thedazza

Some good news and bad news for regarding Alton Towers today. Good news: The Smiler re-opened. Bad news: The Runaway Minetrain appears to have split in 2, again. Images from towerstimes facebook. When this happened before a coupling broke, the train split into 2 parts and the 2 parts crashed into each other injuring the people on board. There is no confirmation regarding that happening this time, no-one was on board at the time, and there are some suggestions that the ride broke down, and the train was taken into 2 pieces by the engineers in order to get the train back to the station. There has been no official word from the park yet as to what actually happened.

1. X2 - 843/1000 2. Superman Escape - 830/1000 3. iSpeed - 810/1000 4. X Flight - 734/1000

Is there any way for us in the UK to see this show. I know it is on youtube but is not available in this country. Before anyone mentions proxy, have tried, not working for me. Edit: Never mind, have got it.

Oh dear, has stalled again. According to some sources the problem is with the computer system and that the trim breaks on the airtime hill leading to the batwing are being needlessly applied. Am going later this week so hopefully they can get the problem sorted by then.

From Alton Towers Twitter

Here is some testing from earlier. Some pics of the management riding. Ride will open to the public in the next couple of hours. Pics from towersnerd. Get more photo's throughout the day here live.towersnerd.com/

John Wardley is in the smiler building right now with his family, could be there for the first public ride, or just for a behind the scenes tour, either way it looks promising. Edit: Staff on park are saying that the ride will be open tomorrow, still small chance of a soft opening this afternoon, but looks like tomorrow will be the first full day of operation. Glad they managed to stick to the "May 2013" opening, even if it is the last day in May. Just a shame they missed the original confirmed opening date of the 23rd. I'm sure it will have been worth the wait though.

At this rate Ring Racer, Flying Turns & Orphan Rocker will be open before The Smiler

It's back, i think it was just taken down before because the link didn't lead anywhere. It does now tho. http://www.altontowers.com/the-smiler-faqs/ unfortunately it looks like ride will not be open tomorrow as planned

It appears to have gone now but it was definitely there, here is a print screen. They must have resolved the issues quickly.

Yeh, one train was entering the batwing, while the other was exiting the batwing. Obviously that isn't going to happen on the real ride but it was referencing that the trains will duel. Has it been confirmed that they will actually duel? I thought that was still a rumour. If it does happen, I wonder how long it will last? I've seen idiots throwing things before at Thorpe Park, I'd think if they are synced so they go through the inversions close to one another it won't be too long before some idiot tries throwing something. Looks like it. Edit: More delays From Alton Towers official website.

Yeh, one train was entering the batwing, while the other was exiting the batwing. Obviously that isn't going to happen on the real ride but it was referencing that the trains will duel.

TV advert. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6jGA3nXH9s

Bit more. Rider cam POV, second half of the ride.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2DRaad8ZMM

That lighting would be awesome to have on the ride for scarefest, would probably detract from the flasher though so may not be quite as extensive as it is in the video.

Both lifts have those fins, they are just a noise free anti-rollback device. Alton Towers have had problems with the neighbours regarding noise in that area so these should help keep the noise down a bit.

I see the future, so I'll help you out on this one. In no specific order: - "It's the best rolly coaster on earth!!1!" - "It sucks." - "It's not bad, but I think Alton Towers overhyped it." Wash, rinse, repeat. If anything Alton Towers have under-hyped this ride, with Th13teen they went overboard with hyping it up to be some sort of thrill machine, and we know how that turned out. With this ride there doesn't seem to be that much in the way of hyping it up yet, although that possibly could be because they still don't know when it will actually open and want to leave the hype until they can advertise a specific date. Or could just be because they have learnt their lesson from Th13teen, i'll give them the benefit of the doubt and say it is the latter.

14 is just a tad odd feeling though, I'd like them to make it 15. Now 15 is a nice feeling number. Also the thought of a 14 or + inversion coaster really makes me want to get to England more than I already do. Someday... I think 14 will most likely be the total number of inversions. It's the number that has been rumoured for quite a while, also remember the first construction photo released by alton towers, the security camera style one, that said 5:14 on it, i think we can assume that meant that the photo showed inversion 5 of 14. Also 7 inversions on each half of the ride seems like a nice feeling number.

So that is 14 confirmed inversions then, and possibly more that we don't know about yet.

The inversion count is the record beating part, but there are more than 11, for some reason there are some missing from the game, not sure why, maybe a problem with the game. There is also a world first feature of the ride, that won't be unveiled until closer to the ride opening.

Technically that is Gerstlauer track you see in the photo. Both companies use the Tri-Truss track. Also the B&M floorless trains look the be the closest thing to what was actually planned for the coaster. The trains may not have been completed by the time this came out so the artists and designers did the best they could with what they had. Yeh it's Gerstlauer track, well an artists impression of it, also with regards to the trains looking like B&M, for most of Alton Towers marketing photos for rides they use the Oblivion test seat to take the photos in, so that is why it looks like a B&M. The real trains, from the looks of the advertising on the park will have lap bars. Although on the game it looks like it has yellow OTSR so who knows.

Well one of the details it doesn't give on the website is the inversion count, that probably isn't the only detail left off though.

Well it is confirmed that the track will differ from how it is shown in the plans so i think we can expect the inverted drops to happen, also maybe 2 or 3 more inversions on the rest of the course.

Here is the ad they are using at the moment, it features a little bit about The Smiler. sorry about the quality, it is using a camera filming the TV, not by me by the way. I'm looking for a higher quality version if only just to update my avatar but in the meantime here you go. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4_A414DC64