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Monorail Refurbishment

QTXAdsy said:
Ironic, I remember from years ago Towers wouldn't give a lick of paint for anything, look at Nemesis before Towers Loving Care came along and yet here they are painting things up like there is no tomorrow and yet no one is happy.

Personally I don't really have an opinion on what colour the station should be but honestly the park can't win in which they do some up keep we're never happy...even if the likes of Oblivion and Smiler all got a lick of paint for the new season I'd bet your bottom dollar someone would have a grievance about it such as the low opinion we just seem to permanently be stuck in though honestly given what's happened over the years, could you blame anyone other than Merlin?
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Oblivion was primed and prepared properly before painting, and it's lasted for a good chunk of time. This, much like Walliams World, is just having paint slapped on top with no prior prep work so it'll look shoddy in the not-so-distant future, putting us back at square one.
 
Trooper Looper said:
They could've gone for a nice dark green or a wood like brown to blend into the surrounding greenery, but no, they decide to add the most absurd and unnatural colour to it. I dread to think how much of an eyesore this'll be next year like Walliams World.
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What surrounding greenery? There isn't much greenery in close proximity for it to blend into! And if they'd gone for green or brown as you suggest, people would've complained about how dull and boring the colours were. I bet when it was painted the bright red they're getting rid of, there were complaints about it being too bright! This country has enough miserable and dull weather, at least bright colours look good on those dull days!

Theme parks are meant to be about excitement, fun and escapism. Bright colours help with this. Towers suffers enough with dark and dingy colour schemes (some self inflicted, others not), at least here they are doing something to brighten the place up where they can. This corporate/Cadbury purple surely has to be better than the flaking, fading red its replacing.

There's a struggle to get a green building passed the locals and planners in a location that can barely be seen from outside the park at the moment; at least let them paint a building in a bright colour where they can!!
 
Steve74 said:
What surrounding greenery? There isn't much greenery in close proximity for it to blend into! And if they'd gone for green or brown as you suggest, people would've complained about how dull and boring the colours were. I bet when it was painted the bright red they're getting rid of, there were complaints about it being too bright! This country has enough miserable and dull weather, at least bright colours look good on those dull days!

Theme parks are meant to be about excitement, fun and escapism. Bright colours help with this. Towers suffers enough with dark and dingy colour schemes (some self inflicted, others not), at least here they are doing something to brighten the place up where they can. This corporate/Cadbury purple surely has to be better than the flaking, fading red its replacing.

There's a struggle to get a green building passed the locals and planners in a location that can barely be seen from outside the park at the moment; at least let them paint a building in a bright colour where they can!!
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No. Towers have suffered enough with the recent reprints, especially Towers Street. God, it looks like a Lego Set now.

Yes, I think there are too many grim looking areas in the park, but the same goes with the complete opposite. Too many vibrant cartoon looking areas too. There needs to be an in-between, a bit of realism in a good manner. Alton Towers lacks that severly.
 
This is how bad things have got. They've let the park get into such a bad state that when they get a bulk buy deal on the same colour purple paint and start haphazardly slopping it over anything that's tired and worn, we're expected to be greatful. As if this is better than nothing.
 
Matt.GC said:
This is how bad things have got. They've let the park get into such a bad state that when they get a bulk buy deal on the same colour purple paint and start haphazardly slopping it over anything that's tired and worn, we're expected to be greatful. As if this is better than nothing.
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In fact, it's worse than nothing. It's a complete downgrade compared to the worn out coat. If that doesn't scream out budget cuts and lack of creativity, I don't know what will.
 
I'd hate to be those painters if they happen to read those comments on here...maybe these are new young guys Merlin have hired for cheap and this is their first job which possibly shows.

The bar is low but the only way is up with how bad they've done it...but yeah, talk about disregard of self-esteem. We can be brutal and merciless as hell yet I honestly don't know who should deserve the flak...the painters or management themselves?
 
For the car park monorail station I think "complete downgrade" is a bit of a push. The previous colour was literally just bog standard mahogany Ronseal sort of stuff. I actually don't mind the purple for that station if I'm honest. It's only a trellis wall covering the thing anyway.

I would've liked to have seen a bit more detail on the entrance plaza mind, but I don't think the purple is anywhere near as garish as the green that was used previously.
 
