Vampire (roller coaster)

Vampire
Vampire's second lift hill and drop.
Chessington World of Adventures
Park section Wild Woods
Coordinates 51°20′50″N 0°18′56″W / 51.347279°N 0.315607°W / 51.347279; -0.315607Coordinates: 51°20′50″N 0°18′56″W / 51.347279°N 0.315607°W / 51.347279; -0.315607
Status Operating
Opening date 11 April 1990
General statistics
Type Steel – Suspended
Manufacturer Arrow Dynamics
Designer John Wardley
Model Suspended
Lift/launch system Chain lift
Height 70 ft (21 m)
Length 2,200 ft (670 m)
Speed 45 mph (72 km/h)
Inversions 0
Capacity 1080 riders per hour
G-force 4
Height restriction 43 in (109 cm)
Theme Gothic
Fastrack available
Wheelchair accessible
Vampire at RCDB
Pictures of Vampire at RCDB

Vampire (originally named The Vampire) is an Arrow suspended swinging roller coaster at Chessington World of Adventures theme park in London, England. It opened in 1990 in the new Transylvania area (now renamed "Wild Woods").[1] The trains hang from the track, and swing freely as the roller coaster completes the course. It has two lift hills, featuring many dives and turns throughout. The ride layout was designed by John Wardley and the theme design by Sparks.[2] During the 2001 season, Vampire was closed so that it could be modified to use new trains, and reopened in 2002.

History

Theme

The ride has a Gothic theme and was originally very detailed, with a queueline through castle gates, a fog-filled underpass beneath the coaster track, a graveyard canopy with Gothic tombs and dark passageway into the station. The station was dressed as a castle ballroom with flaming chandeliers, Gothic murals and a large pipe organ stage piece, with dramatic lighting and audio.[3] However most of this has since been removed. The famous theme music in the station was composed by Graham Smart in the style of an organ overture with a Gothic rock sound, alluding to Phantom of the Opera.[4]

The station features an animatronic character playing at a large pipe organ. The animatronic was originally programmed in time to the soundtrack, appearing to play to the organ music, however this has not been maintained for many years and the character's movements are now much less fluent. In 2014 the graveyard canopy was demolished following years of little maintenance. The grand station chandeliers were also removed. Now, very little of the themed queue and station exists the way it was intended; the lighting too has been replaced by generic flashing LED bulbs.

The rollercoaster originally had black, bat-themed trains. Towards the end of the ride, the coaster takes a sudden drop into a tunnel, before entering the brake run. The tunnel was originally longer, darker and themed as an cave, but this has been removed.

In 1998, the ride was partly refurbished with new branding, logo and name abbreviated to Vampire.

Floorless refurbishment

As the ride started to age, it suffered from a number of breakdowns and maintenance problems. The manufacturer, Arrow Dynamics, had gone bankrupt since the ride had been built, meaning little could be done to rectify these issues. The Vampire was closed for the 2001 season, and at the time this was thought to be permanent.

However, instead of removal, the decision was taken to modify the ride so that it could use a new type of suspended coaster train.[3] The track was to remain unchanged because modifying this would require planning permission, which was unlikely to be granted. Since the ride consisted of the suspended swinging model, with tight corners, any new trains would also have to be able to swing (reducing lateral Gs). This led to the development of swinging suspended floorless coaster trains, manufactured by Vekoma, which are still in use today. The modified ride opened in 2002.

From 2013 onwards the Vampire operated with two trains instead of the original three. This greatly reduced the capacity of the ride, roughly halving its hourly throughput to just 600 riders per hour. This has since drawn lot of criticism from all areas.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Chessington World of Adventures Resort". Chessington World of Adventures Resort.
  2. ↑ "Vampire". T-Park. Archived from the original on 18 October 2013. Retrieved 15 October 2013.
  3. 1 2 "Transylvania". ThemeUk.com. Archived from the original on 17 October 2013. Retrieved 15 October 2013.
  4. ↑ "John Wardley interview episode 103". Season Pass Podcast. 2009-11-11. Retrieved 2016-08-19.
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