Stealth

[ML27]

With project exodus being the tallest and fastest coaster in the U.K and with the way hydraulic launches are going. 
 

Surely stealths life is limited now at the park?

 

Granted it doesn’t take up much space but if you combine the areas of stealth, rumba rapids and the island next to swarm. You could have a pretty large area

[planenut]

12 hours ago, MattyMoo said:

 

Stealth SRQ is the new Tidal Wave fire effect.

Ha, ha! absolutely.

[coasterverse]

10 minutes ago, ML27 said:

With project exodus being the tallest and fastest coaster in the U.K and with the way hydraulic launches are going. 
 

Surely stealths life is limited now at the park?

 

Granted it doesn’t take up much space but if you combine the areas of stealth, rumba rapids and the island next to swarm. You could have a pretty large area

 

I can see both sides of the argument for this - on one hand, like you say, that entire side of the park takes up an extremely large footprint when you consider Rumba Rapids too. It could be a prime development spot for a brand new themed land with flats and probably even a couple of smaller scale coasters, or one large coaster.

 

On the other hand, I think they've got other development areas that they will attack long before Stealth goes - that is unless Stealth becomes too much of a pain and too expensive to maintain. Even if this was the case, depending on how Zamperla execute the Top Thrill 2 reboot, I feel like getting the Top Thrill 2 treatment on Stealth would probably come before total annihilation - it's a staple iconic attraction for the park, one that still (currently) holds the UK speed record which I'd imagine the park would love to maintain... Thorpe Park - home to two of the UK's fastest rollercoasters.

 

Maybe if the Zamperla reboot is a success it will give the park the option to change Stealth's layout too and utilise some more of the space in that area... the Stealth plaza is pretty large for a coaster with not a massive footprint!

[Benin]

TTD was far bigger a nightmare than Stealth ever has been.

 

Stealth (to my knowledge) hasn't tried to maim those stood in the local vicinity. Then SBNO for over a year or so.

 

Would take a lot for it to get such treatment, especially with the lack of available space for a reverse spike, transfer track and all other things it needs.

[JoshC.]

16 hours ago, planenut said:

Their management also say a single rider queue is certain, but weeks have become months. 

 

And here's an issue I have with the park at the moment.

 

They have been great at sharing updates geared towards geeks and those who are interested. The collaborations with Jack Silkstone over the years (pre-season videos, for example) have given a great insight into what to expect, some of the park's thinking, etc.

 

But they're almost being too open.

 

We go back to Tidal Wave's fire effect returning. That was announced for, what, 2021? And yet here we are, no fire effect in sight.

 

Their communication about SRQ has been good. They trialled it on Saw last year (after a push to trial it from a Rides Team Leader), and expanded it to a couple of flat rides. They've said they intend to put it on Stealth too. But that was many months ago, and the official line has just been 'it's coming soon'. How long does it take to set up? I genuinely cannot understand why it is taking so long, especially since Stealth was designed to have a Single Rider Queue, which still exists.

 

If they hadn't have said anything until it was confirmed and all but in place, it wouldn't have caused any issues. Even if they said "We're looking at putting it on more rides if possible - watch this space", that would be fine. But by announcing it, with no clear idea of when it could happen, it's created this situation which frankly could have been avoided.

 

Hopefully they've learnt from that, and choose to be more selective with what they talk about. And they get SRQ up and running.

 

2 hours ago, ML27 said:

With project exodus being the tallest and fastest coaster in the U.K and with the way hydraulic launches are going. 
 

Surely stealths life is limited now at the park?

 

Granted it doesn’t take up much space but if you combine the areas of stealth, rumba rapids and the island next to swarm. You could have a pretty large area

 

I don't see Stealth's life as limited.

 

Hydraulic launches are fine. Yes, Top Thrill Dragster had issues, and that's why they've changed that. Hydraulic launches are still not the most reliable and parks do still have issues with them. And yes, hydraulic launches are old hat now, with LSMs the launch of choice now (and rightfully so). 

 

But at the same time, Thorpe have got Stealth down to a tee. Yes, it's had a bit of downtime recently (a few days I believe). But aside from that, it's been reliable, rarely has a rollback, and is incredibly popular still.

 

Okay, it's not going to be the tallest ride on park. But that's not big issue, when the tallest ride is only a bit taller and faster, and on the other side of the park. It still has a huge selling point and draw. People still lap it up.

 

Thorpe aren't short on space, so don't have a need to remove it yet. And frankly put, there's other coasters which would be higher up on the list to be removed in my opinion.

 

Doing a Top Thrill feels a bit unnecessary at the moment. It would have to be turned into a swing launch in all likelihood, which would require a significant rejig of the station. The whole process would be incredibly costly at a point when, again, that money could be better spent elsewhere.

 

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

[coasterverse]

29 minutes ago, Benin said:

TTD was far bigger a nightmare than Stealth ever has been.

 

Stealth (to my knowledge) hasn't tried to maim those stood in the local vicinity. Then SBNO for over a year or so.

 

Would take a lot for it to get such treatment, especially with the lack of available space for a reverse spike, transfer track and all other things it needs.

 

Didn't mean it in that sense, but just in the sense that the park will probably want to prolong Stealth's lifespan rather than getting rid of it altogether. In today's day and age, hydraulic launched coasters are becoming a thing of the past, so it's just a matter of time before they're either all gone or the LSM launches (or whatever technology is innovative at the time) retrofitted where the hydraulic launches used to be.

