Big Thunder Strikes!
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Disney is also willing to go outside of
the berm for inspiration and assistance. According to Rick West, publisher of Theme Park Adventure Magazine,
"the Mine Train at Knott's Berry Farm had a major impact on Tony Baxter and
can be seen throughout Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. The queue, the trains, even the
climax are very similar". Baxter chose well as the Mine Train at Knott's was given a
prestigious Themed Entertainment Association "Classic Attraction" award.
In Issue #8 of Persistence of Vision Magazine, in an interview with Didier Ghez, Tony Baxter discussed one of the challenges in building Big Thunder:
This was the very first ride that we did with the aid of computer design on the track. I would do a design and give it to the computer artists and he would tell me, "No, it won't work. The computer wants..." There is a spiral on Big Thunder, near the beginning of the ride, where it goes around and then heads back. The computer kept moving it over, because it did not want that much track there. It wanted to shorten the length of the track. And I wanted it in a certain place because it looked good as a design. I like the composition of the three summits, the pyramid composition of shapes. The computer kept moving the track which made the ride somewhat less attractive.
So nine times I did a new design that I thought would solve the problems and the computer would say no. So we built nine tiny models to check the look until the computer said, "OK, I will accept this. This one is OK." That was the one we ended up building. But it took nine designs before the computer approved!
They tried to do the computer design on Space Mountain in Florida. But it was so early in the evolution of computer design that much of the track profile was later worked out by hand to improve the smoothness of the ride. Big Thunder Mountain is the first ride where it is really fluid, very smooth, and a very good ride.
Whenever Disneyland replaces an attraction with a new attraction they try to keep a little piece of the old one somewhere in there. For example, Star Tours replaced Adventure Thru Inner Space, but you can still see the "Mighty Microscope" in the Star Tours film and a mini-atomobile is among the parts going around the queue in a basket. Big Thunder Mountain was no exception. The buildings at the conclusion of the ride are from the town Rainbow Ridge which could also be found in the original Pack Mules and Nature's Wonderland attractions. The dripping water and pools of colorful water in the main cavern are a tribute to the Rainbow Caverns portion of the Mine Train. And the dinosaur bones at the end an homage to the Mine Train.
Big Thunder Mountain is full of the little
touches that separate Disney thrill rides from other amusement parks. Along the way you'll
see animatronic desert creatures and everyone's favorite, the goat with the dynamite stick
in his mouth. In real mines, horseshoes were hung at the entrance to the shafts for good
luck. They are also placed throughout Big Thunder Mountain, but at the entrance to the
earthquake shaft one has come loose and is hanging upside-down. Speaking of the earthquake
shaft, it had a major upgrade a couple of years ago. Prior to that, there were rocks on
very visible polls that fell slower and slower each year. The shaft was updated with fiber
optics and shadows, the same technology as the Pirates of the Caribbean shadow fighters.
All the props around the queue and throughout the attraction are real mining relics that
Imagineering bought from various collectors and companies across America. And did you know
the doors at the end of the earthquake shaft used to open for each train and close behind
it?
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad is one of the most beautiful, well-themed attractions in Disneyland. Tony Baxter said, in the aforementioned E-Ticket Magazine interview, "I pride myself that when you look at Big Thunder, nowhere does it look like the rockwork was built around the train. It always looks like the train had to configure to the mountain. That's a big difference when you take a look around at the other parks." After 20 years it remains a favorite among park visitors. Though it's not very scary - as rollercoasters go - it is a wonderful starter coaster for the very young. It's tame enough for more timid riders while remaining fun for the more experienced. And that is something Walt Disney would be proud of!
-- September 2, 1999
-- Story and photographs by Doobie Moseley with assistance from
Rick West of Theme Park Adventure Magazine