Hope you enjoy it.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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.

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/nemesis-at-alton-towers-behind-the-scenes http://www.ridemad.com/nemesis-at-alton-towers-behind-the-scenes#comments Wed, 12 Nov 2008 11:35:22 +0000 Admin http://ridemad.com/?p=217

opened in 1994 Nemesis at a cost of ten million pounds quickly became a favourite coaster amongst enthusiasts and the public alike.

I dont count coasters or number of rides on a particular coaster but if i were to look back over the years to 1994 my count would be well into the hundreds if not more.

A trip to Alton towers just isnt the same without a ride on Nemesis for me and many other enthusiasts. I hope you enjoy the photographs.

Some ride stats.
Height 43ft
Drop 104ft
Length 2,349ft
Max speed 50mph
Inversions 4
Duration 1m 20secs.
Capacity 1,400 riders per hour.

We were fortunate enough to have a behind the scenes tour of the ride in July 2007, this was an organised tour arranged by the park and these are the pictures taken on that event.

Bottom of the Nemesis lift hill looking up.

Bottom of the Nemesis lift hill looking up.

Part way up the Nemesis lift hill.

A picture taken from part way up the Nemesis lift hill.

Looking back near the top of the lift hil..

Just about at the top of the lift hil.

View from the top of the Nemesis lift hill looking down. It was all too much for Andy.

Nemesis loop taken from the top of the lift hill.

Looking at the station from the rear of the ride entrance.

From in front of the control desk looking back.

Something for the wheel geeks.

Nemesis Control panel/ops seat.

Outside the rear of the entrance looking at the train storage/maintenance area.

Ready to go in the maintenance area.

Looking back at the final brakes, notice the track has moved.

Thanks for looking.

I was in a group of about 50 members of Club Pleasure Beach and we got to ride Traumatizer (now relocated to Blackpool as Infusion) and the Cyclone wooden roller coaster (which was later demolished).

Also included in the tour was a Q&A session with one of the parks directors and a look into the workshops located behind the cyclone and finally a tour of the ghost train with the lights on.

These are the pictures taken at this event.

Scary looking head

This stunt jumps up when the cars go past.

Im not sure what this is, it looks like an old rag.

Behind one of the stunts.

From the front end.

Opening coffin, a dark ride default stunt 

An open coffin.

Walking into the ride.

Generally walking around.

Activated as the car goes past, it drops down.

Workshops located behind the Cyclone.

The Blackpool Pleasure Beach Monorail is no different to this and the 10 minute journey around the park gives the visitor a great view of the world.

Pleasure Beach Blackpool bought the monorail in 1964 from the Lausanne expo in Switzerland and it was opened

in Pleasure Beach in 1966. Some great photographs showing the opening can be seen on the park in the north booking office. The monorail was extended after opening with a loop around the first floor of the Casino building.

These behind the scenes photographs were taken during an organised visit by Club Pleasure beach during May 2008.

Monorail storage areas.

Monorail maintenance vehicle, I would love to see this moving around the track.

The Transfer track.

The transfer track for the monorail is located just outside the maintenance/storage area.

The teeth turn below and another piece of track moves into position to allow the train the enter the storage/maintenance area.

Some general track photographs.

Track heading towards Valhalla.

The opposite way towards north car park.

Into the first of the covered areas.

Monorail in action.

Id like to thank Club Pleasure Beach for arranging this trip and the Pleasure Beach management for the tour.

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

Thanks for Reading.

The Skyride was only one of a number of behind the scenes tours that we did during this day, to see the other photographs and tours check out the Behind the scenes category.

The Skyride was installed in 1987 and was manufactured by Poma well known for moving people and engineered by Sir Robert McAlpine. 

Each Gondala is capable of carrying 10 people and the system is 1048 mtrs in length.

Heres some pictures of the skyride maintenance area.

Doors leading to the main skyride station.

And finally some spare parts and exterior shots.

Some quick facts about the skyride.
Opening date : 28th March 1987
Opened by : Prince Edward.
Cost : 6 Million pounds.
Ride Height at peak : 61 Metres.
Capacity : 2,880 guests per hour.
Gondala’s : 52 in total.
With no height restrictions.

Facts from Alton Towers Almanac.

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.

A bit of History about the ride. The Black hole is a Schwarzkopf Jet star 2 coaster with a length of 1919ft, Height of 44’3 and a duration of 1min 50 seconds. It was originally brought to Alton Towers as the Black hole in 1983 before going through a couple of name changes, New Black Hole, Black Hole 2 and finally back to Black hole again. The ride was closed in 2006.

So finally heres a set of photographs taken in July 2007 from inside the Black Hole Tent at Alton Towers.

