Theme park fans who enjoy getting wet n’ wild are celebrating this week as Holiday World in Indiana unveiled plans to open the world’s longest water slide.

The £6m ‘Mammoth’ is due to open in May 2012 and will be 1,700 feet long, 69 feet tall and will cover an area of over three acres.

In the meantime, thrill-seekers have plenty of other options before tackling Mammoth next year, as international travel search site Skyscanner discovered on an adrenalin-fuelled trip round the world’s best theme park rides.

Kingda Ka, New Jersey
The undisputed tallest roller coaster in the world, 456-foot high monster Kingda Ka in Jackson, New Jersey goes from 0 to 128mph in 3.5 seconds, also making it the world’s second fastest roller coaster. Hold on to your hats.

Formula Rossa, Abu Dhabi
Stealing Kingda Ka’s crown as the world’s fastest roller coaster is the 150-mph Formula Rossa at Ferrari World in Abu Dhabi. The red-hot ride is the centrepiece of the new Ferrari theme park and goes so fast that participants sitting at the front of the ride are made to wear special protective glasses normally used for skydiving.

Collusus, Surrey
For something a little different, why not try the world’s first 10 looping roller coaster at Thorpe Park. The ride spins passengers through the inversions at incredible speeds, before thrusting through a quadruple corkscrew to finish. This one is not recommended after a big meal.

Space Mountain, Orlando
In many ways the classic white-knuckle theme park ride, Space Mountain at Walt Disney resort in Orlando has been thrilling people of all ages for over 30 years. A refurbished version of the ride opened in 2009, and boasts incredible space-themed visuals alongside terrifying drops into pitch black zones.

X2, California
The world’s first 4-D roller coaster ride, the X2 at Six Flags Magic Mountain features 360-degree rotating seats and jaw-dropping face first drops. Riders can enjoy an unexpected series of twists and turns along the 3,600 foot steel structure.

Replaced the waterfall on the external facia of the ark.

Heres some more information about the Sculptures from the artist who created them.

The idea behind the sculpture garden was to open up the view of the rides from the entrance which used to be obstructed by the dodgems, and to increase the flow into the Pleasure Beach. The sculpture garden is also designed to create a peaceful spot for people to meet, sit and even escape from the excitement a bit. Several of the water features and sculptures by David Harber, are surrounded by brick retaining walls at just the right height for sitting.

Thanks for looking.

After enjoying a great day at Drayton Manor last Christmas we repeated the experience again this year, the kids will shortly be coming to the age when Drayton Manor and Thomas land will no longer be cool so I intend to visit these Christmas events as much as possible.

The event changed slightly this year with the big top christmas pantomine show getting replaced by a show in Thomas land with singing and festive activities taking the center of this.

As with last year they had more snow and the children and adults in the audience really enjoyed this, the snow although synthetic made a great day even better and really gives you that festive wake up call that’s been missing the previous 11 months of the year.

The zoo, 4d cinema and Thomasland were open and unlike last year the amount of food available on site was varied and most tastes catered for.

As with last year the focus of the event was Thomas land.

This is home to a great model railway and although it wasnt running on the day it looked superb.

Thomas Land station.

Ive purposely not included a load of Thomas Land photographs as any regular visitors will already know what it looks like, but if you want to see what this event was like last year (2008) then take a look at my post from the time. Thomasland Christmas 2008

here’s a video to accompany this years trip.

Click here to view the embedded video.

If you want to use any photographs then please dont steal them get in touch as im more than to share, I can be contacted paul@ridemad.com or via the contact form or comments box with each post.

Thanks for reading.

The ride manufactured by S&S boasts the world steepest first drop at a angle of 112 degrees. The ride cost varies depending on who you speak to but the average price tag seems to be around 4 million pounds.

When the questioned about the strange name of the ride its a reference to other parks falsely boasting about their latest attractions been the worlds first etc… hmm wonder who they mean .

The photographs were taken at various times of the day as you may notice from the dull skies.

We visited Flamingo Land as part of an organised tour with Club Pleasure Beach and had an exclusive ride session as well as a look behind the scenes and a chat with the staff and ride operators.

Here’s the pictures from that tour.

