The Big One is a steel roller coaster, located at Blackpool Pleasure Beach, in Lancashire, UK.
The ride originally opened to the public as the world’s tallest roller coaster,
standing 213 ft. 64.9 m high.
But it’s a lot more than just a record breaker.
Join myself and Blackpool Pleasure Beach aficionado
Scott of Pleasure Beach experience,
as we discuss the complex history of the Big One, which all starts with a single man:
Geoffrey Thompson became the managing director of Blackpool Pleasure Beach in 1976, inheriting
the position from his father, Leonard Thompson.
Geoffrey was determined to continue his late father's legacy.
He, and those before him, had developed the park from its opening in 1896 to become a
global leader in amusements.
From day one, Geoffrey was looking to find new and exciting attractions to bring to the pleasure beach.
He built Steeplechase, a unique three tracked racing roller coaster in 1977; Revolution,
Europe’s first modern-day roller coaster with a vertical loop, in 1979; and Avalanche,
the UK’s first and only bobsled coaster, in 1988.
But by the early 1990s, Geoffrey was looking for something huge.
Coincidentally, hundreds of miles from the sea-side town of Blackpool, a new record breaking
roller coaster was being built.
Years prior, Cedar Point, an upcoming amusement park in the USA,
were also looking for their next big ride.
After many proposals, the American park, along with famous amusements manufacturer, Arrow
Dynamics, constructed Magnum XL-200 - the world’s first roller coaster to break the
200ft (61m) height barrier.
Dubbed a hyper coaster, the ride was unlike most of its time.
Magnum emphasized two key characteristics, height and speed.
It featured steep drops and large hills, giving guests the sensation of weightlessness during the layout.
Cedar Point opened Magnum XL-200 in May of 1989, and just over a year later,
Geoffrey Thompson was ready to experience it.
After only a single ride, he knew he wanted one at the Pleasure Beach.
Apparently, the experience was so good he called Arrow Dynamics straight after - quite
simply he wanted Magnum, but bigger.
Geoffrey Thompson craved another record breaking roller coaster, another Magnum XL-200.
Construction of his newest ride began in 1992 with initial groundwork and foundations.
However, from the beginning, the park’s biggest project at that time had issues.
Because Blackpool Pleasure Beach is built on sand, sturdy foundations had to be created,
which sometimes required digging as deep as 14m (45ft) down.
The design of the ride itself was being led by Ron Toomer,
a well established roller coaster designer at the time.
Ron, along with the rest of Arrow Dynamics worked with Allott & Lomax to create the ride’s
layout and produce working drawings.
Normally, Arrow’s track was fabricated at the company’s factory in Utah.
However, due to the sheer size and scale of Blackpool’s new ride, the plans were sent
to Watson Steel in Bolton, a company that also did steel work for The Revolution at
the Pleasure Beach decades earlier.
From there, the majority of the steel work for both the track and supports took place.
Sections of the coaster were also fabricated in Southampton and Scotland.
Though, doing this proved difficult.
Due to the immense scale of the ride, recreating Magnum XL-200, without Arrow fabricating their
own track, was always going to be a big ask.
And Ultimately, this proved to be an impossible task.
Magnum’s airtime hills were built mostly in a straight line, following a tight, but long footprint.
This couldn’t be done at the Pleasure Beach.
Their new coaster had to weave in and out of the existing attractions at the park, which
reduced the space for consecutive airtime hills.
Once the track had been fabricated it was then transported to Blackpool Airport, where it was initially stored.
There was little space at the Pleasure Beach, so track sections were moved to the Blackpool
promenade, opposite the construction site, if and when they were required.
On top of this, parts of the support structure were assembled at the airport, before being
transported to the park and lifted into position.
Another issue that arose during construction, was the fact that the footprint of the new
roller coaster was surrounded by a whole host of other attractions.
This meant that access to the construction site was limited whilst other rides were in operation.
As a result, the majority of vertical construction took place from November of 1993 onwards,
whilst the Pleasure Beach was closed to the public.
Initially set to cost roughly 5 Million Pounds, the complexity of the build had inflated the
price tag to 12 Million by the time of its completion.
Shortly before the big debut, the park announced a 5 year sponsorship deal with Pepsi, worth £1 Million.
It was after this that the ride’s original name, The Pepsi Max Big One, was announced.
As part of the sponsorship, a tunnel was placed on the pre-lift section of the ride, which
took the appearance of 2 large Pepsi Max cans.
Though the Pepsi branding was dropped from the roller coasters name in 2011, being known
from then on as ‘The Big One’, the Pepsi can has remained present to this day, even
being updated by the park to match Pepsi’s current branding.
After roughly 2 years of construction, 12 million pounds, and lots of challenges faced;
the Pepsi Max Big One opened to guests on the 28th of May 1994.
Fortunately, it was a massive hit.
People traveled from all over the country to experience the world’s tallest roller
coaster - causing a massive increase in attendance compared to the previous year.
But the Big One wasn’t the only new roller coaster to debut in the UK in 1994.
