Hope you enjoy it.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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.

As you would expect from Legoland the attraction boasts a huge amount of things to do for kids of all ages and adults with a 4d cinema showing a couple of films (I personally recommend Bob the Builder) an interactive dark ride, factory tour showing the lego making process which the kids help along with and numerous models on display and areas to build and test your own creations. The attraction also has cafe serving hot and cold drinks and snacks and for the little ones a soft play area. Model making classes/tutorials are held during the day with kids been taught by the professionals how to build a variety of models.

The exterior of Legoland discovery Centre.

The lego Factory Tour.

The host professor brick also gets the kids to help out with the lego making process.

At the end of the process lego blocks are produced and everyone given one to take home.

Legoland discovery Centre is full of models of which some of them took months to build.

Blackpool Tower, Winter Gardens and pleasure beach.

London attractions.

Oblivion at Alton Towers.

And the towers themselves.

They are quite dark but the scenes go from day to night every few minutes.

Various other models.

There’s allot more models at Legoland Discovery Centre than I haven’t shown here as well as the build areas and testing areas for kids. I would advice booking in advance unless you have an annual pass as the centre does get very busy.

Legoland Discovery Centre also has an on site lego shop selling the full range of models from duplo to technix.

If you would like to use any pictures from this post please get in touch paul@ridemad.com. Please don’t just steal them.

Thanks for reading.

In 1926 the Gaol was sold to the local council for office and library use until in 2002 it undertook extensive restoration works in at a cost of two million pounds, after this work the Gaol opened to the public.

It may not sound like an interesting attraction to visit and its hardly advertised anywhere (hardly anyone I spoke to had heard of it).  I was fortunate to be told about the prison by someone who lives locally.

It does provide a fascinating insight into prison life. Been able to see the way prisoners lived, took a bath, what food they ate really does make you grateful you weren’t a criminal back in the day of Ruthin Gaol.

A visit to Ruthin Gaol isnt going to take a full day but its an ideal place to spend a couple of hours, the staff are all very friendly and will go out of there way to help you understand items and they also have some art supplies to give the kids something to do.

Audio commentary is provided in a number of languages but n an attraction of this scale its not really required as most rooms have sufficient information in them and those that don’t are self explanatory.

Lets have a look at something close to my heart food.

Ruthin Gaol used a classification rule for prisoners to decide on what they got to eat. Meals were divided up into Breakfast, dinner and supper and mainly consisted of porridge as shown on the menu below.

Class 1 prisoners or those detained for less than a week got 1 pint of oats for breakfast, bread for dinner and another pint of oats for supper. Females also got the same amounts.

Class 2 prisoners – any detained for over a week and less than a month got 1 pint of oats for breakfast, 1lb bread for dinner and some potatoes and more oats for supper.

And so on as the menu describes. Must have been an easy job for the chef.

In front of the chef on the left is a rolling pin full of wheels to roll out the oats, together with a mixing bowl and the jug of water for the oats.

The Oven, Not much going on considering they are only cooking oats and bread.

Food Stores.

Sparse but after looking at the menu you can see why. There was no mention of what the prison guards ate.

Before going into the main holding areas there’s a number of period posters.

Main work rooms/bathrooms.

Walking in to work room area above, and below on the right hand side a coffin reproduced by a local funeral director with the name John Jones. More about John later.

The Bath House.

One of two shared baths, the text in the room mentions 40 people will share one of these baths and by the 15th person the water had become cold and mucky, by the sounds of it the Victorians were caring about global warming long before we thought about it.

What looks like a towel on the back wall is a sack cloth, this was used to dry yourself.

The staff inserted this into one of the tubs.

Standard cell.

Each cell could house up to 3 people, but only enough bedding for two.

And the same shot from a wider angle showing the width of the cell.

Not much room is there.

Laundry room.

At the back in the steel bowl is some lifebouy soap, anyone remember this as a kid.

You can smell it as soon as you enter the room.

Wardens office.