Ride Signage.

A view from the side showing the rides record breaking 112 degree angle first drop.

Another couple of ride shots.

4 Seat trains are used on Mumbo Jumbo.

Another train shot showing the water dummies parked on the transfer track.

A closer look at the trains.

A look underneath.

In the center the braking components and either side the chain dog (grabs the chain on the lift) and anti rollback (this causes the click, click sound when going up a lift hill)

The lift hill.

Motor.

On ride photographs.

Mumbo Jumbo structure showing evacuation platform.

General Track photographs.

If you would like to use any photographs from this set please get in touch via the contact form or paul@ridemad.com, im quite happy to share and have high resolution copies of all the photographs used. Please don’t just use them without asking.

Thanks to Club Pleasure Beach and the operations staff at Flamingoland for making this trip possible.

Thanks for reading.

Ride tickets are £6 for adults and kids over 1.4m in height. £5 for concessions and £36 for a private gondola and for the really extravagant £40 for the private VIP gondola. Each gondola seats 6 people apart from the VIP one which only seats 4.

The wheel is 60 metres high but because of its elevated position it stands 80 metres about ground level.

The Wheel takes 10 riggers a week to build and is transported from site to site on 11 trucks.

On the day we rode it the wind was very strong and the gondolas do rock about a fair bit especially a height. but saying that we really enjoyed it and the great views of the city and would definitely ride again on my next visit to Liverpool.

Follow the post below and take a look at the rest of the photographs and video to accompany this.

Geek Shot.

Here’s a video to accompany the photographs.

Click here to view the embedded video.

If you have any comment please use the comments below alternatively drop me an email using the contact form.

Thanks for reading

]]> http://www.ridemad.com/big-wheel-at-liverpool-one-liverpool/feed 0 http://www.ridemad.com/blackpool-pleasure-beach-2009-last-day-of-the-main-season http://www.ridemad.com/blackpool-pleasure-beach-2009-last-day-of-the-main-season#comments Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:30:42 +0000 Admin http://ridemad.com/?p=328 November 8th 2009 the final day of the main season for Blackpool Pleasure beach. A season thats seen many up and downs with closed rides and rumours of a Beaver Creek takeover by Nickelodeon just for starters. This short video was put together on the final day at a trip I attended with Club Pleasure Beach.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Thanks for reading.

The fountains cost an estimated 80 thousand pounds and from what ive seen they are worth every penny and make what was a empty space a great meeting place for people and are an ideal play area for children as they run and duck under the fountains much to the annoyance of parents watching.

From what I could gather the fountains operate about every fifteen minutes to various pieces of music, each show lasts for about six and half minutes. It will be nice in the summer to sit down and have a drink and watch these. Well done Pleasure Beach.

Here’s a couple of photograph’s and a video of the display taken below.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Thanks for reading.

With a promise of snow and entertainment it was too hard to resist, plus my 7 year old daughter is a comeplete Thomas addict.

As a land themed around the popular childrens books written by Rev W Awdry Thomas Land is a superb addition to Drayton Manor with all the rides and the area (known as Island of Sodor in the books) themed around the adventures of the 6 wheeled train and his friends.

For Christmas the staff at Drayon Manor have really raided the piggy bank as the Christmas theming is superb with a great mixture of decorations and entertainment.

As we entered Thomas Land we were greated with the controller and entertainers singing and masses of snow coming out of two machines next to them.

The controller.

Thomas heading for the turntable.

Snow everywhere, my kids in the center of the photograph with the entertainers singing in the background.

Entrance to Thomasland.

Percy leaving the station.

A very festive looking station, wait until you see the inside.

Thomas in the station, ready to come out, turnaround and take the next train full of passengers.

The controller singing away.

Inside the station.

Station at night.

Percy heading back out with a train full of passengers.

Overhead look at the station from the footbridge crossing the track.

Inside the station, queue area.

Platform 1.

The Christmas Show.

As part of the admission all children under 9 get a free present as part of the Christmas show.

The show lasts about 30 minutes and our session was 4pm. Our trip was prebooked via telephone and we were allocated a 4pm slot. I wont go into detail about the show and spoil it for anyone, but its obviously aimed at children.

