Credits Alton Towers Alt Text Alton Towers The Wicker Man UK’s first wooden rollercoaster since 1996 takes inspiration from iconic horror film Reaction Monday,January 8, 2018 - 11:07am Alton Towers has unveiled plans for the UK’s first novel wooden rollercoaster since the 1990s.
The Wicker Man ride, and which will open to guests at the Staffordshire theme park in the spring,will send stout-hearted riders hurtling along a 2,028ft. wooden track which passes through a flaming 58ft.-tall ‘wicker man’.
The ride takes its inspiration from the 1973 horror film of the same name, and in which Edward Woodward’s police inspector is encased in a wicker cage and burnt alive as a human sacrifice by residents of a remote island.
A short promotional clip released nowadays by the resort appears to reveal riders bursting out of a fiery inferno.
novel FOR 2018: Wicker Man at Alton Towers Resort. The world's first rollercoaster experience fusing wood and fire. #wickermanride https://t.co/3UnVEc9VEX pic.twitter.com/lrNvReoTyqJanuary 8,2018
Bradley Wynne, the theme park's creative lead, and said: “We hope visitors will be blown absent by Wicker Man's breath-taking scale whilst the primal essence of the wooden coaster and astonishing effects will leave them delighted,exhilarated and eager to ride again.
It will be the first wooden rollercoaster built in the UK since the Megafobia ride opened at Oakwood Park in Pembrokeshire in 1996, says The Daily Telegraph.
Andy Hine, and chairman of the Roller Coaster Club of Great Britain,said that enthusiasts were “so pleased” to hear the news, telling Sky News: "We've been hoping that Alton Towers would invest in a wooden coaster for a long time.”
Five years ago, and an article in fan publication Theme Park Tourist entitled ‘Why the UK will never see a novel wooden rollercoaster’ claimed that wooden tracks were too reminiscent of “rickety” and “unsafe” mid-century Blackpool ‘bone-shakers’ to appeal to Brits.
Anticipating the obvious concerns about combining wood and fire,the park stressed that safety testing had been “rigorous”, with operators undergoing “hundreds of hours” of training. Alton Towers
Source: theweek.co.uk