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Thorpe Park: General Discussion

djtruefitt said:
That’s the original colour of Colossus, it just looks nothing like that now as it’s never been painted or cleaned in 20 years 😂
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I think this highlights just how utterly woeful the upkeep in all these parks have been since the days of Tussauds (even at the height of Towers' golden years this a problem that dates back then if the original HH was anything to go by how they didn't do much with it) which is something that has to seriously change and one that is long overdue IMO. Say what you like about BPB but at the very least they put effort in keeping their rides look presentable compared to what Merlin do with Colossus and Smiler being prime examples of not caring about looking after their attractions.
 
QTXAdsy said:
I think this highlights just how utterly woeful the upkeep in all these parks have been since the days of Tussauds (even at the height of Towers' golden years this a problem that dates back then if the original HH was anything to go by how they didn't do much with it) which is something that has to seriously change and one that is long overdue IMO. Say what you like about BPB but at the very least they put effort in keeping their rides look presentable compared to what Merlin do with Colossus and Smiler being prime examples of not caring about looking after their attractions.
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Nope, I was thinking on Sunday just how shoddy the National main track section is looking.
The Dipper was getting in a very poor state, track and station, before the current repairs, and the Streak looks awful in bright orange, that is now fading.
And then there is the dead Mouse...
 
rob666 said:
Nope, I was thinking on Sunday just how shoddy the National main track section is looking.
The Dipper was getting in a very poor state, track and station, before the current repairs, and the Streak looks awful in bright orange, that is now fading.
And then there is the dead Mouse...
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True, but at least Blackpool takes good care of their dark rides.
 
Have you been recently?
Nothing changed in most of them in years, large number of Ghost Train stuff not working at the weekend, no new stuff in the caves/alice in decades, Impossible has given up the ghost by the look of things...
 
Trooper Looper said:
True, but at least Blackpool takes good care of their dark rides.
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I think that's true to an extent ... They've certainly spent a lot of time taking care of Valhalla ...

It depends where your definition of dark ride starts and ends, in my years visiting the park we've seen the removal of GSoE, Magic Mountain, Space Invader, Trauma Towers, Black Hole, Noah's Ark, Fodi's Funhouse and Gold Mine*.

Alice is kept in pretty good shape. They've made some interesting changes to the Ghost Train and kept it looking pretty fresh. The aspects of the River Caves that have been removed (much for good reason) haven't been done so in a particularly sympathetic way.

* Replaced by something that is more in vogue, but less impressive, for my money.

** Apologies. Genuinely thought this was the BPB topic.
 
Trooper Looper said:

From: https://twitter.com/yrexperienceg/status/1638153662944903168?t=xTMo49NOMY5SlMtfqBvIpQ&s=19


Gosh, so far this year seems amazing for Thorpe Park. A new ghost train, single rider added to Stealth, and Colossus getting a partial retrack with its original colours!!!
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I love how they’ve cut corners by avoiding Intamin for replacement track. 🙄 Repaints of Colossus have been talked about for so many years now, it really does need it. It’s 21 and when it was 10 it had aged so bad. Infact, I first rode it in October 2004. By early 2006 when Stealth opened, Colossus was looking bad.

How it should look (Reddit).
How it looks (Alamy).

The Medusa face in the cobra roll pit is a great feature but over the years it’s greenery above it has overgrown and then been cut back, and the pit itself has very little water in it or none! Water is meant to flow from its mouth but it hardly ever has.

I also wish Attraction Source would stop passing photos off as their own when I think it was mdta Martin Anderson who made the “cwoaguide” and “thorpeparkguide”websites (if anyone can correct me who did these websites then please do). Often come across old photos I recognise that weren’t taken by Attraction Source.
 
RyanUK said:
I love how they’ve cut corners by avoiding Intamin for replacement track. 🙄 Repaints of Colossus have been talked about for so many years now, it really does need it. It’s 21 and when it was 10 it had aged so bad. Infact, I first rode it in October 2004. By early 2006 when Stealth opened, Colossus was looking bad.

How it should look (Reddit).
How it looks (Alamy).

The Medusa face in the cobra roll pit is a great feature but over the years it’s greenery above it has overgrown and then been cut back, and the pit itself has very little water in it or none! Water is meant to flow from its mouth but it hardly ever has.

I also wish Attraction Source would stop passing photos off as their own when I think it was mdta Martin Anderson who made the “cwoaguide” and “thorpeparkguide”websites (if anyone can correct me who did these websites then please do). Often come across old photos I recognise that weren’t taken by Attraction Source.
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Followed the Colossus, Inferno and Stealth construction updates back in the day on Thorpe Park Guide. As far as I'm aware...

Thorpe Park Guide and CWOA guide rebranded as South Parks. Who then joined with Towers Times and then Attraction Source.

Edit: Can view the old pages here...

https://web.archive.org/web/20030127085626/http://thorpeparkguide.com/
 
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The old sites were run by chris, who ran south parks….. he closed them down at some point due to personal life, but later rejoined the community which is part of attraction source, towers times etc. so they were his images
 
Speaking of the BPB jokes, I have to say that the joke is on Thorpe regarding Colossus' track being removed again...PMBO's track replacement in contrast has been a masterclass in how to do it compared to the tomfoolery with Thorpe. When I'm giving BPB some praise then that is saying something you have to say.
 
QTXAdsy said:
Speaking of the BPB jokes, I have to say that the joke is on Thorpe regarding Colossus' track being removed again...PMBO's track replacement in contrast has been a masterclass in how to do it compared to the tomfoolery with Thorpe. When I'm giving BPB some praise then that is saying something you have to say.
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I really don’t like Thorpe (actually prefer pleasure beach to Thorpe), but fabricating track for an early 90’s Arrow hyper isn’t in the same league as doing so for an early 2000’s intamin.

Though that might suggest Merlin where foolish in using such a company to do it.
 
QTXAdsy said:
Speaking of the BPB jokes, I have to say that the joke is on Thorpe regarding Colossus' track being removed again...PMBO's track replacement in contrast has been a masterclass in how to do it compared to the tomfoolery with Thorpe. When I'm giving BPB some praise then that is saying something you have to say.
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Err...massive gap in the new rail fitting at BPB last year.
The new track has given new dodgy twists that weren't there before, and the turnaround on the Dipper has seven different radii going into the u turn, instead of one...after "fixing"...and that is from the head of structures on the park!
 
Coaster track isn't all that complicated to fabricate.

If anything the Arrow track is more complicated than 2 pipe Intamin stuff, but you arguably have to be less precise.
 
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