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Corkscrew

Blackhole_Sun said:
The last day of operation’s ride offering.

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I wish Towers still made signs like these, these old school yet really classy one's. Such a shame I never got to experience Corkscrew, it seemed like a simple but fun roller coaster, putting aside from how rough it was during its last year's from what I hear. The colour scheme is still really iconic, it'd be nice if they repainted the Corkscrews at the parks entrance back to that vibrant yellow.
 
jmc said:
It is almost comical that there is more variation in the F&B offering for a limited capacity special event than there is on an everyday basis today…


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Not to mention that nowadays, a good chunk of the rides would be shut half the day, and the closing ride would probably be part of that!
 
James said:
Corkscrew was the first 'upside down' coaster I ever went on. I miss walking toward UG Land hearing that lift hill sound get louder and louder, wrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
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Same here, my dad took me on Corkscrew in 1994 to check I would be ok before queueing for Nemesis. Front row for 1st ride as well!

I miss the nostalgia and the noise but it was a relatively boring roller coaster when you look at it objectively.
 
I attended the Corkscrew's final day of operation. It was a cool event for sure, especially management taking twenty at a time into the ride area while it was operating (!!!), but despite this, my abiding memory was the park taking a one-minute pause to honour Armistice Day. I was on the 'cow' monorail in the car park station at the time. They didn't turn the mooing noises off.
 
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Plastic Person said:
I attended the Corkscrew's final day of operation. It was a cool event for sure, especially management taking twenty at a time into the ride area while it was operating (!!!), but despite this, my abiding memory was the park taking a one-minute pause to honour Armistice Day. I was on the 'cow' monorail in the car park station at the time. They didn't turn the mooing noises off.
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We were around Corkscrew at the time of the silence. I seem to remember most music/rides etc. going silent, however they music from the Ug Land horse racing HB Leisure game was very much still playing. Highly amusing!
 
James said:
Corkscrew was the first 'upside down' coaster I ever went on. I miss walking toward UG Land hearing that lift hill sound get louder and louder, wrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
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Same here, must have been around 1989. I remember my dad kept his hat on and i was amazed it didn't fall off when we went upside down.

The lack of theming didn't seem to matter at the time as the ride was so awe inspiring compared to anything else i'd seen. And really the park had hardly any theming at that point, it was just various rides dotted about a giant estate with gardens.

Think it was only when the Haunted House/Runaway Train/Rapids were built/modified they started theming.... presumably a John Wardley move.

Even to this day the simple things he did feel so special compared to any other UK park.
 
Smiler is nothing on ol’Corky for roughness and head banging - the former is a little rough in parts but the latter was dreadful.

I’m going to be honest - I have absolutely no nostalgia for Corkscrew. For a long time after I first went on it, I (wrongly) associated any sort of big, inverting coaster with the same kind of horrible head banging and pain I got from Corky. It’s solely responsible for me not braving Nemesis (and realising that, hey, these rollercoaster things are actually pretty good) for the first time until I was in my mid-teens.

That being said however, I do recognise its importance to the park’s history and seeing those corkscrews over the entrance does make me smile to this day, even after however many hundreds of visits. And I think if it was still around I probably would ride it again now my roughness tolerance has improved; the years of subjecting myself to dreadful SLC clones and other such garbage “for the cred” make Corky seem tame by comparison 😂
 
Was just looking through my archives and found this!

I remember first entering UG Land in 2007, being too short to ride Rita but just big enough to experience Corkscrew. I also remember on the final day of operation in '08 the team created a spectating point in the ride area. We stood right below the two iconic corkscrews, behind some standard moveable construction fencing, whilst the ride was operating! - now there's something that would never happen today haha.

Standing at the entrance plaza now I can still picture that memory of the spectating zone on the last day - with the trains roaring overhead. Great memories! tempImage3xbOku.jpg
 
AdamWebb said:
Was just looking through my archives and found this!

I remember first entering UG Land in 2007, being too short to ride Rita but just big enough to experience Corkscrew. I also remember on the final day of operation in '08 the team created a spectating point in the ride area. We stood right below the two iconic corkscrews, behind some standard moveable construction fencing, whilst the ride was operating! - now there's something that would never happen today haha.

Standing at the entrance plaza now I can still picture that memory of the spectating zone on the last day - with the trains roaring overhead. Great memories! tempImage3xbOku.jpg
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Get it framed!
 
James said:
Corkscrew was the first 'upside down' coaster I ever went on. I miss walking toward UG Land hearing that lift hill sound get louder and louder, wrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
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I think for a lot of people (myself included) it was the first coaster i went on that had an inversion. I was that coaster that seemed tame enough for people to experience their first "upsidedowny" part.

Saying that though, i got some pretty bad headaches several times after riding it. :tearsofjoy:
 
AdamWebb said:
Was just looking through my archives and found this!

I remember first entering UG Land in 2007, being too short to ride Rita but just big enough to experience Corkscrew. I also remember on the final day of operation in '08 the team created a spectating point in the ride area. We stood right below the two iconic corkscrews, behind some standard moveable construction fencing, whilst the ride was operating! - now there's something that would never happen today haha.

Standing at the entrance plaza now I can still picture that memory of the spectating zone on the last day - with the trains roaring overhead. Great memories! tempImage3xbOku.jpg
Click to expand...

I have my one of these still too. I also have one of the limited edition posters framed and on my wall. Been there for years!
 
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