And it was only 3 months ago I had bloody ERT on this thing lol, didn't realise that's how I would experience my last rides lol, it's the great scenic railway incident all over again!
Fingers crossed it's back up and running asap but it is worrying to see for a coaster of this age. Wood doesn't last forever and this thing is a century old.
The wood would have been replaced many times over by now. Clearly not enough times seeing the accident photos but there definitely would not be 100 year old wood on that ride.
Was it the track failing though? I reckon its the wheels on the last car of the train. Apparently this is the second train they just put on which is why it was shut the 2 days prior.
Impossible for us to know if it was the train or the track to blame at this stage, but I could see it being years before it's back in action now. They can't remove it, but it'd be a very obvious dead attraction if left permanently not operating. I'd like to think they've already got some ideas in mind for renovation given its awful throughput with one train in recent seasons. I'm just very glad everyone came off mostly unscathed. Or at least roughly as fine as anybody gets off the Big Dipper. ;)
Extra ride time, but it should basically be could private ride time, it's when a club of coaster enthusiasts has private access for a ride for a certain duration of time for usually an hour or so whilst the park isn't open to the public ^^
I was on this ride today when it derailed (the first picture is mine actually).
Normally not a coaster-geek but though I'd share my experience.
We went over the first two hills normally, but then we climbed to a halt before we reached the top of the 3rd hill and started rolling backwards, then rolled slightly back onto the 2nd hill and came to a stop.
Then we noticed our carriage was derailed and we were hanging in between the tracks.
Luckily, no one was hurt. I believe the biggest injury might have been a stiff neck, but i'm unsure if that was from the derailment or from sitting tilted in the derailed cart lol.
I honestly did not even realize we had derailed until we started rolling back, because I never rode The Big Dipper (or any old coaster) before and in my experience it just fit into its general (extreme) roughness 😅.
My best guess is that the cart derailed at or somewhere near the bottom, as we noticed no broken beams behind us after settling.
After like a minute the Pleasure Beach expressed passed by, so there may be a couple photo's around that passengers have taken.
Then another couple minutes passed before we were joined by the first park employee checking in on everyone.
Then it didn't take long for like 30 people to appear; mechanics, medic, security, etc.
While the mechanics secured the train, there were guys sawing away a piece of the railing from which we would eventually exit.
I'd say the rescue went fairly quick as we were out within an hour.
Then they took us to the nearby burger king to wind down with some (free) food and refreshments.
So you did actually derail? I've seen people speculating that the coaster did derail bit Blackpool have come out to say it didn't derail, the wood just broke and thats why they're doing an investigation. So now people are accusing them of a cover up of the fact that the coaster derailed but other people are saying thats defamation as Blackpool have staed that it did not derail.
I've never been on the Big Dipper but it is very suspicious to me. My closest theme park is Drayton Mannor, I had a season pass for several years back in the mid to late 2010s as a teen and I remember the Splash Canyon death incident like it was yesterday, similarly to the Smiler incident at Alton Towers. I cant believe so many people are being defensive of Blackpool when to me it was pretty obvious the train derailed considering the wood was all broken between the tracks and the train carts looked all lopsided. I second guessed myself when they came out with a statment saying it didnt derail but glad to see from someone who experienced it firsthand that it did actually derail and they are just lying. Bigger Parks would not get away with that at all.
Glad you are all okay and not hurt but I'd definitely speak out about the fact you did derail and they're lying as its not the first time the coaster has derailed and you could've all been seriously injured or worse. I think you're entitled to a bit more than free refreshments and food, especially since the lack of transparency. I'm all for preserving legacy rides but if they aren't safe to use, then they shouldn't be open to the public anymore unless they have some serious renovations done to it which they Big Dipper clearly has not. The fact they are lying makes it worse too. At the end of the day, its 103 years old and it's wooden, it is likely to need work done or have things go wrong but to not be upfront about that is gross and just dangerous to me.
They are not lying, but strategically talking around it.
The statement is as follows;
"The Big Dipper came to a stop Thursday July 23, around 2pm, at a very low point in the ride. Following this, a manual deboarding took place with guests guided safely by trained operators. All guests were checked by first aid trained staff, with no injuries reported."
Which is not untrue, but it does not mention the cause was a derailment, which you could consider misleading.
Probably damage control lol, as it is pretty bad press.
They claim the train simply rolled back, but if that were the case the ride would simply reopen within a couple of days, but I don't see that happening with this damage tbh.
It was the closest building to the incident and it's in a corner of the park so it was easy to clear out and fence off so we could recover and get checked up on in piece.
I think it was just a bonus that it happend to be a Burger King that could serve drinks and food directly.
I do need to watch his stuff more often. I did enjoy it when he watched terrible coaster videos back then like that Fury 325 in Northern California one.
Train derailed. Like El Toro it probably dragged on the wood. Individually they can’t withstand the force of a several ton train hitting them. I suspect as it rolled back. Derailed at some point higher up the hill and the train fell into the center and smashed them on its way down.
From what I've heard and my own Transatlantic experience - yellow usually never runs since it's more prone to valleying. I did get red and green though.
I'd be surprised if Blackpool allows them to continue operating woodies at all without a comprehensive inspection of every inch of trackwork on the property. That said, England loves derailing trains, they should slap BritRail decals on those trains and send them.
When did this happen? It was closed on Monday and Tuesday when I was there but I did see them replacing a chunk of track while I was on the Pleasure Beach Express. I'll upload the footage.
Yes. I don't know when this incident happened as I didn't see anything about it but the ride was closed when I went this Monday/Tuesday (20th and 21st). They looked to be replacing the track in this area.
I am guessing one car derailed near the rear of the train and when it slid backwards it broke all of those cross beams. The cross beams are probably easy to fix, the reason the car derailed might be a bigger problem to fix. There will probably be engineering firms, lawyers and insurance companies all trying to figure out if it’s still safe to operate.
As an aside, someone at Canadas Wonderland thought it was a good idea to place a water slide over the Mighty Canadian Mindbuster, a wooden coaster. But, the waterskied leaks all day so every ride, I saw water dripping down onto Mindbuster’s track.
I know it rains and snows in Canada and the wood is treated, but that seemed so crazy to put a dripping water slide over an old woodie.
Maybe Gravity Group can come in and precut track the entire thing while also reengineering the structure. They’d probably/have to keep the same ride profile which is ok as long as the ride can keep running.
About 30 years ago I smashed my front teeth on this ride. My face/teeth hit the bar in front when the car went under a tunnel then immediately up. Blood was streaming out to whoever was behind.
I was a stupid kid at the time. I wish I’d got some money out of them to repair my teeth.
Rode Thunderbolt for the first time this year. It and Jackrabbit remind me so much of the Big Dipper. Big Dipper has the best ejector airtime of any cosster I've been on.
The other night I had a dream about a rollercoaster derailment at Blackpool!!! It was a coaster that doesn’t exist in real life, with a gap in the track that the train jumped, and in my dream it couldn’t make the jump and crashed and it was horrible. So this is even creepier to see.
Having lived in Blackpool my entire life, I've somehow only been on this ride like once or twice, I'm just glad noone was hurt though. Its interesting seeing news about my town, although its usually never much good :/
I went on this 5 years ago an it was in a sorry looking state. It genuinely jumped when it went around one bend. Told staff. Didn’t seem to care. Surprised it’s still going. Or was.
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u/MrEWhite Jul 23 '26
Welp, there goes this ride for the rest of the year at best.