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Big Dipper (Blackpool Pleasure Beach)
I
should declare immediately that the Big Dipper has always been a very
special ride for me. It is one of the three rides responsible for
starting my interest in coasters, along with the Grand National and
Alton Towers' Pinfari Mini Apple. The world is a different place
nowadays (the Mini Apple has gone, children don't respect their elders,
pop music's not what it used to be, and worst of all Opal Fruits have
become Starburst), but some things never change, and the Big Dipper is
still among my favourite rides.
This
ride has had a more turbulent history than probably any other, so let's
go back to the beginning. The Big Dipper was built on the site of one of
Blackpool's earliest rides, the Switchback Railway. This simple coaster
was a common feature of seaside resorts in the first quarter of the 20th
century, and Blackpool's version, owned by a family of Gypsies, was
operating on the south shore even before Blackpool Pleasure Beach
officially existed. As time went on, other operators arrived with newer
rides, and competition grew fiercer, to the point where the Gypsies left
the area, abandoning the Switchback. Eventually, W.G. Bean, founder of
the "official" Pleasure Beach, decided to use the site for a
bigger and better ride, and commissioned John A. Miller, one of the most
influential coaster designers of the day, to design what would become
the Big Dipper.
Miller's
coaster opened on the 23rd of August 1923, but was a very different ride
to the one operating today. The original Big Dipper had an "L"
shaped layout, which turned left after the second drop and followed what
was then the boundary of the park, roughly along the line where the Big
One's lift now stands. From here it performed a large turnaround in the
area now occupied by the Space Invader before returning to the station
along the same route. Interestingly, the original layout included a
double dip, something that would later become the trademark element of
the Grand National.
The
ride was an instant hit. Compared to anything the British audience had
seen before, the Big Dipper was a revelation, featuring drops that were
bigger and steeper than anything they'd seen before. This was because
Miller, in conjunction with Harry Baker, had invented the first "upstop"
wheels - a set of wheels fitted to run beneath the track and prevent the
train from crashing to the ground at every opportunity. Bean had
acquired the UK rights to the system, and the Big Dipper would become
the first UK ride to use it. Nowadays, upstop wheels are found on 99.9%
of the world's coasters, meaning that the Big Dipper has a valid claim
to that now-overused title "next generation roller coaster".
Unfortunately, like most rides to bear that description, the appeal of
the ride did not last forever...
After
Bean's death in 1929, the Pleasure Beach passed into the hands of his
son-in-law, Leonard Thompson (father of current MD Geoffrey). Thompson
embarked on a wide-ranging series of changes to lift the Pleasure Beach
above the competition. Among them, Thompson made two unrelated changes
to the park that would combine to make the Big Dipper's future look
bleak. Firstly, he managed to buy a piece of land to the south of the
Pleasure Beach, with the aim of expansion. Unfortunately, this would
leave Big Dipper running straight through the middle of the park,
restricting the possibilities for future development.
Secondly,
Thompson commissioned an ex-employee of Miller's company, Charles Paige,
to create another new coaster, the Grand National. This superb ride
opened in 1935, exploring the potential of Miller's upstop wheels far
more than the Big Dipper ever did, and is still regarded as one of the
world's best coasters today. The Big Dipper simply wasn't up to the
competition, and visitors voted with their feet in favour of the
ferocity of Paige's masterpiece.
With
the ride taking up valuable space and not taking enough money, Thompson
could have been forgiven for demolishing the ride, especially as it had
already lasted twice as long as most of Miller's American Big Dippers.
To his credit, Thompson instead commissioned Paige to completely
redesign the ride. Paige retained the idea of sticking to the perimeter
of the park, and took the ride around into the new section of the park,
where it now intertwines with the Steeplechase and part of The Big One.
The new Big Dipper opened in 1936, just one year after the Grand
National, and stood as a symbol of the changing of the guard at the
Pleasure Beach, and of one of the main reasons for the park's continued
popularity, the ability to introduce up-to-the-minute rides, while
retaining a proud sense of history.
