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[2024] Nemesis Reborn: Construction and Speculation

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I think either Nemesis will become too rough to enjoy and the park will remove it or there will be a nostalgia towards it that will keep the ride going. I suppose we are now coming to the stage where the teenagers of the 90s are becoming parents of teenagers who they may also bring to ride Nemesis
 
Matt N said:
Why do you say this, out of interest? While I've personally found Nemesis to have gotten slightly joltier in some of the transitions within the last year or two (the corkscrews and zero-g roll in particular definitely bashed my ears a bit last year), and this has made me rank it slightly lower than I used to, it's still pretty smooth for a coaster of its age and doesn't really vibrate noticeably against the track or bash your head about at all. Compared to Infusion at Blackpool, it feels like gliding on air!

Bits of the track have already been replaced as far as I'm aware, and surely in a time where the park will be wanting to be a little more careful with money post-Covid, a new ride (SW9) would make more sense and have a greater chance of financial returns than a major refurbishment of Nemesis, which isn't really needed at the moment, in my opinion.

If they were to do one, though, I think it would be nice if we saw some of the inversions smoothed out a bit; maybe the corkscrews and zero-g roll could be smoothed out a bit?
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It's not because Nemesis is joltier, or anything like that. It's just a matter of age! It's like what Europa-Park did with Eurosat recently. Eurosat, when it closed, was still a great coaster. But, there comes a time when they have to pre-empt issues. This is very much what happened with Eurosat. They knew that if they didn't do work by a certain point, there would be too much fatigue in the track and trains and breakdowns would start to increase - and costs would start to increase.

So, with Nemesis - it is riding great still. It's a brilliant rollercoaster - but they need to make sure they do the work on it required to give it another 30 years - before it starts giving them a headache.

It's nothing to do with smoothness. At all.

:)
 
Nemesis is still the 3rd smoothest on park for me (behind galactica and th13teen) so I don't see a reason for them to do any work on it any time soon
 
Ethan said:
Nemesis is still the 3rd smoothest on park for me (behind galactica and th13teen) so I don't see a reason for them to do any work on it any time soon
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You are totally missing the point in my above post. It isn't about doing work on Nemesis because it's rough. It's about preventative work. There will be hidden fatigue on the ride by virtue of its age.
 
Presumably Merlin will desire a way to factor in some sort of marketable upgrade to the CAPEX investment in Nemesis' future. An on-ride soundtrack would be acceptable, even cool.
 
Plastic Person said:
Presumably Merlin will desire a way to factor in some sort of marketable upgrade to the CAPEX investment in Nemesis' future. An on-ride soundtrack would be acceptable, even cool.
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I am pretty confident that there are two rides at Alton Towers that the management team will respect.

Oblivion and Nemesis.

I cannot see major changes to what the rides are about.

They are too iconic.
 
AstroDan said:
I am pretty confident that there are two rides at Alton Towers that the management team will respect.

Oblivion and Nemesis.

I cannot see major changes to what the rides are about.

They are too iconic.
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Couldn't the same have been said about Corkscrew to some extent? The signature ride for the whole of the Broome era...

I certainly don't see Oblivion being any more or less iconic than Corkscrew was.

Nemesis I accept has a presence matched in the UK only by the Big One. I don't know if that translates to being too important to remove altogether one day, but I hope it does.
 
WillPS said:
Couldn't the same have been said about Corkscrew to some extent? The signature ride for the whole of the Broome era...

I certainly don't see Oblivion being any more or less iconic than Corkscrew was.

Nemesis I accept has a presence matched in the UK only by the Big One. I don't know if that translates to being too important to remove altogether one day, but I hope it does.
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The thing with Corkscrew is a little different. By the time it was 25 years old, it was knackered. Old, uncomfortable. In fact,it was rotten. I worked on that ride in 2007 and the state it was in... was beyond belief.

Oblivion on the other hand is 23 years old now - and if you compare the state of that coaster, and how loved it is, vs. Corkscrew's popularity at the same age...

It also helps that Oblivion and Nemesis are workhorses of the park.
 
AstroDan said:
The thing with Corkscrew is a little different. By the time it was 25 years old, it was knackered. Old, uncomfortable. In fact,it was rotten. I worked on that ride in 2007 and the state it was in... was beyond belief.

Oblivion on the other hand is 23 years old now - and if you compare the state of that coaster, and how loved it is, vs. Corkscrew's popularity at the same age...

