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

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.

For anyone that’s a fan of dark rides especially the Haunted House or as its now known Duel at Alton towers there is only one real source for information about this ride and thats the haunted one website which has been updated recently.

There’s obviously alot of fans out there as we got together some time ago and wrote an article based on a behind the scenes tour and some history which was provided by the haunted one, this article is one of the most popular on this website with consistently over 1,500 views a month.

If you havent seen the site lately, check it out. http://www.hauntedone.co.uk/

Good luck with the new site Mik, im sure it will be a great success.

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.

If you book in advance you can get park admission for as little as £7.95 a great saving on the current 2008 gate price of £16.95, based on been over 1.3m.

Lightwater Valley has some great attractions and although its not as big as other theme parks like Alton Towers its a great option for a day out if you are in that part of the country.

The pricing is based on advanced bookings which are taken from March, here is a complete list of prices taken from the website.

I try and visit Lightwater Valley at least once a season, this one will be no different.

Lightwater Valley

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.

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.

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.

One of Alton Towers latest attractions as well as the Dung Heap kids area is Haunted Hollow, an in house project costing the park 250k. The Interactive walk through is using an existing short cut from Gloomy wood (opposite Duel) to Merrie England (near the boats). When I last visited the park during adrenalin week the attraction wasnt completed. During normal park operations this attraction isnt scary and even my youngest 5yr old found it quite fun. It should be fantastic if they use this area for the parks Halloween event later in the year from October 13th – November 4th. When the attraction first opened some of the gravestones were attacked by mindless vandels, Its nice to see Alton Towers has fixed these up again.

Theres 2 entrance to this attraction as explained above the first been Gloomy wood. Ill start the walk through from this side to end up over in Merrie England. It’s great if youre a lazy sod like me too as it saves walking up the hill towards the rapids to get back round to Merrie England.

One of the first statues to great you.

This one reminds me of school dinners.

I think this one is a butler.

It looks like a feather duster, but I dont think it is.

The Gravestones.

The bust in the center.

On the left hand side of the bust.

On the right hand side of the bust.

Ok carry on past the lake to the next part of the walk through.

Abonded undertakers carriage.

It would be great to hide in this.

Im not sure what this is supposed to be, for now ill call it the mirror building.

Heed the warning.

I wont spoil the rest of this, see for yourself. Ok lets carry on along the leafy pathway.

Some more gravestones, these ones talk to each other

Further along towards some scary looking doors.

Next is the tomb ‘look if you dare’ is the warning.

Walk a bit further and your at Merrie England, this concludes the walkthough.

The majority of the gravestones talk and theres a bit of interaction but I wont spoil this for anyone.

My Verdict ‘if that counts for anything’

Its worth walking through this just to see what they have done, younger children wont be spooked so dont let that put you off. The area toward the rapids, mine train and log flume does get congested so its an ideal way to open up such a short cut, and great if like me your lazy.

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.

Just got back from a long day walking around Alton Towers for this years adrenaline week event. Crowds as expected were low and queues for the majority of the big attractions were at a minimum for most of the day. It was a boys outing today, no families or partners just rides, rides and a few more rides.

First up was spinball whizzer one of the parks lowest capacity rides, queues were about 30 minutes which was expected and the staff were only sending half of the cars round with 2 people in.

Over at hex this was walk on as it was the weekend earlier.

Charlie and the Chocolate factory had no queues either, i love this ride it just gives you 10 minutes to relax after all the walking around.

Nemesis was quiet for most of the day, the front row queue had a 3 train wait and for the couple of hours mid afternoon we spent in forbidden valley it was quite common to see some of the trains got round half empty.

Ripsaw was out for the day.

Air was running well most of the afternoon with similar queues to Nemesis

Duel was walk on straight into a car. such a shame they introduced those blasters, this is a fantastic ride, theres so many hidden gems for dark ride fans. By having a gun you miss most of it by concentrating on targets. ;-(

Rita had a steady 20-30 minute queue for most of the day, the ride was only running one train which probably caused the queues.

At first i didnt like Rita it was just a launch and then it was all over, but its growing on me some of the airtime is great.

Water Rides.

As you would expect for March the water rides were pretty quiet if not dead for most of the day, at one point i spent a couple of minutues looking at the log flume and every car over the final drop was empty.

Conclusion.
A great day out, fantastic ride count and great company. im looking forward to the next one.

If you want to use any photographs on this blog please get in touch paul@ridemad.com or via the contact form 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.

Remember a time when it was cool to have straight hair, stonewashed denim, t-shirts that changed colour when you got hot and spandex shorts. It was a time before B&M coasters graced alton towers and we had rides that were very tame in comparsion to todays launched and suspended coasters.

In 1992 a day at Alton involved long queues for rides like “The Thunder Looper” and “Corkscrew” the towers were open and you could walk around the whole towers getting lost. Here im going to take a trip back to 1992, I dont remember the date but it was sometime in the summer and id just bought my first SLR camera a Canon EOS 1000FN and didnt have a clue how to work it. For the trip id hired a brand new “Ford escort” which cost about £15.

The Thunder looper

One of my all time favourite rides, it was a Schwarzkopf Shuttle Loop coaster, from memory it was offically opened by Daley Thompson – I was at the park the day it opened and the staff all had a go, as an opening ceremony the track had fireworks/smoke cannisters placed on it and when the train went past it triggered them. It wasnt very effective as it was still light but the smoke could be seen for a couple of hundred metres,

The ride was 722ft in length and had a height of 137ft. The propulsion was a cable which was connected to a huge weight which was enclosed when the 40 ton weight dropped it propelled the train to its top speed of 53mph.

The ride operated at Alton towers from 1990 until 1996

The Corkscrew.
Still opening today the corkscrew come to the park in 1980, one it first offical opening day the local roads were blocked with visitors and the traffic chaos went as far as the M6 motorway, the ride had huge publicity on local and national TV and it was a one of a kind ride in the UK.

The ride was built by Vekoma and is 2400ft in length, I dont ever remember getting my ears hurt so much in 1992, today the pain can be terrible and i almost walk past the ride before nostalgia gets hold and forces me to ride. the one at Flamingo land is allot more comfortable.

Corkscrew is 75ft high has 2 corkscrew inversions and runs at a top speed of 40mph. The park management first rode the ride in Vekomas factory before it was shipped over to the UK.

From memory back in 1992 we queued for about 90 minutes to get on the ride, i think the cars have changed since then but everything else is the same.

The train climbing the hill.

At the top of the hill.

The first drop.

The Congo River Rapids.

I use to love attempt these shots with a slow 1/2 second shutter speed, even after 15 years I still havent perfected it

Nothing much has changed with this ride since it was built, the majority of the theming is still in place.

Ive not seen this jet of water running for some time.

The ride was built by Intamin in 1986 and is 725m in length.

The duration of the ride is about 6 minutes.

Model Railway in the towers.

The railway was broken up after the 92 season.

The daily processions.

When a time that Alton tried to copy the daily procession’s disney style.

The log flume.

Nothing much has changed with this apart from the ride has gained a sponsor and the station has a new roof.

Runaway mine train.

The Swan ride.

The towers and views from the towers.

The Farm before foot and mouth.

The haunted house, before it was ruined with guns and targets.

If you want to use any photographs on this blog please get in touch paul@ridemad.com or use the contact form 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.