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When will an RMC be in the UK?

I'd be surprised if we ever see one.

I don't see Merlin ever opting to go for one. And outside them, the only park that would realistically be able to get one at the moment is Blackpool, but who knows how long it'll be before their next investment.. And would they want to go for RMC over something else which could further bring diversity to their line up?
 
An RMC (topper or T-Rex) would be perfect for Thorpe, but I just can't see Merlin ever having the balls for it.

Drayton would be perfect for an RMC (in this case Raptor or T-Rex), but again I feel like that might be a way off.

Frankly, I want to give RMC a couple of years to see how good the single rails actually are, because I'm not really sold on it yet.
 
I dunno why but I could see Drayton Manor getting one, either a Raptor RailBlazer/Wonder Woman Clone or one of the budget RMC Woodies. Drayton is due to get a new large investment between Buffalo and the hotel within the next 5 years.
 
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I think it depends on how Alton 2018 goes... If that does alright despite being omg dangerous wood omg so dangerous and so old AND paradoxically so boring! ...Then maybe we will start seeing more of them.

My money is on Thorpe if anywhere, simply because they that fits. Aesthetically it would work so well, especially in the Logger's corner. I can think of so many appropriate themes.
 
I'd expect one to end up at Drayton or Flamingo Land before the Merlin parks looked at them to be honest.
 
I could actually see SW9 being the world's first T-Rex or at least the UK's first. It's gimmicky in a sense, it looks really unusual in terms of what the GP envision when they think of a roller coaster, and it doesn't need to be tall.

If not T-Rex, maybe world's first single railed launcher?
 
For a while there, everyone thought SW8 would be it. Even Chief Ian said that he "Felt it in his water and that the stars were aligned for an Alton RMC".
Yeah, that never happened.
Sooo, dunno really. Those single rail Raptor things, are they expensive? Could somewhere like Drayton Manor or Paulton's even afford one?
I reckon Thorpe Park is probably the best bet for a big'un. If SW8 turns out to be even half successful, I'd put good money on Thorpe's next coaster being either wood or hybrid. Cos, y'know, it's Merlin. That's what they do.
 
RMC's would please the GP. It's just a lot of the smaller parks can't realistically afford them and the biggest chain of parks in the UK are intimidated by the idea of having to market something that isn't based around being a record/world first.
 
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I mean when you consider the rail on a raptor is 15" wide, you are going to see a dramatic decrease in cost. The size of one iron horse rail is about that size, so you do the math.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk
 
^For comparison, I have a friend who owns a piece of Outlaw Run's barrel roll from when they retracked it. He measured it for me and it's 6' wide by 3' thick, so yeah it isn't even a foot wider. Also fewer standard parts for the robot to make and less welding, plus the general smaller scale of the project. I get the vibe it's supposed to be about the scale of a project as a boomerang or Hyper GTX.

Not been to any U.K. parks so I'm not at all qualified to speak on it but I feel the Raptor model would be most appropriate for Paultons or anything similar over there. Don't know much about Pleasurewood Hills but it seems about the scale for which the product is aimed.

Railblazer and Wonder Woman might sirprise us but I feel the Merlin parks wouldn't go with something that's that low capacity. T-Rex at Thorpe or Alton I feel is most likely as a first in the U.K.
 
If they were to do any RMC hybrid or steel topped track it would be something like wicked cyclone, the UK coaster demographic consists of mostly compact layouts.
 
ashcoaster3 said:
Just wishful thinking, sad really most UK parks only really want to please the gp.
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That is over-simplifying it. If they only really wanted to please the GP, they would have built huge coasters that marketed themselves through sheer stats alone. The problem isn't about pleasing the guests, it's all the people who have to be pleased.

The UK is a densely built country, so no matter where your park is, you will have neighbours. Most likely, they will have been living there for much longer than the park has been around, so they will have most of the laws on their side. Concerns like noise and park-related traffic can put a serious clamp on any ambitions. And large swathes of the UK are dotted with tiny, evenly spaced villages, so you can't avoid neighbours either. Of course there are places without neighbours too, but a park built there would be too far away from customers to be worth it.

Hand in hand with the above, there's the local authorities. In most places, there are regulations that have to be followed. Again there are limits to noise, but also building heights, electricity usage (I think it was gavin who recounted his experience of having his living room flights flicker whenever Thunderlooper at Alton Towers launched, for instance), water usage, waste generation, and again the traffic.

