Big Dipper (Pleasure Beach Blackpool)
Big Dipper is a wooden out and back roller coaster at Pleasure Beach Blackpool, Blackpool, England. The ride was first built in 1923 by John Miller but was extended in 1936 by Charlie Paige and Joe Emberton; adding arches over the south entrance of the park and additional drops. The ride operates with two trains, each containing three four-bench cars, seating two people per bench. The roller coaster is also referenced in the Jethro Tull song Big Dipper, from their 1976 album Too Old to Rock 'n' Roll: Too Young to Die!
In August 1998, Richard Rodriguez set a world record by riding the Big Dipper for over 1000 hours. There is a plaque commemorating this event in the ride's station. Although he doubled this mark two years later to 2000 hours, Guinness World Records nullified the achievements by altering the rules in 2007 and Rodriguez's new record was set on the Pepsi Max Big One and Big Dipper and stands at 405 hours 40 minutes.
Read more about Big Dipper (Pleasure Beach Blackpool): Accidents, Refurbishment and Return, Gallery
Famous quotes containing the words big and/or beach:
“God is not on the side of the big battalions, but on the side of those who shoot best.”
—Voltaire [François Marie Arouet] (1694–1778)
“The seashore is a sort of neutral ground, a most advantageous point from which to contemplate this world. It is even a trivial place. The waves forever rolling to the land are too far-traveled and untamable to be familiar. Creeping along the endless beach amid the sun-squall and the foam, it occurs to us that we, too, are the product of sea-slime.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)