Scattered around in various display cabinets are some restraints and handcuffs/whips from the period.

Unfortunately non of the above are for sale in the gift shop.

Condemned Cell.

A prisoner having his last rights.

during the war the prison was used to create ammunition for the troops.

The Photo room and seat.

The seat below was used to take photographs of the prisoners, you can notice a ridge in the bottom of the seat and the seat also leans forward slightly, this was to ensure the prisoner was seated in the correct position for the photograph. Yep you guessed that’s what the ridge is for

Weaving/Sowing room.

I’m not sure if they made uniforms in this room or not.

The Dark Cell.

The dark cell was used like a modern day solitary confinement cell. Its obvious from the description but you go into the room and there’s literally no light available as all the windows and painted black. As a visitor you can experience this by the use of a dimmer switch just on the inside of the cell. It really is dark especially when you close the door. It was said people can often go mad in cells like this and I am not surprised having experienced it for only 30 seconds.

Punishment Cell.

Doesn’t look very punishing but the box in the center of the room has a handle on it that the prisoners had to turn for hours at a time, the guards could monitor the number of turns and increase the strength needed to turn to make it worse for the prisoners.

Main prison wing.

Most of this area is now used as record storage,

A model showing how the prison looked.

Famous residents.

John Jones, Loch Bach y Bala. Was a bit of a celebrity in prison terms around the time, a reproduction of his coffin is at the Gaol.

Here some text to back up John’s title as the Welsh Houdini.

“IF ANYONE deserves the title of “the Welsh Houdini,” it’s North Wales’s most notorious jail-breaker and petty criminal, John Jones.

Jones, born near Bala around 1853, spent more of his life in prison than out, yet managed to escape from behind bars on at least five occasions, and tried the feat many more times.

He spent much of his life in Ruthin jail, and by the time of his death had become a local celebrity.

His police file describes him as a kleptomaniac, who was – unsurprisingly perhaps – “extremely anti-police” and who “loved publicity.”

Jones, known locally as Coch Bach y Bala (the little redhead from Bala), came unstuck in 1913, when his latest jailbreak sparked a police hunt which ended with him being shot in the leg.”

Text courtesy of http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-87436512.html

Here’s a photo showing John’s funeral.

William Hughes.

Reported to be the only prisoner ever hanged at Ruthin Gaol, William was charged for murdering his wife.

Various other photographs.

Beautiful clock with the stamp H.M. Prison Ruthin on the face.

Coutryard.

I would strongly recommend anyone in the area to visit Ruthin Gaol its a fascinating place to see that also has something for the children, Prices are cheap compared to other attractions with a family ticket (2+2) for only £10.

If you would like to use any photographs in this post then please get in touch paul@ridemad.com where I will be only to happy to share. Please don’t just steal them and use them elsewhere.

References used.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruthin#Ruthin_Gaol

http://www.ruthingaol.co.uk/

Thanks for reading.

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.

The first waterslide of its kind in the world, Omaka Rocka opens this spring at Aquatica, SeaWorld’s waterpark, in Orlando. Riders will speed down flumes into massive funnels, sliding high up one side and then the other, rocking back and forth, feeling a sensation of near weightlessness.

Thanks to Free range communications for sending the images through.

Thanks for reading.

]]> http://www.ridemad.com/omaka-rocka-aquatica-orlando-construction-photos/feed 0 http://www.ridemad.com/drayton-manor-christmas-2009 http://www.ridemad.com/drayton-manor-christmas-2009#comments Sun, 20 Dec 2009 09:21:35 +0000 Admin http://ridemad.com/?p=379

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.

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.

To see the rest of the photos continue reading.

The ride is relocating to the old Whip building that has been lying SBNO for a number of years. The whip was relocated earlier this year for the new dreamland project in Margate.

A few of the superbowl cars were recently sold on ebay, one of which sold for £114.

