In this weeks issue of Airtime Addicts (still a draft name) we will be taking a look at quite possibly the UK's most famous and well known theme park, Alton towers, a must visit for any enthusiast in the UK. We will be looking at some of Alton tower's world famous roller coasters!
Face the monster that lay dormant for thousands of centuries only known as the foreboding Nemesis! Nemesis is the park's Bolliger and Mabillard steel inverted coaster. First opened in 1994, Nemesis has been roaring for almost 30 years! Designed by John Wardley, Nemesis was the second of its kind in the world after Batman the ride which opened at one of the Six Flags parks in the US. This beast of a Roller coaster is beloved by many and is regarded as quite possibly the best coaster in the UK. With its slue of inversions and high speed, the park claims it to be the most intense roller coaster in the world, so it's not uncommon for someone to black out for a short period of time when on the ride itself. One major element of the ride that makes it stand out from other B and M inverts around the world is its layout. Due to Alton towers tree line restrictions, none of their rides are permitted to go above the tree line, so they had to get creative. Many B and M inverts heavily rely on height to help create a better, more intense ride experience, Nemesis however is instead built into a trench. Tons and tons of rock were blasted from the site in order to place the track down. This creates and incredible off ride view as the train dips and dives underneath bridges and has close encounters with the queue line and walkway, letting guests get the best view. Nothing beats the feeling of standing next to the track and hear that fantastic roar as the train thunders by. Another element of Nemesis is the large monster like structure that houses the station. According to the Nemesis lore, the monster you see is a creature from a dimension beyond our imagination. It lay dormant for centuries under the earth's surface, only until an excavation crew accidentally disturbed it and set it on a rampage. The only way they could prevent it from destroying everything is to hold it down with large pieces of metal, which you can probably guess is the track used for the ride. It would be quite an under statement to say that Nemesis was just a success, it was a HUGE success. It became famous around the world and even after almost 30 years, Nemesis is still regarded as an amazing coaster. It was so successful that Tussauds (the parent company that owned Alton towers and various other parks) opened a sister coaster called Nemesis Inferno at Thorpe park down in Surrey. Though the ride shares the same name, it really doesn't have much in common with the original Nemesis. After all these years Nemesis still keeps roaring!
Oblivion
Destination: Oblivion
Dive into the unknown on the world's first vertical drop roller coaster. Oblivion opened in 1998 and was once again designed by John Wardley and manufactured by Bolliger and Mabillard. Just like Nemesis, it didn't take long before this ride became world famous for being the world's first dive coaster, just like the name suggests, you dive down a vertical drop. When Oblivion opened, it launched a whole new area within the park, X-sector, themed to a sinister government facility which aims to test its machinery on people such as sending them into..... Oblivion. Unlike most modern dive coasters, Oblivion consists of one large drop and a bank turn into the station, because of this it's often called a one trick pony, despite this however, enthusiasts still love Oblivion for its incredible force when going down the vertical drop as many others of its kind often feel more weightless than intense.
