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Schwarzkopf’s
versatility and flair for showmanship also surfaced in subtler ways.
Each new design had a new trick besides the more obvious ploys of the
ever-increasing numbers of loops or bigger drops. Thriller, for example,
features a third loop similar to what we would now think of as a B&M
Immelman, while Olympia Looping, when running at full capacity, is
designed to “duel” with itself, sending trains screaming past each
other in opposite directions just a few feet apart.
Recently,
Alton Towers press office has been trying to put a positive gloss on The
Black Hole’s removal by coming up with the spurious claim that it will
be “replaced” by Rita, one of the multitude of Intamin rocket
coasters to have flooded the theme park industry of late. As the Swiss
firm strives to find ways to propel trains ever higher into the air,
it’s easy to forget that the launched coaster was a concept that
Schwarzkopf tackled 25 years ago. As punters flock to the park to
coronate the new Queen of Speed, no doubt many will remember the
wonderful Schwarzkopf shuttle loop, Thunder Looper, that once stood on
the other side of the valley, and which itself provided a surprisingly
powerful launch for such an old ride. Ironic that the great novelty of
the park’s 2005 ride should be so similar to one they introduced
fourteen years earlier.
Having
escaped Rita’s embrace, you may choose to pop over to the other side
of Staffordshire, and take in Barnstorm at Drayton Manor, the second
ever Mäurer X-Car coaster, and a ride built on the former site of a
Schwarzkopf City Jet. The X-Car concept was covered in last
month’s A-Z feature, but for our more forgetful readers, allow me
to remind you that Mäurer has gone to great lengths to publicise the
fact that the X-Car allows riders to negotiate inversions and even hang
upside down with just the aid of a lap bar. They even went to the
extravagance of allowing potential clients to sit in one and be hung
upside down from a crane to prove their point. All a very jolly wheeze,
but excuse me for mentioning that in fact, many of Schwarzkopf’s
looping coasters operated quite merrily with only a very simplistic lap
bar. Again, the ghost of Thunder Looper raises its head, having used
only a lap bar throughout its long life. The Great American Revolution
did likewise for many years, as did Magnum Force in its travelling days.
For any doubting Thomases, the safety of the design was proven beyond
all doubt when Turbine at Walibi Belgium suffered a freak incident that
left the train stuck upside down. The lap bars worked perfectly and
prevented any rider from coming to any harm, other than the “usual”
effects of spending too long upside down.
It is easy
to think of Schwarzkopf coasters simply as maximum-attack
scream-machines, but this would not be accurate. The list of family
orientated rides is immense, with the Wildcat (his first ever coaster
design) still popular more than 40 years after its debut, and providing
a far better ride than the clones built by other companies since then.
Indeed, Lightwater Valley’s enclosed Wildcat, “Sewer Rat” is one
of the best small dark coasters you could hope to ride, precisely
because the ride is so smooth that it doesn’t matter that you can’t
see what is coming and prepare accordingly.
A look at
some of Schwarzkopf’s designs that never got built is even more
staggering. The “Flug Bahn” concept paved the way for suspended and
inverted coasters, while it’s a real shame that we will never get to
ride Alton Towers’ exquisite looking Lisebergbahn-style ride, intended
for the valley area beyond the Corkscrew, and again designed to allow
trains to repeatedly duel with each other. Most amazingly though, the
“figure 8 Loop” coaster, intended for the German fairs, contains
possibly the most ambitious element of all time, with a vertical loop
sitting atop a pair of typically twisted climb and drop to form a
gigantic figure of 8. To put this into perspective, in 2005, coaster
enthusiasts are getting excited because B&M have built a ride with a
heart line twist, the first new inversion element from the Swiss duo in
several years. Indeed, with B&M seemingly happy to churn out endless
numbers of coasters with the same strings of inversions, I defy even
their greatest fan to suggest that they can match Schwarzkopf for
showmanship, innovation, and versatility.
Before we
label Schwarzkopf as “merely” a great coaster designer, we’ve
still to cover the fact that he didn’t only design coasters. From huge
travelling Ferris Wheels to Waltzers, Enterprises to Monorails, Log
Flumes to dark rides, and Polyps to Pirate Ships, it is not unimaginable
that you could look through the Schwarzkopf catalogue and create a
world-class amusement park solely from the rides listed there. Moreover,
it would be exceedingly difficult to look through that catalogue and
find a bad ride. Examples of all these rides are still going strong at
parks and fairs, with no sign of a “use-by” date on the horizon.
Author:
JP
Tuesday, March 01, 2005 | Post
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