Click here to view the embedded video.

Heres a selection taken of the dreams come true parade which was on mid afternoon in Magic Kingdom. For any Disney purists out there this isnt meant to be the full parade just a small selection of the photographs I had taken.

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.

Top Thrill Dragster was introduced to Cedar Point in 2003. It was made by Intamin and has a height of 420ft, at one point it was the highest coaster in the world, only to be overtaken in 2005 by Kingda Ka at Six flags great adventure, New Jersey at 456ft.

The ride has a top speed of 120mph which is reached in a breathtaking 4 seconds.

For those that requested here’s some of my pictures taken during this trip. I hope you like them.

A couple of the ride entrance.

The Queue line, really feeling the heat about a 1 hour wait.

finally inside the entrance.

The Trains.

Waiting to Launch.

Seconds later.

End of the launch for the hydraulic geeks.

Some general shots of the ride.

Ride Structure.

Ride Exit.

And finally one of my favourite shots took about 8:30pm as the sun was going down.

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.

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.

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.

May 2007 – Blackpools Noahs ark is getting the second part of a much needed paint job to the exterior. The ark is just over 85 years old and considering the Blackpool climate has survived pretty well since the hey days of 1922. The first part of this work took place at around the same time in 2006 with alot of the exterior animals, policeman and Mt Ararat been spruced up. At one point during the 2006 touch up Noah was left headless for a couple of weeks. For some reason perhaps budget the paint job was never completed. Heres a bunch of pictures taking on May 12th. As usual if you have any comments please dont hesistate to get in touch.

Noah standing proud.

Here you can clearly see the amount of scaffolding they have used.

The amount of work on the front of the Ark is quite extensive.

A close up showing the dinosaur caged in scaffolding.

A couple of shots taken from the rear of the Ark.

The Polar bear at the rear of the Ark, I was always puzzled why this didnt get painted back in 2006, for me looking up at the ark it always looked out of place with the freshly painted animals around it.

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.