From outside, some of the old artwork.

Some of the original theming still hanging about

A bit dark but showing the full dome.

Track lying across the floor

Shot of the cars.

Clearly showing the supports still in place.

The ride cars.

Control systems

The loading bay, still pretty much intact.

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.

This article isnt going to be a ride spoiler as such, more an in depth looking behind the scenes of one of the parks most spectacular dark rides.

Hex is a Vekoma Haunted Swing ride, it has operated at the park since 2000. Its located in the towers and well you cant really miss a big great tower.

The control room for Hex is around the back of the towers. Here’s a couple of shots of the main ride operators console.

In the shot below you can see a screen just where the operators elbow is. This controls the full attraction from start to finish the music/effects everything. Its all perfectly timed for the audience. Just behind the green wall is the final queue line to get into the ride chamber itself.

And a close up of the panel (for the guy in Canada who said it wasnt made by Vekoma.!

The rotating room.

*SPOILER*

As you have probably guessed the attraction sits inside a huge drum similar to a washing machine with a center pivot for the seats. the room rotates in huge pit and its quite difficult to get a decent picture, but heres my effort anyway.

This is a picture taken from the side of the attraction looking up, the big white steel bar is the pivot point for the seats.

This is taken from the first operators console looking back at the queue line.

A couple of similar views at different angles.

Turning around now looking at the operators console.

Ever wondered what those numbers are whilst your queuing for Hex. Basically it tells the operator how many people have passed through the entry turnstile. Hex has a capacity of 78 people every few minutes, once they hit 78 the pre show starts.

Once through the turn style this is where you wait for the rest of the customers.

Once enough people are in the queue the doors in front are open and you enter the video room.

Inside the video room.

Im not going to spoil this for anyone, if you want to see the show theres a copy on youtube.

After the show which lasts a few minutes the doors open and your led into the next room.

Again I wont spoil this for anyone who hasn’t been through Hex, so heres a few photographs.

The lighting rig in the center of the room, this is dropped to the floor during winter for maintenance.

The theming in Hex is fantastic.

After a short time you are lead through to the ride.

Seats.

And finally the fallen branch. – Don’t know what this means then take a trip through Hex next time your at Alton Towers.

Thats the end of the tour, thanks to Alton towers and Club pleasure beach for arranging this tour, we also viewed a few more attractions at Alton towers this day, to see a complete list of behind the scenes tours on ridemad click Behind the scenes

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.

Space Invader 2 was originally called space invader when it arrived at the park in 1984, after been refurbished by Kumbak coasters in 2004 it reopened as Space Invader 2.

Anyone that remembers the original Space invader will remember the very uncomfortable and often bumpy ride.

I have memories of the old space invader been a very bumpy ride with some extreme brakes in the dark. As part of this tour we were left to look around the attraction with senior management for about 30 minutes.

It was ideal for most of the group and we just walked around taking photographs and looking at some of the very odd looking space theming most of which you miss whizzing past at 30-40mph.

Some of the 80′s style space 1999 theming.

Some of these spacemen inside the ride are hardly seen when you go past in the cars, they look tacky and believe me they are but that just adds to the attraction in my opinion. I don’t think any of us ride space invader 2 for the fantastic effects.

Some more of the props.

Hanging in the middle of the attraction is a satellite.

This is one odd looking alien.

and a close up of its face.

Some track shots, the ride is 1490ft in length and has a height of 59ft.

This is a pretty good effect when your on the ride in the dark.

Passing through some more space themed artwork.

Mid ride operators console, this isnt manned during normal operational hours.

One of the trains, Pleasure beach staff compared the cost to a Porsche boxster..gulp!!!

Finally the run back into the station. Brakes in the center of the track.

Id like to thank Club Pleasure Beach for arranging this tour and to Keith and his staff at Pleasure Beach Blackpool.

Collection of other behind the scenes tours Behind the scenes.

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.

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.

Ive split this article in two, initially ill take a look at a behind the scenes tour done during July 2007 this will be followed up with some history and photographs of the haunted house written by the Mik the editor of the Haunted one.

Familiar scene outside Duel.

One of the first things to see when you enter the ride itself is he rocking table and chairs.

The guy is hiding in one of the corners.

Walls are covered in Spiders.

I must admit I have never seen this rat before and ive been on this ride an awful lot of times.

Signs not normally noticed when riding, this one is just before the revolving tunnel.

Revolving tunnel with club members in the way

The illusion which creates bats flying overhead.

More zombies.

Zombie.

This guy swings out when you go past, again full of targets.

Scary Spider.

Skeleton, at one point this guy had a hat on.

