Mark9

Even from the top of Summit Plummet you can kind of make out all that structure behind Everest. You've just ruined the magic toofpik. Still.. could be worse..

/\ Mark9 Dislikes this post. Poor Giraffe. The keepers at Chessington must be gutted, the relationships they develop with these animals means they must be heartbroken today.

On my first trip to Chessington, 5th Dimension was the most memorable thing I rode that day. If it was still around now it would be dated beyond believe but at the time it just seemed wonderful. Thanks for the link Coasterdude (via Neilfever)

Oh no not another campaign. They work so well after all.

Wish I had the enthusiasm and energy to ride one ride 14 times in a day.

I'd happily admit to living near Adventure Island! Welcome to TPM Danny =)

I know the trains aren't ready, it just seems ludicrous to open at all without scenic being open.

Why are they opening now without the Scenic Railway? Surely that's the biggest draw they've got going and to have it closed doesn't seem like the right move..

I quite like the discussion about Blackpool (even if its in the wrong place). It's far more interesting then the discussion about nothing happening at Dragon Falls.

You make it sound like Black Mamba's theming is like a gherkin in a McDonalds hamburger.

God imagine if they'd been like that on Airs open day in 2002. They'd be a new article every 10 minutes.

Yes, I'm sure Batman's concrete trenches are weeping with sadness right now.

I'm glad all these stories of rides being evacuated safely are major news now. It only reinforces the fact that rides at Alton Towers are safe and are run properly. You can just feel it in the Guardian and Mirror stories that they are desperate for something awful to happen. Their sadness that no one fell off to their deaths during an evacuation is almost tangible.

http://www.standard.co.uk/business/markets/jim-armitage-honourable-merlin-gives-a-lesson-in-responsibility-after-smiler-crash-10308001.html

It's amazing when you think how much Universal have had to throw at the parks to gain the growth whilst comparatively, Disney have done very little to grow their audiences. How much of Universals fortunes have been down to the Harry Potter franchise really interests me. I'm not a fan of Forbidden Journey but audiences lap it up like no other ride on earth.

Not really the main course of concern with four people still in hospital.

See, this is what the media do. Grab you with the headline, you think woah, Towers is so dangerous and then might not even read the rest. We'll ignore the facts or any of the article like "guests released safely after correct procedures followed" and just run with the sensationalism. The MAP holders who refer to themselves as 'loyal' and then demand extensions to their AP's, well the true loyalty is being shown by us on TPM, on Towers Street, on Towers Times, on any theme park forum. We've given Merlin hard times over the years but their commitment to safety and compassion to the families has been nothing but admirable and exemplary.

The way this story has snowballed over the last three days truly shows you the magnitude and seriousness of the crash. Saw, Fury and Rattlesnake being closed seems to now be the top story on BBC news at 6. I do feel like the fuss today from the media would not nearly be as big if Chessingtons coasters hadn't been closed. It seems to have made the story far larger and the media more critical of the way Merlin run their parks. The only positive I can get from this is seeing some great aerial shots of the parks in action.

Should have gone with the BBC. She's like this though, she doesn't have very much respect in the industry thankfully. Just another Murdoch mouth-piece.

You sound just like an internet troll with that kind of inane rubbish. A lot of the media stuff keeps going back to all its apparent problems in 2013. It gets journalists stuck, a simple breakdown. It stalled. Well so has Vampire, Dragons Fury, Colossus, Saw and Spinball, are they all executed badly investments as well? It threw a 'wheel' at someone, well bolts come off rollercoasters all the time, shall we get all those closed too. Staff following insufficient protocols. You can't prove any of that at all, that judgement is based on absolutely nothing and from what I can see, everyone involved with this incident has dealt with it with absolute professionalism. It's not an insensitive post, thats what people will be saying and thinking. I can't decide whether I think it's the right call for the park to make, however presumably they want to co-operate fully with the investigators and maybe it was their decision to keep the park closed until all rides have been checked over.

I guess the petition worked, I mean, it is closed after all.

Electricbill has it kind of spot on. The block areas start from the first drive in the break run. The start of the ride from a cycle point of view is the drive before the alignment gate. So you have drive 1 where the car initially hits the break run. Drive 2 and 3 are the alignment gate itself. Drive four is the transfer track. during wet weather, the reason the ride goes down to two people per car is because the cars can slip through drive four and collide with the car sitting on drive 5, the first one in the station. Drive 6,7,8 are the middle of the station and drive 9 is the dispatch. The dispatch cycle doesn't speed up the rides lift chain and drives, what it does is determine how often cars are dispatched to allow a consistent operation. What you don't want on say a five car operation is all five cars going round together and then nothing in the station. With all cars going round together as it were, you're more likely to encounter a block shutdown. For those interested, the car has 9 dispatch cycles and the general rule of thumb is on a seven car operation the ride would be put onto the eight car cycle. On the 9 car setting you can dispatch a car the moment the previous car has reached the top of the lift hill. The eight car cycle allows you to dispatch a car when the previous car is at the bottom of the first drop. There isn't a sensor at the immelman (or at least there wasn't in 2009) Rattlesnake is a little more primeval, a dispatch can be allowed when a green light on the console lights up. That ride is far more up to operator discretion as to when a car can be dispatched. #geek.

A helicopter is standard, you shouldn't let that upset you. After all, a helicopter was hovering over a Chinese cruise liner which sunk on the very same day as the Smiler incident. The difference is that the Cruise liner may have cost 500 lives, the Smiler incident only 16 and majority weren't life threatening injuries. It's interesting how when something is closer to home and within the realm of own experience, how much more affecting it can be. You have to bear in mind that at 19 you can get married, be a parent, drive a car, drink alcohol. And trust me driving a car on the M25 during rush hour is harder and more scary then pressing a dispatch button on The Smiler. The only ride I've ever come across that takes physical skill to operate correctly is Rattlesnake. I'm not saying a 19 year old is mature enough to deal with an emergency on this scale but when I think about it, I've also met 45 year olds who wouldn't have been able to deal with this situation. When it comes to it, would I go to Alton Towers and ride the Smiler again? In a shot. This is a freak accident and doesn't make me question whether Merlin (Or any park with the exception of Bakken) run their rides properly.