As this was a Thomas Land event the rest of Drayton Manor was closed only Thomas Land and the Carousel are open for these weekends.

Heres the rest of the photographs taken during this visit.

If you are thinking about visiting Thomas Land at Drayton Manor then I would really recomend it especially if you have young children. Please dont steal any photographs if you want copies of anything please get in touch via the contact form.

Thanks for reading

Originally installed in 1933 the main station was demolished by fire in 1934 and rebuilt under the architectural supervision of Joseph Emberton who went on to redesign most of the pleasure beach during the 30′s.  The new station opened in 1935 and was later rebuilt to a victorian style in 1970.

Two of the diesel powered trains Mary Louise a 462 Pacific type express and Carol Jean a 464 Baltic type engines were built at Hudswell works in Leeds, The third train Princess Royal was later renamed Geoffrey Thompson OBE, the parks then owner of the park. Another train Barbie acts as a track maintainance vehicle and can be often seen parked up outside the workshops.

The Train has two stations the main station where the trains are kept with a maintenance facility and workshops and the second station Star Holt named after the public house on the south side of Pleasure Beach Blackpool. Star Holt isn’t used very much since the south park entrance closed but you can still instruct the driver to drop you off or board at this once popular stop.

If anyone knows anymore information about the Pleasure beach express please get in touch Id love to know some more about it, as you can tell my knowledge on the subject of trains is very limited.

Heres a collection of photographs ive taken over the last few years of visiting Pleasure Beach.

The stations.

Firstly the main station opposite Beaver Creek.

Bridge over the minature railway.

Victorian designed station, this photograph was taken from the rear of the train, im not sure on actually capacity but it must be getting on for 100 guests.

Footbridge, walk down the steps to enter the station

The same footbridge shot from the rear, showing the connection to the station.

View from inside the station, Space invader 2 roller coaster and Beaver Creek in the background.

Original engine fitted to the Princess royal train.

This display shows the route of Pleasure Beach express as well as a number of photographs taken along the route.

This sign is above the display above.

2nd Station Star Halt.

Complete with adverts from the period.

Taken from inside the train showing the back wall of Star Halt.

All aboard the train ready to depart.

Lets take a trip on Pleasure Beach Express, any purists reading this the photographs may not be in complete order so please dont tell me their not 

On the way back into the station you go passed a small model village.

Another shot of the model village, Revolution (orange track) and Avalanche in the distance.

From inside one of the tunnels, this one is just before coming back onto the final straight back into the station.

Various wildlife along the route.

Jim’s quick sand named after former park manager Jim Rowlands.

Skull Island.

One of the many skulls hanging down.

Wildlife

Totem Pole

A number of whistle signs along the route.

Looking ahead to skull island and the hanging skulls.

To the right the big blue hotel, wooden coaster big dipper and the Pepsi Max Big One.

Another Tunnel.

Zebra’s scattered along the way

The skull again this time with clear water

Big Dipper again

More wildlife.

Engine number 4473 – Carol Jean

Minature signal box near the main station.

Pepsi Max big one, photo spot.

This sign is above the workshops.

Underneath the Pepsi Max Big one station.

A behind the scenes look at Pleasure Beach Express.

Thanks for Club Pleasure Beach and the management of Pleasure Beach Blackpool for arranging this tour.

Barbie

Carol Jean.

Thanks for reading, if you have any questions or would like to use any photographs from this gallery please get in touch, don’t just steal the photographs im more than happy to share and i dont want to start pasting huge copyright notices across them as it spoils it for everyone then.

Thanks again for reading.

]]> http://www.ridemad.com/pleasure-beach-express-pleasure-beach-blackpool/feed 0 http://www.ridemad.com/american-adventure-theme-park-in-1990 http://www.ridemad.com/american-adventure-theme-park-in-1990#comments Wed, 24 Sep 2008 08:27:44 +0000 Admin http://ridemad.com/?p=209 l would like to thank a freind of mine Gordon Clinton-Lindop for allowing me to use these photographs of American adventure.

They were taken during the 1990 season and I know from comments to the site and emails its a park allot of people have missed.

