The Mysterious Stuff of Alton Towers

What rides and attractions do you miss? Share your memories of Alton Towers' extensive past here.
Post Reply
[Archive]

By "Mysterious Stuff" I mean remains of the past, whether that be recent changes or historical artifacts. For example, most of the things discovered in this brilliant trip report.

So, if it 'aint mysterious, don't post it! :P By the way, Nemesis' water is dyed red using... well... red dye. Good point about the pumps, though. They must be hidden around the back of the extended queueline, or near the stall turn.

I urge everybody to read the meames' photo adventure trip report (linked above). It really is great.
User avatar
Voke
Member
Member
Posts: 1218
Joined: Tue Aug 31, 2010 3:46 pm
Location: Derbyshire
Contact:

[quote=""Jollylee11""]This might not be so much Mysterious But i have always wondered how they made the Nemesis water Purple :!: And where from you don't see any pumps around nemesis :?:[/quote]

They use Dye. And when you get to the top of the Nemisis lift-hill you can see a large pipe with holes in, pumping the water down the fountain.
User avatar
Jollylee11
Member
Member
Posts: 282
Joined: Sun Aug 15, 2010 9:47 pm
Location: Stuck at the top of Hex's octagon

[quote=""Voke""][quote=""Jollylee11""]This might not be so much Mysterious But i have always wondered how they made the Nemesis water Purple :!: And where from you don't see any pumps around nemesis :?:[/quote]

They use Dye. And when you get to the top of the Nemisis lift-hill you can see a large pipe with holes in, pumping the water down the fountain.[/quote]
Thanks
JoshM

There is also another pump near the top of the Nemesis stall turn, i'm sure the pipes that the water come from are blue.
User avatar
Voke
Member
Member
Posts: 1218
Joined: Tue Aug 31, 2010 3:46 pm
Location: Derbyshire
Contact:

Yep, they're more of a Dark Blue and as there's two fountains, there's two pipes.
User avatar
Jollylee11
Member
Member
Posts: 282
Joined: Sun Aug 15, 2010 9:47 pm
Location: Stuck at the top of Hex's octagon

I am too busy closing my eyes for the drop to see them but where about is the fountains i think there should build under the loop so when people go though it they get wet :P
User avatar
Voke
Member
Member
Posts: 1218
Joined: Tue Aug 31, 2010 3:46 pm
Location: Derbyshire
Contact:

I'm sure going directly under the Fountain would cause the Dye to stain your clothes, therefore not making this possible.
User avatar
Vik
Member
Member
Posts: 2978
Joined: Mon Jan 05, 2004 10:37 pm
Location: Ellesmere Port
Contact:

We seem to be going a tad off topic now. Lets get back to the Mysterious Stuff of Alton Towers rather than Nemesis's Blood falls. :D
Sent from my ZX81 via Time Travel

Image
[Archive]

Ooh, I had a lovely time searching for Mysterious Stuff on my 2010 trip. Here is what I discovered...

The Haunted House really is full of surprises. I finally decided to have a look for the old themed phone booth that I had heard about, and found it. It is rather weird, really. It just stands there in the trees totally unnoticed by most passers by on their way to the toilets. It is a nice memory of retro Gloomy Wood.

ImageImage
This sign for the telephone is still there, now difficult to see because of the tree. It shows the original style of signage that was used around Gloomy Wood.ImageImage

ImageImage
Here is a photo from HauntedOne showing the booth when it was still in use, complete with witty ensription. The phone was only removed recently in 2006/7, judging from the park maps.

This area is just down the side of the shop, leading towards the toilets. From here you can see the nicely themed side of the shop, which I have not seen before. The shop's old front with the small, triangular windows (a new front was added in 2003 when it became Spooks R Us) can just be seen from around this angle (no pictures of that, though).

ImageImageImage
Here you can see that the shop backs on to the main ride warehouse.

Image
Now, this is a house in the gardens that I first saw long logn ago. I have always remarked that it has a similarity to the Haunted House facade. However, upon closer inspection it is close to being identical. Of course it is missing the tower and does not have a front door, but still. Even the chimney and middle window placement is the same. Is this where they got the inspiration for the HH's exterior from?

Image
Again on the theme of the Haunted House, here is something you may have noticed if you rode Hex during Scarefest are are disabled. It is a small HH promo sticker on a ground level window on the Towers, visible on the disabled entrance. The room to which the window belonged had many costumes hung in it... Terror of the Towers costume storage or something? Why the sticker was there I do not know, but it was good to see.

Now on to the abandoned Nemesis queueline, mentioned earlier in this topic. I was hanging around by the top of Forbidden Valley, next to the climbing wall, and I noticed parts of a very old queueline behind the trees. It was right next to the path, on top of a little bank with rocks, behind trees. It is on its own little mound under the monorail. This must have been one of the abandoned sections of Nemesis's queueline. It is actually quite a large, disused area.

Image
Image
Image
Image

If you follow it on down, it leads on to another abandoned section of queue which looked a lot newer and was set just behind the climbing wall. This must have been Dynamo's old queue. This supports what was said about Dynamo using part of this section Nemesis queue after it wasn't needed for Nemesis itself anymore. It is easy to see when you look at it yourself.

