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Alton Towers | Nemesis Reborn | B&M Retrack | 2024

This is the first time i’ve ever heard of a coaster supposedly only being rough on one train?

Can’t seem to recall that happening before?

On the bright side at least it’s a train issue rather than a track issue, so they should be able to rectify it.
For the record, nobody is claiming it is rough on one train... Just a suggestion that this might be why some were saying it was glass smooth on Sat, and others saying it had a vibration. Nobody, to my knowledge, has been able to say with certainty that they've ridden both trains. The actions being taken currently are interesting though, as I only noticed it towards the back, and they're no longer using the back.

That being said, it's happened lots in the past, although not on a brand new coaster to my knowledge. Mineblower was a recent example. I wouldn't even say it was uncommon to be honest. Usually if a coaster is rough only on certain trains it's something to do with wheels / wheel assembly.
 
This is the first time i’ve ever heard of a coaster supposedly only being rough on one train?

Can’t seem to recall that happening before?
Hyperion is another well known example of this I think?

But as Nicky says, Nemesis is by no means rough. The rattle is just annoying.
 
Nemesis has had a lot of downtime today.

My brother waited 2 hours in the station while they changed trains, engineers sat in certain rows, then they stuck with train 1 but only rows 1-4.

When I rode it on Saturday the vibration was notable on row 2 and 4, but I didn't note the train number 🙈
 
For the record, nobody is claiming it is rough on one train... Just a suggestion that this might be why some were saying it was glass smooth on Sat, and others saying it had a vibration. Nobody, to my knowledge, has been able to say with certainty that they've ridden both trains. The actions being taken currently are interesting though, as I only noticed it towards the back, and they're no longer using the back.

That being said, it's happened lots in the past, although not on a brand new coaster to my knowledge. Mineblower was a recent example. I wouldn't even say it was uncommon to be honest. Usually if a coaster is rough only on certain trains it's something to do with wheels / wheel assembly.

Definitely seems a bit of a coincidence if it seemed to be effecting the back of the trains which they aren’t loading at all today.

All is not well with it clearly. Hopefully just teething problems they sort out asap.
 
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I’m currently attempting it on one train of four rows operating. Here’s the end of the queue, been here 20 mins so far and barely shuffled forwards.

Edit - Took 75 mins in the end. After park close (at 4PM!) the queue went a lot faster when there was no fast track merge. The ride itself was fantastic, really enjoyed myself.
 
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Eugh. Teething issues are probably to be expected, but whatever the problem is, I hope they can sort it quickly. Still got two visits planned this week.

And I'll add to the 'one train has a rattle' voices.
 
Today wasn't ideal! Queued at the top of Forbidden Valley from around 9:40. Nemesis gates opened at 10:00. Didn't get off the ride until 11:40.

Ride was running on 1 train for the first 40 minutes, full capacity, but turnaround times were pushing 3-4minutes.

We then got to the front of the gates (Train 2) and the announcement of a ride issue came on the tannoy. After around 5 minutes of watching ride ops play around a bit with the restraints, we saw train number 1 enter the tracks. Jubilation was felt at this point as we thought they were increasing it to a 2 train capacity. We were wrong - train 2 did it's loop of the track and was put back into the shed, with train 1 sitting in the station.

Engineers had some infrared looking thermometers, pointing them at the wheels during cycles.
Engineers then sat on the front and back rows, came back, gave some feedback, swapped seats and went around again. About 5 or so minutes later they decided to close the entire back 4 rows of seats and run it like this for the rest of the day. Safe to say, at 25% capacity, the queues moved extremely slowly (especially with fastpass etc).

During empty running of the trains, a few engineers also walked after the ride and watched it go up the lift hill.
Another engineer ended up walking up the lift hill with a tablet for around 5-6 minutes
A more senior person (looked like it) was also stood around the brake run watching a train enter it at one point.




We re-rode around 2:40. The queue was shut due to "capacity limits", but we hung around and after 10 minutes they reopened the queue line.
If i remember correctly, train 2 was back in operation at this point but was still operating with the 4 rear rows closed off.

A bit disappointing really but I guess they did all they could and I got 2 rides (could have been much worse!).

Hope they figure out the cause of the issue for the weekend.
 
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Long queues and inconvenience to the guests aside, no idea why but the goon in me finds things like this incredibly interesting.

I’d love to know what’s going on with it.

My best guess is it’s over speeding into the new magnetic brakes so need less weight on the trains and probably nothing to do with the reported 1 train rattle. Although who knows.

We may never know however I hope they sort it and we don’t see any prolonged downtime.
 
