I'm trying to trawl through the documents - it's a circular design:
The ride’s passengers sit in a circular car which is spread around a central column. The car is hoisted up to the top the column and then released to give passengers what the manufacturers describe as “an unforgettable experience of real free fall”. The tower itself is just over 60m high, although the total drop height is 50m. The drop is broken by permanent magnetic brakes and deceleration ramps at the bottom end of the column, which have been designed to be safe and smooth and which meet the requirements of the European Health Authority. The total operational footprint area of the ride is 10m x 10m. The circular car can accommodate 24 passengers. The ride will have a lilac/purple colour scheme.
It seems to be this model and 60m high with a 50m drop! (Would that make it the tallest in the UK?)
This is quote I found in one of the documents:
Almost 30 theme parks have closed in the UK in the last 10 years, and it is essential that Pleasurewood Hills continues to invest to ensure that the business remains viable and sustainable long-term. Pleasurewood Hills is the most visited tourist attraction in the area with over 200,000 visitors per year. The park generates over £19m into the local economy, both directly and indirectly. The introduction of the Wipeout ride in 2007 had a significant beneficial impact on the park’s viability, and it halted a year-on-year decline. Wipeout changed the fortunes of the park, and as it is now four years since the introduction of this ride, the park’s management considers it essential that another major new ride is installed.
-- Edited by Josh on Friday 20th of May 2011 09:29:30 PM
Well spotted! That is excellent news, I think it is commonly considered that the removal of the Mega Drop was a bad idea, particularly when the replacement was thunderstruck, but this will be great! Lets hope it all gets approved quickly!
I'm not sure if people will agree with my thinking here but... unlike in other instances in the past, I don't think posting questions about this on the official Pleasurewood facebook would be a good idea. It will probably not be well received by the staff and will likely be deleted quite quickly. They won't publicly speak about this until the plans are formally approved and they will probably want to withhold as much of the information about these plans from joe public until such time as they can promote the ride properly.
I think speculation on this site is more appropriate as we are quite open about our "unofficial" status!
at 60m it will be 5m higher than Cliffhanger at Flamingoland (Which is the park they said they wanted to be similar to) and 6m higher than Drayton Manors Apocalypse. So it will be the tallest but because the drop is 10M less than the hight it will be quite similar to those two.
Just when I had given up on Pleasurewood, they produce something like this!
I really hope that it does get approved- the park really do need something like this, and it would be amazing for the park to have THE tallest droptower in the UK!
It would be both the first circular drop tower AND the tallest drop tower.
I'd never dreamed of PWH getting a UK first or UK record but if this gets approved then the marketing will be amazing for it... "Come to PWH and ride the UKs tallest drop tower..." This is exactly what the park needs!
Also, if you look at the pictures on the planning documents, you can see just how tall the bloody thing will look on the skyline... very impressive! I hoped for a travelling drop tower but this is insane!
Another point to make though, I still think Thunderstruck should be kept (if possible) and moved down near SITG, or between Wipeout and SITG. It's amazing that we might get this new ride, but we might as well keep Thunderstruck about too to fill up gaps.
EDIT: Another fact I've though about... will this make it the 3rd tallest ride in the UK?! Pepsi Max Big One is 65m (72m above sea level), Stealth is 62.5m and now this tower will be 60m...
-- Edited by mrbrightside on Sunday 22nd of May 2011 07:23:30 PM
WOW WOW WOW Superb find. This is just beyond anything i was excpecting. Hopefully it will go through!
I might write to WDC to give my support.
Interesting that Wipeout has proved to be a reasonable success story too, halting a decline in numbers year on year. I too would vote to keep Thunderstruck, possibly moving it onto the old Hungry Bears site.
Yeah, keeping Thunderstruck is a must. So it's not the greatest ride but it is a ride and that is important to a park like PWH. I agree with moving it toward the SITG end of the park. Although Reece's rumour about the caravan park and drop tower has proved to be half true so maybe that end of the park will go?
i agree while i am exicted bout the prospect of this new ride, although i will want to see thunderstruct moved to the hungry bares site until they got more rides
Is there anything for us to belive it will go? Josh, you've put in the title that the tower is replacing Thunderstruck? And I could have sworn someone said something about the Wipeout planning being granted as they changed it to a replacement ride etc.
From what I've read, there's no mention of removing Thunderstruck, though neither any mention of relocating it. Old Hungry Bears site would be ideal though.
Interesting that Wipeout has proved to be a reasonable success story too, halting a decline in numbers year on year.
That might not necessarily be true, they have to 'talk the talk' in these things to win the Council over. I mean c'mon, 30 theme parks have closed in the last 10 years in the UK? I can think of 3, American Adventure, Pleasureland and Loundoun Castle....
Oh, I KNEW there was a reason they done all that ground work!
-- Edited by Martyn on Sunday 22nd of May 2011 09:42:59 PM
You were right Martyn, we will never doubt you again! There isn't anything to suggest that Thunderstruck will go. I only put "to replace Thunderstruck" purely as it will be in it's location.
They may not need to mention Thunderstruck as it is a small - and essentially travelling - ride. They don't need planning consent do they unless it goes over the 25m height limit, which it doesn't.
I mentioned the thing about Wipeout in the naming thread Martyn. If you look at the history of PWH planning applications (which is in the documents on the council website), Wiepout was originally refused but was then allowed once the application was changed from "Building Wipeout ride" to "replacing Magic Mouse rollercoaster with another attraction" or something like that.
I doubt the same thing applies here, but it may do.
Yeah I did see that. That is quite interesting, I wonder if that was a mistake on their behalf, or if they were intending on keeping MM....guess we'll never know.
I wonder if this will be a new model or a second hand one? Looking at the Moser's website from what is stated in the planning it is too tall to be a trailer model but the permanent models offer either 16 or 32 seats but the planning application states 24 seats? The only thing I can think is it is a second hand model which they no longer produce.
I'd just like to add that the target date for a decision is 10/7/11, it may go beyond that. or a decision may be finalised before that date.
No doubt the NIMBY's will want to have their little rant about it, so chances are that could delay things, though I dont think a public meeting has been arranged as of yet.
If Pleasurewood do get this ( let's not get too excited yet...) then it will be HUGE for the park. Having a UK Best/Fastest/First is always a great from an publicity point of view, and Pleasurewood really need to emphasis this.