The path leading towards this abandoned section has gone, but old fence posts are still visible. The path itself was blocked off, and looked like it had been for a long time. These photos were taken beside the entrance to Nemesis. So I guess the now disused area that contains this abandoned Nemesis/Dynamo queue is actually fairly large.
Image
Image
Here you can see that the path leads under the monorail.

Another semi-abandoned queueline now, again for the Haunted House. This has not been used fully for many years, and apparently the far end is too uneven to be used anymore as a queue. However, on busy days the queue may fill part of this outdoor queue. In Scarefest 2009, the queue went really far down into the trees. It is a great queueline, I wish it was used more often.
Image
I am afraid I only too this one rubbish photo of it in my 2010 trip, and I didn't have time to be naughty and go all the way to the back for the sake of exploration. I recommend having a look at it next time if you have not seen it yourself. It is visible from the path to Katanga Canyon as well.

Behind the access gates to the left side of the HH, I could see this flower pot thing. It looks like it is made of plastic, but has had decoration moulded on to it and used as a piece of theming. As you can see, somebody decided to use it as a bin and/or vandalize it. I have no idea where this pot used to be located or indeed if it had any purpose, such as to hold flowers.
Image
Last edited by [Archive] on Tue Nov 09, 2010 8:17 am, edited 1 time in total.
djtruefitt

There are some great photos there Bill, I think the haunted house/duel has one of the best queue lines out of any rides at Alton towers, its themed from the outside right the way to the inside and even the exit of the ride is themed. I have many memories of being in the queue outside as a child reading all the witty gravestones.
Dave

there is this little bit of historis signage located on the woodland walk

[url=http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y70/as ... 1289397368" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;]http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y70/as ... 1289397368[/url]
User avatar
SAW_gameover
Member
Member
Posts: 72
Joined: Wed May 19, 2010 4:13 pm
Location: Good Ol\' London Town
Contact:

^Wow... Whereabouts on the walk is this? Must go check it out!

Also, not sure whether this is a common shot or not, but hey, thought I'd post it anyway :D

Image
http://www.ukparknews.co.uk
UK Park News - Your Dedicated Theme Park Resource


Image
[Archive]

Ah, the insides of the Mushroom Tours bus! Took me a while to work out what it was. Do you think it is a real bus, like the van in Thirteen and possibly the jeep in Katanga Canyon? It does look like it.
.Will

[quote=""electricBlll""]Ah, the insides of the Mushroom Tours bus! Took me a while to work out what it was. Do you think it is a real bus, like the van in Thirteen and possibly the jeep in Katanga Canyon? It does look like it.[/quote]

That jeep in Katanga Canyon is not a jeep actually, it is a Landrover Series 3, Long Wheel Based, Safari edition, and not because of the paint job no, but because of the fact that there are windows in the very "back" part.

Image
There you go a real one in action. BTW I actually own one of these personally so yeah ... Get it right Bill!

:P


Also ...

I can't find an image of the bus, but it is also a real vehicle, but I can't remember for the life of me what it is, like Ripsaw's control cabin is a modified I think is an old Bedford but am not 100%. And the crashed van in the Th13teen queue line is a Daihatsu Hijet.

:D
Blaze

Feel better after getting all that off your chest? :P
.Will

[quote=""Blaze""]Feel better after getting all that off your chest? :P[/quote]

Yeah, yeah I really do, Bill won't ever call it a "jeep" again, otherwise ...

:twisted:
User avatar
Nightfall
Member
Member
Posts: 2195
Joined: Wed Sep 09, 2009 11:10 am
Location: Cambridge

Reminds me of my last visit, Th13teen was down and the maintenance team had parked their own Van just outside the crypt. They were identical so naturally I was very surprised when it drove off.

The maintenance Van still had the old logo which was surprising.
[align=center]Image[/align]
Dave

[quote=""electricBlll""]Ah, the insides of the Mushroom Tours bus! Took me a while to work out what it was. Do you think it is a real bus, like the van in Thirteen and possibly the jeep in Katanga Canyon? It does look like it.[/quote]


i think it is. it sjust VERY old! shockingly it looks like the insode of the trains that i used ot have to get to go to manchester form my home town! :|
.Will

[quote=""Dave""][quote=""electricBlll""]Ah, the insides of the Mushroom Tours bus! Took me a while to work out what it was. Do you think it is a real bus, like the van in Thirteen and possibly the jeep in Katanga Canyon? It does look like it.[/quote]


i think it is. it sjust VERY old! shockingly it looks like the insode of the trains that i used ot have to get to go to manchester form my home town! :|[/quote]

If it wasn't real why would they bother putting seats in and a rack for baggage above the seats? And if you look carefully there are light fittings in the roof of it so it is more than likely a real bus, also if you look under the rear end of the bus, you can clearly see the drive shaft running through the chassis as well as what looks like electrics running to the rear lights.

:D
DiogoJ42

:lol: Why would they spend thousands making a prop bus, when they can get a real (scrap) one for next to nothing?
:no:
Post Reply