Mountain Railway (Phantasialand)

Mountain railway

Data
Location	Phantasialand ( Brühl , North Rhine-Westphalia , Germany )
Type	Steel - seated
model	Speed racer
category	Family roller coaster
Drive type	Chain lift
Manufacturer	Schwarzkopf GmbH
Designer	Werner Stengel
opening	1975
closure	May 1, 2001
length	980 m
height	28 m
capacity	1800 people per hour
Trains	5 trains, 5 cars / train, 2 rows of seats / car, 2 seats / row of seats
elements	Departures, driveways, curves , helices
Inversions	0
Theming	Wild west, mountains

The mountain railway was a steel roller coaster in the Phantasialand amusement park in Brühl . It was opened in 1975 as bobsleigh run 1 in the Silver City theme area . At that time it was considered the largest steel roller coaster in Germany. The track was manufactured by Anton Schwarzkopf according to plans by the engineer Werner Stengel, who was then employed by the company .

The approximately 28 meter high system was designed as a family roller coaster and therefore, unlike the first modern looping roller coaster Great American Revolution , which opened a year later in the USA with the same technology , had no inversions . After the chain lift, the roller coaster trains ran through a classic figure-eight route of 980 meters in length. The section with the greatest vertical incline was the lift itself. The descents did not have a particularly steep gradient. The artificial mountain massif added in 1976 after complaints from residents of the park about noise created a stronger feeling of speed. The track was completely covered with plastic panels. Parts of the route, the first exit and the braking and sidings were also covered. In the early 1980s, the mountain railway station was rebuilt. Entry and exit were swapped and access was relocated from the western town to Chinatown .

The trains of the roller coaster consisted of five carriages for four people each in two rows. To increase capacity, two more trains were acquired in addition to the original three trains. So theoretically up to 1800 people per hour could travel by train.

On May 1, 2001, the mountain railway was destroyed by a major fire . 50 visitors and 10 employees were injured. The roller coaster's 27-year-old electrical system had been technically overhauled shortly beforehand for 350,000 German marks, but there was no connection with the fire.

A train on the mountain railway (1981)

literature

Ralph Latotzki et al. a .: From the fairy tale forest to River Quest, special edition of the club magazine park + ride of the Freundeskreis Kirmes und Freizeitparks eV for the 35th anniversary of Phantasialand

Web links

50.799653 6.884147Coordinates: 50 ° 47 '58.8 " N , 6 ° 53' 2.9" E