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/rhyl-water-chute-video http://www.ridemad.com/rhyl-water-chute-video#comments Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:44:31 +0000 Admin http://ridemad.com/?p=330 Ive been browsing through my images today and come across a load of the water chute at Rhyl Ocean beach amusement park which is now sadly closed. I decided to get a few of the water chute together and create a video/slideshow out of them.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Related Articles.

http://ridemad.com/end-of-an-era-for-rhyls-ocean-beach-fun-fair

http://ridemad.com/rhyls-waterchute-a-final-look

Click here to view the embedded video.

Thanks for reading.

Opened in 2009 Manta is the third B&M coaster at Seaworld in Orlando. Manta is the second flying coaster I have ridden after Air at Alton Towers in the UK. I really enjoyed Manta and at the time of year we visited in September the ride had hardly any queues.

For anyone who hasn’t rode I would recommend the back seat, its very intense and enjoyable.

I don’t really have that much more to say about Manta other than if your in Florida and you get the change to ride it, enjoy it

Manta at Sea world Lift Hill.

Manta’s stats, courtesy of http://www.rcdb.com

Length : 3359ft

Height : 140ft

Drop : 113ft

Max speed : 56mph

Duration : 2:35

Thanks for reading

New for the 2009 season at Lightwater Valley is a rapid ride rented from Showman James Mellor. The ride will be at the park for the 2009 season after which point both parties will review it’s suitability for the park.

I visited the park in April on a warmish day and the ride has a constant queue with at least 15/20 minute wait times, I can imagine this will get alot bigger over the coming summer months when the temperatures rise in the UK.

The ride has took the place of the Pinfari Grizzly Bear coaster which stood at the park from 2004, this ride has since been sold. I certainly wont miss it.

This update contains approximately 25 photographs taking during April at the park.

Originally built by G.V. Llewellyn in 1911 the Southport lakeside miniature railway has been operating for nearly 100 years on the site alongside the marine lake in Southport. The first train ran on the 25th may 1911 when the railway was called Llewellyn’s miniature railway after the builder and creator, this was later renamed to the Southport lakeside miniature railway as it’s known today.

The original route was a straight line which was extended in 1938 to add a sharp turn under the pier into the second station on the line the Marine Parade Station. The original station at this end of the line was called Princess Park which was closed when the extension and Marine Parade stations were built.

The materials for the line were supplied by Bassett-lowke a toy company based in Northampton who was established in 1899, the bassett-lowke brand name was bought by the famous model company Corgi in 1996 and railway locomotive products were relaunched by Corgi in 1999 at which point Bassett-lowke would have been 100 years old.

I have lots of memories of this railway as a family we would visit Southport every summer and spend a few hours on Pleasureland and take a trip on the miniature railway.

Lets take a look at how the railway is looking today

The main station as viewed from Pleasureland. I can remember back to when you bought tickets for the railway from the turnstile on the right hand side, this has been closed for a number of years now and these days tickets for the railway are purchased on the train. The fare for 2009 is £1.50 one way and £2 return.

On the platform looking back at the entrance way above.

Today the signage around the area is looking a bit washed out.

The main platform. I haven’t seen the line on the left operate for some time, can anyone confirm if this is still used, it certainly doesn’t look overgrown.

Looking back to the entrance from the top of the platform.

One of the storage sheds on the left hand side.

The Southport Miniature railway also operate a second engine, which I can only assume runs when the Miniature railway is busy. The shots below were taken on a busy day for the railway the passenger carriages were extended to almost double the previous size.

Train in the second station

The Marine Parade Station.

Signals

A view from the roadside looking at the station.

Again another shot from the second station

A look down at the second station

This shot is taken from a footbridge over the track.

A shot taken from above showing the track going of toward the main station.

Bridge just before pulling into the Marine Parade station – which can be seen in the distance.

A longer range shot of the bridge above adorned with graffiti

A view from the train this time, going under the bridge shown in the above photographs.

I seem to have an obsession with this bridge.

At this point the train has cleared the bridge above and its in the distance of the shot below just around the corner.

