Troy

The biggest war of the ancient history ended with a wooden horse. Creek mythology has always been a popular topic to give amusement park attractions a history, whereby quite often the historical correctness is secondary. The Dutch amusement park Toverland themed their impatiently awaited new attraction for 2007 after the Trojan war. Since June 29th, a wooden coaster with a classic twister design winds its way through the wilderness behind the magic forest area of Toverland. The attraction is everything but a gift that does not keep what it promises, even when the name might suggest that. So lets now follow history back in time to the ancient city of Troy and dare a ride on the wooden horse.

The path leads us through the torn-down city walls of Troy. Barricades and heaped-up earth hills remind of the ten year lasting siege of the city. At a small square near the remains of the once mighty stone walls rests the Trojan Horse in its’ impressive size. We follow the path past fenced-off areas, over bridges and between the small hills. Finally, after the siege line, the large wooden skeleton of Troy raises in the sky. With a deep constant noise a train twists through the wooden maze and drags the screaming of its’ riders behind it. You just have to stop for a second to experience the atmosphere of this wooden beauty.

Past the station on the left side the path goes further into the wooden structure. The queue goes back and forth between two 180° turns of the coaster and gets closer and closer to the station. From here you can watch the trains speeding by until you finally reach the stairs up to the station area.

Slowly our train leaves the station, gains some speed in a right and a left turn and rolls onto the lifthill. During the fast ascent we have the last chance to take a deep breath once more and to catch a glimpse of the following twisted ride. Soon we already have reached the highest point. One last click of the lift chain and gravity takes over. Our train instantly throws itself into a steep left turn and picks up speed at no time. The 90km/h top speed are reached very fast as we already begin to fly through the first and very flat speed bump while still being in the heavily banked left-hand turn. Afterwards the first directional change throws Troy to the right and lets us climb the first higher mountain. After a quick 180° turn the train drops down again, followed by the next speed bump. We speed up again and the train throws itself into the next left turn while the passengers fly around in their comfortable seats again and again. We follow a 270° helix downwards and go under the just passed track section. Intuitively all riders pull down their arms while the wooden structure is coming closer quickly. After two smaller and medium-sized hills with lots of airtime our train throws itself into another right-hand turn and takes a run-up once again for the station fly-through. With full speed we rumble through the station barely two meters above the heads of the waiting riders. Down once again and faster once again is the motto now as Troy gets totally freaked out. One directional change follows the other and we go over and under other track sections countless times. With every sense of orientation lost and totally addicted by the speed the wooden structure flies past us. Then, finally, we hear a loud hissing noise as the final brakes put an end to the wild ride. Some riders are looking stunned at each others, female riders try to somehow get their hair out of their faces and others just try to get a breath of air. What an amazing ride!

Troy is a pearl for the European roller coaster scene and doesn’t have to hide itself even from the top coasters from overseas. An incredible sensation of speed for a wooden coaster together with wild directional changes and unbelievable track elements is waiting for the riders. Toverland managed to build a new top ride with this attraction. Troy is a sophisticated attraction and provides great visuals with the ride itself being typical for a woody but still having enough surprises to set itself apart from other wooden coasters. Despite the wild ride, the minimum height requirement of Troy is only 1.20m. That makes this extraordinary wooden coaster the perfect new major family attraction for Toverland.