I only got to visit the park once during its operation and that was the year before it closed.

The Vekoma boomerang coaster featured on the left  hand side was once classed as Britains best coaster after it opened in 1989.

For anyone that have never been to American Adventure theme park, it was built on the site of an old open cast coal mine and centered around a huge lake in the middle of the park. Some people believe the demise of the park came in 2005 when they re-themed the park as a family park and got rid of the white knuckle rides  including the Vekoma Boomerang coaster they named “the missile’.

Bottom of the first hill, beginning the slow pull back.

Buffalo ride.

I’m guessing this photograph was taken from the wheel. In the distance the log ride and balloons (far left)

Helter Skelter.

A view across the huge lake.

Thanks again to Gordon Clinton-Lindop for the use of the photographs.

To see my previous trip report from American Adventure click here.

If you want to comment on this please use the comment form, contact form or join the ridemad discussion forums.

Thanks for reading.

This is a set of photographs taken during July 2008 of the Back lot tour ride at Disneyland Paris.

The ride is similar to the one at Orlando but the tour doesnt start on foot, each tour is done on the trams which you stay on until you return back to the loading bay.

Each trip lasts about 15 minutes and you have plenty of time for taking pictures during this trip.

I actually preferred this ride to the one we had done previously in Orlando back in Febraury, apart from been allot newer than the Orlando Back lot tour the duration was just right and didnt involve the pre show antics which are featured in Florida.

The Backlot tour ride opened in Walt Disney Studios, Disneyland Paris in March 2002 when the studios part of Disneyland Paris area was opened.

One of the shuttles from Armegeddon, obviously the one that didnt get blown up on entering the asteroid.

Various film items along the full stretch of the back lot tour, half of which I have no idea where they came from.

More props.

Items from 102 Dalmations.

Dinosaur.

Catastrophe Canyon.

Around the back of the above stunt, its suprising how big this set really is and the amount of water that’s required.

Some of the pumps for the above set.

I think these are from Pearl Harbour

Costume department, Below the clothes from Narnia.

Loads of cars from the movies. too many to mention.

This is a London Street from reign of fire.

Crushed Volvo.

More cars from 101 Dalmations.

Thanks for reading, if you would like to discuss this article further either leave a comment, contact me using the contact form or join in at the ridemad forums

Thanks for reading.

One of the many highlights for me of a trip to somewhere like Disney is the dark rides.

With attractions like It’s a small world and Pirates topping the list. This first set of photographs covers most of the small world ride, however some photographs and sets are missing due to the fact the ride is very dark in places and ISO 1600 on my camera is the best I have for low light.

Its a short ride and to me one of the great disney classics.

Before getting to the attraction here’s some history gathered from Wiki.

It’s a small world History.

In 1956, Walt Disney attended a conference, along with many other notable celebrities of the time, at the invitation of President Eisenhower. The conference was about founding a national organization to help promote world peace through international civilian travel. (This dream became a reality in 1956, when Eisenhower founded the People to People Student Ambassador Program.) Inspired by the ideas from the meeting, Disney returned to California and set to work, creating the “It’s A Small World” ride at Disneyland.

Like several other Disneyland attractions, “It’s a Small World” originated with the 1964/1965 New York World’s Fair (it was Pepsi’s pavilion.) After the fair closed, the ride was transferred to Disneyland along with three other attractions from the fair that year; Primeval World Diorama, Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln and the Carousel of Progress.

The attraction’s design was done by Mary Blair, who was also an art director on several Disney animated features (including Cinderella and Peter Pan). Like many Disneyland and Walt Disney World attractions, scenes and characters were designed by Marc Davis, while his wife, Alice Davis, designed the costumes for the dolls. Blaine Gibson sculpted the animatronic figures, while Harriet Burns painted them. Many of the dolls were created by Joyce Carlson who is honored with a shop window along the Magic Kingdom’s Main Street U.S.A. The sign there reads: “Dolls by Miss Joyce, Dollmaker for the World.” Rolly Crump designed the Tower of the Four Winds (a huge structure controlled by the four winds, which stood at the entrance to the attraction at the World’s Fair).

