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Drayton Manor Park

The Looping Group may not be known for big investment, but they did receive a substantial amount of backing from some Middle Eastern investment firm not that long ago (not long before they purchased Drayton), so perhaps that is what’s causing the increased investment in Drayton? And that investment might continue, for all we know; this investment wasn’t something they had pre-COVID!

The group are also known for good rethemes and very good maintenance of the rides that they do have. They’ve done many very good-looking rethemes and refurbishments of rides at Pleasurewood Hills and West Midlands Safari Park, so I think they’ll certainly keep Drayton looking nice!
 
Started a little side project today, hope to spend a bit more time on it in the coming weeks.

I am trying to get a basic profile of the Pirate Adventure building made up, for one, so I can see, in 3D the channel layout and partitioning of the building. For no real reason other than curiosity. Mainly to get a good lay of the building. There are bits where I wish I had access to some behind the scenes photos to be fair, but alas, I will have to make do with what I have.

Very basic so far but may as well show you the basic foundation of what is to come, to give you an idea.

PA1.pngpa2.png

The bottom of both photo's is the queue line and entrance. The smaller blue floor building is where the exit and final few skeleton and cave scenes were. The bit where there is a 2D temp track texture in place is the up ramp, station, first scene and down ramp. The trough water return feed is also in there, much lower down the drop, near the splash down.

I hope to show you more in the coming weeks / months. This is something I have been meaning to do for a while, never had the chance, finally got the ball rolling.
 
DistortAMG said:
Started a little side project today, hope to spend a bit more time on it in the coming weeks.

I am trying to get a basic profile of the Pirate Adventure building made up, for one, so I can see, in 3D the channel layout and partitioning of the building. For no real reason other than curiosity. Mainly to get a good lay of the building. There are bits where I wish I had access to some behind the scenes photos to be fair, but alas, I will have to make do with what I have.

Very basic so far but may as well show you the basic foundation of what is to come, to give you an idea.

PA1.pngpa2.png

The bottom of both photo's is the queue line and entrance. The smaller blue floor building is where the exit and final few skeleton and cave scenes were. The bit where there is a 2D temp track texture in place is the up ramp, station, first scene and down ramp. The trough water return feed is also in there, much lower down the drop, near the splash down.

I hope to show you more in the coming weeks / months. This is something I have been meaning to do for a while, never had the chance, finally got the ball rolling.
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If returning the boat ride to use isn't possible, I'd love to see a pirate themed Mack Suspended Powered Coaster (same ride system as Arthur at Europa) in there, possibly going in and out of it as well. Given the more family-orientated direction the park seem to be heading in, that would be suitable for all ages while being a fun and enjoyable ride. Plus it would be a UK first too.
I know it's unlikely, that's just what I'd personally love to see in the PA building. 🙂
 
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Excalibur said:
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, unfortunately Colin gave up on the park when his parent/s died.

Realistically from around 07/08 after Thomas Land opened that’s when the investments dried up bar Ben
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Well every year attendance increased when a new Thomas land ride opened only 2014 when Air race opened attendance dropped. The death of the girl finished the Bryan’s off.
The main park seen more new attractions in 2 years then over the last 14-15 years under the Bryan’s
 
Skyscraper said:
If returning the boat ride to use isn't possible, I'd love to see a pirate themed Mack Suspended Powered Coaster (same ride system as Arthur at Europa) in there, possibly going in and out of it as well. Given the more family-orientated direction the park seem to be heading in, that would be suitable for all ages while being a fun and enjoyable ride. Plus it would be a UK first too.
I know it's unlikely, that's just what I'd personally love to see in the PA building.
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That is a fantastic idea! You’re right, it ticks so many boxes in one go, imagine if we’d have got something like that at Towers instead of Gangsta Granny and TWODW.
 
Skyscraper said:
If returning the boat ride to use isn't possible, I'd love to see a pirate themed Mack Suspended Powered Coaster (same ride system as Arthur at Europa) in there, possibly going in and out of it as well. Given the more family-orientated direction the park seem to be heading in, that would be suitable for all ages while being a fun and enjoyable ride. Plus it would be a UK first too.
I know it's unlikely, that's just what I'd personally love to see in the PA building. 🙂
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The ride system and water filtration system is still in there, so a boat ride system could theoretically still be plausible. I think it would need new boats as the old ones are rotting in outside storage.
 
