Gsus

Hey guys, In light of a recent PM over at ATA........ I would like to apologise to RPG for not properly crediting his photos that i used in this topic. I did say that i was using 'other members' photos from ATA but without a name i couldn't ask. I really didn;t mean offence and so i have taken them down. Please visit his site if you wish to see them. RPG's site Gareth

nemesis - Sit back, it;s fright time. Oblivion - Don't.....Look......Down. Vampire - A Bat out of hell

aquatrax?

I spy with my little eye an aesome aquatrax in the center

Okay and for the final update....... Huge batch number 2: Air and surrounding Oasis and to top off this TPR, a view one never gets of the Towers. Enjoy. Glance down the catwalk, which almost lost me my camera lol Another of my nice pics...... We start to head off down the tunnel Nice pic (one of mine hehe) of the brake run A small pic of the switch junction and rear of station Warning to all rubber fetished freaks.......this may make your pants sting! A quick glance back as some of us head out to the brake run Dispatch controls AAAAAAAAnd the side A view of the back of the cars We enterd via the Wheelchair access for the left hand side station, viewed here. The entrance to Air's area gives a great view, namely of the Air shop and of cute cuddly toys.............why they would have them out i don''t know.

Thanks guys.......and now for the final batch's. Batch 6: Nemesis and 1 pic of ripsaw hehe Spare's and/or old seats and OTRS (so tempted to nick some B&M tape for my room The end tunnel exit View slightly obscured by monorail but you can see most of the first half random lift hill pic I see you too mate Nemesis Same thing but different angle Ripsaw with new restraints This is probably the first thing you see upon entering forbidden valley, the 'gun'

before the next batch i would just like to say that all my photos are the one's with the date's shown (incorrectly as well). I've only just learnt how to take it off now that i have have already taken the pics! Huge batch number 1: Duel Be warned there're a lot of spoliers here so PLEASE don't look if you want to keep the mystery........ one last shot of the outdoor section and without in the normal lighting. I was a little jumpy becuase i was all on my own at this point.....the lighting didn't help! Okay this is Bob with the camera flash on.... Could have been theses two! Could have been worse..... One of the ex-mechanics Spinning bats hehe (it looks good in the dark!) One of the zombies operated on a boom arm Furry sideboob! Another view of spidey This is where the fun starts for riders

Batch 6: Katanga Canyon to Gloomy Wood The brave adventurer's brave the House........ Terry talks about the security guard zombie A shot of the helix. Usually you wouldn't see it becuase of the fence and the trees being in bloom. Here is the tunnel the train and rapids share, taken from over a fence (aided by a rock hehe) A shot most people have taken in their travels to the Towers......except with people in it Here you can see one of the logs creating the rapids effect Rapids boats having a picnic Our first view upon leaving the maintenance area, entering via Katanga Canyon entrance

Okay in no particular order and in no way 56k friendly (and heres hoping to some more replies hehe) Batch 5: Maintenance shed & Courtyard 1. This pic is all about pumps (and not the kind you're thinking about). Okay now i'm not too sure which pump is which but i know the three categories (damn memory lapse) One of them is 1 out of 4 pumps that helps pump the water around congo river rapids. However only 3 work at one time, leaving one as a spare. Additionally they have an extra one kept out of the water as a spare spare lol. One is the pump for a drop on the log flume (i think its the one Terry is next to) And lastly the other pump is for the waterfalls on the rapids. I can;t remeber if it was for all the waterfalls, one side or one segment. have fun guessing lol At first i thought these were from the Beast --- but then i stopped being silly and thought ''oooh black hole'. Should have swiped one. The cool maintenance rigs allow the mechanics to get to all the nooks and cranny's OOooooOOOOOOooooo gyration Close up of the restraint mech. The lock actually connects at 3 differnent points to the restraint. Two on the top and once underneath. (i think it was 3, perhaps 4) Spinball car on maintenance rig Okay in here (if you can spot them) are Nemesis chain, Oblivion Chain, Nemesis Brake Fins and the central core for the sky ride wheel How many chicks could you pull in this!

Okay that concludes the first half (notably the boring half lol) Tommorow you can expect Air Nemesis Duel + Katanga Canyon Hex Maintenance warehouse

Batch 4: Sky Ride EDIT* i ruined all those jokes becuase i put them in the wrong order Needless to say, ACEr's should not ride the Sky Ride Heres looking into the maintenance area from the station There're coming outta the walls! Every Gondola has a solar panel to power the Radio. Gloomy shot of the station becuase of my camera's auto focus being a right devil........i need a miracle

Batch 3: Flag tower views My B&B ''Chained Oak Farm'' and the Chained Oak itself (good luck trying to spot it from here lol Black hole, Towers and Towers Street Black hole close up

Batch 2: concepts and plans. Finally a plan of Nemesis A skewwiff photo of the Duel layout A great watercolour painting in the hallway to the boardroom CATCF concept clos-up

