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Forbidden Valley: Future Changes?

Scaffolding etc is not needed, safety gear and cherry pickers yes - but it is all within the realms of normal for a park the size of Alton Towers who will regularly need to access heights.

Here are some photos from previous seasons when cleaning/painting has been undertaken on rides.


From: https://x.com/altontlc/status/831574327892049921?s=46&t=zG_i8R9vX93ZZU0RljfzWA


IMG_6047.jpeg


With Galactica I would suspect on balance that it is more likely to get cleaned up before March than not. There is clearly a conscious effort being made with the presentation of the wider FV area so it would be a very odd choice to not clean it up, in the scheme of the work they are undertaking, some pressure washing isn’t that complex.
 
AT86 said:
With Galactica I would suspect on balance that it is more likely to get cleaned up before March than not. There is clearly a conscious effort being made with the presentation of the wider FV area so it would be a very odd choice to not clean it up, in the scheme of the work they are undertaking, some pressure washing isn’t that complex.
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Yep and I don’t think Galactica would even need climbing like that, it’s relatively low to the ground so cherry pickers should be enough.
 
If they are going to give Galactica a wash I suppose it would make sense to do it when they have the kit in to clean up the 18 months of construction residue at Nemesis. Most likely will still be going on as geeks are running to Forbidden Valley come opening day, knowing Towers track record.


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jmc said:
If they are going to give Galactica a wash I suppose it would make sense to do it when they have the kit in to clean up the 18 months of construction residue at Nemesis. Most likely will still be going on as geeks are running to Forbidden Valley come opening day, knowing Towers track record.


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Best we wait and see...
 
BarryZola said:
Can we please remember that the theme park is currently closed. We're only seeing this because Thoosies keep sticking their things through the hole in the fence (camera). Let's at least wait until it opens to really pile in on them :laughing:
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Couldn't agree more, we need to wait and see what awaits us this season!
We'll have to deal with the withdrawal symptoms as we wait though
 
Relife said:
I'm not sure why Galactica has been left to get in this state. It costs very little to jetwash and add a lick of paint to the station. I definitely think Galactica will be the first secret weapon to go, it's never fit in with that area. I give it another 5-10 years tops
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I am not sure if it would be the first to go, whilst it is in a bad state it is a very good stepping stone interms of roller coasters for people to build up to nemesis / the smiler in my opinion it fits a nice gap in alton's ride selection, although B & M flying coasters are expensive.

I think (My Opinion) they may have been intending on doing either a re theme similar to the curse at alton, or a sparkle thing when nemesis was finished, but I think nemesis was delayed due to the first turn not being installed for a while (hence the roumours of something during the fireworks).
 
jibbsie said:
I am not sure if it would be the first to go, whilst it is in a bad state it is a very good stepping stone interms of roller coasters for people to build up to nemesis / the smiler in my opinion it fits a nice gap in alton's ride selection, although B & M flying coasters are expensive.

I think (My Opinion) they may have been intending on doing either a re theme similar to the curse at alton, or a sparkle thing when nemesis was finished, but I think nemesis was delayed due to the first turn not being installed for a while (hence the roumours of something during the fireworks).
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Most steel coasters have a 30 year lifespan so they either have to rest rack or replace and.my money is on replace. If they get another 5 years out of it then 25 years is still a good run. I don't see it going anywhere until after project Horizon is finished
 
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Must admit, i really hope they haven’t changed the Nemesis drill creature with an undersized helicopter. Seems bizarre and out of place.

But if it’s been removed for some other reason. It would be great to see it reappear around the ride, or the sub terra queue
 
Relife said:
Most steel coasters have a 30 year lifespan so they either have to rest rack or replace and.my money is on replace. If they get another 5 years out of it then 25 years is still a good run. I don't see it going anywhere until after project Horizon is finished
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I agree with this. Air takes up a large plot of developable land, which by removing could open up more space.

It remains fairly popular but not popular enough to justify a retrack.
Amazing bit of tech but not that good a ride in this day and age.
 
Relife said:
Most steel coasters have a 30 year lifespan so they either have to rest rack or replace and.my money is on replace. If they get another 5 years out of it then 25 years is still a good run. I don't see it going anywhere until after project Horizon is finished
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I'd expect we won't see it going anywhere before Horizon opens and Rita is replaced.
 
Relife said:
Most steel coasters have a 30 year lifespan so they either have to rest rack or replace and.my money is on replace. If they get another 5 years out of it then 25 years is still a good run. I don't see it going anywhere until after project Horizon is finished
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Loch Ness Monster at Busch is getting re-tracked right now and it opened in 1978.

if you actually look at the B&M re-tracks you have Hulk which is a 365 days a year coaster and Nemesis which is a “built in a weird quarry” coaster. Neither are typical. Beyond that which B&M is getting or has been rebuilt?
 
Dave said:
Loch Ness Monster at Busch is getting re-tracked right now and it opened in 1978.

if you actually look at the B&M re-tracks you have Hulk which is a 365 days a year coaster and Nemesis which is a “built in a weird quarry” coaster. Neither are typical. Beyond that which B&M is getting or has been rebuilt?
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Equally the likes of Python/Shaman built in the early 80s only got retracked in recent years.

PMBO is another 94 coaster getting retrack treatment, but again that is probably affected by being so close to a salty sea breeze.

It will be interesting to see how B&Ms hold up in the coming years as I always imagined them as being way more sturdy than the older Arrow/Vekomas.


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Relife said:
Most steel coasters have a 30 year lifespan so they either have to rest rack or replace and.my money is on replace. If they get another 5 years out of it then 25 years is still a good run. I don't see it going anywhere until after project Horizon is finished
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True, but I think they will make it last to 30, (10 years is a while) because of 2 reasons:
1: oblivion is probably looking at getting a retrack/replacment soon as it is younger than galactica, thus they will need the other high capacity rides to take up the guests form oblivion.
2: it is still quite popular, a large amount of people still go on it, whilst it is probably quiter this year i would want to see what it is like when nemesis is open and people have more reason to head to over to forbiden valley.

also most of the ride dosn't experience much G force (from memory) so they may be able to replace small amounts of the track similar to what they did on colosus, although the weight of the train will have an effect. but with the reliability they would probably have to replace the computer to make a big improvment which would be quite expensive.

Dobba said:
Spinball and Rita are definitely ahead of Galactica in the queue for the chopping block.
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spinball has recently had a large expensive computer replacment, it is probably not on the chopping block soon.
 
Most steel coasters have a thirty year lifespan?
Not most, some.
Space Invader, Revolution, Steeplechase and Avalanche are older, that's just from one park.
There are loads of other examples.
 
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jibbsie said:
1: oblivion is probably looking at getting a retrack/replacment soon as it is younger than galactica, thus they will need the other high
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I think you mean that Oblivion is older than Galactica. Oblivion opened in 1998, Galactica opened as Air in 2002.
 
With the changes in the Valley, would the remains of Nemesis' loop fit where the drill/gun was?
 
Not an expert but Galacticair probably doesn't get anywhere near the strain on the track that Nemesis has had. I'd be quite sad if it was removed. It occupies a good 'Not too extreme but still a distinct sensation' niche. I don't think there's any other flyers in the UK are there?
 
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