Cannonball Express is a roller coaster located at
Pleasurewood Hills
Pleasurewood Hills is a theme park on a site between Corton and Gunton, near Lowestoft, Suffolk.
History
The park was created by entrepreneur Joe Larter in 1983 as a small American-themed family attraction, containing a miniature railway, C ...
,
Corton, near
Lowestoft
Lowestoft ( ) is a coastal town and civil parish in the East Suffolk district of Suffolk, England.OS Explorer Map OL40: The Broads: (1:25 000) : . As the most easterly UK settlement, it is north-east of London, north-east of Ipswich and sou ...
, Suffolk. It is the only
Schwarzkopf Jumbo V coaster to be manufactured.
History
The ride was built in 1983 for a German travelling fair and briefly operated at
Meli Park in Belgium as Jumbo 5.
[{{cite web , title = Jumbo 5 , url = https://rcdb.com/14365.htm , access-date= 12 June 2016] In 1985 it was relocated to Funland Park in
Folkestone
Folkestone ( ) is a port town on the English Channel, in Kent, south-east England. The town lies on the southern edge of the North Downs at a valley between two cliffs. It was an important harbour and shipping port for most of the 19th and 20t ...
, 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:
*Blue - Still in operation
*Purple - In storage (Used for maintenance)
*Green - In storage (put on track in 2009 for a short time)
*Red - Used the least, thought to be scrapped
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.
References
Roller coasters in the United Kingdom
Tourist attractions in Suffolk
Roller coasters introduced in 1995