I appreciate that this is an unpopular opinion… but I actually think it looks really nice myself. I think it’s nice that they’re giving the monorail station a spruce up.

Purple is Alton Towers’ key brand colour, so it makes sense for it to be the colour of the monorail station, in my view. Even still, I think that colour is certainly an improvement on the red.
 
Most of it looks in relatively good nick on the outside, just faded stain on the wood is all. I'm fine with them just painting it if that's the case. If it's done at the right time, it'll actually serve to protect what's there.

What's not so good is when vinyl, paint and acrylic cover rotting parts (i.e. the Towers Street buildings) but that's for another topic. Something going on that's a bit more exciting in the stations themselves would be nice though. The lack of TV's, artex'd walls and just the general blandness doesn't really scream excitement at the moment, both on arrival and when leaving.
 
Painting everything the same colour as if it's the head office of a multinational investment banking corporation doesn't scream excitement or escapism at all. It's sapping more and more character out of the place.

No thought or imagination has been put into this whatsoever. They notice that something is rotting away (mostly years after everyone else has noticed) and Bob the caretaker gets sent to the garage to grab a tin from a stockpiled job lot of purple paint and a brush.
 
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AT86 said:
What is this crazy-ness, monorail windows you can see out of?!

Riding the EP Express makes you realise how shoddy the Towers monorail has become. It is also a rather chilly -4 degrees in Rust right now, EP Express is running no problem, Towers take note!

49451D2A-78A4-441E-A2AE-209BE16E9328.jpeg
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Agree on the windows, as for temperature the EP express moves very slowly compared to AT monorail so it doesn’t surprise me that they can run in cold weather as less likely to struggle to stop on ice.

Now logic would dictate that there should be a cold weather slow speed option for AT monorail but the thing is that old it wouldn’t surprise me if they have no real way of reprogramming it.
 
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Dave said:
Agree on the windows, as for temperature the EP express moves very slowly compared to AT monorail so it doesn’t surprise me that they can run in cold weather as less likely to struggle to stop on ice.

Now logic would dictate that there should be a cold weather slow speed option for AT monorail but the thing is that old it wouldn’t surprise me if they have no real way of reprogramming it.
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Do the 'operators' in the front cab actually drive the monorails or is it all automatic?
 
Zipperdipper said:
Shouldn't be a problem to drive to the conditions then. Maybe they're more concerned about ice on the conductor 'rails' meaning the trains could lose power. Or if one breaks down, no heating on board?
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And also ice on the evac platforms and steps - the same goes for the coasters too really. If the low temps are within manufacturer's specs, the coasters could operate but its the H&S side of things that I'd imagine stop a lot of the rides opening in icy weather
 
Zipperdipper said:
Do the 'operators' in the front cab actually drive the monorails or is it all automatic?
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Years ago I remember one of the monorail trains had to be repaired after bumping into another one. I asked a colleague if this was possible during normal operations and was told no, it can only happen during the transferring of trains. This suggests the driving done by the operators is monitored and separations and speeds are enforced, but I don't know if this means the operator just holds a button to go, or if they can choose any speed from zero up to the maximum speed at any given point based on the control system.
 
Alsty said:
Years ago I remember one of the monorail trains had to be repaired after bumping into another one. I asked a colleague if this was possible during normal operations and was told no, it can only happen during the transferring of trains. This suggests the driving done by the operators is monitored and separations and speeds are enforced, but I don't know if this means the operator just holds a button to go, or if they can choose any speed from zero up to the maximum speed at any given point based on the control system.
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Towers monorail is automatic - the driver just presses a button selecting the destination, e.g. Main Entrance / Maintenance track-switch / Maintenance halt (where staff can exit the front cab via a gang-plank type walkway) or Car park station. They may have some input to control the speed of running depending on weather conditions - i.e. wet or possibly icy main-beam, but that's it. The operator just keeps their hand or finger on the e-stop button for if a track obstruction is seen.

Only place the monorail runs manually is when trains are being added / removed from the system. As to heating... you are joking aren't you? The drivers cabs have small fan-heaters, but those of us who have frozen in the main passenger sections of the monorail on cold days will wonder where the heating is.
 
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