This thread is simple! Rather than having a million little threads about everything that goes on at Blackpool Pleasure Beach, this thread is designed to consolidate it all into one user-friendly thread. Feel free to use it to post updates, trip reports, questions, comments, and of course, general discussion. For pictures and videos of the park as well as past updates, see TPR's Park Index Page.
Original Post: ______________________________________________________________________
I made a trip to BPB today, inspired by news of the cars' arrival this weekend. I didn't expect to get a glimpse of them though, so was pleasantly surprised during my Monorail ride.. which I repeated twice for photos.
Much better, close-up detailed photos will surface on or after October 8th. But for now, I just couldn't resist - clicky.
Last edited by robbalvey on Sat May 26, 2018 10:54 am.
They won't be operational until next season. Ride modifications needed, along with magnetic brakes (unless things go over budget perhaps).
Millennium Flyers would be awful (well, they ARE awful, to me, but let's just not go there!) on a non twisty coaster like the Nash - the airtime would actually diminish due to leverage related to wheelbase. The better option for that style would be Vekoma trains, but they'd be way too heavy - if you'd be ok with a whole retracking and overzealous structural enhancement to cope with the weight.. Nash ruined!
The new cars seem virtually to be the older ones, just with different restraints (individual ratcheting bar and belt). That sameness is a good thing!
YEAY - go to http://www.235club.co.uk and navigate to the news section, for a better look at the cars. The bottom right photo appears to be a little horizontally squashed (the cars are 3" deeper than standard like the old ones, but they're not *that* squashed up).
..No you won't - I think February 18th is the park's opening day next season, and the new cars won't be in service until then.
The new magnetic brakes are being fitted over winter. Good news though regarding that - some of the levers ARE staying, with the station brakes themselves being left as manual. The magnetic brakes will be actuated trims (able to regulate speed to the right degree) before the final drop (as has always been the case, but previously operated or rather "set" by a manual cable winch) and the final slowing brakes, which will be permanent magnets.
So, new trains and new brakes, but still no nasty hissing of automatic air brakes on a computer system. The sub-platform manual brake rods will still groan and the levers will still move, and dependant on the skill of the brakemen, the trains will still stop unevenly at the gates (something not desirable in operating terms, but funny and unique regardless).
I was almost ready to ask why they only were getting 4, 3 car trains thinking that they had to have longer trains. But looking back it already had 3 car trains. The new trains look sharp and I like that they retained the gray material for the interior like the old trains had along with the lights.
But I am a bit worried about some things I'm reading elsewhere about BPB. Apparently the Turtle Chase didn't run last year and it is being put in storage with the site set to be leveled. The Whip and the Black Hole were also SBNO last season. The flume, dodgems and even Noah's Ark appear to be on the endangered list. The Vikingar appears to be doomed and the cableway hasn't operated in a long time. Please correct me if I'm off on any of these rides but that is a disturbing number of endangered classic rides. I'm all for improvements but the classic rides are what make Blackpool special. What's going on?
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