Gold Rush

Sitting on the hill overlooking Frontier Falls, Gold Rush is the wild west themed family rollercoaster at Drayton Manor.

Unusually for a rollercoaster, Gold Rush offers two different ride experiences with the coaster switching between the two cycles at 2pm each day. Depending on which one riders get, they will find themselves going backwards or forwards along different sections of track, with the lift hill sometimes acting as a spike.

The ride is well themed, with the mine themed train racing through a wild western style landscape past barrels, mine workings and through a gunpowder storage shed ... what could possibly go wrong in there?!? While the special effects are a little on the cheap side, they are appreciated and add to the overall experience.

Sadly the theming in the queueline is variable in quality: sometimes superb with great landscaping, yet at other times riders on busy days may find themselves standing inside long wooden tunnels or through barely themed cattlepen sections. The theming of Gold Rush's trains too is mainly just vinyl wrap stickers rather than detailed mouldings.

The coaster itself is glass smooth, and the tyre driven launch sections are fairly punchy - especially the one which launches the trian backwards out of the storage shed during the morning cycle. The corners and hills are nice, adding bounciness rather than full on intensity. At times it could do with being a little snappier around some of the bends.

Utilising switch track to move the train between the various track sections adds to the fun, and increases both the ride time and variety (the train runs over some of the track sections multiple times - sometimes in different directions). Guessing whether the train will run over the top of the lift hill or slide back down like a spike adds to the novelty too.

The ride is quite reminiscient of the similarly named Gold Rush at OK Corral in France, although that ride is much shorter yet punchier. While not a copy, having seen the French equivalent, Drayton's version is obviously much less unique than the hype surrounding its launch in 2024 might have suggested. Similar too is Dollywood's Firechaser Express.

Gold Rush is a pleasant rollercoaster, and a great addition to Drayton Manor (considering especially the park's dire rough coasters of the past). It is very much pitched at the family market, but is decent enough to entertain adults and children alike, while its trickery with differing ride cycles makes re-rides a must to experience the full range of what it offers. Sadly though it doesn't quite match up to the heights of either ride experience or theming being offered to the family market at other UK theme parks such as the exemplary Paultons Park.

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