Further around looking back at the skeleton.

Looking back from the garden room. This room is very hazy so ive tried to remove some of this in photoshop.

One of the most memorable characters the undertaker.

Looking back at the undertaker.

Grim reaper.

more theming.

A few coffins.

Approaching the end of the ride.

A couple of random photos.

The maintenance area.

and again.

One of the control system computers in the maintenance area.

Techy stuff.

In the control box.

Car location planel.

Finally back in the ride station.

Now for a look at the original Haunted House.

Designed by… John Wardley

In conjunction with… Keith Sparks and Sparks Creative Services

Ride Transit System by Mack Designs

Portraits produced by Alton Towers in-house art department.

Year of Design 1990

Year of Opening March 1992

Fibreglass and Poly-foam props produced by Rex Studios

Atmospheric smells provided by Dale Air

Foggers provided by Peasoup

The Haunted house was designed by John Wardley back in 1990 after Alton towers research showed that people thought that the park was mainly aimed at the teenage market.

John Wardley designs for the runaway mine train and the haunted house, were accepted and the ride build proceeded. It took a further two years to get the ride from drawing board to reality. Keith Sparks Company Sparks Creative services were drafted into helped to create the theming within the ride. Sparks creative services enlisted the help of a number of dark ride subcontractors these including Mack rides who designed the 300m transit system and 32 coffin style cars. Each Car cost £18,000 to make and contain an on board computer system that communicates between the ride station and other cars to help keep the distance and speed needed in certain sections of the ride. Rex Studios were involved in the fibreglass and poly-foam construction and Dale air and Pea soup used their expertise to create the atmosphere smells and foggers. Also involved in the construction was the Alton Towers in-house art department they helped create effect throughout the ride but mainly the dressing of the queue area.

The ride was opened officially in March 1992 by Philip Schoffield and the ride proved to be a great success. It was the first expensively created haunted dark ride of its kind in the UK and some thought it surpassed that of the haunted mansion.

The original haunted house integrated sounds, lights, animatronics, aromas and optical illusions on a massive scale. The original queue area is very similar to today’s Duel queue are however the atmosphere was far more intense with many people fleeing before they even got to the ride station.

The ride incorporated seven pieces of music that included The Entrance Hall, The Drawing Room, The Tunnel of Doom, The Giants Lair, The Ghoulish Garden, The Final Chase and Escape! It also incorporated several separate sound effects such as Emily Alton’s haunting lament and Thunder score. There is a debate at the moment to who actually composed the haunted house score, all I can say is that the music is copyrighted to G Smart at Beulah Music Wales.

The ride stood tall as a flagship attraction at Alton Towers for many years but slowly declined from Alton Towers favour and that of the general public, basically because the ride became shabby and under maintained and also rider expectations became too much. There is also a shadier side to the demise of the haunted house attraction, unbeknown to Alton Towers and the Tussauds Group copyright issues arose in relation to the portraits that hung within the ride and they were forced to remove them.

Tussauds need to do something fast to ensure that the expensive ride was able to continue and the idea of Duel and a revamp was needed. Guns were added and new props and portraits were installed and the ride became popular again. Unfortunately the revamp swallowed up the original special effects and new lighting enabled the rider to see the hidden mechanics of the ride. The concept of Duel was good but seemed to be rushed and ill thought through. Leaving die hard dark ride fans divided over the haunted house conversion. I myself felt that the mystery, magic and atmosphere of the ride was gone and didn’t provide the sparkle that a flagship Alton Towers Attraction should have. It seemed to me that the ride was lost in ideas, concepts and suspense; however I must admit that adding the blasters does give the ride definite re-ride appeal.

Haunted One

I would like to pass on a huge thanks to Mik at the Haunted one. for taking the time out to write about the history and provide me with the haunted house photographs. Anyone interested in finding out more about the attraction be sure to visit the http://www.hauntedone.co.uk

If you want to use any photographs that are watermarked 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.

During a recent Club Pleasure Beach event on Monday 14th May we were given the oppurtunity to take a look around Blackpools latest attraction the Vekoma SLC coaster called Infusion.

Infusion opened to the public on the 2nd May 2007 and every visit ive had to the park since has certainly brought the visitors in.

We got the chance to look at pretty much every detail of the ride from the 2nd train and underneath the platform its housed in too the loading bay and ride control panel, here are just a few of the pictures taken during this visit.

The 2nd car.

The transfer track.

Inside the main station.

Ride control box.

CCTV

Final piece of track before the transfer.

The Lift Hill.

Track Photographs.

Id like to thank Club Pleasure Beach, Keith and the management at the Pleasure beach for arranging this tour

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.