Wild Mouse [Defunct]
Specific Type: Wood-Sit-Down
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A common type of coaster we see today is the traditional crazy mouse designs. But a type of coaster that we do not see a lot of today is a wooden crazy mouse design. Blackpool Pleasure Beach is home to such a design. There are only three remaining coasters of this design left in the world and Blackpool Pleasure Beach contains one of them called Wild Mouse. Wild Mouse has been operating since 1958. The design of this coaster was actually built in house by Frank Wright and bought from the Valere Brothers in the United States. The Valere Brothers modified the ride in the 1960's, adding an entire layer to it and making it about one-third longer than it originally was when it first opened. The top circuit, which consists of a big drop as well as a shallower dip is what was added. This is the part of the ride that were before the switchbacks occurred.
Wild Mouse is located toward the north end of the park, right next to Pepsi Max Big One's enormous 180 degree turn-around. The design is compacted into a cube and does not take up much space at all compared to all the other larger roller coasters at the park. The entire coaster consists of twelve cars, each with two rows where riders sit inline (two riders per car). This inline seating is the same way riders are arranged in each car of the trains on Avalanche, Blackpool Pleasure Beach's bobsled roller coaster. Wild Mouse's compact design snakes riders through a 1,266 foot course in a time frame of roughly one and a half minutes. The ride starts out taking a ninety degree turn to the right out of the station, down a straight-away, and around another ninety degree turn to the right, which leads into the lift hill. Once at the top of the lift hill, a couple more ninety degree turns to the right follow before facing the same direction again as coming out of the station. Once this happens, a nice large dip awaits and the ride picks up speed from here. After this first dip, trains go around a fairly wide and slightly banked 180 degree turn to the right, through a straight-away, and then around a wide ninety degree turn to the right. Immediately after this follows a short straight-away section, and then the ride enters some alternating 180 degree sharp turns, as seen on other traditional crazy mouse designs. The first 180 degree turn is to the right and the second is to the left. After this second 180 degree turn is a 270 degree turn to the right, leading into another straight-away of the ride. After the straight away, riders are taken through the same design right after the lift hill, a sharp ninety degree turn to the right, a small straight away, and another sharp ninety degree turn to the right. Immediately following this is a couple of small dips. The first of these pair of dips is directly adjacent to the left of the ride's first, larger dip, which was experienced about forty seconds ago at the very beginning of the coaster. A wide 180 degree turn to the right follows the couple of dips and this wide turn leads into an S-turn, which is a quick turn to the right and quick turn to the left. It is an element that makes riders feel like the trains are dodging something and are swerving to get out of the way. After the S-turn, one more small dip awaits riders. After this final dip, riders are taken around a couple more ninety degree turns to the right and back into the station. |
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