Alton Towers’ B&M inverted coaster, Nemesis, opened to guests on the 19th of March, followed
by Shockwave at Drayton Manor, a stand-up coaster from Intamin, only a week later.
All three rides were unique within the United Kingdom - the Big One was the country’s
first hyper coaster, Nemesis became Europe’s first inverted coaster, while Shockwave became
the UK’s first stand-up coaster!
The new additions were so impressive that 1994 became known as ‘The Year of the Roller Coaster’
within theme park circles.
Even after the Big One’s successful opening in 1994, more problems were on the horizon.
Following the 1996 season, work began to change the profiling and structure.
The snappiness of the first drop was altered to improve rider comfort and reduce wear and
tear on the trains; while the turnaround section also saw modifications.
The entire turn was modified, allowing for riders to pass through it at a greater speed,
reducing the likelihood the trains wouldn’t make it round the bend.
In doing this, the Pleasure Beach also increased the wind speed the Big One was able to operate in.
With that being said, what is a ride on the Big One like today?
After passing through the entrance sign, guests navigate the rides’ queue line,
up towards the station building.
A few switchbacks later, riders come face to face with one of the attractions three trains.
The vehicles feature five cars, each of which seats visitors in three rows of two.
This leads to a total of 30 riders per train.
Once boarded, guests fasten their seat belt and pull down the lap bar restraint.
At this point, the train slowly rolls out of the station building, completing a long
downward right hand turn in the process.
Riders pass through the Pepsi Max cans and engage the lift hill.
Here they begin to climb 64.9 m (213 ft.) high.
Though this is the Big One’s height from the ground below, the Pleasure Beach are keen
to say their tallest ride measures 72m (235ft) high; a measurement made from sea level.
After a long steady climb, the trains crest the top of the 62.5m (205ft drop), giving
visitors fantastic views of the Irish sea.
But, you don’t have long to savour the view.
The train suddenly whips to the right and dives towards the ground.
Guests plummet down the curved first drop, reaching the maximum vertical angle of 65
degrees in the process.
At this point, they reach the top speed of 119kmh (74mph).
The trains then begin their first climb, along the front of the park.
Guests traverse the apex of the large triangular hill, before speeding back towards the ground,
and entering the rides large turnaround section.
Here, the trains complete a beyond 180 degree turn,
above the main entrance plaza of the pleasure beach itself.
The train then begins its return journey, passing underneath previously navigated track,
and ascending an off-axis hill.
Guests then dive down past Infusion, complete another off-axis hill, and pass through the
support structure of the lift hill.
A third off-axis hill later and the train ascends into the mid-course brake run.
From this, visitors complete a 360 degree downward helix, traverse over a small hill,
and punch through the supports of one of the parks wooden coasters, Nickelodeon Streak.
A left hand dive towards the ground sees riders pass through a short tunnel, all before they
climb into the final brake run.
During the entire 80 second ride experience, measured from lift hill to final brake run,
the trains complete 1,657 m (5,497 ft.) of track.
And, as they do so, riders interact with a whole host of other attractions at the park.
To house the Big One, the Pleasure Beach made changes to both the Big Dipper and RollerCoaster,
now Nickelodeon Streak, so that it could pass through both of their structures.
More recently, Icon, the park’s multi-launch coaster, was built through a section of its lift hill.
Though the Big One did open as the world’s tallest complete circuit roller coaster, its
record was quickly taken by another ride.
In July of 1996, Fujiyama, a steel hyper coaster standing 79m (259ft) tall debuted to the public.
Fujiyama was not only taller than the Big One, but also faster, and longer.
From this, the roller coaster wars had truly begun.
Magnum XL-200, and the Big One in return, sparked the beginning of a battle which saw
amusement parks fight to construct the world’s tallest roller coasters.
Cedar Point were determined to hold onto their record, creating Millennium Force, a 94m (300ft)
tall ride in 2000, followed by Top Thrill Dragster, a 130m (420ft) tall coaster in 2003.
Even though Blackpool didn’t retain their world record breaking status, they did have
plans to debut another record breaking roller coaster.
The so-called Bigger One, a ride which would become the world’s tallest,
was allegedly meant to open in the mid 2000’s.
Sadly, the plans were shelved, allowing for the Big One to remain the UK’s tallest roller
coaster even after 26 years.
Less than a decade after the debut of the Big One, Arrow Dynamics went bankrupt.
As amusements technology has advanced, more of their rides are being removed around the globe.
Fortunately, the future of the UK’s tallest roller coaster is bright.
Recently, the park began to re-track original sections of the ride in a process that will
continue over the next couple of years.
Blackpool Pleasure Beach is keen to sustain the life and history of the Big One - a history
we’ve barely touched within this video.
If you’re interested in learning how the ride sparked the debut of an official Pleasure Beach club,
or how it has different wheels for different weather;
watch our other ‘fact file’ video over on the Pleasure Beach Experience channel.
Simply click the video on screen now!
Thank you for watching, and we’ll see you all next time.