SuperMuscleMan
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Colossus
That looks soo good. Fills the space but also makes it feel more intimate.
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That looks soo good. Fills the space but also makes it feel more intimate.
Blackhole_Sun
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Black Hole
Considerably better in there for sure.
Blackhole_Sun
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Black Hole
The behind the scenes was pretty good facts/angles you wouldn’t normally see. Some interesting points include:
They don’t actually have a maintenance “shed” the train doesn’t fit around the curve in there so the transfer track is welded. They park the train on the straight bit before the curve.
Vampire was on 1 train yesterday and the day before. Seems like they do all their maintenance while it is parked inside the station which is interesting. They were doing something to the wheel assembly while we were watching on train 2 so it may be back in operation today.
The ride has anti-rollback at the top of the hill out of the tunnel in the second part of the layout, but they are never switched on as they are too loud.
No idea as to how long it’s got left. The VIP people thought it had new track in 2001 but that’s clearly not the case. Not too bad for 40 quid, would perhaps be better if a tech guy ran it so you could delve in a bit more.
They don’t actually have a maintenance “shed” the train doesn’t fit around the curve in there so the transfer track is welded. They park the train on the straight bit before the curve.
Vampire was on 1 train yesterday and the day before. Seems like they do all their maintenance while it is parked inside the station which is interesting. They were doing something to the wheel assembly while we were watching on train 2 so it may be back in operation today.
The ride has anti-rollback at the top of the hill out of the tunnel in the second part of the layout, but they are never switched on as they are too loud.
No idea as to how long it’s got left. The VIP people thought it had new track in 2001 but that’s clearly not the case. Not too bad for 40 quid, would perhaps be better if a tech guy ran it so you could delve in a bit more.
Attachments
Euro Theme Park Archive
TS Member
This was the job of the original chandeliers and them being removed without a replacement is the reason it’s felt empty all this time. It really shouldnt have been allowed to remain like that so long!
I worked in Vampire’s engineering team once. Im not sure what the (usually inaccurate) tour hosts mean here. The transfer is welded in place because the Vekoma trains are longer than the Arrow trains, but the trains are regularly placed around the curve on the maintenance track and worked on in the workshop space there.
The “original” mix was the ride version. The other is what I call the “Cassette” mix and was sold on a cassette you could buy in the shop along with Bubble Works music. I can only guess why there’s two mixes.
The original was also zoned with the organ playing from the organ itself and the backing track playing in the rest the station.
The original version was used from 1990 until about 2014, when the system was updated to an MP3 player. Shockingly they used a bad quality download of a cassette rip made off ReRide.net, made in like 2001.
That third version splicing 2 mixes together is just a strange decision by Graham Smart when he uploaded that. He must have original copies of both.
Reb
TS Member
I was going to say, doing work in the station sounds odd. The engineers do their checks whilst the train is in the station, but I wouldn't count that as maintenance.
Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure the people doing these tours are from GHI, rather than people that actually work on the rides, meaning their knowledge is secondary as opposed to first hand experience.
Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure the people doing these tours are from GHI, rather than people that actually work on the rides, meaning their knowledge is secondary as opposed to first hand experience.
How long has chessington had bad operations for? I haven’t been in over 10 years and I most frequently went there during the period between 13-15 years ago when I was a kid - I never remembered queues ever being that bad, vampire would always be on 3 trains, and rattlesnake never had a queue EVER, even during peak summer period. I now feel old realising it’s been that long since I would frequently visit but all the posts I see about how slow everything is now is crazy to me, or perhaps I just have my rose tinted glasses on from when I was like 8
Bowser
TS Member
No i wonder the same. It's hard to tell as i had a similar 10+ (closer to 20) year break from visiting most of the theme parks and wonder how it was back then. Maybe i just didn't care about queuing for 60-90 minutes when out with family/friends. Though i certainly don't remember ever not being able to go on a ride because it was broken and i'd definitely remember that as we only visited once a year if that.
Though i would say i don't think we ever had an expectation to go on a ride more than once. You'd do your route round the park and have a go on everything you wanted and that was the day. I suppose even that would be quite the undertaking in the current parks on a peak day.