Long queues and inconvenience to the guests aside, no idea why but the goon in me finds things like this incredibly interesting.

I’d love to know what’s going on with it.

My best guess is it’s over speeding into the new magnetic brakes so need less weight on the trains and probably nothing to do with the reported 1 train rattle. Although who knows.

We may never know however I hope they sort it and we don’t see any prolonged downtime.
I know right... It's going to drive us crazy!

The overspeeding into the brakes rumour has to have come from somewhere, it's way too random to just be made up, there's no smoke without fire and all that. It would explain the half weighted trains / load limiting.

One thing that makes me question it though is that I think it would make more sense to balance the trains in this case. If for no other reason than operational advantages, since the station is set up to feed RAP guests to the back. But also, whenever I've seen general load limiting on coaster trains before, they've split the load between front and rear. I dunno if that's just coincidence, or what, I'm not technical enough. Perhaps somebody else with more technical knowledge can confirm or counter my preconception that it's usually best to split the load if you just want to reduce overall weight?
 
It'll be fun to find out, as watching it all unfold yesterday confused me to the actual problem. It could be several!

The more 'senior' engineer who was dressed a bit more casual was stood next to the brake run watching 2/3 trains come in. These trains were stopped relatively early on the brake run.

The bit what threw me off was other engineers watching the trains go up the lift hill, and also engineers taking rides on different seating positions (front 2 end seats, rear 2 end seats). Which would suggest it's more ride quality?(Surely weight/brake run wouldn't need to be identified via engineer rides).
 
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My reporter on park today says "Park is super busy, it's like a school holiday! Nemesis is up and down like a yoyo... No idea if it's half trains or not yet. Will check back in later."
 
My homebrew Queue Times app is reporting 60 for Galactica, and 55 for Nemesis. Rita 54, WM and Smiler both 40. Pretty big for a Thursday.
 
Queue time is 35 minutes right now despite 5 of the big coasters being closed 🤦‍♂️ Anyone know if it's back to full capacity?
 
For anyone interested, I managed to see Nemesis Reborn for the first time last weekend (23rd & 24th March). I promised a longer written review of the project in my trip report from the weekend, so here it is!

Let me start with the theming and overall Forbidden Valley area. The change in vibe from Nemesis to Nemesis Reborn has certainly been divisive throughout the construction process, but I have to say that overall, I'm a big fan of the final product. The area looks absolutely fantastic, and in my view, the new changes have added a real energy to Forbidden Valley that it arguably lacked before. I heard a review describing the new-look Forbidden Valley as "dynamic", and I have to say that that is an excellent descriptor, in my view! Pretty much every new theming element in the area has some degree of audio, movement, or both, and it does give off a sense that things are happening around you and really elevates the atmosphere beyond that of the previous area. In terms of some particular positives for me, these include:
  • I have to say that the eye is an absolutely stunning piece of theming; it's just huge, and while I did not personally see the teeth move, I think it still really delivers on visual impact alone! The screen is very convincing, and overall, I do think that it serves as a very cool focal point of the new area!
  • I was originally unsure on the loss of the original queue layout, which involved you going under the ride, but I have to say that the new queue was a pleasant surprise! It's littered with bits of theming, and they've woven some very nice bits of storytelling into it, in my opinion. As I said about the wider area above, most of these new theming pieces have some degree of audio or movement. I particularly like the helicopter near the stall turn, which has some nice audio, smoke and movement, and the Phalanx lab, which has some nice bits of storytelling audio associated with it. Overall, I do think that the back portions of the queue are overall far more interesting than they were before, and while the lack of queueing under the ride is a loss compared to the previous iteration, I think the new theming and storytelling makes up for it!
  • On that subject, I do really like the new views of the ride the queue provides. It is very cool to be able to look over the whole ride area, and you do still get a couple of the close encounters that the old queue was good for. The stall turn comes pretty close at one point, and you are also close to the first drop!
  • The new station is awesome, and a huge improvement on what came before! I always said that I liked the idea of turning the station into the inside of the monster, and I have to say that I think they've executed this brilliantly! The new dispatch sequence is brilliant, the new audio in there is brilliant, the lighting is brilliant, the theming is brilliant... it's just brilliant all round, really!
  • I have to say that I think the Nemesis monster itself looks better than it did before. I think the darker grey/black paint job really suits it, the new tentacles look brilliant, the tail at the back looks better, and overall, I think they've done a really good job of refurbishing it! It's faithful to what was already there while also being enhanced and looking wonderfully shiny and new!
  • Perhaps controversially, I think that the new soundtrack is awesome, and much improved on what was there before! I'm not too much of a music nerd, so I can't go into too many specific nerdy details, but I personally think that the new soundtrack sounds a lot more exciting, dramatic, and just overall more catchy and pleasing to my ear! It sounds like the soundtrack to a really awesome Hollywood monster movie, and I personally much prefer it to the old one, as good as the old one was.
  • I really like some of the new triggered effects. For instance, I think that even something as simple as the smoke spraying the train going through the zero-g roll is really cool and really adds something to the overall theming!
  • I've heard people say that the overall area gives off quite a "Swarm" vibe, and I do agree with this somewhat. However, I've always loved Swarm Island at Thorpe Park as an area, so that's certainly no bad thing, in my view!
There are probably more, but those are just some of the ones I could think of! However, I don't think the new theming is perfect. Some minor areas for improvement from me are:
  • As much as I do really like the new black aesthetic of the area and fences (it's definitely grown on me a lot since the initial reveal!), I think that if I'm being really pedantic, they could have gone for some slightly more interesting ride area fencing. For instance, maybe even just having some red lights on top and slightly more beefed up fencing, to give off the impression of it being in an enclosure similar to something like the raptor paddock on VelociCoaster, would have been really cool!
  • Again, I'm being really pedantic here, but I do think that the helicopter near the stall turn is perhaps slightly too small. The one at the entrance to the area looks absolutely brilliant and is really impactful, but I think this one is perhaps a bit too small to have that sort of impact.
  • If we're thinking wishfully, I would have loved to have seen the budget stretch to a retheme of Galactica to make it fit with the rest of the area, as that ride does stick out like a sore thumb when the rest of the area is so wonderfully themed and cohesive. However, I fully appreciate that that's wishful thinking, and I'm happy that they put more into the rest of the area as opposed to spreading themselves too thinly and trying to include Galactica if the budget didn't allow for it.
Let's now discuss the ride itself. Now, you might think that there isn't loads to discuss because, well, it's the same Nemesis it's always been. And to an extent, that is true. However, I still feel like I want to talk about it a little, as the retrack has given me some thoughts.

