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.

The Blackpool Pleasure Beach Monorail is no different to this and the 10 minute journey around the park gives the visitor a great view of the world.

Pleasure Beach Blackpool bought the monorail in 1964 from the Lausanne expo in Switzerland and it was opened

in Pleasure Beach in 1966. Some great photographs showing the opening can be seen on the park in the north booking office. The monorail was extended after opening with a loop around the first floor of the Casino building.

These behind the scenes photographs were taken during an organised visit by Club Pleasure beach during May 2008.

Monorail storage areas.

Monorail maintenance vehicle, I would love to see this moving around the track.

The Transfer track.

The transfer track for the monorail is located just outside the maintenance/storage area.

The teeth turn below and another piece of track moves into position to allow the train the enter the storage/maintenance area.

Some general track photographs.

Track heading towards Valhalla.

The opposite way towards north car park.

Into the first of the covered areas.

Monorail in action.

Id like to thank Club Pleasure Beach for arranging this trip and the Pleasure Beach management for the 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

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.

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.