Nightmare Fuel / Big Thunder Mountain Railroad

• The ride is a fun but fairly tame roller coaster, even the Paris version, which is slightly more intense because of the presence of two underwater tunnels where you can't see anything, and a surprise drop through a washed out trestle...Except at night, where you can hardly see the track at all, making the ride feel far more rough. This is because, much like with Space Mountain, your body can't psychologically anticipate turns and drops, and making it seem like you're going to crash into rocks.
• The story behind all incarnations is that the trains are all possessed by whatever supernatural force caused the inhabitants of the local town to disappear. You are riding a wild, undead train that could kill you at any second - and perhaps wants to, considering the September 2003 derailment.
• There's even a sign displaying the population getting crossed off down from 2,015 to 247 to 88 to 38...and then nothing.
• In all of the Big Thunder Mountains, the first of the three lift hills is in a cave that is infested with bats. In the summer months, there's a waterfall parting around the tracks at the top, implying that the cave is flooding.
• As originally built in all versions, an earthquake seems to hit on the third lift hill and the track is banked slightly to imitate the train being jostled by the forces of the shockwaves. Paris took this up to eleven, with a miner yelling "Fire in the hole!" and the lights of blasting going off around the riders, with at least one lantern being knocked around by the quake. (The earthquake rocks were disabled in 2011 after an accident)
• In Paris, part of the track before the second lift hill has been washed out, resulting in trains suddenly dropping down to the water level after a flat straightaway. It's jarring as it's unique to this ride.
• On Paris's version, the turns onto the second and third lift hills are on trestles. At times, anti-rollback dogs (metal teeth that produce a ratcheting sound as the train climbs the lift hill, designed to keep the train from rolling back if the chain should stop), have been installed on these turns, giving off a sound that suggests that the trestle is straining under the train's weight.
• Paris's version is right across the water from Phantom Manor. When you go through that ride, then ride Big Thunder Mountain, it can give you the creeps to know that there are supernatural things going on in and behind that dilapidated mansion across the river from the washed-out trestle and second lift hill. For the record, the pre-2011 earthquake on the third lift hill is implied to be the one that creates Phantom Canyon.
  • Even worse? Underneath Phantom Manor, you can see the earthquake happening.