Overall, it's great to have Nemesis back in the lineup. It's an excellent, excellent coaster, and getting back on it over the weekend definitely reinforced how much it adds to Alton Towers' lineup. I have long held the view that I don't rate Nemesis as highly as many enthusiasts, and while I stand by that view to an extent and would say that the retrack hasn't drastically changed my opinion of it, I think that I have a newfound appreciation for it in some ways and that I would perhaps rank it a few spots higher than I did before visiting Alton last weekend. I had 2 rides; a row 7 inner seat and a row 4 outer seat. To me, the ride felt a little bit faster in spots (particularly the two turnarounds), definitely smoother (it certainly didn't have any of the headbanging that the original was prone to in its latter years!), and definitely just as thrilling and exciting as it ever was! This isn't anything new, but I have to say that riding Nemesis again gave me a new appreciation for some of the more unique aspects of its layout design. That opening salvo, where the speed just builds and builds out of nowhere, is particularly awesome and so exciting, and I have to say that I think that the way the ride keeps its pace right to the end, closing with that snappy final corkscrew, is just brilliant! And overall, I think there's something intangibly... pleasing about the way it rides. Is Nemesis my favourite coaster at Alton Towers? Definitely not. I definitely enjoy Wicker Man discernibly more than the rest of the coasters in the park, and I think that Oblivion may also usurp Nemesis for me too. However, Nemesis is a very solid 3rd place coaster within Alton Towers for me, and while not a top 10 coaster, I'd definitely say it's a top 20, possibly a top 15 if I'm feeling generous (I haven't quite decided on its exact placement post-retrack yet; it was at #18 out of 111 before, but I could definitely see a touch of upwards movement if I took another look...).

One thing I've often heard discussed is a notable rattle on the retracked version. I don't know if I just rode on the "good" train both times I did it, but if people hadn't mentioned it, I honestly wouldn't have thought anything of this rattle despite having a relatively low roughness tolerance. The ride felt perfectly smooth to me; I hardly felt a thing on the row 7 inner seat ride, and while the rattle was slightly more noticeable on the row 4 outer seat ride, it was certainly nothing that even vaguely impacted enjoyment for me. I'd liken it more to the relatively benign "Mack rattle" on Icon than the rather distracting bounce on something like Mandrill Mayhem.

So overall, then, my view of Nemesis Reborn is profoundly positive. I think the project deserves all of the plaudits it is getting, and while I can quibble all I like about not rating it quite as highly as many, it's simply great to have Nemesis back at Alton Towers. She really is back with a vengeance!

Here are some photos I took of the ride and area:
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