Oblivion is a

steel roller coaster A steel roller coaster is a roller coaster that is defined by having a track made of steel. Steel coasters have earned immense popularity in the past 50 years throughout the world. Incorporating tubular steel track and polyurethane-coated whee ...

located at

Alton Towers Alton Towers Resort ( ) (often referred to as Alton Towers) is a theme park and resort complex in Staffordshire, England, near the village of Alton. The park is operated by Merlin Entertainments Group and incorporates a theme park, water pa ...

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands C ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

. The prototype Dive Coaster model from

Bolliger & Mabillard Bolliger & Mabillard, officially Bolliger & Mabillard Consulting Engineers, Inc. and often abbreviated B&M, is a roller coaster design consultancy based in Monthey, Switzerland. The company was founded in 1988 by Walter Bolliger and Claude Mabil ...

opened to the public on 14 March 1998 and was marketed as the "World's first vertical drop roller coaster". With a maximum speed of , it is the third fastest roller coaster in the UK, behind The Big One at

Blackpool Pleasure Beach Blackpool Pleasure Beach is an amusement park situated on Blackpool's South Shore, in the county of Lancashire, North West England. It operates as a secure facility, and has introduced epayments via smartphones for admission charges, repla ...

and

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Thorpe Park Thorpe Park Resort, commonly known as Thorpe Park, is an amusement park located in the village of Thorpe between the towns of Chertsey and Staines-upon-Thames in Surrey, England, southwest of Central London. It is operated by Merlin Entertai ...

History

Throughout 1997, the park's 'Fantasy World' area was closed and all its former rides removed, except the

Black Hole A black hole is a region of spacetime where gravity is so strong that nothing, including light or other electromagnetic waves, has enough energy to escape it. The theory of general relativity predicts that a sufficiently compact mass can def ...

. Details about Oblivion were not revealed until March 1998. The "SW4" codename stood for "Secret Weapon 4", after Nemesis' codename, "SW3". Oblivion's opening was accompanied by a large promotional campaign, including appearances on ''

Blue Peter ''Blue Peter'' is a British children's television entertainment programme created by John Hunter Blair. It is the longest-running children's TV show in the world, having been broadcast since October 1958. It was broadcast primarily from BBC Te ...

'', news channels and cereal boxes. Prior to its opening, memorabilia including its own brand of

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was available to purchase. The total cost to construct the ride was estimated at £12 million. The park area containing Oblivion was redesigned as 'X Sector'. The only surviving ride from the former area was the Black Hole roller coaster, which was externally redesigned to suit the new theme. Alton Towers moved and rethemed two existing rides from other areas of the park to open with X-Sector, Energizer and

Enterprise Enterprise (or the archaic spelling Enterprize) may refer to: Business and economics Brands and enterprises * Enterprise GP Holdings, an energy holding company * Enterprise plc, a UK civil engineering and maintenance company * Enterprise ...

. Despite advertising the ride as the "worlds first vertical drop rollercoaster", Oblivion's vertical drop is slightly less than 90 degrees, at 87.5 degrees. This is due to the trains lacking sprung wheel assemblies which would mean the transition from vertical to horizontal would be uncomfortable. For a brief period in April 2011, the ride was sponsored by

Fanta Fanta is an American-owned German brand of fruit-flavored carbonated soft drinks created by Coca-Cola Deutschland under the leadership of German businessman Max Keith. There are more than 200 flavors worldwide. Fanta originated in Germany as ...

. The Fanta company also had put the Oblivion rollercoaster into one of their adverts to show that the brand was being sponsored there. However, much of the

branding was removed after only a few months "following numerous complaints about the obtrusive nature of the brand". On 8 May 2012, a reportedly suicidal 20-year-old man climbed over tall safety fencing and managed to access the underground ride area. He reportedly entered via the tunnel exit portal and walked underground, emerging on a ledge around the entrance portal. Neither he nor any guests on the ride were harmed. He was arrested for a public order offence and the ride returned to normal operation the following day.

Ride experience

The queue line spirals upwards around a mound and passes through abstract buildings at various levels. Through the buildings, an unnamed man stood in darkness (played by actor Renny Krupinski) briefs riders from overhead television screens. In the heavily stylised videos, the sinister figure explains at length the supposed physical and psychological effects of riding on Oblivion. Although adapted from scientific fact, his monologues are deliberately exaggerated with hyperbole and dry humour. The third queueline video features an alter-ego character (who appears glowing white) arguing with his counterpart as to whether Oblivion is truly safe for riders. This was removed in 2015 after The Smiler crash. The queue then splits and crosses caged bridges into the station building. Here riders are batched into rows and board the ride cars. Technical graphics are displayed on overhead screens, which change to play a final monologue upon dispatch. Oblivion

The cars accommodate sixteen passengers in two rows of eight with a tiered seating arrangement. The roller coaster has a simple layout with a 180 ft drop at 87.5 degrees. The car slowly ascends 60 feet at a 45-degree angle to build tension, then levels out and travels slowly through a turn towards the drop. The turn uses a horizontal chain mechanism not used on any other B&M dive coaster. The car reaches the drop and pauses facing over the edge for approximately 3 seconds (1 second on busier days). The car is then released, free-falling into the underground tunnel. Upon exiting the other side, a high-banked turn takes riders around into the brake run. There are two on-ride photos; one at the start of the drop and the other at the end of the high-banked turn.

References

External links

Oblivion at the official Alton Towers website
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Oblivion review and photos on T-Park
{{John Wardley Dive Coaster roller coasters Roller coasters in the United Kingdom Roller coasters operated by Merlin Entertainments Roller coasters introduced in 1998 Alton Towers Rides designed by John Wardley Dive Coasters manufactured by Bolliger & Mabillard