Blackpool rollercoaster marks its tenth year of fun

Thrill-seekers on the Infusion ride at Blackpool Pleasure Beach

The Infusion ride, 10 years on, is still one of the top attractions at the fun park and although the new Â£16.25m Icon super ride is being constructed nearby, it will continue to be one of the top rides for years to come.

The ride was launched in May 2007, which turned out to be one of the wettest summers in years in Blackpool, and was built over the site of the former log flume.With its water jets, fountains and the famous fish in the lake beneath it soon created a splash with its night time illumination.

It had come originally from Pleasureland in Southport which shut in 2005 and had been called the Traumatizer.

But after a refurb and with a new paint livery the inverted steel rollercoaster quickly won fans on the Fylde coast.

The 33m high rollercoaster with its loops twists and inversions, can carry up to 832 riders per hour when both trains are in operation.

It had its official opening courtesy of TV presenter Vernon Kay and schoolgirl Jennifer Moore won a competition to design a time capsule to be sunk in the lake beneath, only to be opened on its 25th anniversary.

And the ride was the scene of a dramatic escape act when in October 2007 David Straitjacket, a Mancunian escape artist who had changed his name by deed poll, managed to get out of three shackles and two padlocks within three cycles of the ride.