Revolution

Prepare yourself for the rush of the Revolution! With it’s amazing acceleration, this is one of the highlights of a visit to Blackpool Pleasure Beach and one which you certainly shouldn’t miss.

This is one of the older rides at Blackpool Pleasure Beach having opened in 1979 and it is certainly a favourite amongst visitors. Revolution cost around £1 million to build – a substantial investment for the park at the time – and it has undergone several revamps since then. It was initially painted red and white, however it was repainted in grey and white in 2012.

When opened, this was the first fully looping rollercoaster in Europa and the ride itself consists of two raised sections of track either side of a full central vertical loop.

Once passengers ascend the tall staircase (this is quite scary in itself), they climb aboard the train on the first piece of flat track, whereupon the train is then launched along this section before heading into the loop. Then the train levels off onto the second (far) platform where it rests for a moment before returning to the original platform via the loop – backwards!

This isn’t the biggest or longest ride at Blackpool Pleasure Beach but it is one of the best. The length of the track is 635 ft in total and the train reaches speeds of up to 45mph. The height of the loop is 56ft and the initial drop is 47ft. There are two inversions, one forward and one backward, while the duration of the ride is a little over one minute. Passengers experience a force of 4G during the ride.

This is one of just three Arrow shuttle rollercoasters still operating in the world, the others being Sidewinder at Elitch Gardens Theme Park and Diamond Back at Frontier City, both in the United States.

Our Thrill Verdict

This is without a doubt a thrilling ride, the climb up to the first platform not for the faint-hearted. The queue can stretch all the way up the stairs and with views all the way down on all sides of the stairwell, you really want to get onto the ride as quickly as possible, especially when it’s windy.

This is a very quick ride which takes a little more than one minute to complete (66 seconds to be exact) and while there is undoubtedly a thrill element involved – especially when going backwards – the brief duration means that we’re going to give it a Thrill Rating of 4.