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Talbot Street Tuesday/Thursday (Picture Heavy)

The old Thunder Looper entrance is still there along with the path/bridge opposite Burger Kitchen although I haven’t looked for it in a while so no idea what state it would be in now.

You can see where it was on google, the fence between the two rocks that marked the entrance was clearly new when this was taken.

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Blade also used the same entrance and queue line for a number of years stretching all the way around the pit but it was shortened to the way it is today because the queue was never long enough to warrant it. Ironically with the lack of rides these days Blade could probably do with a longer queue line now.

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Image from ATA


Also regarding shared items between Thunder Looper and Blade, looking at pictures the control booth looks very similar. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Blade control booth today is the exact same one from Thunder Looper.
 
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Also if you look at the Blade entrance sign now, you will notice that it’s welded near the top, as the original sign was on top of those rocks. Now it’s just been welded to some poles.


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WillPS said:
Lovely to see Jason Snape's photos again. That man is a legend.

I can see which bits of the queue now form The Blade's - but which formed Ripsaw's? I seem to recall Blade's entrance moved at some point; did that have something to do with it?
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He is indeed, I have some very fond memories of our conversations back in the day about Alton Towers, life and the world in general. There's a huge amount of information about the Towers in the 80s and early 90s that simply would not be known today if it weren't for his insights.

As for the queue line situation, the middle of Forbidden Valley is a bit like queue line roulette and is best see in this aerial photo:
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P.S. Bonus aerial photo for anyone who hasn't see in before.

As discussed in the earlier posts Thunder Looper's entrance was opposite where Nemices Donuts and in this picture you can see the main queue-line entering at the top of the photo and then doglegging directly into the station. You can also see the Thunder Looper's extended queue-line, which is empty in this photo.

In the above photo Ripsaw would be built more or less in line with the loop of Thunder Looper, with the path diverted through the loop area and Ripsaw's entrance on the far side of the path. The main Ripsaw queue that went over the bridge and wrapped around the ride was therefore all newly built. However Ripsaw also had an extended queue-line, which used Thunder Looper's old extended queue. Meanwhile The Blade originally used the main Thunder Looper queue-line.

By 2008 the Ripsaw extended queue was no longer in use and so at this point The Blade's entrance was moved to where it is today and I believe Ripsaw's extended queue-line was switched to being The Blade's extended queue (I'm a little fuzzy on this one, it has been quite a while since I last rode on Blade, let alone used its extended queue). So essentially, what had been Thunder Looper's extended queue, then became Ripsaw's extended queue and is now The Blade's extended queue.

For bonus queue geekery, the above aerial photo also shows off the original Nemesis extended queue-lines. One at the right, which was abandoned when Air was built and one towards the top at the left, which would later become Dynamo's queue-line and today is the Sub-Terra/Project 42 queue.
 
I actually really liked scary tales. It wasn’t too scary but also wasn’t aimed at children, so a good group of people could go through.

It’s definitely what the park lacks now since they removed all the free bits.


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Here are a few good quality pictures of Doom & Sons and the surrounding area. I believe these picture was taken when it was brand new. The theming seems better than most of the tat the park put out today. What an intricate and interesting street it looks like to explore! Not sure if people have seen these, so thought I would share.

These are not my pictures, they are taken from the Space Leisure show reel, who I assume would have played some roll in the creation of this street. Maybe @TakeYourMedicine could clarify?



 
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I have no idea, I wasn't born! Hha
But those look old, looks like some of the detail painted over . I love the look of Doom & Sons and that lost corner of the park. The company is probably one of many to have grown out of older attraction designers/developers?
 
TakeYourMedicine said:
I have no idea, I wasn't born! Hha
But those look old, looks like some of the detail painted over . I love the look of Doom & Sons and that lost corner of the park. The company is probably one of many to have grown out of older attraction designers/developers?
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Sorry I was getting confused with someone else. That is what happens when you internet before coffee! Yeah they were involved in in quite a few projects in the UK back in 80's and 90's. They did also did lots of stuff for Drayton Manor. I thought Sparks did this street, maybe Space Leisure were a subcontractor for Sparks, I am not too sure.
 
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DistortAMG said:
I thought Sparks did this street, maybe Space Leisure were a subcontractor for Sparks, I am not too sure.
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I seem to recall that Space Leisure was founded by a group that had formerly worked for/with Sparks, which probably means that Doom and Sons was one of the projects they worked on before Space Leisure came into being (since Space leisure wasn't founded until 1984).
 
I've just realised we're a couple of weeks behind of updates: Since the last update Fearful February continued with a trip to The Boiler House, once home to the a pair of crazed serial killers.

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And last week we had a Talbot Street mini, looking back to 2007 when the park were planning their new Halloween event and we nearly ended up getting Frightfest, rather than Scarefest.

Here we can see the early publicity for the event using the original logo:

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This week's update should be landing tomorrow, depending on how the rest of my evening pans out. :)
 
That first version of Boiler House with the twins was awesome! Super intense, pretty similar to what Project 42 was going for. I loved it, never did it in the other locations though.
 
For the final Talbot Street Thursday of Fearful February we're taking a look back at the granddaddy of all Scarefest's mazes: Terror of the Towers.

But which version did you prefer? The original classic of Terror in the Towers, the reign of The Master in the Bloodfest Banquet or perhaps the urban exploration of What Lies Within?

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I remember the original back in 2002, it had much simpler scenes than the bloodfest banquet days. But it was still good, I think it was more generic horror. Rather than a specific theme.

I much preferred Bloodfest Banquet though, I think it worked really well within the towers. Having the large banqueting hall and such, I vividly remember this hungry chap, after fresh flesh, sitting around a large banqueting table strewn with half eaten bodies.

 
Squiggs said:
Sorry, I've been a little neglectful of keeping this topic up-to-date.
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More of the above, so sorry. Over the next couple of weeks I'll feed in the updates I've skipped here.

But for today we have Peter Rabbit... who may have returned to the park this season, but who remembers his ice show that used to perform a mere hippity hop away from his current ride?

For this week's Talbot Street Thursday we revisit Peter Rabbit and Friends on Ice, which ran from 1994 through to 2001.

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