The name of the ride was originally “children of the world”. When Walt Disney demonstrated it to songwriters Robert B. Sherman and Richard M. Sherman, the ride’s soundtrack featured numerous national anthems all playing at once. Disney said, “I need one song.” In response, the brothers wrote one of the best known Disney tunes of all time: It’s a Small World (After All). It is argued that the song may be the most performed and translated song on earth.

On January 22nd, 2008, Disneyland closed its version of the ride until November 29th for refurbishment. Rumors of removing the rainforest scene for a United States scene were squashed by a memo from Marty Sklar, but various Disney characters will seamlessly be added throughout the attraction, which has received mixed feedback.

Paris.

In Disneyland Resort Paris, the ride is different from, but similar to, the other versions of the ride. The backgrounds and music are all different and there is a new room: a North America room, with dolls representing Canada and the United States. This version also has a complete Middle Eastern section in which the song is sung in Arabic. In the finale scene, the song is sung in German and English as well as French.

The song, we all know the song

The well-known catchiness of the song is due not only to its constant repetition for the duration of the ride (which lasts about fifteen minutes, not including time in line), but Robert B. Sherman explains that the structure of the song may also play a role:

Like many songs, “It’s a Small World” has a verse and a chorus. One thing which makes this song particularly ‘catchy’ is that the verse and chorus work in counterpoint to each other. This means that you can play the same chords over and over again, but with different melodies. The repetitive, yet varied pattern tricks your mind into absorbing the work without it becoming tiresome to your ear.

Additionally, the World’s Fair version of the song is the one commonly heard on various Disney compilation albums. The song also inspired a Disney Read-Along.

The song was later given two covers for the dance video game Dance Dance Revolution Disney Mix: a Eurobeat cover by ABeatC All Stars and a Happy Hardcore instrumental remix entitled “IT’S A SMALL WORLD (Ducking Hardcore MIX)” by TOMOSUKE and U1-ASAMI, which featured sampling of Donald Duck and was the hardest song in the game. In Ecuador, this song serves as a theme for the chain of toy stores called Mi Juguetería. The original 1964 version of the song can be heard as one enters the store.

The Ride.

Thanks for reading

Want to discuss this further visit the forums

Im hoping to get the remaining few thousand updated by the end of the week with some additional photographs from the recent florida trip and a few other parks taking the total to just over 10,000 possibly more with the closed parks (southport, Rhyl ocean beach and American adventure).

If anyone has any photographs they would like to submit please get in touch. In the meantime the new gallery is in place of the old one at http://www.ridemad.com/photo

Thanks for reading.
Paul

Ive been having some on going maintainance problems with the gallery for some time so rather than patch up and put it back online I may move everything over to Coppermine in the next few days.

No content has been lost and any photographs submitted by members are all backed up and will be imported into the new gallery.

Thanks

If there’s one thing that annoys enthusiasts more than wasps at theme parks it’s queue jumpers, the people that can’t read the huge “NO QUEUE JUMPING” signs and the ones at the back of the queue when god handed out brains. These people young and old seem to have no morals or respect for other people.

Even worse are the parks that plainly refuse to do anything about this annoying, rude and disrespectful practice that happens so commonly, even though its spelt out on the signage queue jumping will not be tolerated.

I have experienced this all over the world and heard numerous excuses for this behavior.

I needed to go to the toilet.

Well why didn’t you think of that before entering the queue, allot of parks display queue times and the ones that don’t; well you can get an idea of how long a queue is just by taking a couple of minutes to study a queue line, its no excuse.

I saved a space for someone.

Why didn’t you just wait for them to do what they were doing and then join the queue line, as a group 99% of normal people would do this?

One of my local parks Camelot, UK has a no queue jumping policy, which the staff either don’t know about or have very little respect for there employer’s that it’s not enforced. I joined the line for Camelot’s latest coaster Knightmare today (which incidentally was running one train, on its busiest day of the season for far) a short queue line today took 57 minutes from start to finish, which would have been allot more if I and a number of other visitors hadn’t challenged some queue jumpers intent on pushing to the front of the queue to join friends.

