The Official UK Rollercoaster News thread!!!

[Gherkin]

This thread is for rollercoaster news in the UK... but feel free to add any major rollercoaster developments that are happening abroad. Rollercoasters might be a bit random in a skyscraper forum, but with some in the UK over 200ft tall, they easily have enough height to make an impression on any UK skyline. I have included each 'coaster's height.


UK Tallest Rollercoasters

1. 65m Pepsi Max Big One
2. 63m Stealth
3. 51m Jubilee Odyssey
4. 46m Millennium Roller Coaster
5. 37m Shockwave
6. 36m Kumali
7. 36m Wipeout/Boomerang
8. 35m Speed: No Limits
9. 33m Infusion
10. 33m Ultimate


European Tallest Rollercoasters

1. 73m Silver Star (Germany)
2. 65m Pepsi Max Big One (UK)
3. 63m Stealth (UK)
4. 60m Colossos (Germany)
5. 58m Stunt Fall (Spain)
6. 55m Vertigo (Belgium)
7. 53m Expedition GeForce (Germany)
8. 51m Jubilee Odyssey (UK)
9. 50m Katun (Italy)
10. 50m Superman (Spain)



World's Tallest Rollercoasters:

1. 139m Kingda Ka (USA)
2. 128m Top Thrill Dragster (USA)
3. 127m Superman The Escape (USA)
4. 115m Tower of Terror (Australia)
5. 97m Steel Dragon 2000 (Japan)
6. 95m Millennium Force (USA)
7. 80m Thunder Dolphin (Japan)
8. 79m Fujiyama (Japan)
9. 76m Eejanaika (Japan)
10. 75m Titan (USA)



Here are some pictures of new additions to the UK rollercoaster scene since the year 2000 to wet your appetite

Infusion (33m)
Blackpool Pleasure beach, built May 2007
Loops/Inversions: 5
The first rollercoaster built over water.



Stealth (62m)
Thorpe Park, built March 2006
Loops/Inversions: 0




Kumali (36m)
Flamingo Land Theme park, built April 2006
Loops/Inversions: 4


Jubilee Odyssey (51m)
Fantasy Island Theme Park, built May 2002
Loops/Inversions: 5



Wipeout (35m)
Pleasurewood Hills Theme Park, Under Construction
Loops/Inversions: 3


Speed: No Limits (35m)
Includes a "more than vertical" drop
Oakwood Park, built April 2006
Loops/Inversions: 2


Rage (22m)
Adventure Island, built February 2007
Loops/Inversions: 2


Colossus (30m)
Thorpe park, built march 2002
Loops/Inversions: 10




I only chose the taller 'coasters in that summary to fit in with the skyscraper/height theme. The UK is the biggest rollercoaster builder outside the USA, so there are literally hundreds being built each year so ofcourse I cannot include them all.

Please post coaster or theme park pics/news/gossip below

[LDN_EUROPE]

Wow!! I never knew we had so many.

[Gherkin]

I find it amazing how many 'coasters thers are outside of the bigger amusement parks (Alton Towers/Drayton Manor/Blackpool Pleasure Beach/Thorpe Park to name a few). Between them, these 4 theme parks only have a mere 30 rollercoasters. There are apparently 128 more coasters in the UK:


Here is the top 5 world rankings of rollercoaster numbers in each country, courtesy of www.rcdb.com:

USA - 642
Japan - 249
UK - 158
Germany - 114
China - 94

[AndrewC]

Crikey, can't beleive Pleasure Wood Hills is building a proper looking roller coaster! I might actually have to go to the chav infested cesspit next time I'm in Yarmouth!

[gothicform]

this is weird. i watched final destination 3 last night and put it on my to do list today to find out exactly how many tall rollercoasters we have in the uk. i log onto ssc and see someone has just done it! thanks

[Gherkin]

Rollercoasters are probably the last tall manmade objects in the UK without notice in these forums, so I thought they deserved a thread. My list only has the taller ones built since 2000. Go onto www.rcdb.com (brilliant website) for full statistics.

