argue UK tallest and two of the elements are gimmicks

 

[Dave]

I'd argue UK tallest and two of the elements are gimmicks

Mechanically it doesn’t do anything interesting though.

Lift hill, brake run and station, fairly standard fare.

 

[RIPCorky]

Mechanically it doesn’t do anything interesting though.

Lift hill, brake run and station, fairly standard fare.

Yes which means it should work properly

 

[Smiley]

This is surely not a thing lol, when speed can be so easily determined off-train.

Indeed. My point was about the tech at their disposal. eg if Smiler cars had GPS, or were uniquely tagged around the track, then it would have been obvious that one car was still on-track and the incident would never have happened.

I find it inconceivable that we have this issue today, with all the design tools at their disposal. Franz Mack would be turning in his grave.

 

[Dave]

Yes which means it should work properly

So why was you implying disagreement with Islanders point that a ride without gimmicks has no excuse not to work?

 

[tayspru]

B&M Hyper coasters are stale to the vanishingly small minority of UK park guests that travel abroad for Theme Parks. There are none in the U.K

Some GP in the U.K. may have Mako as a reference point , a smaller number still will also have Shambhala …

I truly believe that Hyperia isn’t the coaster the park needed and this was all very avoidable with installing something tried and tested than trying to be different at the expense of ride length and (clearly now) reliability

 

[Matt N]

They struggle with their prototypes (I’m old enough to remember Air!), but as far as their hyper installs the only issue that comes to mind is the cracking on Fury (which was caused by the fabrication company) I don’t think any B&M hypers have ever stalled either.

B&M hypers certainly have stalled. At very least, I know that Diamondback has stalled, Shambhala has stalled, and I think Fury might have stalled if I’m not mistaken. Other B&Ms such as GateKeeper have even stalled with people on the train.

I think stalls are just unfortunate, to a degree. A rogue gust of wind in the wrong direction at the wrong time can make even an element taken at some speed turn into a place where a ride stalls. I believe even Rita might have stalled on the first hill, which is taken at some speed in regular operation.

I think Hyperia has just been unfortunate and had a number of potential issues occur at once. New rides have issues; I don’t think that anything that’s happened to Hyperia, aside from maybe the extended closure, is that unusual for a new ride.

 

[Coaster]

I truly believe that Hyperia isn’t the coaster the park needed and this was all very avoidable with installing something tried and tested than trying to be different at the expense of ride length and (clearly now) reliability

I disagree, Hyperia's layout is far more intense and inventive than any B&M hyper I've ridden; some of the elements are unlike anything else I've experienced. Only downside is the final section being much duller than what comes before it, due to the trims.

 

[Islander]

Indeed. My point was about the tech at their disposal. eg if Smiler cars had GPS, or were uniquely tagged around the track, then it would have been obvious that one car was still on-track and the incident would never have happened.

But again, the existing, fully tested and fully reliable track-based tech knew there was a car still on track. The system logs a car going into a block, and out of a block - always knows when a block is occupied.

Smiler was 100% human error, the block system was overridden, even though it was very clear that a block was still occupied. The ride performed exactly as it should, and knew a car was out on track (and displayed as much to ops and engineers).

There’s no need for pointless development, especially with tech as flakey as GPS. Terrible idea

 

[tayspru]

I disagree, Hyperia's layout is far more intense and inventive than any B&M hyper I've ridden; some of the elements are unlike anything else I've experienced. Only downside is the final section being much duller than what comes before it, due to the trims.

Yes but again, you have that point of reference, the majority of the GP don’t and B&M hypers are still *excellent* coasters.

For years, enthusiasts dreamed of a B&M hyper for Thorpe, it was only after Hyperia was revealed to be a Mack that the “cope” kicked in and the narrative shifted to “B&M hypers are boring anyway” and “it’s not even that short a layout”

 

[Sharko]

Shambhala will never ever be stale to me. 10 times in one night i went on that thing and every ride was as exciting as the last. I really not bothered about awkward unnatural transitions like outer banked turns etc i'm just happy to be lifted out of my seat for a couple of seconds.