Then there are shareholders or other people with a stake in the park's finances. Simply put, the park needs to run a profit. You can't spend too much money, and you will want (or be pressed into) going for the investments that give the most return on the money spent, and/or the lowest risk of losing money.

And then there are target demographics, etc. White-knuckle thrill rides serve a pretty narrow part of a park's visitor demographics, and they are very expensive compared to most options. You can get a lot of playground pieces for the price of a thrilling flat ride, and for the price (and land cost!) of a coaster you could build and operate a large family restaurant, or a whole slew of kiddie flat rides, or a music stage, or any other thing that stays well below the height and noise regulations and draws a wider demographic to the park.

So yeah. RMCs are expensive, tall, noisy, and don't cater to a wide enough part of the audience to be worth the aforementioned cost. They also consume large amounts of space in your park, and land is often at a premium. As Islands of Adventure recently realized, a coaster can hog a lot of room you'd rather use for something else, and once built you can't just move them. That land is occupied and unavailable until the day the coaster goes down. So RMCs (and large coasters in general) are best suited for "destination parks" in places with less stringent building regulations, neighbours that don't mind the noise, and a large enough budget/area to comfortably take the costs of a coaster.

Also, what's with the thread tags?
 
Pokemaniac said:
That is over-simplifying it. If they only really wanted to please the GP, they would have built huge coasters that marketed themselves through sheer stats alone. The problem isn't about pleasing the guests, it's all the people who have to be pleased.

The UK is a densely built country, so no matter where your park is, you will have neighbours. Most likely, they will have been living there for much longer than the park has been around, so they will have most of the laws on their side.

Again there are limits to noise, but also building heights

Then there are shareholders or other people with a stake in the park's finances. Simply put, the park needs to run a profit. You can't spend too much money, and you will want (or be pressed into) going for the investments that give the most return on the money spent, and/or the lowest risk of losing money.

So yeah. RMCs are expensive, tall, noisy, and don't cater to a wide enough part of the audience to be worth the aforementioned cost.

Also, what's with the thread tags?
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1) I think the vast majority of rides in the UK are built for the sake of pleasing the GP e.g. the Smiler with all the inversions but not much force, big one but few airtime moments, the swarm to be the first UK wing coaster, quite a few rides by Vekoma and Zamperla at flamingo land, ultimate at Lightwater Valley being a long ride. However I do not consider most of these rides to be great (my 2 UK favorites are nemesis and the grand national). The majority of rides do not appeal to the enthusiast. Enthusiasts are a very small minority in a park so they often won't consider our point of view.

2) As for the laws being on their side, as of recent years the government has been desperate to attract the public to smaller towns such as where I live (agreed this is mostly due to housing) and also the fact that England is the 5th most densely populated country in the world. However we have had a HUGE battle over getting a retail park built in our quiet village and housing estates that would TRIPLE the size of the town. So it is not just out of necessity but out of leisure as well.

3) What exactly is the limit on roller coaster heights in the UK? Are there different areas that have different height limits? Is there a specific height limit for roller coasters? I know Alton Towers can't build above tree height but The Big One at BPB is 214ft tall (only RMC near this height is lightning rod).

4) Of course the park needs to run a profit, but they are also willing to spend money on things and get it at sacrificial prices. But they will tease money out of people in any way they can (fast track, lockers, food, pictures etc). Thorpe park I believe on one day sold tickets for 12 p just to prove that they are willing to make such sacrifices. Parks are shareholders but they can be park of a bigger group for finance (Cedar Fair, Merlin, Six Flags etc) and some places get more money than others to build upon their rides, which is logical in the sense that more money so more rides and more people, as a cumulative effect. Alton towers gets new rides/coasters every few years and they have been thrills. SW8 and Icon are new for this year in the UK and both are thrills. So another thing to consider is the ratio of new additions to new rides.

5) RMCs for the most part are quiet coasters, with the exception of storm chaser Kentucky kingdom. They are expensive rides but places like Alton towers are loaded, they don't get a lot of rides from Vekoma unlike flamingo land (which is a smaller park so naturally that will be the case) and if places like Alton Towers get a new thrill ride every year, they must have a larger proportion of a park's demographic willing to ride, just not a large number of enthusiasts.

Could you please send me the links to where you get your statistics from?
Thanks,
fellow coaster enthusiast.
 
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