Thorpe Park's Ghost Train to Alter Minds in 2016

The U.K.'s Alton Towers has announced a new attraction, named Darren Brown's Ghost Train, as the big addition for the 2016 season.  I've been reading about it but I'm still not totally sure what the attraction is; however I think that's the point.

The park's press release explains that Ghost Train "is a head-spinning train journey of between 10-15 minutes, the like of which guests will never have taken before; providing a heady mixture of exhilarating live action sequences, 4D special effects, grand-scale illusions, next generation technology, and physical transit.  No place for spectators, guests will play a major part in the action which will leave them questioning where perception ends and reality begins."  So it sounds like an attraction that's a grab-bag of all sorts of effects, though I can't decipher if it's a walk through or ride.  I'm thinking walk through.

© Thorpe Park

Visitors to the park will enter Ghost Train through a dilapidated Victorian-age warehouse, seen above on the attraction's new website.  Once inside is where things get fuzzy, though the press release also states that there are 12 different "journeys" that can be taken inside, and two endings - planned to make the experience unique to members of the same group.  How this will happen is also cloudy, though I believe one article noted that virtual reality headsets may be used either just for a segment, or all, of this attraction.  That would certainly explain how to easily create multiple journeys once inside.

© Thorpe Park

Inside the big warehouse is "a 20 metre long, four and a half metre high, seven tonne Victorian train carriage that is suspended in mid air over three metres above ground by iron chains. A carriage which passengers enter via a metal bridge, and where the mind-bending journey begins in earnest."  The train locomotive certainly looks pretty neat in the concept art - I'm eager to see the finished product to see how it compares.  It sounds like not much more will really be revealed until the attraction opens, and even then the park and Derren Brown are already urging visitors not to spoil any secrets and tell what they experienced.