I’d seen a queue jumper challenged by a member of RCCGB a young lad who was intent on climbing over a fence to be with friends until he was challenged then he tried to sneak past me instead. The response ‘do you have a problem’ Well actually no I don’t as you aren’t going to get your weedy 7 stone ass past my 15 stone of ‘paid for’ blubber, there isn’t a problem.

The same queue line moments later I witnessed a dad in front of me trying to get his 3 daughters past me in the queue, what was even more surprising was the huge 3ft x 2ft Sign behind him saying ‘no queue Jumpers’ he either couldn’t read or had very little respect for fellow visitors.

I’m going to write to Camelot about this, as it shouldn’t be tolerated why should the paying public have to put up with this as IT is clearly tolerated by the park or they don’t have enough staff to do anything about it. If the later is the case then just drop the signs and lets have a free for all.

I’d love to hear from anyone who has experienced problems like this at parks, not just Camelot I know they are all the same, do you have an opinion on this if so please get in touch and ill publish your comments. The easiest way to get in touch is via the contact page above or drop me an email paul@ridemad.com.

Thanks for Reading.

When queuing the kids all have their photographs taken and then they are lead out to a holding pen, once the pen is full the kids are walked through to the driving school where they get to pick their own single seat electric car. After a quick briefing by the staff the attraction is started on a 5 minute or so timer, after this period the cars just stop wherever they are and the kids get off and make way for the next bunch. In total they have about 20 cars operating at a time. Each car doesn’t go any faster than walking speed.

The attraction is very elaborately themed with bright colours and animals as you would expect, all the road markings in the driving school are marked out identically as we see on UK roads with roundabouts, give way junctions and stop signs. Of course try telling a child to stop and wait for people to go past is a bit of a joke as they take no notice and it’s quite common for the odd head on or side shunt from another child. Some kids are quite happy to go round roundabouts the wrong way, up kerbs, crash into traffic lights and even run over some of the Alton Towers staff who are trying to control the chaos.

They also have traffic lights again most kids ignore these as the excitement of controlling their own cars gets the better of them. At the far side of the attraction opposite where you enter they have a tunnel (car wash) that the kids drive through and a bubble machine which throws thousands of soap suds into the air.

This is a great attraction for younger children it’s also great for the adults to watch on at the chaos they are causing. Alton Towers has a few staff who work in the attraction that act as roadside assistance, clear traffic jams and generally help the kids along. There is also a bridge over the track that parent/guardians can look down on the kids or take photographs/video of them as they go around, of course stand on the bridge get your camera ready and the kids generally go the other way as they are concentrating that much.

This attraction is a great addition to the parks line up of attractions for younger children. Children have to be between 1.0m and 1.4m to drive the cars.

The cars are parked inside at night and are charged up ready for the next day, 12v chargers are plugged into all cars overnight.

Next time your at Alton towers with the kids its worth stopping for 10 minutes.

Heres a few pictures of the attraction taking during September 2007.

Zebra crossing with a Zebra.

The elaborate theming.

A couple of views from the top of the Bridge.

Looking down to the car wash.

The Car Wash.

The Car wash foam.

The Advanced Driving Area, this is a bit more challenging for the kids, although not many use it.

You have every reason to hide.

My Daughter, her mum taught her to drive

General Views.

Behind the scenes in the workshop/charging area.

Cars plugged in for the evening.

Underside of a car.

If you want to use any photographs on this blog please get in touch paul@ridemad.com im quite happy to share and have high resolution copies of everything used, to see the complete gallery visit the Ridemad Gallery

Thanks for Reading.

Infusion was brought to Blackpool late last year after the Blackpools sister park Southport Pleasureland closed down. The attractoion was known as Traumatizer when it was based in Southport.

Infusion sits on the site of the old Log flume at Pleasure Beach.

As most of you who read this blog know I have 2 kids and when we visit the Pleasure Beach we are usually thinking about heading home at around 4pm, to make sure we can get them home at a reasonable hour. This weekend was the perfect time to have a look at this coaster, it was about 8:30-9:00pm and all the pictures were took without flash using what light was available and a few slow shutter speeds. I hope you like the pictures.

The main fountains in the centre of the lake.

Bottom of the first drop.

