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Alton Towers Storage yards and Warehouses and behind the scenes

Wonderbolt

Wonderbolt

TS Member
Hey guys, being the sad geeky person I am one of things about the park that interests me is the behinds the scenes stuff (hence I try and peep at the storage and warehousing facilities whenever I can).

Does anyone know where I can find good detailed and up to date images of the parks Storage yards, Warehouses and behind the scenes images (eg Thirteen, Duel, Charlie and Subterra etc with lights on or the Monorails workshops).
I can find quite a lot of older images from around 10 or so years ago but not newer images.

Finally were is the best place to view stuff in storage when you visit the park (without going anywhere you should not), I know you can get a glimpse of the Monorail sheds near Katanga Canyon and you can peep onto one of the storage yards on the walk to and from the car park.
 
Lots of photos were taken at VIP events (wasn't around here back then, but at the th13teen event, nemesis 21, and TT@10 event), and can be found here

Also, during the events, enthusiasts were offered rides on duel, hex, and Charlie with lights on. Videos of duel and hex below, but couldn't find Charlie (doubt it was interesting enough to film, sorry if I've used someone's videos, you're almost certainly a member on here)



More videos can be found easily on YouTube (Rita behind the scenes, hex control room, etc) but they're much older. Hope this helps :)
 
Leah said:
Lots of photos were taken at VIP events (wasn't around here back then, but at the th13teen event, nemesis 21, and TT@10 event), and can be found here

Also, during the events, enthusiasts were offered rides on duel, hex, and Charlie with lights on. Videos of duel and hex below, but couldn't find Charlie (doubt it was interesting enough to film, sorry if I've used someone's videos, you're almost certainly a member on here)



More videos can be found easily on YouTube (Rita behind the scenes, hex control room, etc) but they're much older. Hope this helps :)
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Thanks, thats great. I wish AT did more official behind the scenes stuff both in terms of events and information provided online and at the park.
 
Us enthusiasts have been known to get the occasional back stage tour, though it's usually at European parks rather than Towers. Your best bet is to get to know us, come on some meets, and hope that every now and then we get some perks on our trips ;) [Disclaimer: we haven't had any worthwhile backstage tours at Towers in ages, and frankly, no one cares about the place any more. But if you're interested in what goes on behind the scenes of obscure German parks no one has ever heard of, you're in the right place!]
 
The problem with backstage tours at Towers (and other Merlin parks for that matter), is that they won't give them to us for free because they already have other enthusiast groups that are willing to pay for them, so it would be unfair to make them pay and not charge us anything. Of course, we could pay, but our ethos has always been that we don't charge a penny for meets, and that they are more about the social side of things than having exclusives.

The last exclusive we were given for free at Towers was, if I recall correctly, a tour of CBeebies Land on its opening day in May 2014. This was also offered to another fan group, though only 2 turned up. The main reason behind this was because Towers didn't really want a group of 30-40 geeks taking over CBeebies Land when it would naturally be full of young children and their respective (annoyed at us!) parents.

:)
 
Sure sounds like a security breach to me! Kidding aside, I feel Alton Towers would likely not respond to any requests to see behind the scenes but let me know if you do get through!
 
To be fair, the people that respond to emails probably don't have a clue about backstage tours other that the ones they offer as a vip experience (£50pp if I remember right, but their 2016 list hasn't been updated yet). Towers may offer us the occasional treat, but it's rare. all I recall hearing about was a walk round CBeebies land after the park closed (which benefits the park more than anything as it stops large groups of adults swarming the new kids area on opening day), and an extreme sanctuary run through for a few people.
I also remember seeing that in the past, enthusiast groups have been given discount codes (?)*

Merlin don't really recognise enthusiasts as some parks do, which is a shame as it might stop some people being so negative about the place (;). But remember that towers sometimes read the sites, and if they can benefit they will occasionally offer things

*I've never been on a meet, and I haven't been on ts as long as most on here. I may be entirely wrong with some of this.
 
delta79 said:
I think Alton Towers is missing a trick by not having an official fan club.
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I'm pretty sure they've asked the TST / TTF team to become official at some point in the past, but they have always refused on the grounds that "we" prefer to remain independant and impartial. I mean, just loom at what happened to CBPBPBBBPPEEE!

*Waits to be corrected by a team member*
 
Did the VIP holders ever get a decent behind the scenes tour at Towers? If it doesn't involve the Flag Tower in Coaster Corner (just for the view from the top if nothing else) etc it doesn't count. I would love to help host a tour of the place (mostly history related) including a little visit to the top of the Gothic Prospect Tower, inside the room at Le Refuge, Flag Tower, The Dovecote, certain places inside the Towers etc etc. However, that would involve co-operation from management at the Towers and I fear that would be more unlikely than it would have been a decade ago or so. Obviously, tours including rides become a lot more complicated and most likely costly. But yeah, Towers, any chance of a gardens and grounds tour at any time in the future? It's been a while ;)
 
Have you checked out https://towersstreet.com/behind-the-scenes/

I donated a lot of images from a full behind the scenes tour of Alton some years ago. I don't think all were used but there's a lot in there. It was a really interesting day, I think it was about £100 and we got behind the scenes on Duel, Rita, The Flag Tower, Air, Nemesis, Hex, The Workshops, Skyride and lift hill walks on Nemesis & Air along with lunch and fasttracks. I thought it was good value but they stopped doing it for some reason.

There is a mistake though in labeling one of my photos...

https://towersstreet.com/gallery/theme_park/dark_forest/rita/behindthescenes/dsc04237.jpg.html

These aren't from Rita, these are what's inside the Flag Tower :p

"These Mighty computers control every aspect of the ride, including safety systems and train movement."

Errrrrrm, no. These 'Mighty computers' are to help generate mobile phone signal and other communcations across the park lol ;)
 
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