It also helps that Oblivion and Nemesis are workhorses of the park.
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Would you say that Corkscrew was poorly made or neglected? What caused Corkscrew to become as you described?
 
I think the park will run this into the ground until it's no longer able to ride without major investments just like they did with Loggers or Corkscrew. Then knowing Merlin there'll be a retheme with a "world first" element or a new ride all together.
 
WillPS said:
Couldn't the same have been said about Corkscrew to some extent? The signature ride for the whole of the Broome era...

I certainly don't see Oblivion being any more or less iconic than Corkscrew was.

Nemesis I accept has a presence matched in the UK only by the Big One. I don't know if that translates to being too important to remove altogether one day, but I hope it does.
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You simply cannot compare the Corkscrew to the likes of Oblivion. Corkscrew, whilst a bit of a game changer for towers, it had a sister model at Whitley Bay also named the Corkscrew, which then moved to Flamingoland (where their colossus clone now sits). The Corkscrew was an off the shelf coaster available to but.

Oblivion, in comparison was a worlds first and an engineering marvel in both coaster design and construction. Oblivion led the way for other dive coaster developments throughout the world and is still regarded by some as the best dive coaster out there (even though it's short). This is mainly down to the ground work that went into the construction and layout because of the limitations at Alton Towers.

Although Corkscrew led the way for Alton Towers as a Theme Park, it is in no comparison to Oblivion in iconic terms.
 
Godscrasher said:
Although Corkscrew led the way for Alton Towers as a Theme Park, it is in no comparison to Oblivion in iconic terms.
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I do not miss Corkscrew by any means, and I recognise it's status as an off-the-shelf, second-hand machine compared to Oblivion, which is still absolute top drawer in terms of engineering. However, in terms of popular culture and industry influence, Corkscrew was a game-changer and a massive deal. An icon in its own time, at least.

Nonetheless, I still sometimes dream that lift hill noise...
 
Godscrasher said:
Although Corkscrew led the way for Alton Towers as a Theme Park, it is in no comparison to Oblivion in iconic terms.
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I think it depends when you are making that assessment and how you define 'iconic' factors in too.

I look back at Corkscrew 'as a ride' now with very little fondness. That said, you can look at either of them and understand, or recall that they both had a monumental impact on the park and the industry when they debuted.
 
Godscrasher said:
You simply cannot compare the Corkscrew to the likes of Oblivion. Corkscrew, whilst a bit of a game changer for towers, it had a sister model at Whitley Bay also named the Corkscrew, which then moved to Flamingoland (where their colossus clone now sits). The Corkscrew was an off the shelf coaster available to but.

Oblivion, in comparison was a worlds first and an engineering marvel in both coaster design and construction. Oblivion led the way for other dive coaster developments throughout the world and is still regarded by some as the best dive coaster out there (even though it's short). This is mainly down to the ground work that went into the construction and layout because of the limitations at Alton Towers.

Although Corkscrew led the way for Alton Towers as a Theme Park, it is in no comparison to Oblivion in iconic terms.
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All that stuff you mention is pretty irrelevant when it comes to how iconic a ride is. Oblivion is definitely the better ride, but in terms of its impact in popular culture I think they drew equal in their own time. Arguably Corkscrew enjoyed a longer period at the top of the bill.
 
WillPS said:
All that stuff you mention is pretty irrelevant when it comes to how iconic a ride is. Oblivion is definitely the better ride, but in terms of its impact in popular culture I think they drew equal in their own time. Arguably Corkscrew enjoyed a longer period at the top of the bill.
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I've not mentioned the actual ride at all. Although I did say that Corkscrew led the way for the development of the park, there was another one up North roughly operating just after the one at Alton had been installed and is still operating to this day at Lunapark in France.

I do agree about the impact on popular culture though and that was probably chosen because of it's setting at Alton Towers. I guess the fact of the argument will remain, because we won't know how iconic Oblivion will be until it is (god forsaken) removed and replaced.
 
AstroDan said:
What caused Corkscrew to become like that? Typical, long term neglect of assets. It's what Alton have always done.
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Refreshing to see that on this forum - I agree, entirely. However, the rhetoric is typically that this approach is a 'Merlin thing'.
 
Rick said:
Refreshing to see that on this forum - I agree, entirely. However, the rhetoric is typically that this approach is a 'Merlin thing'.
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Indeed.

Was long before Merlin came to town.

Just how chronic underinvestment was happening at Chessington long before Merlin, too.

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