Ride Tribute
parkworld-online.com
The classic Copenhagen amusement park Tivoli started its 172nd season last month with the relaunch of its famous wooden rollercoaster, or Rutschebanen as it is known locally. To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the ride, its mountain peaks have been lovingly restored. Here the project’s senior design architect, Jonathan Gress Wright, discusses the renovation, revealing why the peaks were removed in the first place and how the ride’s brake men help it keep capacity high
Classic Tivoli coaster enjoys ‘peak’ anniversary season
n the mid-1920s, the municipality of Copenhagen had the opinion that fake mountains were not the suitable thing for visitors to see as they entered the city from the newly-built grand central train station. The peaks were torn down and a 7-metre wall was built to hide the rest of the rides and “debauchery.” Thankfully, this rather conservative stance has changed in more recent years as Tivoli has become Copenhagen’s greatest tourist attraction with more than 4 million annual guests. The position of the park between the town hall square and the central station is now unique in any metropolis of the world. The 100th anniversary of Rutschebanen seemed like the right occasion to bring it back to its former glory, and so we committed a budget of more than €5 million (DKK 38 million) to its renovation. Tivoli is not a theme park in the modern sense of the word, but it has always drawn inspiration from the exotic and mystical. In the old days the audience was not accustomed to travelling, so Tivoli brought the world to them, whether it was China and the Far East or the mountains of the Alps.
The area
around Rutschebanen has now been renewed, inspired by Austria,
Switzerland and Bavaria but still with an over-the-top theatrical feel, evoking the romanticism of the pre-war years. Our exit polls tells us that Tivoli’s
Rutschebanen I
visitors love the nostalgic feel of the place. On the outside, facing the city that surrounds us, we use contemporary materials such as glass and steel, but on the inside it’s important to keep the fairytale alive.
Twin peaks The rollercoaster’s original peaks were much smaller and slimmer, consisting of simple wood timber frames covered with canvas and plaster. In 1914 the mountains did not have to be as impressive as today, just a hint was enough, with the kind of painted theatrical look the public had become accustomed to in the age before movie pictures or travel abroad. Now the train travels through two mountain peaks, the tallest of which is 26m and reveals an ice cave inside. A waterfall with a height of 22m is also completely new. Other features include a church carved into the rockface alongside the loading area, together with a new station in a more elegant design than the crude old “mine train” design from the past. Previously the coaster’s track and mountain were shielded by darkness when the sun set. Now the new peaks and waterfall are lit up together with the ice cave. This merges nicely with the other lighting inside the gardens, which is a big part of Tivoli’s DNA.
The visual experience of seeing the new mountain peaks is great, but then travelling through the ice cave is even more magical. It is not an extreme thrill ride, but over 100 years it has become by far the most popular attraction in the park. Kids as well as adults can ride it and get the tickling sensation. These kinds of experiences that the family can enjoy together are becoming rarer as rides get wilder.
Man versus machine Rustchenbanen is one of only five wooden coasters left in the world still using brake men. Any park manager with an interest in cutting costs would find that having more than 30 people on the payroll to manage one ride might be over the top. About 10 years ago, a
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MAY 2014
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