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''Corkscrew'' was a steel roller coaster manufactured by Dutch company Vekoma. The coaster was located in the Ug Land area of Alton Towers in Staffordshire, England. It was the park's oldest ride and is considered the greatest factor in promoting the new theme park to the British public. It was one of the first double-inverting coasters in Europe (the first in the UK),〔Roller coaster database http://www.rcdb.com/ir.htm?model=14〕 so it received much publicity and avid popularity in the 1980s. Waiting times for the ride frequently reached 6–9 hours during the first few months of operation at Alton Towers, and the park would often be forced to close early as it found itself swamped with visitors long before the evening ever came. ==History== In 1979, John Broome, director of Alton Towers wanted to make the Towers and Gardens into a new style of leisure attraction. On 4 April 1980 The Corkscrew opened to a crowd of 30,000. It became the main attraction of the park, and lead to attendance numbers doubling from 500,000 in 1979 to over 1,000,000 in 1980. It was a Vekoma MK1200 Corkscrew with Bayern curve. The track was yellow, the supports were black, the cars were red, white, blue and black and the station was blue and white. In 1984 more attractions were built in the new 'Festival Park' along with Enterprise and the Twirling Toadstool (Then; Wave Swinger). In 2005, Rita was built, (Then called ''Rita: Queen of Speed''), as well as there being several other changes to the park. This resulted in Corkscrew becoming dated and eventually a decreasingly popular attraction of the park. Customers also reported that due to its age, it had become increasingly uncomfortable to ride. In October 2008 after 28 years of service, Alton Towers confirmed that the ride was to be dismantled at the end of the 2008 season, to make room for the 2010 attraction TH13TEEN, then named Secret Weapon 6.〔BBC News - 'Iconic Ride to be Dismantled' http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/staffordshire/7648401.stm〕 On 9 November 2008 the park held a special event in honour of the attraction in which the Corkscrew completed the final circuit of its 730 m track. The official date for the last day in regular service was 2 November 2008 - the last day of the season. After being dismantled, the section of track which formed the two iconic corkscrew inversions was saved and is now proudly displayed at the entrance to the park near the ticket booths. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Corkscrew (Alton Towers)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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