Although
the ride is still generally talked of as a Miller creation to this day,
it is fair to say that very little of the original Miller ride actually
remains. While Paige redesigned everything that made the Big Dipper
thrilling, architect Joseph Emberton worked on the aesthetic side of the
ride, creating a whole new station in the modernist style that he was
spreading around the park. Effectively, all that was left of the
original ride was the track from the brakes to the top of the first
drop. In a cruel twist of fate, this was exactly the section that was
wrecked by fire in 1953, taking Emberton's station with it. The park
once again set to work rebuilding, but Miller's original ride was now
gone.
With
the fire destroying the last physical remnant of the 1923 ride, one of
the very few things left to remind us of Miller's involvement is the
name itself. "Big Dipper" has become a generic name for roller
coasters over the years, to the extent that BPB visitors often see the
ride and comment on the "unoriginal" name. In fact, it was a
very specific name for rides built by Miller and his company, presumably
referring to the fact that his upstop wheel system allowed these rides
to have much bigger drops than anything that had gone before. The fact
that it has become a widely known phrase merely serves to demonstrate
how famous and influential Miller's designs were.
The
most recent thing to undergo radical alteration was the entrance. The
ride's station had always been immediately beside Watson Road, the
public road running straight through the Pleasure Beach. By the
mid-1960s, the increasing amount of traffic meant that fears grew for
visitors' safety. Unable to get the road closed, it was instead decided
to build a large raised walkway to completely cover the road, into which
a new entrance to the Big Dipper would need to be incorporated. The
original station had a "wine glass" shaped structure
separating the entrance and the top of the lift hill, which Emberton
later changed to a cone-shaped "lighthouse" look. With the
arrival of the overpass, the covering had to be removed, leaving us with
the more imposing skeletal structure we see today.
Visitors
approach the ride on the new overpass, and descend a set of stairs into
the new entrance "plaza", a semi circular platform overlooking
the loading station. From here, riders need to negotiate quite a long
descent along a series of ramps until they finally get to the loading
platform. Not that the ride is any worse for it, as it gives the whole
place a wonderfully open, yet strangely cosy, feel. This is very
refreshing compared to the sheds that constitute a lot of coasters'
stations. To make the place more spectacular, the redesigned entrance
plaza is centred on a quaint little fountain pool, while the actual
loading platform is covered by a quite spectacular arched ceiling. As an
amusing aside, the new entrance totally buries Watson Road means to the
extent that many people don't even realise there's a public road there
at all, and get quite a surprise when they sit waiting for the ride to
start only to see cars and vans speed by in front of them!
Rarely
do I feel so enthusiastic about a ride as when I am waiting for the
front seat of the Dipper at night. As with many of BPB's rides, there's
a real sense of timelessness as you stand on the platform waiting for
the train to appear. Wherever you look, you see contrasts of the old and
the new - look left and you might spot Ice Blast, look right and you'll
see The Big One and possibly a glimpse of Spin Doctor. This clash of the
old and the new all helps to give the ride, and the park in general, its
unique character. As with several of the park's rides, the Big Dipper
has such a fantastic sense of history about it that the sounds of the
train clicking its way up the lift hill, and then roaring down the first
drop, seems to echo with the ghosts of generations of long-dead thrill
seekers laughing and screaming with delight. Of course, it's a shame
that these sounds are punctuated by the bleep of the park's new
barcode-reader-turnstiles, but I suppose some concessions to the modern
day have to be made occasionally!
The
buzzer will sound, and the train will appear in the distance bobbing
along the last few drops. Finally, it leaps out of the last climb, stops
to let off its passengers, and rumbles down to meet you. It's finally
time to climb aboard and ride a sheer masterpiece of roller-coaster
design.
After
the lap bars have been checked, the train will depart, giving riders in
the back seats of each car the distinct feeling that these huge
carriages were never really designed to perform such tight turns. Into a
dark tunnel lit only by the ancient "Do Not Stand Up" signs,
onto a tiny lift hill, leading out on to a long turnaround, offering the
chance to take in the view of The Big One and Spin Doctor and (if the
wind is blowing in the right direction) get a face full of spray from
the Log Flume. The idea of building up the tension of a ride by taking a
long journey to the lift hill, is a very effective one, far more so than
simply having a lift hill as soon as you leave the station. In fact,
this idea seems to be slowly making a comeback, most notably with Thorpe
Park's Nemesis Inferno, something I can only hope we see more of in the
future.
