Nemesis (roller coaster)

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For other uses, see Nemesis (disambiguation).


Nemesis

A Nemesis train travelling around the stall turn immediately after the vertical loop.
Location Alton Towers
Park section Forbidden Valley
Type Steel - Inverted
Status Open
Opened March 19, 1994
Manufacturer Bolliger & Mabillard
Designer John Wardley
Model Inverted Coaster
Lift/launch system Chain lift hill
Height 43 ft (13 m)
Drop 104 ft (32 m)
Length 2,349 ft (716 m)
Max speed 50 mph (80 km/h)
Inversions 4
Duration 1:20
Capacity 1,400 riders per hour
Cost £10,000,000
Max g-force 4
Nemesis at RCDB
Pictures of Nemesis at RCDB

Nemesis is an inverted roller coaster located at Alton Towers, England. The ride was designed by Bolliger & Mabillard and opened in 1994 in the Forbidden Valley area of the park. It is themed around an entirely fictional legend formulated by The Tussauds Group (the park owners at the time) in which a monster, disturbed during routine maintenance work, creates a large crater in the Staffordshire landscape, and is necessarily restrained using the hundreds of tonnes of steel that make up the roller coaster tracks.[1] The subterranean component of the theme was born of the necessity to construct the ride in trenches to reduce its height above the ground, in compliance with local planning restrictions which require Alton Towers to build below the tree line. Capitalising on these constraints, Nemesis exploits the proximity of the terrain to obsfuscate its riders' view of the track's vectorial trajectory, as well as to accentuate the perception of its speed, facilitating an atypically intense ride experience that distinguishes it from other steel roller coasters of similar construction. The success of Nemesis spawned its "sister" ride, Nemesis Inferno, in 2003 at Thorpe Park.[2]

Contents

[edit] History

Plans for developing the site began in 1991, when Alton Towers began working on a pipeline roller coaster concept from Arrow Dynamics. The ride, codenamed Secret Weapon 1, was to be themed around a secret military facility.[3] Development of the project was put on hold due to Arrow's financial problems, but was brought back a year later with the codename Secret Weapon 2. However, the project was finally abandoned when John Wardley had the opportunity to ride the prototype and found it to be slow and energy inefficient.[3] The park began to look at alternatives and around this time Wardley became aware of the rumours surrounding a new installation by Bolliger & Mabillard for Six Flags. Alton Towers contacted Bolliger & Mabillard who would not give out any specifics about the ride and informed the park to speak to Six Flags. Wardley did just that and after a meeting Six Flags agreed to let Bolliger & Mabillard produce a similar ride for Alton Towers on the understanding that Alton Towers would return the favour.[4] John Wardley worked on this new ride concept which he codenamed SW3 even though the theme of a secret weapon evolved into that of organic alien creature. The secret weapon theme was re-used for SW4, Oblivion, four years later.[5] Nemesis opened in the spring of 1994 to much media fanfare and was one of many major installations at theme parks throughout the United Kingdom. The Pepsi Max Big One, which at that time was the tallest and fastest roller coaster in the world, opened in Blackpool and Drayton Manor also unveiled Shockwave, an Intamin AG stand-up roller coaster.

[edit] In the media

Nemesis's stall turn.
Nemesis's stall turn.

In 2004, Nemesis gained the world record for the most naked people to ride a roller coaster. 32 people took part, beating the previous record of 28 held by Nemesis Inferno at Thorpe Park. The event took place to celebrate 50 years of Guinness World Records.

Nemesis was briefly renamed Wonderland for a month in 2005, to celebrate the release of boyband McFly's new album. The band took a ride on Nemesis on CD:UK, a popular music television program.

The ride can briefly be seen in the BBC Midlands Today opening titles.

[edit] Statistics

  1. Construction started: 1991
  2. Designed by: John Wardley and Ingenieur Büro Stengel GmbH
  3. Manufacture: Bolliger & Mabillard
  4. Ride type: B&M inverted
  5. Programmed by: Consign AG
  6. Ride opened: 19th March 1994
  7. Total cost: Approx £10million
  8. Length: Approx. 716metres
  9. Highest drop: Approx.13metres
  10. Top speed: Approx. 81kph
  11. Maximum Gs: 4Gs
  12. Number of trains: 2
  13. Passengers per train: 32
  14. Max throughput per hour: 1400
  15. Ride duration: Approx. 80seconds

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Alton Towers: Nemesis. Retrieved on 2007-12-18.
  2. ^ UK Theme Parks - Alton Towers. Retrieved on 2007-12-18.
  3. ^ a b John Wardley looks back. Retrieved on 2007-12-18.
  4. ^ http://www.towersalmanac.com/features/multimedia.php?id=19
  5. ^ Rides: Oblivion. Retrieved on 2007-12-18.


[edit] External links

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