James Salter

P-P-P-Pick up a Paultons

Paultons Park is a small family park on the edge of the New Forest. Its not a park I’d heard much about until news started coming out last year that they intended to open a Gerstlauer Bobsled coaster for the 2006 season.

Gerstlauer Bobsleds I had heard about, especially how good the model at Tripsdrill was, so I was eager to try out one a little closer to home myself. An offer from Paul of a trip to the park on Saturday was just the ticket.

To put it mildly, the day started cold. I’d stopped briefly at Winchester services on the way down to check on the builders and walked out to find it starting to sleet/snow. Bloody global warming - the world gets hotter apart from England. Typical.

Paultons Park Anyway, with ticket in hand (or AP in Paul’s case) we went straight across to Cobra which was having just about as understated an official opening as you can get.

Cobra consists of …
… a station (naturally) …
… wild mouse style curves …
… back to back helices …

… airtime hills …

… which lead into …

… a garden shed ?? …

… and ends in a final downward helix …

… then returns to the station via a very smooth stop courtesy of the ride’s magnetic brakes

Although by far the largest installation within the park, Cobra seems to fit very well. The young kids which are their main target market were loving it. The perfect introduction as their first “real” coaster experience!Having taken a few rides on Cobra, we headed off to explore the rest of the park.

Flying Frog is a standard kiddie coaster
Astroglide - these are slowly becoming extinct
If you go down to the woods today, you’re sure of a big surprise (memories of Alton Towers?)
Stinger no longer rules as King of the coasters

Why do Zierer insist on such ridiculously long trains?

Paultons has ducks too!

There are a couple of walkthroughs including this tribute to Wind in the Willows

There can never be enough Zamperla kontiki boats, rocking tugs and Diskos

This is the only tower ride I’ve ever enjoyed from start to finish

Paultons also has a small zoo featuring a variety of birds and a penguin feeding show

Although it is small, Paultons has at least a few things to teach other parks. Take their Wave Runner ride for example: It’s a dinghy slide similar to Depth Charge at Thorpe. The difference is in the number of staff required to operate it. At Thorpe there’s usually two or three people at the top of the tower to shift and dispatch the boats, plus another two or three or four at the bottom to load the boats onto the conveyor at the end of the ride. To operate the same ride at Paultons requires one person at the top of the tower (although it is possible to run it without even them being present thanks to dispatch buttons next to each boat lane). When riders reach the bottom, they load their own boats onto the conveyor. Simple! Would it work at Thorpe? With their target audience - are you joking?Having explored the park and watched the penguin show we returned to Cobra for several more rides. The staff very kindly gave permission to the various coaster enthusiasts to take on-ride photos and videos.

Up the lift hill
The first helix
Back-to-back helices
Down the airtime hills

Inside the shed

We left the park after lunch to visit the second park of the day - Tower Park. This is an entertainment complex on the outskirts of Poole which plays host to a variety of entertaining things including the Splashdown waterpark. Splashdown opened a new waterslide a week or so ago and Paul was keen to try it out.When we arrived the place was full of chavvy kids with no control over their vocal chords: They were standing within six inches of each other, yet they still insisted in shouting. Luckily most of them cleared out after the first couple of hours leaving a nicer environment.Although on a lower budget than places like Cariba Creek, Splashdown has a good variety of slides, some of which include (partially working) special effects. My two favourites were definitely the space bowl and the Mississippi Drifter ring slide which was prone to mid-course bottlenecks! It’s a fun place to while away a few hours, although earplugs might be a good accessory.

Before leaving we had a couple of bowling games, but I won’t mention who won. Thanks to Paul for the taxi and accommodation services!