At 9.15 yesterday morning Stealth got stuck on the tophat for several hours! Luckily it happened during Stealth's pre opening test runs so nobody was on board. It was brought down at about 1pm. here is a video of the incident

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chkej8kLLkM

Tom

Right, that does it! Time to carry out my plan: plant 1,000 oak trees and turn Thorpe into a dinosaur park!

I don't get it. Why 6 hours to get it going again? Also, Stealth has a rope winch attached to the underside of the top hat for such an emergency. Why was it not used? Lucky the train was empty. If there were passengers on board, then 6 hours is an inexcuseable time to wait. I hope Thorpe are investigating/reviewing their emergency procedures after this. Tut.

Chris.

yeah i wondered why they didn't use the winch. Maybe it was because of the high winds?

I know why it took 6 hours to bring it down. Staff shortages. They prob stuck it up there just to cover breaks lol :)

I was at Thorpe today and had no stealth,vortex or rush which was dissapointing but what has upset me about thorpe park since merlin have taken over are not running it well. I think that they are running it on peanuts and it tells. For a start Stealth should not be in the situation that it has got into. Where is the B&M flyer and why are rides like rush falling apart. Im on the verge of starting a campaign to save uk theme parks.

The 6 hrs delay in getting it down were afaik due to the winch failing. They tried to get it going again but then resorted to simply pushing it back...

but the procedure for getting the train down in the event of it getting stuck on the top hat, IS to just simply push it back over! And why did the winch fail? Its not like its used every day and didn't work from wear and tear? Thorpe Park have completely lost the plot in my opinion. Nothing there is about the guests. Its all money money money and not spending on anything beneficial such as repairs or replacing faulty parts.

I'm starting a new post on Thorpe Park. Please read it and add your input

I asked this question on UK Rides and got the answer because Thorpe are cheap, so I will ask now... why don't they have an evacuation lift?' Both Top Thrill and Kingda Ka both have it for someone to go up and push the train over. Wouldn't that be alot easier?

The winch is there to put away with the need for someone physically accessing the top hat if a train gets stuck. It's up to the park to decide which variant will be installed. In this case the winch version is used for aesthatic reasons to keep supports to a minimum.
From what I heard the winch engine was running fine, but there was some problem attaching it to the train. Can't elaborate further, though.

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Queen of Speed, I guess you're right there, and yes, it does look better without the lift though.