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Talbot Street Lock In

With all the modern coasters in the park today it is easy to forget how much ride technology has moved on in the past 40 years.

In 1985 the park added the 4 Man Bob, a coaster that used a manual braking system and relied on a ride op to reduce the bobsleigh's speed from 35 mph to 0 within 11 seconds or risk the overshooting the brake run.

Needless to say over its six years in the park, the Bob caused its fair share of bumps and bruises.

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That seems even pretty old tech for 1985! Unless that was part of the appeal with it being a 'bobsled'? Maybe it was just a very cheap ride to buy for the park
 
After a brief spell outside with the Corkscrew we return to the lock in and 1986 whenthe front of the park became much more recognisable with the addition of Towers Street along with the Grand Canyon Rapids - today known as the Congo River Rapids.

1986 also saw the addition of Kiddies Kingdom, a large new area located where Adventure Land sits today, which offered a whole range of slides and other playground equipment for younger guests.

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Who remembers when Alton Towers used to have museums and exhibitions as part of the attraction line up?

The Wildlife Museum was the first to open back in the 1970s but in 1986 it moved into a building on Talbot Street nearby the park's other museums, such as the Dolls House and Space 1999 Exhibition.
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1987 was the year of transportation, upgrading the park's infrastructure to handle its huge growth spurt of the 80s. Inside the park the Skyride replaced the Cable Cars to transport guests across the Gardens and outside Towers Street the Monorail shuttled guests back and forth to the new car parks built on the old deer park.

Iconic rides also kept on arriving with the addition of the Tea Cups and Swan Boat Ride, as well as the Open Air Stage on the Piazza (now Fountain Square).
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Over the years Alton Towers has hosted a whole range of weird and wonderful events.

None more so than in 1987 when the Royal Family descended on the park for It's A Royal Knockout, a super-sized version of the popular gameshow featuring a whole host of actors, sports stars, musicians and other celebrities.

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On this day 14 years ago Chocuvious erupted for the first time, showering guests with chocolate treats.

Just in time for Easter, for this week's Rando Wednesday we return to Chocolate Towers, the resort's short lived but eggstremely entertaining Easter event.

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I'd love it if they did something like this now! Chocolate Towers looked like an amazing event, and if there's one event from Towers history I'd bring back, it's this one!

I admit, that's mainly because I love chocolate, but my point still stands!
 
A pretty small amount of chocolate was dispersed from the volcano. Most was chucked around by staff positioned around the volcano.

Somehow getting involved in a mad scrum to get a chance of grabbing a Cadbury Miniature Hero felt like something of a non-event.
 
The first year (2006) was brilliant. Lots of freebies, plenty of chocolate, loads of entertainment, and the chocolate casino in ATH was great. The second year (2007) was like they forgot how they ran it the previous year, slashed the budget in half and the event was very cumbersome (the maze in the hotel was good though).

I would welcome the event back, if it were more like the 2006 version of Chocolate Towers.

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1988 was a bumper year for coasters at Alton Towers when The Alton Beast and Alton Mouse arrived to complete the line-up for Coaster Corner and the park's indoor coaster received substantial upgrades to become briefly known as the New Black Hole.

It was also the season that Henry the Hound became the park's official mascot - arriving in style with his Birthday Parade.
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Coaster Corner was an area of the park that could be found between Talbot Street and the Flag Tower in the late 80s. The area was only open for a few seasons before it was closed and today is part of the backstage area behind The World of David Walliams.

Alongside the Alton Mouse and 4 Man Bob, the largest coaster in the area was the Alton Beast. The Beast opened in 1988 and survived the closure on Coaster Corner to become part of Thunder Valley in 1992, operating on the site that would later become home to Air.
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Was there any truth in the story that Alton Beast ran with single cars (from Black Hole) for a short period?
 
WillPS said:
Was there any truth in the story that Alton Beast ran with single cars (from Black Hole) for a short period?
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I've never seen any evidence the Alton Beast ran single cars. Even the 1988 publicity material showed it running trains, so I'm not sure the timings would have worked for it to have operated in any other way (or indeed if the physics of the Jetstar III would allow for it).

I am, however, under the impression that the trains on The Beast were the original Black Hole cars, coupled into trains.
 
Squiggs said:
I've never seen any evidence the Alton Beast ran single cars. Even the 1988 publicity material showed it running trains, so I'm not sure the timings would have worked for it to have operated in any other way (or indeed if the physics of the Jetstar III would allow for it).

I am, however, under the impression that the trains on The Beast were the original Black Hole cars, coupled into trains.
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That might be what I'm remembering, thank you. It's a Broome thriftiness story - something along the lines of the whole Jet Star III rollercoaster with trains costing the same/not much more than just a new set of trains.

Presumably that meant The Beast only had 2 trains rather than the 4 or 5 the model is intended to run?

Am I right in thinking the ride had new trains when it moved to Thunder Valley?
 
For the last year of the 80s, the park map took on a unique watercolour style.
The big addition for 1989 was the Britannia Farm. It was also the season when the long-running circus left the Big Top to be replaced by a Laser Adventure Show.

Fans of the circus could still get their fix, however, as Grimble the Clown remained in the park in his new Clown-A-Round show.

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