A farewell to Nemesis…

Remember remember the 5th of November, our last ride of Nemesis 1.0. The ride is set to close on the 6/11/22 for a retrack, encompassing everything between the top of the lift hill right up to the final brake run.

I’m a relatively recent first time rider of Nemesis, riding it first in June of 2019. I remember buying a fast past card that got me onto Nemesis, Oblivion, The Smiler and Galactica as Tracy wasn’t quite up to the bigger rides so it made sense to fast pass them to save queueing for rides she didn’t want to try.

I’ve enjoyed almost every single ride I’ve had of Nemesis, with only 1 being a standout rough ride which was Scarefest 2020 in the dark. It rode really badly and I ended up with a bit of a sore ear afterwards, but I still kept riding it after that.

Fast forward to the start of 2022, and despite not riding it during opening weekend or Festival of Thrills, we’ve certainly made up for lost time over the last few months!

Oktoberfest, Scarefest and even last night’s ride have all been excellent. Quite comfortable and no head banging at all allowing you to fully enjoy the full force of the ride!

I don’t feel like I share the same sentiment as the rest of the enthusiast community as I didn’t feel sad that last night was my last ride of Nemesis or even that it was going away. Instead I enjoyed it just like any other ride we’d had on it and look forward to seeing how it changes, if it changes at all, in 2024 when it’ll be due to reopen.

I’ve heard that they’ll be filling in the boxy spine of the track with sand for sound dampening which will take away the iconic roar the ride currently makes as it hurtles around the layout. This is a shame as the roar is as much a part of Nemesis as the monster themed station, the rusted coloured track and the trains themselves.

As for when 2024 comes around, what would I like to see?

I’d love to see the trains be adapted to have Lapbars in someway. I don’t know if B&M can manage that, whether they’ve got some trains already or they’d need to develop new ones, but it would certainly improve the ride!

The station could do with a bit of a tidy up and the theming elements improved upon too. Some of the fake track used in the station is starting to come apart, revealing that it’s made of wood and definitely needs some attention!

Finally I’d love to hear a new score that encompasses parts of the old one. Imascore do a lot of work with Merlin for their attractions and I’d love for them to be drafted in to give Nemesis a sound that’ll hopefully fill the void that the roar will be leaving!

I love that Alton Towers have made the decision to retrack Nemesis and not simply let it run into the ground or be taken down completely. It shows that the understand the value that Nemesis has in the enthusiast community as well as wider public appeal too. Nemesis is as British rollercoaster icon, just as The Big One is, so it having the full retrack treatment is a wonderful thing.

For context, not that many rollercoasters are seen to be worth the investment to be retracked in their entirety so a full retrack instead of a new attraction is pretty big news!

Nemesis means a lot to a lot of enthusiasts. For some it will be the best ride in the world, to others its the ride that started their thrill seeking career. Some will dislike the ride or have no attachment to it and some argue that Nemesis Inferno is better!

Whatever your opinion of Nemesis, lets all come together today to say farewell to John Wardley’s magnum opus, Europe’s first inverted coaster, one of the rides of the year of the UK rollercoaster and of course the worlds most intense ride experience!