Cannonball Express | |
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Pleasurewood Hills | |
Location | Pleasurewood Hills |
Coordinates | 52°30′22″N1°44′42″E / 52.5062°N 1.7451°E Coordinates: 52°30′22″N1°44′42″E / 52.5062°N 1.7451°E |
Status | Operating |
Opening date | 1995 |
General statistics | |
Type | Steel |
Manufacturer | Anton Schwarzkopf |
Designer | Werner Stengel |
Model | Jumbo V |
Lift/launch system | Tire lift hill |
Height | 53 ft (16 m) |
Length | 1,738 ft (530 m) |
Speed | 34 mph (55 km/h) |
Inversions | 0 |
Duration | 2:00 |
Capacity | 300 riders per hour |
Cannonball Express at RCDB Pictures of Cannonball Express at RCDB |
Cannonball Express is a roller coaster located at Pleasurewood Hills, Corton, near Lowestoft, Suffolk. It is the only Schwarzkopf Jumbo V coaster to be manufactured.
The ride was built in 1983 for a German travelling fair and briefly operated at Meli Park in Belgium as Jumbo 5. [1] In 1985 it was relocated to Funland Park in Folkestone, Kent, where it was renamed Super Figure Eight. In 1995 it moved to Pleasurewood Hills as Cannonball Express, where it was mine train themed. In 2005 it was refurbished and renamed Enigma. In 2017 the name reverted to Cannonball Express.
As Cannonball Express, the ride originally had four trains coloured:
There is now only 1 train in operation, which seats only eight people. With separate on- and off-loading stations it means the ride has a very low capacity of around 160 people per hour.
The reason the other trains were retired was due to maintenance difficulties as the Schwarzkopf company, who manufactured the ride, stopped roller coaster production. The block brakes which allowed more than one train to run are now inoperative and the other trains have been cannibalised for parts.
A roller coaster, or rollercoaster, is a type of amusement ride that employs a form of elevated railroad track designed with tight turns, steep slopes, and sometimes inversions. Passengers ride along the track in open cars, and the rides are often found in amusement parks and theme parks around the world. LaMarcus Adna Thompson obtained one of the first known patents for a roller coaster design in 1885, related to the Switchback Railway that opened a year earlier at Coney Island. The track in a coaster design does not necessarily have to be a complete circuit, as shuttle roller coasters demonstrate. Most roller coasters have multiple cars in which passengers sit and are restrained. Two or more cars hooked together are called a train. Some roller coasters, notably Wild Mouse roller coasters, run with single cars.
Anton Schwarzkopf was a German engineer who founded Schwarzkopf Industries GmbH, a German manufacturer of roller coasters and other amusement rides that were sold to amusement parks and travelling funfairs around the world.
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The launched roller coaster is a modern form of roller coaster. A launched coaster initiates a ride with high amounts of acceleration via one or a series of linear induction motors (LIM), linear synchronous motors (LSM), catapults, tires, chains, or other mechanisms employing hydraulic or pneumatic power. This mode of acceleration powers many of the fastest rollercoasters in the world.
A suspended roller coaster is a type of steel roller coaster in which the car hangs from the bottom of the rolling stock by a pivoting fulcrum or hinge assembly. This allows the car and riders to swing side to side as the train races along the track. Due to the swing designs, these roller coasters cannot invert riders.
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Cannonball Express may refer to:
Jumbo Jet was a prefabricated steel roller coaster located within the Fun Fair section of Great Adventure in Jackson, New Jersey. Erected in 1975, the attraction was an example of the Jet Star 3 / Jumbo Jet model line designed by Werner Stengel and manufactured by Anton Schwarzkopf.