Looks really quick

Looking towards the brake section.

The first drop.

Pepsi Max Big One in the background.

Related Articles.
Behind the scenes, Infusion Blackpool

Thanks for Reading.

If you want to use any photographs on this blog please get in touch paul@ridemad.com im quite happy to share and have high resolution copies of everything used, to see the complete gallery visit the Ridemad Gallery

The tour consisted of a number of attractions including Duel, Hex, Air, Oblivion and the old Black hole site. One part of the tour I was looking forward to seeing was Rita the hydraulic launched coaster from Intamin which was introduced to the park in April 2005.

The tour consisted of a look round the maintenance areas, a look into the hydraulic room and the ride control room.

Rita is located in the Ugland area of the park. Here’s some stats courtesy of http://www.rcdb.com

Length 2099ft

Height 68ft 11

Max speed 61.1mph

Duration 0:25 seconds

My collection of photographs taken during the tour.

I’ll start in the maintenance area.

From the entrance to where the trains come in.

Looking back to where the above picture was taken from.

Spare wheels.

More spares, this time for the brake fins.

Recently removed wheels.

Outside the maintenance area under the ride platform are the test dummies Intamin use in the trains, these are normally filled with water when testing.

From outside the maintenance area looking up to the ride platform.

A deserted station following one of the many test launches before the attraction is open to the public.

From behind the barriers near the control box.

Another unmanned test launch.

Tests finished the staff turn up and clean the trains ready to open.

We were lucky and managed to have two rides on Rita before the park opened to the public.

Control box.

As you would expect they use a number of computers to operate Rita, here’s a couple of pictures of the main one in the control box.

And finally from the control box looking at the launch area of the ride.

The Hydraulic room.

You can just make out in the above picture, at the end of the launch area the building directly in front is the hydraulic room for Rita. All the hydraulics and cable drum are behind reinforced glass and the area is secure enough to ensure nobody is allowed in the room when a launch is taking place.

Because of the reinforced glass trying a take a picture of the hydraulics is almost impossible, heres my attempt.

Also in this building is another computer than monitors the launches etc, the engineers told me Intamin can dial into this should any problems occur. Im a bit worried it runs XP

Related Posts.

Behind the scenes of Air.

Behind the scenes of Duel including some ride history.

This is an excellent tour if you get the chance its well worth doing, im our group nobody come away disappointed. I would like to thank Wayne, James and the engineering staff at Alton Towers for a great day.

If you want to use any photographs on this blog please get in touch paul@ridemad.com im quite happy to share and have high resolution copies of everything used, to see the complete gallery visit the Ridemad Gallery

Thanks for Reading.

Thanks to Club Pleasure beach I had the opportunity to spend the day doing a behind the scenes tour of Alton Towers back in July. The tour consisted of trips around workshops/rides and out of bounds areas and was a real an eye opener. In our group of 16-17 enthusiasts I dont think anyone was disappointed.

Air was built for the 2002 season at a cost of 12 million pounds and was opened on 16th March. Air is a coaster designed by John Wardley and constructed by Bollinger and Mabillard (B&M)

First some facts about Air.

Total Length : 2755ft
Height : 65ft
Top speed : 46mph
Duration : 1 minute 40 seconds.

I’ll start with the tour of the lifthill.

From the bottom of the hill looking up.

The top of the hill looking over to where the train disengages from the lift.

From the top of the lift hill looking down.

A view of Nemesis from the top of the lift hill.

A view of Air from the top of the lift hill.

Back down to earth now the tunnel that the train comes out of before climbing the hill. You can see the ride stations in the distance.

Train number 3 parked up in the second station.

One of the trains in the garage.

The final set pieces of track coming back into the station, maintenance area is on the right hand side.

The same piece of track from a different view.

And finally the control panel for Air.

Thanks to RCDB (http://www.rcdb.com) for the stats. Id also like to thank Darren and James at Alton Towers for making the day so memorable. Cheers

If you want to use any photographs on this blog please get in touch paul@ridemad.com im quite happy to share and have high resolution copies of everything used, to see the complete gallery visit the Ridemad Gallery

Thanks for Reading.

