Corkscrew

Corkscrew was a roller coaster located at Alton Towers between April 4th 1980 and November 9th 2008. It opened as the first double inverting roller coaster in the UK (although that's a bit of a cheeky claim, considering Irn Bru Revolution in Blackpool had technically been inverting riders twice per ride since 1979).

History

Corkscrew was purchased by Alton Towers from Ikea, as a flat packed rollercoaster (it was designed by two stoned Dutch engineering students - later to be known as Vekoma). The instructions stated that assembly should have taken approximately 45 minutes but ended up taking about 6 months, as Towers staff struggled to understand the Dutch instructions. It eventually opened as the first rollercoaster in the UK to turn riders upside down going through a corkscrew rather than a loop and without any launches (or something).

Despite the fact that Blackpool already had a looping ride, everyone conveniently forgot about it and all descended on Alton Towers instead.

Ride Experience

Corkscrew dominated Festival Park/Ug Land for most of its life, until, in an act of extremely poor park planning, someone plonked Rita in front of it which made finding the ride a challenge. A further obstacle was the bucket-trains themselves, which held the record for world's least accessible coaster cars until the opening of Colossus at Thorpe Park in 2002.

Anyone who succeeded in getting onto the ride was in a for a real treat in the form of the spectacular views from the top of the lift hill. A relatively slow turnaround followed, leading to the first drop. This is arguably the best part of the ride and provides great airtime at the back of the train. Unfortunately the train now has to go round a corner, which for some reason it seems rather inept at doing, in the process your head will probably become very well acquainted with the restraints.

After the corkscrews, a turnaround and the second drop are both smaller versions of the first part of the ride. Older versions of this ride made by Arrow ended here, Corkscrew’s second half makes that look a good idea, as the rest of the ride has no interesting features whatsoever. The helix that follows meanders up and down slightly - probably as a normal helix would be too boring. As a 'big finish' the ride trundles slowly around its perimeter as if marking out its territory before hopefully arriving back in the station, though occasionally it needed 'encouragement' from the staff to get it off the break run.

Closure

In 2008 it was announced that the ride was to close to make way for something half decent (Th13teen). The reaction to this news was a collective meh, as the ride was completely past it by this point, and there was another one at Flamingoland anyway. Still, it offered enthusiasts an excuse to make yet another trip to Alton Towers to get one last ride on a coaster that the previous year most of them would hardly ever even consider going on.

Legacy

To mark the outstanding contribution Corkscrew had made to neck injuries over three decades, Corkscrew's corkscrews were retained by the park and erected at the entrance plaza, confusing a large proportion of guests arriving on the monorail into thinking it's a new ride.