Engineers visit Thorpe Park
The UK's biggest amusement park attraction opened at Thorpe Park in March, just as term was ending. At 205ft tall "Stealth" certainly is big. It is Europe's tallest and fastest coaster and can be found at the Surrey-based amusement park. It launches from standing at the station to 80mph in just 2.3 seconds, before throwing you up and vertically down down over its 205ft hump! The whole experience lasts just 20 seconds and 15 Imperial students got the chance to see the complex engineering from behind the scenes.
At 7am, they arrived at the somewhat deserted theme park to be met by their contact, who then took them to meet the head of engineering in the maintenance sheds. Here, every morning, the team of ride engineers would go over every single nut and bolt of all three carts, ensuring nothing had gone astray the previous day. The wheels would even be re-aligned to ensure a smooth ride. Indoor heating lamps warm the carts before they leave the sheds in order to ensure that the lubricant on the wheels works as it should. If it's under 5 degrees Celsius many of the rides will not function. It was 6 degrees on the day...
Leaving the shed, they passed the ride's first passengers of the day: The water dummies. Each dummy, weighing the same as a person, gets a ride before real people get a chance to even queue. After the 20 second ordeal, they were all intact. This was taken to be a good sign.
The hardcore engineering lies under the large hump, inside a bunker. It contains one very large, very expensive motor; containing 42 smaller motors, to be precise. Oil and Nitrogen are pumped-in constantly to store energy from the National Grid between ride launches (to stop Staines having blackouts every minute or so). This stored energy is then released causing a cable to be reeled with an impressive force. This cable is attached to the cart via a catchcar shortly after everyone is secured (this is the bit of the ride when judder forward and back before you shoot off!). The force stored in the pipes in here could slice you in half if the cable buckled. Furthermore, if the oil in the system leaked, the whole bunker would be filled in seconds. This explains the rather secure door which is sealed before operation.
The tour was finished with a look at the launch track and the controls. Every day, engineers run the catch car at a snails pace along the 80m launch track feeling by hand any vibrations which indicate damage in the track. The control system is simple to operate, but pretty complex in the background. In order to make sure you get over the top, the launch force must automatically reconfigure itself based on the weight of people and weather conditions. Every 5 runs averages are taken with the intent that the cart reaches the crest at 12m/s. If you balance at the top (this happened once on a similar ride in the US called Top Thrill Dragster. People were stuck for 35minutes at 400 ft), there is a rope for a rescuer to climb to give you a nudge but this should never happen...
Once the park opened, the students got a chance to experience the ride... According to one of the lucky guests: "It's awesome! It's very fast, very smooth and you get a great view for the second or so that you are at the top. Get down to Thorpe Park and give it a go!"
Volunteer to help CGCU Internship Centre run similar trips to Virgin Radio and BBC Television Centre. Email: internships@cgcu.net
