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Big Dipper derailed

Nic

Nic

Strata Poster
The guys at the live today are starting to update to say that Big Dipper has derailed. The 3rd car on the train has come free from the track. Reports are of no injuries. Staff are evacuating riders, and other rides in the area have been closed.

CF twitter account picture... HERE

I'm sure there'll be much more about this when the guys at the live get to computers...
 
Terrible news for Blackpool, after the amount of work and money they've put in to refurbish the ride! As much as I loathe the ride, two major incidents in less than a year probably means that its days are numbered.

Thankfully nobody was hurt though and I'm interested in what all the eyewitnesses have to say. :wink:
 
That's unfortunate. That might well be it for Big Dipper, which is a shame. I never got to ride it as it was closed when I was there.
 
Now they will hopefully realise that it needs tearing down. It's a ****ing awful ride which nearly broke my back and two derails in less than a year show that the thing isn't safe. I thought Amanda likes demolishing old woodies?
 
Glad nobody was injured, terrible news for Blackpool after all that investment and effort to get it safe and operational again.

I think it's the end for The Big Dipper :(
 
Any ride derailing is bad...

Shame it's Big Dipper tbh, I quite liked it and obviously it's a historic ride...

I'm suprised no-one's blamed Amanda yet :lol:
 
Amanda the ****ing bitch :lol: Sorry, had to...

Really sad news, Dipper is a fantastic old ride, but with two accidents in less than 12 months, I can't see it being around much longer, even after all the work they did over the winter, which makes this accident even more depressing and surprising.

At least no one was hurt, which is the most important thing.
 
I can just hear Amanda revving her chainsaw and preparing the car for a trip to the fountain department of B&Q...
 
I was gonna say that it's sad to think that a classic ride like Big Dipper might be going, but then I thought, if all it's gonna do is break down, cost the park a lot of money and possibly injure people, is it so bad. A lot of people seem to dislike it, so maybe it isn't such a bad thing if it were to go.

Of course, it might not be going...
 
Sorry why rip it down?

This coaster is how old 30 odd years and 2 problems in a year, well sorry I blame the park not the ride.

Glad no one was hurt, well no covering up this time cf were there lol
 
Hi all, everyone got evacuated safely.

Here is a closer view of a photo I took. Rach has better pictures

bigdipperderail.jpg
 
^^Close to 90 years old, and two incidents in less than 12 months definitely isn't a good sign.

We were very "lucky" in that a lot of us were sitting around near the go carts/Steeplechase entrance while waiting for people to ride Bling and so saw the whole thing and got pictures before staff started moving everyone away. I think Rach probably got some good pictures, so hopefully she'll get those up when she's home.
 
Hahaha, nice timing. What with the coaster club knowing exactly what the problem is on sight and their million cameras =)

Anything breaking at Blackpool is no shocker to me.
If the attitude of the staff in guest view is any reflection of those behind the scenes, it stinks, and I wouldn't trust them maintaining such ancient and awkward rides.


Our Wild Mouse car fell apart onto our lap the last time I rode it. The floor pulled up from the bolts of the frame and subsequently the interior panels came loose and fell out.

We showed the ride op at the end and he threatened to call security for us damaging the rides...

In fact, they were more interested in appointing blame than taking the car off the circuit. It got loaded with kids and sent on its way.
 
Gutted this has happened, PB must be pretty annoyed considering the work they've had done on Dipper. It is a shame its happened at all, but even more of a shame that it had to happen with a coaster club on park, as the true events will be exagerated (sp?) to maximum effect.

I wasnt at PB today, but what I do know is the train is now back in the station, no injuries were recorded and Big Dipper will not be getting removed and will re-open again this year.
 
^Quite the opposite. Where have you seen any exaggeration by anyone on here, so far, who saw what happened?

Exaggeration will happen in the media; we already know that, but I highly doubt it will happen by members here who saw it first hand. There was a large group of people. Nobody is going to be able to bull **** what happened because there are too many people who were also there to call them on it.
 
When I heard derail I thought it was going to be like EGF not just a wheel raised off the track. Hopefully there will be more pictures and at least this time no one stopped people taking them and maybe they will show more.

So far the park have said it was a roll back and the train did not derail. I actually think its good a group were there as this time there is no getting away with what happened.

Glad though it did not end like last time this happened at the same place.
 
Exaggeration or not, derailment even though this was fortunately without casualties is in a totally different league then faults like brake trim malfunction and lift stalls. Derailment means either one of two things- someting is wrong with the track or the wheel bogeys/axels, which if true means the ball has to be have been dropped in a big way to happen. Also taking on board all the work BPB did on this ride and this still happening is very worrying and makes it all the more harder to think how this happened. Great ride too, I love john miller coasters.
 
Ahh just heard about the roll back. But for a wheel to lift come disengage with the track during roll back still has the same implicatitons of it coming of at any time during the ride seeing how the safegard for preventing this is the wheels themselves?
 
The Big Dipper is a fantastic woodie and has been running on that layout for 70 odd years. There are only 8 operational woodies left in Britain,( including 1 scenic railway at Great Yarmouth), and of which 5 are in Blackpool.
I can't see this as an accident but a major breakdown.
Hope it will be up and running soon. I will be on it!!
I have been enjoying roller coasters for over 40 years. and there seem to be a few real wimps here - 'broke my back!'
I adore the wooden coasters and Blackpool is the best.
I wish Megafobia in South Wale was closer to me as that is another excellent coaster.
 
I see it happened on that new scetion of track that was rebuilt after the last accident? Tut tut to PB for probably getting it fixed 'on the cheap'.

And I dont think this signals the end for the coaster, the Big Dipper is too iconic.
 
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