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Black Hole

G

GaryH

TS Member
While searching for some more old photos I stumbled across a DVD upon which was a video I took on the Black Hole final day.

It shows at the start, the hospitality tent where we had dinner and speeches, then into the ride for goes in the dark (apologies for girly screaming), then with the lights on (more apologies for girly screaming), followed by a walk around the maintenance tent and ride itself. Then outside, around X Sector, past the towers to see Rita being built.

Finally, a walk up to Towers street, past Storybook land and the bookworm.

Apologies for the video quality, it was stupidly cold that day and I had to strap the camera to my hand so its a bit jerky. Was taken on 5 March 2005.

 
I was there that day too :)

Was slightly worrying that the head of maintancance told us that they marked structural defects in white paint to monitor them, then we rode the ride with the lights on and saw over half the track marked in white paint :eek:
 
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jon81uk said:
I was there that day too :)

Was slightly worrying that the head of maintancance told us that they marked structural defects in white paint to monitor them, then we rode the ride with the lights on and saw over half the track marked in white paint :eek:
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Lol yeah i thought the same. Didnt he say something that the white marks represented areas where they had x rayed the track??
 
I don't know about X-rays, but it's likely it's leftover white contrast paint from some form of non-destructive testing (magnetic particle inspection is also possibility). Spraying it white just makes the defects easier to spot. Normally you'd remove the white contrast paint after, but as it's in the dark anyway it's probably not worth doing, especially if you're testing frequently because the ride is approaching the end of its life.

BH probably had only a couple of years left, the requirement for new evacuation stairs/platforms just brought it's death forward slightly.
 
Black hole was my favorite ride I was so upset when it closed but by the sounds of it there wasn't much time left for it anyway
 
John said:
Normally you'd remove the white contrast paint after, but as it's in the dark anyway it's probably not worth doing, especially if you're testing frequently because the ride is approaching the end of its life..
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End of its life... at Alton Towers (just fixing the marketing line...). It's still Rocketing around of course =)

Edit - it was a good event at Alton for the farewell, very much enjoyed it. Does anyone have the audio of the speech made by Terry Dunn? There were a few moments as I recall, where he almost said too much. It was previously hosted on Towers Almanac, but the host appears to have died a while back.
 
seeing it re purposed as rocket is extremely weird. Doesn't look right as an outdoor coaster
 
The tent was changed to dark blue to better fit in with Oblivion and X Sector, so It would have been in '98.
 
The 1997 map showed it in its green and yellow, so yeah it's 1998. I always though the blue looked nice and well presentable.
 
Yup, I was amazed at seeing the bobsleds and Black Hole in the same photo...I thought they had gone years before the Black Hole opened.
 
Who needs a memory when you have the diogo research tool.
Though how you found out about Towers bobs via a universal studios fansite I don't know!
 
What the‽ I have no idea how that got pasted in there. Have ammended my post with the correct link.
 
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