Menu
What's new
By:
Filters

Well, I never knew that!

Venom2053 said:
Matterhorn has a basketball court built inside it for employees to use on break
Click to expand...
The actual reasoning is not for the staff to play on their breaks, at all in fact. The only way they could build the Mountain to be as high as it was at the time of construction was to have some kind of sporting feature attached to the building. So, the best way of doing this, hide it out of sight, they couldn't put it any lower due to the tracks and structures and what not, so, they put it at the very top, hidden beneath the facade of the mountain. Plus, might to people's dismay, the legend is actually stretched beyond belief, it's not a full-size court as people think, in fact, it's only got one hoop. But, yes, this legend is true.
 
The ride "The 5th Dimension" at Chessington was designed/written by Douglas Adams (writer of Hitchhiker's Guide to the galaxy and Dirk Gently). It was a bizarre story based dark ride that led you through some kind of strange sci-fi world. It was replaced by what is now Tomb Blaster.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXL23EE2F1U[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSM84F5eFXQ[/youtube]

I've read up a bit on it, anyone remember it?

John Broome who made Alton Towers originally wanted to develop Trentham Gardens in Stoke as a theme park. He installed the Zierer 4-man bob ride at Trentham before it hit Alton Towers in 1985. There were development issues though with poor grounding, so he developed Alton Towers as the primary theme park instead. No idea what would have happened at Alton if he'd been able to develop Trentham

He sold Alton to Tussauds to help fund his redevelopment of Battersea Power Station into a theme park. It quickly ran massively over budget and was halted some time after they removed the roof to take the equipment out. So it's John Broome's fault Battersea Powerstation doesn't have a roof.

Next he sold his house and estate to fund a new leisure facility at Carden in Cheshire. Broome was on the committee for the Manchester 2000 Olympic bid and developed the facility to host some of the Manchester Olympic events. Manchester didn't get the Olympics, so the venture never worked out for him. So he headed back to his roots and invested in Ventureworld.

Ventureworld bought American Adventure off the Granada group, but in 1999 pulled out and sold the park on - it never got renamed Adventure World.

It's incredible, everything he touched turned sour apart from Alton Towers. Trentham was left derelict until about ten years ago, Battersea battered, American Adventure left to waste away and Carden making cash for somebody else eventually.
 
John Broome must have lost millions, I did a quick search on him but there seems to be hardly any info on him and what he does now.

To add to the topic....

Space Mountain at DLP was originally planned to be double the size of the current mountain and named Discovery Mountain. Inside the mountain would have been the railway station, an underwater themed restaurant, the nautilus, an attraction named Horizons, and an Intamin reverse freefall coaster.

photo+


photo+4
 
furie said:
The ride "The 5th Dimension" at Chessington was designed/written by Douglas Adams (writer of Hitchhiker's Guide to the galaxy and Dirk Gently). It was a bizarre story based dark ride that led you through some kind of strange sci-fi world. It was replaced by what is now Tomb Blaster.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXL23EE2F1U[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSM84F5eFXQ[/youtube]

I've read up a bit on it, anyone remember it?

John Broome who made Alton Towers originally wanted to develop Trentham Gardens in Stoke as a theme park. He installed the Zierer 4-man bob ride at Trentham before it hit Alton Towers in 1985. There were development issues though with poor grounding, so he developed Alton Towers as the primary theme park instead. No idea what would have happened at Alton if he'd been able to develop Trentham

He sold Alton to Tussauds to help fund his redevelopment of Battersea Power Station into a theme park. It quickly ran massively over budget and was halted some time after they removed the roof to take the equipment out. So it's John Broome's fault Battersea Powerstation doesn't have a roof.

Next he sold his house and estate to fund a new leisure facility at Carden in Cheshire. Broome was on the committee for the Manchester 2000 Olympic bid and developed the facility to host some of the Manchester Olympic events. Manchester didn't get the Olympics, so the venture never worked out for him. So he headed back to his roots and invested in Ventureworld.

Ventureworld bought American Adventure off the Granada group, but in 1999 pulled out and sold the park on - it never got renamed Adventure World.

