I wonder what the lead times are on top spins, hopefully the order was placed to pair up with the site construction, meaning hardware will be on site roughly when the ground work is complete. If that happens there is a possibility this will open this year.....exciting times. Possibly a week or two to fully assemble the ride on site, that is being VERY conservative to. Obviously as this is the park and not travelling model, other things will need doing, many things in fact. But the actual structure go up in days, if that, once on site. Very intrigued to see how they theme this. The theming on a topspin is always something that makes a parks individual ride stand out among the rest.
They are such great rides, amazing for one to be coming back to Towers, Ripsaw is missed by many! Go Alton Towers!!!
Topspin's are notorious for being heavier on maintenance than your average flat ride. No surprise, it is insane the forces that are involved when the thing flips over and over. Over time it does take it's toll. Just look at the technical bulletins that have been issued for the ride. Basically ALL of the major structural components. You can mitigate these somewhat by running the tamer ride cycles, which no one really wants. Parks usually go for the middle cycle settings that offer a good balance between tame and intense. I am pretty certain Ripsaw's ops were not allowed as per their training manual to put Ripsaw on the higher / more intense cycles, it may have even had a physical lock off, as it was strictly prohibited I believe. Settings which are only usually used in the travelling fair circuits. It makes sense, they don't have anywhere the amount of operating hours and duty cycling of the equipment as a theme park, so the hardware can get away with it.
I must stress, this does not at all suggest these rides are unsafe, far from it, these technical bulletin's are there specifically to make sure the rides get the extra maintenance where it is needed, to ensure they don't develop issues and can keep taking riders, safely, for a long time.
These rides are insane, they flip like crazy, it is what makes them such good rides, with that comes a little bit extra maintenance.
Talocan over at Phantasia Land was fully removed from it's site a few years back to have specialist steel work and welding done off site, but they do require a bit more attention on park throughout their life. Alton's leadership teams will be very aware of the maintenance required for these rides, so to me, what this does highlight is Alton Towers are confident moving forward that the resources park wide are going to be available to support it. If they were not confident they would not buy an attraction that requires a little bit more maintenance than average. I am sure things are already in place to change the issues the park have had with downtime, but results will never be seen straight away, it takes time, due to the nature of the work. Overall, great signs, as it is hopefully an indication of things returning to normal regarding availability. Back to how it should be.
I'll be very surprised if this has water fountains that interact with the gondola like the old Ripsaw used to. While HUSS never sold top spins with fountains, HUSS did mention that they could be used on the product page for the ride. I think I am correct in saying this was done after Mr Wardley and Chessington put the first controllable fountains on a top spin ever to great success and then it was the must have feature for almost every Top Spin installation world wide. There is no mention of active fountains on the product page for floorless topspin's or the like these days and I think HUSS do actively discourage it due to, as others have mentioned, reliability issues. If they can do it then absoloutly great as it does add quite a bit to the ride experience, but is is not something I am expecting.
I love HUSS attractions, they are such great spectator rides as well as actual, you know, rides. They have had one before, but this to this day, is such a good fit for the park. This is assuming it is HUSS and one of these pieces of scrap metal...
. I am sure these are perfectly safe.
There is a great fully operable Top Spin in one of the many, many excellent user made, downloadable (free) parks for your paid copy of No Limits 2. This specific park is called El Dorado Resort from the Steam Workshop. Great fun to pass the time. I spend WAY more hours than I should on these parks, exploring back stage areas in dark rides and what not, turning work lights / scenic lights on and off and all that. The little things eh.
Honestly I don't think it has to be one or the other, not any more, in some cases anyway. Scott O'Neil has acknowledged in a podcast something along the lines that some parks are looking tired and need investment. Alton Towers is almost certainly one of these and investment it is now getting buy quite a lot it would seem.
