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Drayton Manor Park

Dar said:
It should noted that Troublesome Trucks is quite a good coaster in its own right!
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Have to agree with this! Visited DMP for the first time last week and was pleasantly surprised at how enjoyable Troublesome Trucks was for a Thomas Land ride! In fact I may have ridden it more times than any other ride on the park...
 
The problem with running coasters in cold weather isn't ice. After all, an icy track is a fast track. It's that the grease in the wheel bearings starts to freeze.
This is why Colossus has heat lamps under the station, to help keep the wheels warm in cold conditions. (Though why that bag of rust should have them and not any decent coasters is beyond me...)
 
Ice on the track isn't a problem, but ice on the sensors, limit switches & power rails is a big problem. I'm assuming its the power rail that means the monorail can't operate in FHT for example.
 
Screamscape said:
2015 - Thomas Land Expansion - Confirmed - (10/29/14) A reader returned from a visit to Drayton Manor and tells us that “a lot of progress has been made on the thomas land expansion , it is quite large and should nearly double the size of the area , they appeared to have laid foundations for at least 3 more rides , the most noticable work has been the construction of a fairly large two storey building at the very back of the new site which has a glass structure on the roof which looks kind of like an air traffic control tower”. Smaller building structures are also going up which could be for carnival game booths.
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This is confusing. The expansion I saw being built on my last visit (on the old disabled car park) looked very small?
 
Sam said:
This is confusing. The expansion I saw being built on my last visit (on the old disabled car park) looked very small?
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I think looking at Google maps satellite pics the car park isn't far off the same size as the existing Thomas Land.
 
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Below is a link to an interesting article where Colin Bryon (DMP CEO) talks about the development of Thomas land and how it came about. Some key points-

-Thomas land cost £7.7m
-The 2015 expansion will cost another £2.5m and add 3 new rides/attractions plus they are repositioning some of the existing rides to allow better capacity into the area, Plus looking at modifying some of the existing rides to increase hourly capacity by 40%.
-In 2016 they plan on developing Farmer Mccolls Farm for 2016
-They have just ordered a new Thomas train
-In 2008 when Thomas land opened they had a 41% increase in attendance and 31% increase in revenue with an extra 320,000 guests (they expected an extra 100k).
-Original idea was for a Bob The Builder land before being switched to Thomas
-The hotel Ran at 85-90% occupancy in July 2014 and 250,000k people have slept in the hotel since it opened 3 years ago.

http://www.iaapa.org/connect/europe/full-steam-ahead
 
85-90% occupancy is pretty good, certainly better than PortAventura manage. What on earth is Farmer McColl's farm?

The one thing that park need more than a coaster is to get rid of that horrible bloody zoo.
 
Sam said:
What on earth is Farmer McColl's farm?
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It's like a large play area where you can take a train from Thomas Land to there. They even have an exhibition that has some of the Thomas models used in the TV show.
 
So the 2016 investment will also relate to Thomas Land? I know it is very big for them and it pulls in a lot of guests but apart from Ben 10 (which is hardly inspiring in itself) it seems to be the only thing they're focussing on in terms of rides. I just wished they showed a little more ambition, there clearly is some money there.

:)
 
Rob said:
So the 2016 investment will also relate to Thomas Land? I know it is very big for them and it pulls in a lot of guests but apart from Ben 10 (which is hardly inspiring in itself) it seems to be the only thing they're focussing on in terms of rides. I just wished they showed a little more ambition, there clearly is some money there.

:)
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But if opening Thomas Land gave a 31% increase in guests, why do anything else? A generic roller coaster won't be that big a draw as Alton Towers already has that market. As long as AT cant steal too much of the family market with CBeebies Drayton Manor are safer to focus on the younger families.
 
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I know that, and that's exactly why they are continuing with it. As far as I'm concerned though it is playing it safe, maybe that is the sensible thing to do right now. I just wish they'd take a punt on an interesting new coaster, everyone knows that big (relatively speaking) new coaster = more guests. Very rarely does it not work out that way.

:)
 
I would imagine the 2015 and the 2016 thomas expansion has partly come from Alton opening cbeebies land and Drayton worried they would loose some of the families with younger kids to Alton Towers.
 
That's actually a really nice little video and it comes across as very genuine which is rare for such videos.

:)
 
Drayton Manor have announced the details of their Thomas Land Expansion for 2015. The new area is costing £2.5m and increases the size of the area by 40%.

The new area features 3 new rides and other new features. The new rides are-

Flynn's Fire Rescue- (Zamperla Fire Brigade)
Captain's Sea Adventure (Zamperla Water Mania) features on board cannons to squirt water
Toby's Tram Express (Zamperla Barnyard)

Central feature of the new area is the new two story Sodor Airport it has a top level balcony for VIP travellers and has 5 themed rooms available for private hire for events/parties etc. the ground level features a new cafe,

Jememy Jets flying academy moves to the expanded area and is outside the new airport building. A new fountain if the fat controller and 3 victorian themed fairground games and a band stand for live performances. Plus i understand the blue mountain engines ride will also join the new area along with some other new features.

You can see some concept art at the below link

http://www.tamworthherald.co.uk/Dra...-Thomas-Land/story-26045651-detail/story.html
 
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