Well after been threatened with closure for a number years its finally happened Ocean Beach fun fair closed it gates for the last time yesterday (Sunday 2nd September 2007).

I wasnt suprised to see the park busy for its final day as press the mayor and a lot of local residents came to give the park a good send of.

Ive visited Rhyl since I was a little child perhaps 30 years or more and have fond memories of visiting the park with my family over the summer holidays.

After operating in the area since 1954 the fun fair become one of North Wales most visited tourist attractions. The park has suffered over the last few years though with the only recent addition been the Pepsi-Cola Looping coaster a Pinfari ZL42.

It was a sad day for me yesterday as I have visited Ocean Beach for the last 30+ years and I have some great memories as a child. None of them are very vivid mainly the smell of donuts, toffee apples and chips. But it was a place that kept my family visiting a number of times every summer. To many residents in the north west of england Rhyl, Towyn and Colwyn Bay were always somewhere we looked forward to visiting at summer. Looking back now we never had much money but we always spent the full day on the fair and come home with a belly full of fast food and sugar filled snacks.

The park has been on its last legs for a number of years though and after our visit last year and the year before I was suprised the park could open for another summer the visitor numbers were rock bottom and that was in the middle of summer.

What attractions were left in the end.

All of the attractions that were open at the start of the season were operational yesterday, heres some pictures of the fair on its last day. The weather was really bad yesterday and I don’t think it stopped raining during the duration of our visit.

Waltzers.

Giant Slide.

Ghost Train.

Twister ride.

My two children enjoying the twister.

Juvenille Big Wheel.

Fun House.

Ski Jump.

Dodgems.

Star wars ride.

Nessie Kiddie coaster.

Terminator 3.

Jetstar Coaster.

Pepsi-Cola Looping coaster.

Water Chute.

Selection of Juvenille rides.

And finally some general views of the park.

Heres some comments about the fair from a reader Juliet and her family.

I spent lots of time there as a kid with my older sisters. They were usually getting chatted up by the ride operators..I got quite a few free rides just to keep me out of the way! I remember very fondly the Speedway, Caterpiller, The Roter (I never went on it…but it was my cousins favourite). I also remember from when I was little a Big Wheel, a large wooden Rollercoaster, A beautiful set of Gallopers (which seemed to vanish about 5 years ago!!). The Waltzer i spent many happy hours on burned down (can’t recall when) but thankfully the replacement was just as good..its the one we rode on yesterday. The Helterskelter appears to be the same one its always been. The Twister I remember was an older, wooden model which was near the entrance to the park.
When I was in my early teens, me and my friends would get the train from Abergele into Rhyl to go shopping…usually spending our money on records. In the summer months (even after school!) we would take our new tunes to the fairground and ask the ops to play them for us while we were on the rides!
Happy times.
Happy memories.

I had a quick look on youtube and found a couple of Ocean beach videos.

The Water chute taken by David Ellis.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Jetstream Coaster taken by David Ellis.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Pepsi Cola looping coaster taken by David Ellis.

Click here to view the embedded video.

A video shot in 1982 and published by furiekins.

Click here to view the embedded video.

A nicely put together video by serialdownloader.

Click here to view the embedded video.

So whats happening to Ocean Beach.

As part of a 50 million pound regeneration plan the developers Modus based in Manchester have called the new development Ocean Plaza. It includes an 85,000 sq ft Asda supermarket, 40,000 sq ft of leisure space likely to be used as a fitness suite and bingo hall, offices, 60-bedroom hotel, bars, restaurants and cafes, 1,000 car park spaces and 180 apartments.

Heres a proposed view of how the site will look taken from Modus website.

I don’t want to get really nostalgic about this but im really going to miss this park. I wish Rhyl Council good luck with the regeneration.

If you have any comments or memories about this fair id love to hear from you.

Related articles and websites.

A Closer look at Rhyl’s waterchute.

Modus Properties

Closed Park archive on Ridemad.

Thanks to Juliet and David Ellis for the use of the materials.

If you want to use any photographs on this blog please get in touch paul@ridemad.com im quite happy to share and have high resolution copies of everything used, to see the complete gallery visit the Ridemad Gallery

Thanks for Reading.