1994: The year of the rollercoaster
1994: The year of the rollercoaster
It is a tradition in China to name years after animals. For example 2020 is the year of the rat and 2019 was the year of the pig. If this was done in the United Kingdom I have a suspicion that 1994 would be known as the year of the roller coaster. Here's why.
1994 saw the first real boom in the UK theme park industry with three of the biggest parks opening up rollercoasters. The three that opened were Nemesis at Alton Towers, The Big One at Blackpool Pleasure Beach and Shockwave at Drayton Manor. At the time these were the three biggest coasters in the country and propelled the country onto the rollercoaster map of the world.
Nemesis-
When you think of rollercoasters in the UK, Nemesis at Alton Towers is usually one of the first you think of. The B&M invert, designed by John Wardley was the first secret weapon and was in the planning stages since 1990 and was originally meant to be a Togo Pipeline coaster. Luckily the park changed there mind and chose to build an invert, which would be the first of its kind in Europe and cost the park £10 million.
The rollercoaster opened in March 1994 and shocked enthusiasts with its landscaping, theming and very good throughput as well as great ride experience. The coaster was the first permanent looking coaster at the resort and kick started the themed focus on rollercoasters at the park.
The coaster has been in the top 25 rollercoasters in the world and is commonly referred to as the best coaster in the country. Nemesis also kickstarted the brand with Nemesis Inferno at Thorpe Park opening in 2003 and a dark ride, Nemesis Sub Terra, opening in 2012 next door. Even 26 years later this coaster is still a highlight of the park.
Shockwave:
In 1994 Drayton Manor was still a small park in comparison to Blackpool Pleasure Beach and Alton Towers. This changed in 1994 when the park opened the stand up coaster, Shockwave for £4 million. The coaster is manufactured by Intamin, despite having B&M track design.
Designed by Werner Stengel is 120 feet and has 4 inversions and the blue coaster is still the biggest coaster in the park and was part of a 2 ride deal with Intamin after Splash Canyon, a rapids, opening in 1993.
The coaster is one of only a few stand up rollercoasters left in the world, hopefully Drayton can preserve this piece of UK theme park history and it does not go the way of former neighbouring rollercoaster G-Force.
The Big One:
The construction Blackpool Pleasure Beach's new ride was started in 1992 and the Arrow hyper was designed by Ron Toomer. The track was airlifted from Bolton to Blackpool Airport before the track was moved onto the south promenade. The coaster was very expensive and cost the park £12 million.
The rollercoaster opened in May 1994 and was the tallest rollercoaster not only in the UK, but also the world until 1996. The 213 foot tall and 74 mph fast coaster transformed the Pleasure Beach and put the park onto the world map. The coaster got its first drop and turn around re profiled in 1997 and more recently had some of the lower parts of the coaster re tracked in 2020.
The rollercoaster opened in March 1994 and shocked enthusiasts with its landscaping, theming and very good throughput as well as great ride experience. The coaster was the first permanent looking coaster at the resort and kick started the themed focus on rollercoasters at the park.
The coaster has been in the top 25 rollercoasters in the world and is commonly referred to as the best coaster in the country. Nemesis also kickstarted the brand with Nemesis Inferno at Thorpe Park opening in 2003 and a dark ride, Nemesis Sub Terra, opening in 2012 next door. Even 26 years later this coaster is still a highlight of the park.Shockwave:
In 1994 Drayton Manor was still a small park in comparison to Blackpool Pleasure Beach and Alton Towers. This changed in 1994 when the park opened the stand up coaster, Shockwave for £4 million. The coaster is manufactured by Intamin, despite having B&M track design.Designed by Werner Stengel is 120 feet and has 4 inversions and the blue coaster is still the biggest coaster in the park and was part of a 2 ride deal with Intamin after Splash Canyon, a rapids, opening in 1993.
The coaster is one of only a few stand up rollercoasters left in the world, hopefully Drayton can preserve this piece of UK theme park history and it does not go the way of former neighbouring rollercoaster G-Force.
The Big One:
The construction Blackpool Pleasure Beach's new ride was started in 1992 and the Arrow hyper was designed by Ron Toomer. The track was airlifted from Bolton to Blackpool Airport before the track was moved onto the south promenade. The coaster was very expensive and cost the park £12 million.The rollercoaster opened in May 1994 and was the tallest rollercoaster not only in the UK, but also the world until 1996. The 213 foot tall and 74 mph fast coaster transformed the Pleasure Beach and put the park onto the world map. The coaster got its first drop and turn around re profiled in 1997 and more recently had some of the lower parts of the coaster re tracked in 2020.
The coaster was sponsored by Pepsi Max from 1994 till 2011 and was known as The Pepsi Max Big One. The coaster is still one of the highlights of the park and the retracking done for the 2020 season should make the ride even better and breathe a new lease of life into it.
So those were the three coasters that opened in 1994. The Year of the Rollercoaster has never been topped, and probably never will be, although 2002 and 2018 came close, but were no where near as iconic.
Check out my Twitter, @corkscrewcoast, for a poll for you to vote on your favourite coaster out of the three.
Thank you for reading and look out soon for many new blogs about many different theme park topics.
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