It's incredible, everything he touched turned sour apart from Alton Towers. Trentham was left derelict until about ten years ago, Battersea battered, American Adventure left to waste away and Carden making cash for somebody else eventually.
Click to expand...

I've heard John Wardley talk about this before, he said it ran over budget and it was marketed poorly. People saw a huge building and expected a big indoor rollercoaster, he also said that the storyline was far too ambitious and was very difficult to get across. Also, the parts of the ride where it stops, and the amount of time that it stops for, have never changed and were originally programmed for The 5th Dimension.
 
I don't know why I find that so hard to believe... Colossus seems way WAY longer than Baco...
 
^
*sets "measure" to Metric*

Both coasters: 850 metres.

I'd say it's a rough approximation that looks like an insane coincidence when translated to the Stupid system of measurements.
 
I'm just surprised the numbers are the same. I get why there are these statistical 'coincidences' when the industry works in metric units and we tend to work in imperial, but to me the track length of Colossus shouldn't be anything like the track length of Baco.

Maybe it's the speed of Baco and the spread out layout, but Colossus just seems a lot longer than Baco in terms of track length.
 
Back in the day without our modern day technology, Magnum XL-200's track had to be MANUALLY bent, "by eye." I found THAT pretty amazing.

Video on this, on National Geographic:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5Onetp-szM[/youtube]
 
Very interesting video. That is fascinating how it was completely welded on-site. A really well designed ride considering this new bit of information (for me).
 
The CM break room for Hollywood Studio's Tower of Terror is located between the two drop shafts, and is on the same level as the load platforms.

Also, one which I've never been quite sure about, but WDW's Swan and Dolphin Resort was supposed to have the monorail run through it, but when the contractor (Tishman Hotel Corporation) found a loophole in their contract and took over the operaton of the resort from Disney, they filled in these holes, but painted these areas black to show what could have been...
Disney_Swan_Dolphin_RESORT_2.jpg
 
Really? I heard that every so often they do revisit the idea of expanding the monorail system in an investigative capacity. The last I heard was that they were looking at it all again because of the ever increasing fuel costs. I think I read about it on Screamscape (and so taken with a large grain of salt too)...

Personally, I would be more inclined to use their transport if it was all monorails. I detest the bus system and tend to just hire a car!
 
Yeah, the monorails are just SO convenient, like the London Underground haha XD

The buses are a pain in the bum.
 
I figured as much to be honest, hence the large grain of salt with regards to Screamscape - I have noted many an occasion when it is clearly opinion over fact and that those opinions have changed when you look back over the reports lol.

Thanks for the details though.

And yeah, I have heard a lot about the current system needing work. Rolling stock probably being the main thing. Although, we have noticed that part of the major closures on the monorail at the moment have been put down to a DVC expansion, although it was also previously reported (a few months back) was that the cold weather was causing some maintenance requirements in the same area. It is difficult to know exactly what to believe half the time :)

Personally I would love to see all new rolling stock in a similar style to Californias because they are just lush! Then I would love to see a resort wide Monorail network. As you say though, its highly unlikely :p
 
UC said:
Just a few of the factors you need to consider are the fact that the company that originally designed the system is no longer around....
Click to expand...

Huh? Bombardier made the current trains and still makes monorails.
 
Well, sure. But the know how to create trains that work on those pylons is available. Dizknee may be choosing to go the cheap route on the maintenance of the system, it sure wouldn't be the first time.

I'm sure Bombardier or one of the other companies that make current monorails would be willing to reverse-engineer new beamways for a new line that would use the existing trains, or upgrade the existing beamways to use modern monorail trains.

The issue goes back to return on investment, not availability of technology.
 
The only point I was referring to was that the system could be expanded, death of former companies notwithstanding.

You piled on with yet another massive TLdR reply which only continues the reaction that many people have that you are of the opinion that everyone but you is an idiot. (Yes, I actually read your posts. I just don't commit them to memory.)

Between you and Ben, I don't know who is worse, but the two combined make this place far less fun than it should be.

And THAT is my OPINION.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top