PTR: New Credit at BillyBird Park Hemelrijk

I'm a New Yorker but I work here in the Netherlands. A few months ago, I went to a mini-conference at a small college that dealt with new attractions at amusement parks. The school is NHTV in Breda and they have a program in amusement park management.

One of the speakers at the conference owns a park called BillyBird Park Hemelrijk in a small muncipality called Volkel. It started out as a nature park and has a lot of self-powered attractions (like pedal boats and such) and outdoor activities. I believe that the idea is to create a chain of parks. Apparently, a survey of clientele said they wanted a roller coaster, but the owner thought it would betray the spirit of this naturalistic park. He was also against the idea because roller coasters are expensive to build, operate, and maintain.

The solution was a relatively small and inexpensive coaster (Tube Coaster model by abc rides) and solar panels on the roof of the station to power the lift hill. In addition, cross trainers will be added to the station next year in order to help power the lift. It's the world's first "green" coaster. Of course, I was itching to ride this thing after hearing this guy speak.

Luckily, it opened at the end of July, just as Cheryl and I were planning what turned out to be an 11 park, 38 credit trip through the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany. So last week we stopped at BillyBird Park Hemelrijk. We had come from a day and a half at Efteling (which is the premiere park of the Netherlands, report coming), and it was raining pretty hard for most of the drive.

Enough talk, enjoy the report. Introducing Familieachtbaan (Family Roller Coaster)!

We decided to get our soggy selves back on the road. There's pedal boats and one of those sled water slides. Okay, hope you enjoyed the park visit! -Martin

Ah, here's where everyone is, at a huge themed indoor play area. There are slides and play structures and such.

Looking up at lift tower.

These kids just kept riding and riding in the rain in their own little ERT session, running back up the stairs each time.

Under track shot of load and dispatch area.

Nerd shot of second car. Sorry about raindrop on my lens.

Up the lift hill, then around the station to the side facing the water.

After you get out the train goes up the lift hill, riderless. I'm thinking wtf? Can I count this as a credit? After all, one does not ride on the entire track circuit. Whatever, I decide to count it as a credit. Lots of coasters offload you in one spot and load you in another. And this thing just doesn't have the juice to lift riders up the hill.

You disembark! I couldn't believe it! Edit: The translation of the sign is "Exit, not yet suitable as an entrance for the disabled/handicapped". Interesting.

Note Splash Battle type of thing in the background. After the helix you come into the final brake run, and, unexpectedly...

Here's the basic layout: You board at the top left and it comes across to the right, then down the swooping left drop turn and the bunny hill, then the brake block, then into a helix.

Here's the station and the op. He told me that the area to the right is where the cross-trainers would go.

It's a very fun looking layout. And 46 feet seems pretty high when you're up there.

We're almost at the top. Here's the view through some netting.

After walking through hundreds of feet of sand and mud, we see Cheryl climbing stairs to station. Notice Lake Compounce poncho and SFKK sweatshirt.

Volleyball, beaches, swimming, and there's the coaster. You have to climb the lift tower to reach the loading station.

Park appears to be open year-round.

Here's the front gate in the miserable weather.

As you can see, the park is pretty dead. There is some mountain ahead where kids can play.

Fairly typical Dutch weather.

This ride is quite strange, but it looks very low power and a good fit. I don't think those solar panels worked quite well the day you visited.