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.

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/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.

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.

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.

Knightmare, one of the most anticipated coasters between enthusiasts finally opened this month with an offical media day launch on Friday 27th July. One of my Club pleasure beach friends Chris Hughes took the day off work and spent a few hours taking photographs at Camelot.

Thanks for Chris for the use of his photographs in this article.

King Arthur offically opening the ride.

Knightmare designed by Schwarzkopf and was originally called the Bavarian Mountain railroad before been renamed to BMRX in 1997 when the ride was re-themed.

King Arthur ready to ride.

The ride is from Kobe Portopialand, Japan. Where it had some very elaborate theming, check out the pictures on the RCDB Website.

Some general shots of the media day.

Locals forming an orderley line.

Some stats from courtesy of RCDB Website.

length of 2601ft
height 86ft
max speed 43.5mph
duration 1:56
g-force 5, although this is debatable at the moment as it seems a few people say different levels.

I would like to thank Chris Hughes for the use of his photographs.

Thanks for reading