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Drayton Manor Park

The safety ride switches which are at the front right and back left have both to be pressed for the operator to start the ride and the gates to theses areas won’t open to a train is back in the station and the restrains are released so by the time the 2nd train is back into the station and guests leave the platform the other train is back onto the break run.
In 2024 many times they mastered it that the train just hit the break run and the other train just left the station.
 
JAperson said:
Why would they need two staff in the op cabin?
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One to operate the ride and one to monitor the CCTV and respond to anything they spot with announcements. A lot of rides have a separate cabin op for the latter as it ensures that the CCTV is being monitored constantly and means the main op can focus on the station.
 
Much like Flamingoland Drayton Manor have published their financial accounts for the year to Sept 2025. (Info from RideRater)

Profits grew by £300k from the previous year and they achieved a profit of £1.5m. Both operating profit and revenue grew for the year.

This is despite additional costs to operating costs due to national insurance and minimum wage rises. They said they cut costs elsewhere rather than passing on to customers.

Capital expenditure was lower though for the year and was 5% of revenue for the year.
 
Maelstrom said:
Much like Flamingoland Drayton Manor have published their financial accounts for the year to Sept 2025. (Info from RideRater)

Profits grew by £300k from the previous year and they achieved a profit of £1.5m. Both operating profit and revenue grew for the year.

This is despite additional costs to operating costs due to national insurance and minimum wage rises. They said they cut costs elsewhere rather than passing on to customers.

Capital expenditure was lower though for the year and was 5% of revenue for the year.
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They must of cut costs within the maintaince department and major ride spending as we have seen the increase in down time
 
They really want to hang onto that best value park award. Not a bad strategy but if rather them add a few quid and staff the place properly. It would also go some way of addressing ops problems which is the parks biggest issue.

I think a new thrill flat ride would be a good investment in the next couple of seasons
 
Quantum said:
They really want to hang onto that best value park award. Not a bad strategy but if rather them add a few quid and staff the place properly. It would also go some way of addressing ops problems which is the parks biggest issue.

I think a new thrill flat ride would be a good investment in the next couple of seasons
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Definitely think going for the 1.2m height restriction rides would be a fantastic move for a flat ride

I think an STC from Vekoma and a Mack Spinning Coaster would be perfect coaster wise if they go for one

John_P said:
Think one of the larger Art Engineering Wild Swings like Liseberg are getting would be a great option for Drayton.
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That would be an amazing addition, that and a Technical Park Sidecar XL

A 25m drop tower would be perfect too
 
Quantum said:
They really want to hang onto that best value park award. Not a bad strategy but if rather them add a few quid and staff the place properly. It would also go some way of addressing ops problems which is the parks biggest issue.

I think a new thrill flat ride would be a good investment in the next couple of seasons
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Perhaps they could make advantage of their poor opps and team up with one of the "prediction markets" (online gambling companies) and offer "trades" (bets) on how low the opps are going to be:

Will gold rush manage 100pph this hour, or not?
 
Drayton is quite an odd park, but has provided a decent day for a decent price for years, and was the template the likes of Paultons followed.

I'm not sure long term if Loopings will be a good or bad thing or them, but for now, I'm more than happy with the path they are following, and would hope experiments like the winter opening and the post closing shows on the lake pay off for them, when contrasted with how towers is being run its nice to see they aren't taking their visitors for granted.

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I have a quick question:

People often talk about the "Nemesis B&M Roar", but given that Shockwave / The Wave used a very similar type of track and was built in the same year, why doesn't this ride have the same "roar" ?
 
It makes me wonder why the OG Nemesis track wasn't also filled with sand

I'm aware that Nemesis Inferno was (and I think Nemesis Reborn was as well)

Regarding Drayton Manor: I hadn't heard that Shockwave was filled with sand, but I remember hearing that neighbours complained about the noise from Shockwave after it was built, and they wouldn't have agreed to it being built so close to the edge of the park if they had anticipated the noise

Supposedly, part of the reason why Drayton Manor transformed it into The Wave instead of scrapping it was that they wouldn't get permission for another ride there again; some think that this might be the case with Apocalypse as well, which is a real shame if true because - unlike The Wave - it is no longer in the park :(

I'm not actually sure what happened to Apocalypse; I remember that it was put up for sale, but I'm not sure if it was ever sold?

I know that G-Force was still for sale earlier this year, though (albeit only with a single train), and so was The Black Hole from Alton Towers (both for under £1million, I think)
 
Secret Weapon said:
I'm not actually sure what happened to Apocalypse; I remember that it was put up for sale, but I'm not sure if it was ever sold?

I know that G-Force was still for sale earlier this year, though (albeit only with a single train), and so was The Black Hole from Alton Towers (both for under £1million, I think)
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Apocalypse got scrapped

Pandemonium went up for sale but it's unclear if that ended up in storage or got scrapped. Nothing has come about on it.

G Force is in storage in the Netherlands somewhere but hasn't been sold. It's been up for sale for years.
 
Hid said:
I never did G-Force it couldn't of been that bad could it, looked to have a solid intense layout
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G-Force, even when I was younger and in more of a coaster suitable shape was really painful, particularly for a bloke.

Hero is more like assault and battery, so I genuinely don't know which I disliked more which is why I'm curious on what other people who rode both thought.

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