Avalanche (Blackpool)
Encyclopedia
Avalanche is a steel
Steel roller coaster
A steel roller coaster is a roller coaster that is defined by having a track made of steel. Steel coasters have earned immense popularity in the past 50 years throughout the world...

 bobsled
Bobsled roller coaster
A Bobsled roller coaster is the generic name given to any roller coaster that uses a track design that is essentially a "pipe" with the top half removed and has cars that are sent down this pipe in a freewheeling mode...

 roller coaster
Roller coaster
The roller coaster is a popular amusement ride developed for amusement parks and modern theme parks. LaMarcus Adna Thompson patented the first coasters on January 20, 1885...

 at Pleasure Beach Blackpool
Pleasure Beach Blackpool
Pleasure Beach Blackpool is a family owned amusement park and resort situated along the Fylde coast in Blackpool, England. It is the most visited amusement park in the United Kingdom, and one of the top twenty most-visited amusement parks in the world with an estimate of 5.5 million visitors in...

 in Blackpool
Blackpool
Blackpool is a borough, seaside town, and unitary authority area of Lancashire, in North West England. It is situated along England's west coast by the Irish Sea, between the Ribble and Wyre estuaries, northwest of Preston, north of Liverpool, and northwest of Manchester...

, England. It was built by Mack
MACK Rides
Mack Rides is a German company that designs and constructs roller coasters. The family that owns the company also owns Europa Park.-History:The creation of the Mack company goes back to 1780, by Paul Mack, when he started building carriages. The Mack company started to design roller coasters in 1920....

 of Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 in 1988.

The ride uses three trains, each consisting of 7 cars. Each car can hold two riders, one behind the other.

History

Avalanche opened in 1988 and was the first ever Bobsled type roller coaster to be constructed in the UK, it was also the third Bobsled coaster built by MACK Rides
MACK Rides
Mack Rides is a German company that designs and constructs roller coasters. The family that owns the company also owns Europa Park.-History:The creation of the Mack company goes back to 1780, by Paul Mack, when he started building carriages. The Mack company started to design roller coasters in 1920....

, who were in competition with Intamin AG
Intamin AG
Intamin Worldwide is a designing and manufacturing company in Wollerau, Switzerland. It is best known for creating thrill rides and roller coasters worldwide. The U.S. division of the company is located in Glen Burnie, Maryland, and is headed by Sandor Kernacs. The Intamin brand name is an...

, the only other company who designed Steel Bobsled Coasters. The ride was to be themed around an Alpine bobsled course, and the station was built to reflect this. The ride was officially opened by Eddie "The Eagle" Edwardshttp://www.blackpoolgazette.co.uk/blackpoolnews/Olympic-fever-hits-the-Fylde.6109469.jp?CommentPage=1&CommentPagelength_ft=10, a famous British ski-jumper, and the British Bobsleigh Team.

The ride

Avalanche starts by passing through the storage room of the trains, then out of the building and onto the lift hill, so far the ride follows a normal ride track, at the top of the lift hill, the ride is released onto the main downhill track, which the ride is not physically held onto, it travels through various bobsled track style curves, picking up speed, before reaching the lowest curve and curving back up again, it then flattens out and travels into the first brake run, it then releases and the train travels around a bend and onto the second brake run, before being released again to travel into the station. The two brake runs are designed for when the roller coaster operates in full capacity, with all three trains running, so that the two trains returning to the station can wait on the brakes while the train in the station loads and unloads.

Theming

Avalanche is themed around an Alpine
Alps
The Alps is one of the great mountain range systems of Europe, stretching from Austria and Slovenia in the east through Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany to France in the west....

 bobsled track, the station building was built to look like an Alpine village lodge. The loading platform room is decorated with emblems of different Swiss regions and various pictures of famous Bobsled teams, there is predominant picture of the British Bobsleigh team of the Calgary Winter Olympics, 1988
1988 Winter Olympics
The 1988 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XV Olympic Winter Games, were a winter multi-sport event celebrated in and around Calgary, Alberta, Canada from 13 to 28 February 1988. The host was selected in 1981 after having beat Falun, Sweden and Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy...

which sits alongside a plaque commemorating the ride's opening by Eddie "The Eagle" Edwards. Traditional Swiss music plays in the station and outside the station building.
The trains themselves are painted in the same colours as the 1988 British Bobsled team, and a real bobsleigh car of their team.
The various curves of the track are given names of real turns on professional Bobsleigh tracks, such as "The Wall" and "The Snake", although the turns on the ride itself are not actually based on real bobsled turns.

Park logo

Avalanche is one of the few attractions in Blackpool Pleasure Beach where the old "Mr. Funshine" logo of the park can be seen. This was phased out of most parts of the park in favour of the current logo. While the main parts of the ride, such as signage outside and the park logo on the front of the ride, were changed to the new logo, "Mr. Funshine" can still be seen on the bins in the ride station, and on several maintenance signs in the ride train storage room, which the rollercoaster passes through.
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