 

 

This is the Stealth plaza at the minute (okay, it's the Stealth plaza in 2017, but very little (if anything) has changed since) - there's ample room there to do something else with the coaster if need be, but @JoshC. is right - as far as hydraulic launch coasters go, Stealth is the crème de la crème. Minimal downtime, extremely rare rollbacks, draws consistently large crowds. Compare that to a coaster like Rita at towers - whilst still pulling large crowds - is pretty problematic.

 

But, worst case scenario - let's say 10 years down the line (optimistic I know) when the park have exhausted all other locations for rides and coasters, Stealth is showing its age and needs work doing to it. The park are faced with either removal or retrack and LSM (or something) retrofitting, I genuinely think the park would go down the route of the retrack and retrofit. It's an iconic, staple attraction and there's plenty of space in the plaza to incorporate a slightly different layout and spike with transfer track.

 

Would be very expensive, yes - would enhance the iconic Stealth experience without too much compromise. I'd imagine in 10+ years, launch technology would probably even surpass that of hydraulic launches at this point too so we probably wouldn't even have to worry about a weaker launch - and who knows... maybe launch technology by the time Stealth's fate is sealed might have surpassed the acceleration challenges that LSM's hold presently and there'll be no need for a spike anyway - that would be the best outcome.

[MattyMoo]

In short - the park has far bigger issues and/or redevelopment areas before tearing down (beloved) Stealth.

[Matt N]

Where could a Single Rider Queue on Stealth go, out of interest?

 

In terms of removing Stealth; there are plenty of other development plots that the park could fill before touching Stealth, so unless the ride develops maintenance issues any time soon, I think we should be good for now!

[planenut]

Thanks Josh, and others. 

There was a single riders queue on the right hand stairs a few years back, before they designated that as a "disabled access".

The stories of Rita and Stea!th being designed as one ride have some truth. Height restrictions at AT and space at TP resulted in the split. Who else feels the the drop from the top hat has wasted power/potential? So many riders go on about getting a "rollback" yet in reality it's a waste of ride time, though for those who have stood in the queue it would be like getting a double ride.

[tactic]

I feel like thorpe park aren’t gonna get rid of stealth anytime soon. The park loves the ride too much to get rid of it and there aren’t many technical problems with it either.

 

I think the park will do everything in its power to keep stealth open for as long as it can, even after exodus takes away its appeal; it’s still a unique attraction for the uk and has the iconic top hat too.

[tactic]

Oop, double post… oh well.

 

Got a quick question about stealth from today. Ride launched like normal then randomly aborted on the launch track with the break fins coming up about half a second after the ride started launching. The train then stopped dead on the break fins, without leaving the launch section of the track and going up the top hat. The train then slowly rolled backwards to just outside the station and stealth promptly closed. 

 

I’m slightly confused on why this happened as it wasn’t a block section issue as the 2nd train was in the unloading station. My only thoughts could be an operator e-stopped the ride or there was an issue with the computer system that caused the ride to abort the launch, but I don’t really get it. Could someone with slightly more knowledge on this maybe explain why this happened as it seemed quite odd.

[Marc]

7 minutes ago, tactic said:

Oop, double post… oh well.

 

Got a quick question about stealth from today. Ride launched like normal then randomly aborted on the launch track with the break fins coming up about half a second after the ride started launching. The train then stopped dead on the break fins, without leaving the launch section of the track and going up the top hat. The train then slowly rolled backwards to just outside the station and stealth promptly closed. 

 

I’m slightly confused on why this happened as it wasn’t a block section issue as the 2nd train was in the unloading station. My only thoughts could be an operator e-stopped the ride or there was an issue with the computer system that caused the ride to abort the launch, but I don’t really get it. Could someone with slightly more knowledge on this maybe explain why this happened as it seemed quite odd.

Can’t say why but I’ve seen this happen a few times - have also seen it where it starts to launch but stops so quick the train barely leaves the station - I guess there’s something the computer system didn’t like to cause it to stop mid launch.

[Angel]

Has anyone seen inside the Stealth operations cabin? I'd love to see some pics as I really want to operate this ride some day.

 

As well as that, could someone summarise how Stealth is operated? Like how the launch sequence occurs with the lights and brake fins and such. It's fascinated me for quite a while but never gotten an answer.

[LK_]

Its dispatched like any other coaster iirc,( take it with a grain of salt) once the 'start ride' button is pressed after an all clear, (two buttons, I think)

it begins the sequence of whatever it does, catch car, brake fins, audio, lights, launch, (might not be in that order) all in one sequence, its all programmed in, however what I don't know is how the 'blind launch' works with no audio/lights

[Cal]

29 minutes ago, LK_ said:

however what I don't know is how the 'blind launch' works with no audio/lights

 

The operator would switch the lights off (switch in the console) and I believe to not play the launch audio they'd use the mic to override it. 

 

They've stopped doing these now thankfully. They were good fun a good few years ago, but when the word got spread and people were asking for them every other launch they got very boring. 

[LK_]

I had a blind launch in may of last year as someone requested it for their birthday hah

[Cal]

8 minutes ago, LK_ said:

I had a blind launch in may of last year as someone requested it for their birthday hah

 

Yeah I believe it was more towards the end of last season they've been stopped. Operators aren't meant to be doing them anymore anyway, it got to a point everyone was asking for them. 

Think the main reason they got stopped was H&S more than anything.

[MattyMoo]

"Blind launches" were the most MAP Facebook group thing that ever did happen 😛 - especially when any MAP holder worth their salt (and their lanyard) knows exactly when Stealth is going to launch anyway, lights or no lights.