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.

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.

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.