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Thorpe Park: General Discussion

lee2804 said:
I think they need to give more info. There have been alot of theories online with some gaining traction no matter if they are true or not.

This has a feel of the smiler accident at AT. Not quite that bad but with the stories coming out about it breaking down and why the GP will just see it as an unsafe ride and wont wanna go on it. Enthusiasts wont care but the GP will.
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Are you for real? Feels like the Smiler incident? Honestly think a little.

To my knowledge nobody has had any injury. Not even a bruise. Let alone life changing injuries and trauma.

It could just be a faulty part - it happens with machinery. No matter how much testing - things break. It’s just Sod’s Law it’s happened on opening day.

For me - they say nothing. If they say oh a part has broken - they’ll get slated. If they say nothing - they’ll still get slated but at least people will treat rumours as just that.
 
Jb85 said:
Are you for real? Feels like the Smiler incident? Honestly think a little.

To my knowledge nobody has had any injury. Not even a bruise. Let alone life changing injuries and trauma.

It could just be a faulty part - it happens with machinery. No matter how much testing - things break. It’s just Sod’s Law it’s happened on opening day.

For me - they say nothing. If they say oh a part has broken - they’ll get slated. If they say nothing - they’ll still get slated but at least people will treat rumours as just that.
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Agreed, that's a ridiculous comparison, no one was hurt or even involved in an evacuation, it just didn't open the second day.

What this does feel like is the string of teething problems the Smiler experienced during its first few months of operation in 2013, I wonder how many people remember that its opening was delayed by two weeks after it got stuck on the lift hill at a press event, experienced two stalls each resulting in 24-hour shutdowns and was then closed for five days after a bolt flew off in July (no one was injured). The following month it closed again for several days after cracks were identified in a support.

All just par for the course for a new Merlin ride unfortunately!
 
NuttySquirrel said:
Agreed, that's a ridiculous comparison, no one was hurt or even involved in an evacuation, it just didn't open the second day.

What this does feel like is the string of teething problems the Smiler experienced during its first few months of operation in 2013, I wonder how many people remember that its opening was delayed by two weeks after it got stuck on the lift hill at a press event, experienced two stalls each resulting in 24-hour shutdowns and was then closed for five days after a bolt flew off in July (no one was injured). The following month it closed again for several days after cracks were identified in a support.

All just par for the course for a new Merlin ride unfortunately!
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In fairness - both rides have pushed boundaries. This comparison makes total sense
 
They've just released details of what happened.

At 8:48 am (BST), on Saturday 25 May 2024, a technician identified that a motor terminal (serial number 973782623-652) suffered an inverted power surge which saw its thermal limit exceeded by 61.48% above standard limits. Standard procedure requires that the part is replaced. It currently retails at £17,995 + VAT, and is on a lead time of 10-14 days from North Korea.
 
Tom said:
They've just released details of what happened.

At 8:48 am (BST), on Saturday 25 May 2024, a technician identified that a motor terminal (serial number 973782623-652) suffered an inverted power surge which saw its thermal limit exceeded by 61.48% above standard limits. Standard procedure requires that the part is replaced. It currently retails at £17,995 + VAT, and is on a lead time of 10-14 days from North Korea.
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We joke about this. But if you put this on an Instagram post it would genuinely do the rounds
 
Not sure why some people think there's an entitlement to know from the park what has failed. It's none of our business. Does it actually make any difference what the component is?

There's a thing in engineering called the bathtub curve. Basically something is most likely to fail either when it's new or at the end of its life. This is probably just an example of that. No harm done as things are designed to fail in a safe way.
 
It's really not that strange to me, the people that have an appetite for technical details of a ride failure also count the number of rollercoasters they've ridden and analyse throughputs and queue times. I see it as intense curiosity, rather than entitlement (which I see a lot in other areas as it happens).
 
If you're geeky about something, you naturally want to know all the geeky details. But unless the organisation in charge of the thing you are geeky about is NASA, you're always going to be dissapointed. Companies don't tend to give out details when said details don't make them look good.
 
Thorpe social team got bored of the exact same question of why / what’s happened - they’ve turned off commenting.

Personally I think turning off comments is worse than ignoring comments. It’s not very on brand for ‘24 Thorpe who said they were open, honest, upfront and unapologetically authentic.

Of course the park were never going to reveal what happened so in all honesty I don’t know why they allowed comments in the first place.
 
It has already been said, but I noticed this on another comment on YouTube which cements it:

1717026956418.png

I'm really curious to know what the issue is, but it's just not in their interest to tell us... and it's true, after a while of good/normal operation we'll barely remember this brief window where it was down.
 
ringo said:
Thorpe social team got bored of the exact same question of why / what’s happened - they’ve turned off commenting.

Personally I think turning off comments is worse than ignoring comments. It’s not very on brand for ‘24 Thorpe who said they were open, honest, upfront and unapologetically authentic.

Of course the park were never going to reveal what happened so in all honesty I don’t know why they allowed comments in the first place.
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Personally, I would prefer the world if they just turned off social media...
Everyone would find something more constructive to do with all that time on their hands in seconds...more positive than repeated prattling about honesty and openness, with a company who has been open and honest...this isn't the skyride!
Repeated unanswerable questions due to commercial considerations...no obligation or right to a reply to thoosie demands...check those terms and conditions, then ****** off and stop wasting time.
They have been open, honest, upfront and absolutely authentic with the matter...and they have nothing to apologise for...a new ride has problems, we hear that every last year...move on and stop groaning...we all want it open, but safe...as soon as possible, as do Thorpe.
It is not the social media team getting bored and switching off, it is damage limitation, and managing hyperventilating thoosie vapours to a reasonable level to protect the world from massive global warming.
 
I think the park, inadvertently, caused a lot of this through their open documenting of the construction. Enthusiasts are so invested in the construction of the ride and have been fed pretty much everything they wanted to know, that now they feel entitled.
Obviously they aren’t , the park owe nothing , but a thought all the same
 
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