Finally,
we come to the main lift, which is directly above the smaller one, and
makes the Big Dipper the only coaster in the UK to have two lift hills
using the same chain. The lift gives a great opportunity to look around
the park, and watch the other rides in action. From the turnaround at
the top of the lift you get a great view of the entire park, along with
the promenade and, in the distance, Blackpool Tower. By far the best
time to appreciate this stunning view is either night-time or sun-set,
preferably during Blackpool's famous illumination season.
If
you're reading this review in the hope that I'll be able to tell what
the big blue thing at the top of the lift is, well I can only apologise
- it's been a mystery to me for my entire life. My best guess is that it
is some sort of Olympic-style flame, in which case I can only keep my
fingers crossed that the ride won't end up sponsored by British Gas. In
fact, this is the latest in a long line of domes, cones, and spheres to
grace the top of the lift hill over the years, all of them serving to
provide the ride with an unmistakable symbol. Until 1993, these would be
visible right down the promenade, acting as a beacon to draw riders into
the park. Of course, The Big One has taken over that job, and renders
the Big Dipper almost invisible from outside the park. Anyway, enjoy the
scenery while you can, because this is where the ride gets down to
business.
The
first two drops are straight, and look deceptively ordinary to
spectators. From the front seat, however, they look huge, and offer a
great, smooth ride, topped off with a serving of airtime as you reach
the next peak. If you prefer a wilder ride, the back seats offers
incredible airtime as the car launches itself into each drop, throwing
you into the lap bar in a way that is rough, but still great fun. The
second hill has a large sign on the side declaring the ride's name, a
sad reminder of the days when the Dipper was the ride that caught
peoples' attentions they walked down the promenade. Well, the sign
actually says "IG DIPPER", so feel free to make up your own
jokes about that (I suggest something along the lines of where
"Where can the B be?" for starters).
The
third drop is now buried among the structure of The Big One's lift hill,
hiding a superb left hand kink, which first time riders won't realise is
there. Again, the back seat causes riders to rocket out of their seat,
although they now also find themselves thrown to the right hand side of
the car - Great fun!
With
the big drops finished, the train launches itself over a majestic arch
across the park's southern entrance, forming a nice parallel with the
arch of The Big One. A small dip then takes you to another great
twisting drop, and into a manic turnaround that has the side wheels
screeching loudly for mercy. This section intertwines wonderfully with
The Big One, as first The Big One dives through the Big Dipper's
structure, then the Dipper charging back underneath The Big One. The
turnaround is right next to The Big One's helix, meaning that riders
sometimes wave to each other if the timing of the two rides is right.
As
the Big Dipper parts company with The Big One, it immediately begins to
intertwine with another Arrow coaster, the Steeplechase. After the
turnaround, there's a small dip that just about leaves room for the
Steeplechase's 3 tracks to travel over. Be prepared to duck if the
Steeplechase's horse-shaped cars come by as you go through the dip! As
if this area of the park wasn't congested enough, this whole tangle of
coaster track is built directly above the park's (rather poor) Go-Kart
track - No wonder BPB can claim to have the highest concentration of
rides of any park in the world!
A
right turn brings the track parallel with that of the
"out-bound" section of the ride, and back towards the path
that forms the park's south entrance. Whereas the first crossing manages
to avoid this obstacle by gracefully leaping over it, the return journey
sees a real stroke of genius. Just like the finale of the Grand
National, riders find themselves hurtling toward a window separating the
riders and onlookers, at the last second, the track is suddenly pulled
from beneath them, and the train charges into a dark underground tunnel,
again catching first timers by surprise, and providing one of the ride's
many highlights. Some light banking takes you back under the Big One's
lift and returns you to the path of Miller's Big Dipper. From here, a
couple of small hills take us back to the station, each taken at a pace
that keeps the fun of the ride going right to the end.