Heres the first batch of photos (not going in order of the tour) --> Rita: Queen of Speed Just to note before i post anymore pics. All the pics seen in this topic will mainly consist of my own collection, however thanks to all the guys who attended from http://www.towersalmanac.com who have shared their photos, i have included some of the better ones so you can get better idea of what happened. Link at the end for everyone elses photos Corky from Rita walkway A look down the middle of the train interrupted by Dan from ATA Gorgeous train 1 Happy Mcpippin toasterface wonky view down the launch People testing Rita and a Dummy with a camera Here is the hydraulic drum

Okay guys sorry i didn't get them up yesterday but i was ill But anyway.... ALTON TOWERS BEHIND THE SCENES TOUR I left Plymouth for Alton Towers on Friday 10th at 6:40 in the morning (i'm a student and so i wanted the cheapest tickets ). My route was Plymouth -> Derby, Derby -> Stoke and then bus from Stoke to Alton, all in all taking about 7 1/2 hours with all the waiting around, etc. I was staying at the Chained Oak B&B which is (for all you Alton Towers know it alls) is just down the hill from the trade entrance. It is also home to the legendary chained oak that Hex is based on. Anyway i had a breif kip and then went into Alton to get drunk and have some food. There are loads of pubs in Alton becuase they used to brew their own beer, and all of the pubs have tunnels leading to the old brewery so that they could evade the tax! By the time i had finished i headed back to the room and got in after about an hour becuase i got lost (no paths or street lights) and went to bed. We had to meet at the Celebrations cabin, which is outside the main entrance, no later then 9:45am. So after a nice breakfast i headed out and arrived about 9:30 with mostly everyone there. The guys who organised it around arrived about 10am and we registered and signed our life away.....i mean the health & safety form. We then had to wait for the head engineer Terry, who would be taking us around. Eventually we left around 10:15am and headed around the back of the main entrance to the Sky ride station. We got to see all the gondolas in the maintenance shed being prepped for the opening this weekend. Terry talked about how they work and how they are actually quite safe despite there look. He knows so much about everything it's unbelieveable! We then headed into the station where he showed us how they move them on/off the cable into the maintenace shed. We then came back out and into the warehouse next to the sky ride. Inside were lots of things either being fixed or broken. Namely pumps for the water rides, 5 spinball trains getting new wheels to test out different speeds and some older things (one of which you will see below). We walked through the warehouse, opening up to a huge courtyard on the otherside where (in a skip) we found Oblivion and Nemesis' old chains. They had stretched and had to have a link removed until finally after 8 years they are replaced. There was some other things in the courtyard like old food carts, spinball car chasis' and some scrap hehe. We then headed out of the courtyard back into the park, entering via a road/path next to the entrance to Katanga canyon. This part of the park was closed to guests that day (as was most of it) but still they had music playing. It was the single most eerie thing i have witnessed at a park and led to some good photos (although my camera is pretty crap We walked all the way to Gloomy wood to walk around Dual. We entered via the gate next to the house (usually where the queue cuts across) and into a huge side door which brings you pretty much into the station. From here we got a look in the control cabin (complete with bats hehe) and then carried on up a stairwell next to it, up over the station and into the maintenance area. There were quite a few cars in here that were being worked on (although no-one was in there) and you might be interested to know that there is a methane alarm as well. This is becuase Dual (or back then teh Haunted House) is built on a swamp! and so they need to have a methane alarm incase of an outburst, but luckily they have never had a problem, but the staff toilets on the other hand From here we went along a hidden corridor (much like Disney's) into a big room which houses the spinning tunnel. Terry then told us how it all worked and then let us loose to wlak around the entire track. So off we went and i'm not one to get too scared but at one point i was on my own in a room and taking close-ups of some zombies.........needless to say i was bricking it lol. This was probably the best part, however my camera was being a bitch about being in the dark so i only got very few decent photos. We then all ended up in the station again and Terry talked breifly about the cars, noting that there is slime on hte books on the back of the cars to stop people cracking their heads open (pic later). We then walked out the same way and off to Forbidden Valley, also completely deserted but no music this time. We headed straight down to AIR and had a good snoop about the station (with the trains in). We had a look in the control booth, wlaked along the brake run and Terry was there to answer any questions. We then went into the tunnel and walked up the lift hill, and i was at the front! This was probably the second best part of the trip becuase the views were just breathtaking. We then headed back down and over to Nemesis were we had a look at the computer room underneath the station, where we got to see all the electrics and some spare OTSR's. Back out we came and headed across the valley to Ug Land, which was the first area of the trip that was open to the public. We went into RITA's hydraulics bunker to look at the drum, which is a lot bigger then i imagined, having only looked at pictures. Terry pointed out that they started with having the hose's fixed to the wall but they were ripped off becuase of the kickback, so now they use rope! He also mentioned that the return hose burst and managed to leak 1000 (litres or gallons i can't remeber) all over the place in 2.5 seconds. We then left the bunker and went onto the station platform, having a look around the trains and the control booth. I did enjoy this bit becuase i haven't seen RITA before and so i got some good photos. We then left Ugland and passed Charlie and the Choclate factory. Unfortunatly we couldn't go inside but we managed to get a good look at the facade. We then went to the old coaster corner behind Cred St where the Beast and Alton Mouse used to be. However it is now just a huge storage/scrapland. We walked through, spotting some interesting things such as one of the now defunct. swans, heading to the Flag tower. The flag tower is the highest building at the Towers and is now used by Phone compaines for broadcasting. We walked up the huge spiral staircase (no i didn't count) and got some cracking views at the top. After having walked back down and getting out of breath, we walked back towards the Towers and to Hex. The shed for Hex is smaller then i imagined and we all squeezed into the control cabin where we watched the operator make six people happy lol (it was a busy day). He turned the lights on in the shed so we could watch the cylinder spinning. It's weird becuase in the ride, when the room is spinning, it feels like it spins forever, but in actual fact it can only spin 1 1/2 revolutions each way otherwise all the cables will snap! We then left the operator to his own devices and headed out towards X sector. We were going to go into Oblivion's maintenance shed but we were running out of time so instead we went for lunch in the board room. This is the very last building on the right hand side of Towers Street if you are looking from the entrance. Inside we had a hot buffet and the lady in charge of Archives (Julie i think) had arranged loads of things around the room such as historical papers, concpet work, construction pics, royalty, etc. While we ate we listend to the music for Charlie and the Chocolate factory. Some of us then managed to sneak on a few rides on Spinball before they closed at 2:30. I then headed back for a bit more grub and then went on my way, thanking everyone for a great day at around 3pm. I'll get some pics up later today but right now i've got to go to a lecture! thanks for reading, pics later today.