[Gherkin]

To put things into perspective, the 139m Kingda Ka rollercoaster in the USA could just about travel over the 135m London Eye, like so:


(I couldn't be bothered to spend more than a minute on MS Paint)








More Comparisons:

From the top:



With Beetham in Liverpool:

[Gherkin]

Oh and I should have credited all of my images to Flickr, RCDB and Gothic's site for that Beetham pic

[ferge]

Lol, I've long been a coaster enthusiast, in fact.. I was into coasters before skyscrapers. Well, I say enthusiast, I'm not, cos they're the people who go to every park about 50 times a year and get married on big dippers. But I like them!

There has also been a new ride advertised for Camelot Theme Park, not sure what it looks like, called Knightmare. It is going to open next month I think, anyone confirm this?

Also, for anyone who doesn't know, Infusion was once known as Traumatizer, it was relocated after Pleasureland, Southport was closed.

As for tallest rollercoasters, some people might not know that Alton Towers had a wooden rollercoaster planned a few years back which would of had around a 200ft drop down a ravine, it would of been the biggest and fastest wooden rollercoaster in the world, but it was overcome by NIMBY uproar.. as per usual. Hopefully they'll come up with a similiar scheme soon.

[Gherkin]

I was at Alton Towers a few weeks ago and wondered why there were no tall rides. To take a NIMBY point of view, Alton Towers is a great looking amusement park and I suppose a tall coaster would do a lot of damage to the stunning views of the castle and from the valleys. But, to take a coaster-fan point of view... I'm gutted. Wooden rollercoasters are awesome.

[ferge]

The height restriction at Alton towers is not to go beyond the height of the trees, that is why the taller rides have their uphill supports and track painted green or a dark colour (RITA, Corkscrew, Air etc).

Yet if it wasn't for this restriction, I doubt the rides would be anywhere near as good, Nemesis is a world-famous ride because of its non-stop dives below ground and into ravines, they wouldn't of designed such an awesome ride had they had no restrictions of going high up, so its beneficial to have restrictions not only to preserve the village and natural beauty of the area, but to ensure designers create exciting rides.

As for the Wooden rollercoaster, despite being 200ft drops it would still not have been visible above tree height as the ride was designed to make use of the natural valley in the middle of the park and swoop down hills to create land-hugging drops. The locals protested over noise levels rather than visual impact, and for the protection of the 'tree's to be felled for construction, despite nearly all of them needing to be removed anyway due to rot or illness.

[Gherkin]

PICTURES

From http://www.towerstimes.co.uk/news/woodie.htm

"Unfortunately the wooden roller coaster plans have been withdrawn; the reason for this was due to a few issues regarding the noise and the height of the coaster, Alton Towers have said they plan to resubmit an amended plan of the roller coaster to make sure the plans don’t get denied. The new plans will hopefully be submitted before the end of the season."


Unfortunately, however, this was 2003, and it seems RITA was built instead. I hope that some point this coaster will be built, however, as 2x200m drops into the valley sounds stunning.

[Gherkin]

I remember the "Bigger One" being planned for Blackpool Pleasure beach some time ago. Here's the promotional video. It would have been the tallest rollercoaster in the world. Good video here:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...64445874979805

[GrAfiK_248]

could they plant bigger trees lol

[Mr. B]

Originally Posted by Gherkin007

I remember the "Bigger One" being planned for Blackpool Pleasure beach some time ago. Here's the promotional video. It would have been the tallest rollercoaster in the world. Good video here:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...64445874979805

You are aware that that is from the game Roller coaster Tycoon right? That is probably someones design and they just recorded it and then posted it on google.

[paulmat]

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing.

[ferge]

It's not from Rollercoaster tycoon, its from a simulation game.. the name escapes me, I used to have a demo of it.. You basically just design 1 ride and then you can watch it in action or get on-ride perspective.

[Mr. B]

Yes it's rolercoaster tycoon the Rollercoaster Simulation game.

[Gherkin]

Sorry my mistake! I just remember it beoing on Goth's site a while back and found it again on youtube the other day.

[ferge]

Originally Posted by Mr. B

Yes it's rolercoaster tycoon the Rollercoaster Simulation game.

No, its not Rollercoaster Tycoon. Petty as it is to argue over somet so small I will prove its not Rollercoaster Tycoon.

To prove it, a snapshot of RCT.



a snapshot of the coaster simulator used, I believe it to be called 'no limits'