Re-Ghosting a Ghost Train

In February 2003, one of Brighton Pier's favourite attractions, the Ghost Train, burnt to the sea taking a small kids row-boat ride with it. Fairly quickly, a replacement came - another ex-travelling ride, this time from China. It was in a sorry state though, and it was up to Brighton's engineering department to rectify it. David Reid, Assistant Chief Engineer at Brighton Pier, tells us about it.

Having been a friend(?) of Lewis for some time when he told me he was intending to write one his famous reviews of the Ghost Train here in Brighton, I knew that I should expect a balanced view of the current ride experience. At the start of 2005 the ride needed some updating, and so we embarked on a spring and summer programme of refurbishment and rewiring, and now we are looking at even more improvements. Lewis has asked me to write a few words about the technical side of what we have accomplished in the last few months.

Phase 1 of the project included replacing all the existing pneumatic and electrical systems within the ride. There was also a considerable amount of work done to the structure of the ride.

To complete the pneumatic side of this project a new compressor was installed along with a custom made manifold to allow control of all the tricks from one central location. (Ed: "tricks" being an animation or timed light etc.) New piping was run to eradicate the leaks that had been present in the old system and new 24v solenoid valves were installed to match the new electrical system.

The cars work on a dual voltage DC supply to the track (60V in the Station and 110V elsewhere) and all of the wiring to the track was renewed. A completely new control system was installed with the tricks now being controlled by a single central PLC system that allows us much greater scope for potential extensions and additions to the ride in the future than the old system allowed. Added to this emergency evacuation lighting was added, a separate "men working" light facility was added, all the UV (black) lights were up-rated to IP65 rating, the station lighting was changed to the latest electrical specs and all the strobe lights were replaced with higher power models.

The operators control panel was renewed to give a better range of control to the operator, and the CCTV system was overhauled and new cameras installed in certain locations. A new chasing light system was added to the exterior of the ride as well as some rather neat blue LED lighting above the station.

Structural work mainly consisted of replacement of worn floor sections throughout the ride (about 50% of the wooden floors have been replaced), replacement of some worn sections of metal flooring and the addition of a new ramp to the pay-box to allow better access to all customers. Inside some of the older tricks were replaced and some new tricks added, giving customers even more scope to enjoy their ride, however space is at a premium so some of our ideas have yet to be implemented.

Phase 2 of the project is nearly finished but has been concentrated at making the cars more reliable and allowing us to keep more cars on track at any one time. Without going into too many specifics nearly all the areas of the car have been updated to the latest standards and next season should see more cars on track more of the time.

Phase 3 of the project is still to come but will be the final tidying up of the ride, this will include the manufacture of a new “Ghost Train” sign and repairs to the head overlooking the station.

Thanks to David Reid.

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