Hey guys, just to let you know that in a weeks time i will be one of 20 people selected to go on Alton tower's first ever officail behind-the-sences-tour. Expect lots of photos from me including How hex works (as if you don't know) Air catwalk Rita and Nemesis control rooms and much much more plus i get to have lunch at the end in the board room wich is an archive for past, present and maybe even future projects However i won't be able to get the photos up until monday when i get back to my house see you in a week

Lol great TR however i laughed the hardest when you accused the hummer of being non -environmentally friendly and then you go and have a cigarette!

uuuuuuuuuuuuhhh lol Yes it is, but i thought most people split up the rollercoaster industry into America, Europe, England and Japan. I think England is on it's own becuase it has so many coasters it has its own classification. Although im probably digging my own grave saying this so i'll just shut up lol

I agree and disagree there. NI is a great coaster in it's own right. I think the loop is possible more forceful then Nemesis' and i love the inline twist into the sharp right drop. I also think that the end figure 8 helix is quite intense. I also think that the creativity of the ride layout is on par with Nemesis. The 'preshow' drop in the volcano through the mist, the s bend over a stream after the second cork, the 2 water jets in the lake under the loop all give the ride 'experience' something to cherish. IMO, i think that both rides are great and on par in most places, however i'd say nemesis gets a few more notches on the rope becuase of the intense helix, slightly better execution with themeing and terraforming. NI is let down becuase people keep comapring the 2 becuase a) same type b) same name(ish). Even though my local park is Thorpe, im an Alton fanboy at heart so don't go saying im biased to with thorpe. If NI didn't have nemesis and was say, at a europpean park, everyone would praise it.

that is perhaps the funniest thing i have seen all year

Mmm something smells nice.. 'well it can't be me, i just farted!'

as for woodies, i couldn't say becuase i havent been on too many, just the blackpool woodies (which are all fab) and megaphobia. Although having said that i didn't find gwazi all its hyped up to be. I think it's just that i felt wronged cus it doesn't race anymore. As for steel.........i would say X;/NWO but then again most people don't like it anyway lol

Rita: queen of speed

i dunno if i ever posted one, probably cus i hajrdly post at all lol. Heres one for radio. Downtown disney stage in the background

Black Mamba: definatley my favourite for next year becuase, judging from the artwork and the parks enthusiasm and meticulous detail, it sure is going to be a Nemesis beater in my books. I am also aprticularly excited becuase recent B&M coasters are getting really creative and i think we will see a lot more in the future, with BM being the first 'creative' invert. Expedition everst: You can't fault Disney on this one. Granted that in the last few years they haven't really bought out anything that really stood out (at least in america anyway) and then out of the blue this popped up. Being the biggest mountain and financial conquest Disney have undertaken, Imagineering are going back to the drawing board and creating an adventure that screams Disney magic all over. Certainly will conquer the other highly themed dark ride/ roller coaster over at neighbouring Universal studios. Project Steath: Thorpe park submited their 10 year plan only a few years ago and since it started we have seen Slammer, Rush and lots of other changes that is slowly turing this once quaint park into the thrill ride capital of England. The 'icon' coaster is surely going to be a hit with a majority of english and european guests, and Tussauds really know how to theme coasters when they have their thinking caps on. SFMM Flyer: I have only been to SFMM once and it was when X was testing. I really want to see how this turns out with all the other creative B&M's on the rise, plus with the return of the Dive Machine at BGT, hopefully this will ignite the spark for Flyers by giving us something new. That's my 2 cents