[2024] Nemesis Reborn: Construction and Speculation

[Craig]

There's almost certainly a soft spot for the ride from Nick Varney, but ultimately it's a very wise business decision, as we need to think of the alternative. What would they do if Nemesis had to close and be removed? It's the headline attraction for that side of the park, still rates incredibly highly amongst guests and is still one of the rides that everyone talks about when someone says they're off to Alton Towers.

As mentioned in the application, the rock anchors are all structurally sound, the only thing they're doing is replacing the supports, foundations and track where the most stress has been exerted on it. The fact they're only doing this after 3 decades of use is testament to how well built the ride is.

If the park were to go down the route of removing it, they'd then have to consider the immense cost of engineering a new ride to fit into that area, or the insane cost of infilling the pit - not to mention the planning issues they would face to go with it.

The track replacement is by far the most sensible option. You're resolving reliability issues, not modifying a ride that's already immensely popular and you're not incurring the huge cost of planning and dealing with a replacement.

 

[Tibble]

I can see them doing a lot of TV ads and news broadcasts around it

Will be a shame that the S*n and Daily Mail will write the articles and include

"Alton Towers, which famously had an incident on ride 'The Smiler' in 2015...."

 

[Fuct]

Honestly they should just remaster the original advert, but tweak the slang to it. Can't get enough of that old logo

I don't see any problem with just rerunning those adverts!

 

[MaxPower]

I do hope they sell small pieces of the supports / track they remove.

Would be cool to own a piece of the 'original' Nemesis.

 

[Trooper Looper]

I do hope they sell small pieces of the supports / track they remove.

Would be cool to own a piece of the 'original' Nemesis.

Count me in!! I'd rather own a piece of good old Nemmy rather than the Big One, any day.

 

[s_g_k]

I do hope they sell small pieces of the supports / track they remove.

Would be cool to own a piece of the 'original' Nemesis.

That box track would make a great shelving unit if it was wall mounted vertically. My wife’s face would be a picture.

 

[TheAverageNerd]

I do wonder if they'll market this at all beyond perhaps a small behind the scenes look at the work that goes into re-tracking the ride? Personally, I don't think there's much advertising potential in this refurbishment if it is just a re-track. Perhaps if they brought back the old logo, installed a new lighting package, gave us a nice modern take on the story and added some smoke effects or something along those lines, then I could see them running a small advertising campaign, but I'm not convinced that most of the general public would care enough to warrant spending the money on advertising.

Interested to hear what the rest of you think.

 

[s_g_k]

I do wonder if they'll market this at all beyond perhaps a small behind the scenes look at the work that goes into re-tracking the ride? Personally, I don't think there's much advertising potential in this refurbishment if it is just a re-track. Perhaps if they brought back the old logo, installed a new lighting package, gave us a nice modern take on the story and added some smoke effects or something along those lines, then I could see them running a small advertising campaign, but I'm not convinced that most of the general public would care enough to warrant spending the money on advertising.

Interested to hear what the rest of you think.

I reckon they might add a temporary lighting package for the first year - nothing spectacular but a few well placed LED wash lights with some haze machines will really add to the atmosphere. That sort of thing can be done in a couple of days and I think it’s really early stages yet.

 

[Steve74]

That box track would make a great shelving unit if it was wall mounted vertically. My wife’s face would be a picture.

What, placed on it in a frame?

 

[John_P]

Suppose it'll depend on what they do, if they close and replace it over a closed season it would be difficult to market as new as to the vast majority of guests it would seem like nothing had changed.

However if its gonna be a season for the rebuild I'd hope the park have a proper closing event for the ride, then a year of building up the 'new' nemesis and a proper advertising campaign. I mean back in the 90s didn't slight alterations to Black Hole lead to them marketing it as Black Hole 2 for a few seasons.

 

[Steve74]

I reckon they might add a temporary lighting package for the first year - nothing spectacular but a few well placed LED wash lights with some haze machines will really add to the atmosphere. That sort of thing can be done in a couple of days and I think it’s really early stages yet.

There's no reason to think they won't improve what's already there. Get rid of the white floodlight - which is there for the CCTV of the lift hill I think? Wickerman's lift hill is in total darkness and it's cameras are infrared, and it can't be argued the white light is needed for safety/evac reasons as no other lift hill is lit in a similar way. Put more lights around the track and vary the red shade maybe? They could even go the whole hog and stick red LED light strips on the side of each row of the trains (like Virtual Towers Online's latest video)

It's clear Towers are improving lighting of their rides as there is more night-time riding each season, so I'd be very surprised if we see little to no improvement of Nemesis's lighting package - and Forbidden Valley as a whole perhaps?

 

[Skyscraper]

Count me in!! I'd rather own a piece of good old Nemmy rather than the Big One, any day.

If they do that and the prices aren't too silly, I'll definitely buy something given that Nemmy is my favourite roller coaster.

 

[AT86]

Considering they sold bits of Rita’s launch cable for £375 I wouldn’t get your hopes up for reasonable prices.

 

[Rick]

That box track would make a great shelving unit if it was wall mounted vertically. My wife’s face would be a picture.

After spending a not inconsiderable sum reinforcing your house ...

 

[Alsty]

I was thinking this. Not sure how accurate this site is but it puts three feet (0.9m) of B&M track at one ton.

 

[s_g_k]

I was thinking this. Not sure how accurate this site is but it puts three feet (0.9m) of B&M track at one ton.

Perhaps my indoor shelving unit plan is a little ambitious then. Might have to plonk it in the garden.

 

[MaxPower]

After spending a not inconsiderable sum reinforcing your house ...

No level of reinforcement could withstand my wife's rage at such a purchase...

 

[MattyH]

I was thinking this. Not sure how accurate this site is but it puts three feet (0.9m) of B&M track at one ton.

Is that with or without the sand?

 

[Stuie]

Perhaps my indoor shelving unit plan is a little ambitious then. Might have to plonk it in the garden.

It will be fine. Just need brown wall plugs instead of red ones

 

[Bert2theSpark]

I was thinking this. Not sure how accurate this site is but it puts three feet (0.9m) of B&M track at one ton.

If that's true then the cost of steel just to replace the track on Nemesis would be £3,695,760. I calculated it by using the price of steel currently and the length of Nemesis. So this is definitely going to near the price of buying a new rollercoaster outright when everything is said and done.