At
the end of the ride, the train hits the brakes and comes to a smooth
stop - well, usually. Occasionally the train overshoots, sometimes to
the extent of giving riders a second lap of this classic ride. The exit
is not as grand as the entrance, and seems to confuse a lot of first
timers. When the Watson Road bridge was built, the ride's exit clearly
didn't get quite the same amount of attention as the entrance, and as
people walk out of the narrow exit corridor, they don't always realise
that they have to walk around the back of the fountains and up the sole
set of stairs that leads back to the entrance plaza. Often people get
totally confused and end up accidentally wondering down the "hidden
passageway" to the Roller Coaster on the other side of the park!
It
seems that this is a ride that you need to let grow on you. I have often
heard people get off the ride claiming that it was nothing particularly
special, a view which puzzles me enormously. As you may have gathered,
my enthusiasm for the ride knows no limit, but why do I rate it so
highly? Well, the novelty of The Big One doesn't take very long to wear
off, while the Grand National can go through occasional bad patches
where the racing element is lost due to one train being faster than the
other. The Big Dipper, on the other hand never fails to give a superb
ride, and stays as fresh and as thrilling as ever no matter how many
times you ride it. There aren't many coasters out there with such an
outstanding record.
It's
immediately obvious when you ride the Big Dipper that the preservation
of the ride has been a real labour of love for the park. It is a vital
piece of Pleasure Beach history, along with the Grand National, Flying
Machine, and River Caves. When it comes to historic rides, BPB always
seems to adopt the attitude of "if it ain't broke, don't fix
it", and has commendably refused to give in to the temptation to
modernise the rides' look or feel. With the Big Dipper, the only
concession to the modern day is the unfortunate arrival of advertising,
both in the form of monitors in the station showing adverts for the park
and its sponsors (which tend to be broken anyway), and the garish new
livery on the trains, the result of the Duerr's company sponsoring a
ride marathon in 2000 (no, I've never heard of Duerr's either). That
said, old pictures of the Pleasure Beach show rides like the Dipper's
predecessor, the Switchback Railway, totally covered in advertising
boards, so maybe you could argue that it is not quite the 21st century
curse it first appears.
In
recent years, the ride has become famous for hosting a series of charity
ride marathons. These include a series of 100 hour riding sessions for
the park's centenary, and several successful attempts by American
Richard Rodriguez to break the world coaster endurance record by riding
almost 24 hours a day for weeks or even months at a time. Although these
marathons are obviously publicity stunts for the park, they also
demonstrate how well maintained the ride is in order to run non-stop for
such long periods of time without falling to pieces or knocking riders
black and blue.
Although
the Grand National is capable of eclipsing the Big Dipper in terms of
sheer thrills, the Dipper has so much more to offer than just a series
of drops and blasts of airtime. The stunning station design, the old
fashioned charm of the ride, the winding path to the lift hill, all
these elements help to make the Big Dipper a truly sublime piece of
coaster history. In all honesty, I don't really want to compare the Big
Dipper and Grand National too much, as that would involve saying that
one of these two magnificent rides was inferior to the other. What
Charles Paige gave the Pleasure Beach is a pair of truly world class
coasters that complement each other perfectly, and which still manage to
outshine newer rides even after 70 years of operation. The fact that BPB
have preserved these rides in such excellent condition for so many years
must surely earn them the admiration of coaster enthusiasts everywhere.
Either of these rides would blow the socks off the competition at any
other park, so it seems futile to start comparing the two.
To
put it simply, the Big Dipper is for me the finest ride at the finest
amusement park there is, and long may it reign. It is the definitive
"fun" ride, as opposed to "extreme" or
"intense" ride, and is as close as I've ever come to finding
the perfect roller coaster. The history, the elegant architecture, the
comfortable trains, the thrilling drops, the build up to the ride, it's
got everything you could possibly want from a roller coaster and more.
In a way it is the exact opposite of The Big One - The Big Dipper is
like a fine wine, getting better and better with age, whereas The Big
One soon goes as flat as, well, Pepsi Max I suppose.
Blackpool
is a showbiz town, and what is it they say in showbiz? Always end on a
really lousy pun, so here goes: When you're in Blackpool, don't confine
yourself to the more famous rides like Valhalla or The Big One, leave
yourself plenty of time to ride and re-ride the Big Dipper - You won't
regret it, it's a Paige right out of history.
5/5 John Phillips