Dr S

We went last week which allowed me to take my son on the ride, some 31 years after I first went on it. Last time I was at CWoA they were still doing a half-way decent job of running 3 trains (as good as the absolutely daft slow "park" procedure in the station would allow) so to see how absolutely appalling the operations are these days was quite shocking. I actually thought initially they were only running one train as the dispatch times were that slow. The queue that was there would have taken a max of 25min in the ride's heyday, instead of which it was posted at 120-150min all day... Even on 2 trains the original ride wouldn't have likely breached 45min with that many people in the queue. The station was ok - good to see the organist moving again, and the lighting package was a bit better... It just looks so bare though. The ride was running a bit better than I remember, though still "shuffling" a lot. It's just a bit sad to see the ride in what is effectively quite a neglected state when it is very obviously still all these years later one of the park's main attractions. I know they won't ever bring back the old trains but surely a bit of engineering work to improve the efficiency and making sure that the ride is staffed properly with a crew that are motivated would be worth doing?

What sort of numbers do they manage these days on the ride in terms of throughput? Obviously I guess there's a significant drop compared to the pre-VR days when with 3 trains they were capable of going so fast that every single train would have to slow or even stop on the lift. Ah, but you see people would much rather wait for 5min dispatches and wear a VR headset than go on a fun and efficiently operated ride. Said no one!!!

Yes, certainly I remember in the early days of the new trains once they'd fixed the initial issues with the guide wheel of the front car slamming into the guide rail at the base of the second lift they started using all 3 trains and were dispatching at 75-80sec intervals quite reliably. Most of the recent videos I've seen they are stacking even with only 2 trains which is absolutely shocking - the correct interval with 2 trains is to dispatch when the previous train detaches from lift 2!

The ride always did the odd "shuffling" thing even in the pre-Vekoma days although I agree it's worse with the current trains it does seem to be a characteristic of that type of ride as Ninja and Iron Dragon definitely do that too. It still pains me to hear talk of a good day on The Vampire being 400-600pph... Back in the ride's early days they were getting well over 1700pph with a good crew and 3-train operations. I can certainly remember when we went in 1991 we parked in the grass car park and the queue started more or less where the gates are at the path from the south entrance, despite that and the full queue being open we were on within 30min. Heaven knows how long a similar queue would take now! Even later in the 1990s they were dispatching trains so fast that they would slow lift 1 to allow the right spacing and avoid stops in the (then) pitch dark transfer station. It was actually very rare for lift 2 to slow back then! The whole issue with the trains parking so slowly is so frustrating as it's obviously perfectly possible to program a control system to work like it worked for the first ten years of operation... to me the way the trains used to thunder round the corner into the station before the chorus of hisses and chirps from the brakes brought the train to a stop (one stop, right place every time) was a key part of the ride's theatre and obviously it helped maintain a good throughput. I know it'll never happen but for me if the park were to make a nod to their history and do a sympathetic restoration it would really bring something to the market at a time when new low-capacity gimmicks (VR anyone?) are ruining many parks. (I) ask Vekoma to engineer some new enclosed "bat" trains with their new vest style harnesses. Have three six-car trains, as this would allow some reconfiguration of the blocks to allow for all three trains to be in the station area if needed but maintain a good capacity of 1400-1500pph. (ii) install a decent control unit that parks the trains more efficiently. (iii) repaint the ride and restore the rock work around the tunnel. (iv) restore the station and use the original entrance. I can dream!!!

I'm old enough to remember the days when you wouldn't stop on either lift *at all* with 3-train operation. From memory (bear in mind we're talking 13+ years ago here...) the trick was for the lead ride op to hustle the platformers/riders as much as possible and get the train out quickly onto lift 1 so that the incoming train didn't have to stop and wait before coming back into the station. Once the train had cleared the station it would frequently slow to a crawl on lift 1 to allow the one in front to clear lift 2. I suspect, though, that this would be difficult to achieve with the way the train is brought to a complete halt 2-3 times before it "parks" in the station these days as this wastes a massive amount of time and hence gives the platformers a good 10 seconds less to do their job.

Hi there,Stumbled across your forum whilst feeling nostalgic about the Vampire and thought I'd share a few thoughts...My earliest memory of the Vampire is when it was a building site when we visited in 1989. My grandparents lived quite near to Chessington and so a trip to the park was a treasured annual event. I remember being pretty intimidated by the ride when we returned the next year. At that time, the height checker was a wooden cutout of a vampire figure - you had to be as tall as the Vampire's finger to ride. As a (nearly) 7 year-old, I was only just tall enough to ride and my Grandad had to really egg me on to ride - I only caved later on in the day... and ended up riding 5 times, dragging my Grandma on as well! My abiding memories from those early years are mostly of the station in it's fantastic original form, with loud music, cobwebs everywhere etc...Use of the PA system was kept to a minimum, and when it was used it was usually the lead operator chivvying-up the crew ("Hurry up, signals...SIGNALS!" etc) or the guests ("Push it up, then pull it down!" when the harnesses would sometimes lock in the open position). They used to have signs up in the queue advising guests that 3 trains were in operation, and that they had to be QUICK to prevent delays to ride operation - IMHO something that should be brought back as I remember most folk usually took notice of the signs and tried to be as quick as possible when getting on/off the ride, as opposed to now where they meander around aimlessly.One of the biggest things I miss these days is the drama of the old trains entering the station - back in the day they really would burst into the station at quite impressive speed (accompanied by a very cool amount of thunk/click/hiss etc from the mechanicals) and would *only* stop in load/unload position, whereas nowadays the train meanders into the station and comes to a complete stop at least twice before it gets to the correct stop position. I imagine that this has had a significant effect on capacity as it reduces the interval of time they have to unload and re-load the ride. It used to be incredibly rare in the 1990s for the lift to stop *at all* due to stacking issues and if the crew were doing a good job they didn't usually have to even slow the lifts much - in fact, the only slowing was usually on lift 1 because they'd dispatched the train so quickly the previous one was only just on lift 2! I read on one of the other Vampire topics that one of the ride ops was pleased to have managed an hourly throughput of 1082 riders - I'm sure they used to manage 60sec intervals way back when which would equate to 1680 per hour with the old 28-person trains. I remember waiting in a queue that was backed up all the way down the hill towards the South entrance that only ended up taking about 40min!I wish the ride was still in it's original form but understand why they decided to update it. I do though have a "wish list" that, if granted, would move the ride up significantly in my estimation:(I) speed up the process of the train arriving and "parking" in the station - will increase capacity.(ii) Do the job of the air gates properly and install evenly-spaced gates (ideally with themed dividers between them to keep the themed atmosphere if the station).(iii) Get rid of the purple fences in the queue area.(iv) Re-do the rockwork on the tunnel - I know the original rockwork had to go because of clearance issues but that isn't an excuse for nothing being there.(v) Get the curtains/drapes back up around the final brake run so it's dark again - seeing all the mechanicals/bare walls ruins what used to be a great effect.I think that's it... Will have a look for some old photos next time I'm at my parents and post if I find any. I definitely have a 1992 on-ride photo somewhere!