The park didn’t want Air Race though. They installed it because they felt they “had to” and it was a cheap installation.
 
Ciaran said:
The ride system and water filtration system is still in there, so a boat ride system could theoretically still be plausible. I think it would need new boats as the old ones are rotting in outside storage.
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I heard they were moved back into the pirate Adventure building in 2020.
They need another auction again as I’m sure there’s so much more stuff from the pirate Adventure as none of the bodies or clothing of the pirates were sold just some of there heads and bits that no longer worked.
 
ozziechef said:
Was great to see the old penny arcade back open today. First time I’ve seen it open in two years!
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I had the idea to turn this building into either:
1) A museum to remember the hard work the Bryan family did over the 70 years they owned the park.
2) A museum to remember the classic rides/attractions at Drayton Manor with the use of information and parts from former attractions.

It’s good to see the building open again and working in a tool room it be nice to let my kids know how a tool room looked in the olden days and just like I did when I was a kid I’m sure my son will enjoy pressing the buttons and seeing what they do.
 
I’m headed to Drayton at some point in June (looking like 9th June is my current planned date, but this is weather dependent and will be decided closer to the time), and I’d be interested to know; is the entrance by Apocalypse open for guest use? If it isn’t, is there a way to reach the main entrance on foot, as I couldn’t obviously see one on Google Street View?

I only ask because I am walking to the park from Wilnecote train station. I’ve checked the route, and it all looks very walkable leading from Wilnecote to Drayton Manor itself, but this was the only thing I was slightly unsure of. If the Apocalypse entrance is open, then my plan works perfectly, but if it’s not, I’ll have to find some way of getting from that part of the park to the main entrance on foot.
 
Matt N said:
I’m headed to Drayton at some point in June (looking like 9th June is my current planned date, but this is weather dependent and will be decided closer to the time), and I’d be interested to know; is the entrance by Apocalypse open for guest use? If it isn’t, is there a way to reach the main entrance on foot, as I couldn’t obviously see one on Google Street View?

I only ask because I am walking to the park from Wilnecote train station. I’ve checked the route, and it all looks very walkable leading from Wilnecote to Drayton Manor itself, but this was the only thing I was slightly unsure of. If the Apocalypse entrance is open, then my plan works perfectly, but if it’s not, I’ll have to find some way of getting from that part of the park to the main entrance on foot.
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It should be, yes 🙂
 
Matt N said:
I’m headed to Drayton at some point in June (looking like 9th June is my current planned date, but this is weather dependent and will be decided closer to the time), and I’d be interested to know; is the entrance by Apocalypse open for guest use? If it isn’t, is there a way to reach the main entrance on foot, as I couldn’t obviously see one on Google Street View?

I only ask because I am walking to the park from Wilnecote train station. I’ve checked the route, and it all looks very walkable leading from Wilnecote to Drayton Manor itself, but this was the only thing I was slightly unsure of. If the Apocalypse entrance is open, then my plan works perfectly, but if it’s not, I’ll have to find some way of getting from that part of the park to the main entrance on foot.
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I'm no stranger to that route, I used to walk from Wilnecote to the park quite often in 2019. It's pretty straight forward, about 25 minutes if you take the shortcut. You can walk from entrance 2 to entrance 1, just follow the road down towards the car parks and then you can find the main entrance from there. It takes about 10 minutes to walk down.
 
Ciaran said:
I'm no stranger to that route, I used to walk from Wilnecote to the park quite often in 2019. It's pretty straight forward, about 25 minutes if you take the shortcut. You can walk from entrance 2 to entrance 1, just follow the road down towards the car parks and then you can find the main entrance from there. It takes about 10 minutes to walk down.
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I had a look at the route on Google Maps. Isn’t the shortcut down through a housing estate? Or are you referring to a different shortcut entirely?
 
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