Moving quickly toward the main station, this is a shot from the rear of the train.

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Southport Marine left is on the right hand side of the shot below.

Coming into the main Pleasureland station.

A view from the Pleasureland station showing the trains maintenance areas on the left hand side.

One of the maintenance areas.

And the second.

I would recomend this railway to anyone who has some spare time while visting Southport as it really is a gem. If you would like to contribute to this article or have any amendments you feel are factually correct then please get in touch via the contact form I would love to hear from you. Im not a railway enthusiast so any additional information is more than welcome.

Thanks for reading

I have been requested by a few visitors to include some pictures from my trip to Florida last year and if im honest Ive been a bit lazy posting some of these, one request is for Journey to Atlantis at Sea World.  I didn’t get to ride this due to an ear infection picked up earlier in the week on some water other water rides. For anyone planning on visiting Seaworld in the near future from the reports Ive had its not a ride to be missed.

Originally installed in 1998 by Mack rides Journey of Atlantis is clased as a water coaster or as some enthusiasts title liquid coaster.

Top of the ride.

View looking from the bottom of the final drop.

Trains climbing the lift hill of Jounrey

 

Heres a couple of video showing some POV views.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Thanks for reading.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Manta is 3359ft in Length, with a height of 140ft with 4 inversions. Cant wait until September when I get to ride it

I was fortunate enough to ride Millennium force a number of times during a visit to Cedar Point in 2007, we counted about 6 or 7 rides during our visit. After those experiences Millennium force dropped straight in at the number one spot as my favourite coaster.

Millennium force is a favourite of many enthusiasts and since its opening in May 2000 it’s never dropped below the 2nd ranking for the golden ticket awards “top steel roller coaster”.

Millennium force cost Cedar Point 25m USD to build and was built by Intamin AG over the winter of 1999.

Looking up at the lift hill  from the side of the station. Photograph taken on the cedar point railroad.

Looking up from the queueline.

The final banked turn into the station, at this point the trains are still running very quickly.

After the first drop a banked turn

Same view from a different angle

And again, you can see the height more clearly here

A couple for the technical guys. Millennium Force doesnt use a conventional chain lift as other coasters because of the sheer weight of the chain, opting instead for a cable driven system, a catchcar descends down the lift and hitches on underneath the center of the train, this in turn pulls the trains up the 45 degree lift hill to 310ft at which point the catchcar goes over the edge of the hill and disengages the train to start its 93mph ascent to the bottom of the first drop which is 80 degrees and 300ft.

Cable assembly at the bottom of the lift hill.

One of the many tunnels, the trains moved at some speed through these. Top thrill dragster in the background.

A train almost at the top.

Ride station.

Red car, hydraulic lap bars and seatbelt.

Inside the station.

I swear this elbow wasnt in the picture when I took it.

Final blast of airtime coming into the station.

Did i mention the big queues at Cedar Point, this one was about 2 hours.

Related youtube video of Millennium force.

Showing the construction.

Click here to view the embedded video.

On Ride video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

And finally some facts about Millennium Force.

• Length 6595 ft
• Height 310 ft
• Drop 300 ft
• Top Speed 93 mph
• Duration 2:20
• Max vertical angle 80 degrees

Millennium force operates with 3 trains and has a capacity of 1300 riders per hour – Thanks for http://www.rcdb.com for the stats.

If you would like to use any photographs in this set please contact me using the contact form dont just steal them, if you have any commercial enquires again just use the contact form.

Thanks for reading.

]]> http://www.ridemad.com/millennium-force-at-cedar-point/feed 0 http://www.ridemad.com/fountains-at-blackpool-pleasure-beach http://www.ridemad.com/fountains-at-blackpool-pleasure-beach#comments Sat, 14 Feb 2009 20:27:43 +0000 Admin http://ridemad.com/?p=262 After hearing lots of stories coming out of pleasure beach for the last couple of weeks about the new dancing fountains it was a pleasure to finally witness them for myself on this years open day February 14th 2009.

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.