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Blackpool Pleasure Beach: General Discussion

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It definitely has some form of manual brakes/release in the station, was on it on Sunday, and one was pulled for it to leave the station, and another (I think) for the lift.
 
Picturing all the other rides in my head, this is the only one I can think of where the levers are out in the open, it will be an extremely simple coaster to operate. The only others which use levers, as opposed to more modern control systems, are Streak and Dipper, both of which have their levers locked away in an op box overnight. Blue Flyers are out in the open so this would be an easy task really.

Several things are more concerning. Firstly they must have been walking around for some time and attempting to operate other rides before finding an easy one. Unless of course they had pre-planned this and knew.

It also makes you wonder how many other people have broken in and tried this without being spotted. If it took Security over half an hour to notice them going round on a bloody roller coaster all sorts could be happening in the park which goes undetected. It wasn't that long ago that BPB were in the news for having loud music at an arena left on all night, which could apparently be heard nearly a mile from the park, without anyone noticing, that's pretty poor and does make you wonder what their security staff are actually doing overnight. In a short space of time this is two pretty big and obvious things which have both gone unnoticed.
 
Lol!

The security are clearly top notch at the pleasure beach. The park is hardly massive, I'm sure at 4am you would be able to hear the coaster running from anywhere in the park.

I imagine the security were sat in a control room asleep or watching the. Let's hope Mandy sacks them!
 
Ryan B said:
It definitely has some form of manual brakes/release in the station, was on it on Sunday, and one was pulled for it to leave the station, and another (I think) for the lift.
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oh yeah, i forgot oubout them, i saw them when i rode it a few weeks ago (and before that, on youtube videos). surely the levers have a lock on them?
here's a photo (the blue dispach lever is next to the operator (green shirt):

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The brakes are manual fin brakes. It's been a while, but I thought that there was a lockout on the power to ride - which would allow the train to be dispatched onto a static, isolated lift hill.

But - obviously not!
 
It depends how the gained access to the park, if they came over the wall it's possible the first ride they came to was the Blue Flyer. It does show a lack of attention though on BPB's part that it went Unnoticed for over half an hour.

The Big Dipper, Streak and I suspect Wild Mouse could all be started easily enough. I bet the likes of Derby Racer and Flyers aren't overly complex either.

Ash
 
@Ash84 - the process should be simple, it often is - but they should be isolated so that it's impossible to do so.

If only to reduce the risk of fire on a ride almost exclusively made out of wood!
 
Wild Mouse definitely has a lock-out as I've seen it applied when staff retrieve lost items from the ride area, not sure about Dipper or Streak though.
 
Ash84 said:
It depends how the gained access to the park, if they came over the wall it's possible the first ride they came to was the Blue Flyer. It does show a lack of attention though on BPB's part that it went Unnoticed for over half an hour.

The Big Dipper, Streak and I suspect Wild Mouse could all be started easily enough. I bet the likes of Derby Racer and Flyers aren't overly complex either.

Ash
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However Dipper and Streak levers are inside a control box which presumably is, and certainly should be, locked at night time.
 
Enter Valhalla said:
However Dipper and Streak levers are inside a control box which presumably is, and certainly should be, locked at night time.
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Dispatch lever for Dipper is inside the cabin and on the platform too. I think you can lock the one inside (which would in turn lock the whole mechanism).
 
It's worth remembering that when the Streak was in its hay-day it ran 3 trains, meaning the op in box simply slowed down and stopped whatever trains came into the station. He then passed them onto the ops on the platform who controlled dispatches by levers on the platform. Those levers are still in place in the case of the Streak, and the Dipper's were only removed this year.

Ash

EDIT: As Rick says by locking the boxed levers you will lock the platform levers, unless you are dealing with someone willing to do a lot of damage.

Only the Streak still has both sets of levers, it's near row 4 in the station and moves as the train leaves the station, the lever was removed from the Dipper earlier this year.
 
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Is The Big One still actually the UK's fastest rollercoaster? There seems to be contrasting information online around claims for Stealth and The Big One, and top speed statistics aren't consistent either.
 
RCDB lists big one as 74mph, but stealth is listed as 80mph. Don't tell thorpe though, they'd start a new marketing campaign around the UK 's fastest coaster.
 
I thought so! In that case how can Blackpool Pleasure Beach get away with listing The Big One as "the UK's tallest & fastest roller coaster" in all of their most recent marketing, with top speed claims of 87mph?
 
TheUnknown said:
I thought so! In that case how can Blackpool Pleasure Beach get away with listing The Big One as "the UK's tallest & fastest roller coaster" in all of their most recent marketing, with top speed claims of 87mph?
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In the same way towers get away with the claim of "world's first fully dedicated vr coaster", in that no one outside of enthusiasts actually care or know any different.
 
TheUnknown said:
I thought so! In that case how can Blackpool Pleasure Beach get away with listing The Big One as "the UK's tallest & fastest roller coaster" in all of their most recent marketing, with top speed claims of 87mph?
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You can get away with anything if the bulk of folks buy into it.

It's tenuous at best... The structure of the ride is 213ft tall, but the top of the ride is 235ft above sea level. Goliath is 235ft tall (with a 255ft drop) and reaches 85mph - as the Big One was billed as doing, when built - not sure where those extra two came from.
 
Leah said:
RCDB lists big one as 74mph, but stealth is listed as 80mph. Don't tell thorpe though, they'd start a new marketing campaign around the UK 's fastest coaster.
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I know you're joking, but I don't think "UK's fastest coaster" is exactly a bad stat to have. It (Stealth) was the fastest coaster in Europe at one point as well and I think they advertised that.
 
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