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Talbot Street Tuesday

Squiggs

Squiggs

TS Team
Over the weekend the sky over Alton Towers lit up with a nostalgic firework display, celebrating four decades of thrills.

Well, we love a bit of nostalgia here at TowersStreet and so Talbot Street Tuesdays are back! Over the next few weeks we'll be looking back at some of our favourite eras from the park's history, reliving some of our team's favourite memories of the park in years gone by.

Starting with Mike's memories of the Magical 90s...
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Really enjoyed reading Mike's write-up on Toyland Tours in particular. I wish I could say I wasn't old enough to remember it, but that's not strictly true! As a southerner I sadly didn't visit the park for the first time until the mid-2000s and unfortunately I never got to experience it. I'm rather envious of those of you who can be sent straight back to their childhoods just by listening to the Toyland Tours soundtrack or the original Towers Street music as appeared in this weekend's firework show. I love AT as it is now (usually!), but I'm sad that I missed out on what a lot of you consider the golden era of the park

Someone I spoke to this weekend suggested just rebuilding Toyland Tours exactly as it was in the 1990s; now wouldn't that be something? :p

Looking forward to more trips down memory lane over the winter closure!
 
Wow that has brought back some memories and put a smile on my face. Out of all the rides that have been and gone this was the one that I miss the most. It’s also the one that I think didn’t need to go.

Lovely read so thank you for this. Can’t get the theme tune out of my head now!
 
The fireworks wasn't away that long was it? I'm sure I attended one in the 03-07 period where there wasn't any fireworks; something to with electricity as they had huge Tesla coils. Maybe 2006?
 
WillPS said:
The fireworks wasn't away that long was it? I'm sure I attended one in the 03-07 period where there wasn't any fireworks; something to with electricity as they had huge Tesla coils. Maybe 2006?
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That sounds like Electric Towers in 2006.

It was about five years the Fireworks were absent - ironically the current version of the Fireworks could have run during that period - as I recall the noise abatement order only limited them to only three nights of fireworks a year rather than the five they used to have. Apparently they didn't feel that was enough nights to make it worthwhile.
 
The fireworks were back in 2010 as part of the celebration for the 30th anniversary and had a 13 theme. So it was only 2007-2009 that didn’t have fireworks. It certainly felt like longer though.
 
Squiggs said:
This year almost all of the park's family attractions are open for the Christmas event. But do you remember the year when the rides went to hotels for Christmas?

For this weeks Talbot Street Tuesday we head back to 2008 and the short-lived Elves' Playground.
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It does seem an odd coincidence of events that made this happen. The closing of cred street and transformation into CCL. It's really interesting that the driving school ended up moving too as there was discussion of this in the 2022 speculation thread. Surely this suggests it can't be that hard to move?
 
JAperson said:
It's really interesting that the driving school ended up moving too as there was discussion of this in the 2022 speculation thread. Surely this suggests it can't be that hard to move?
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Well, yes and no. As an attraction it is a bit of an odd one because it is both very moveable, but at the same time not really moveable at all. It isn't like the Frog Hopper for example, where the whole ride can easily move location in a few hours - it is actually just a small fraction of the Driving School that is portable.

The 'Driving School' has been all over the place during its years in the park - it has operated at the hotels, on Towers Street (I think), in the Hospitality Suite (by Adventure Land) and even off site altogether (back in day I seem to recall it sometime operated at external events to promote the park) but in reality it is just the cars (and occasionally the odd bit of theming) that move, whilst the actual infrastructure of the ride remains in Cloud Cuckoo Land.

This means it is actually one of the least portable of the rides in and around Cloud Cuckoo Land, because if you were to permanently move it, you'd first of all need to rebuild all the infrastructure that goes round it - roads, themeing, charging stations, pre-show, photo-op, etc.

For comparison, the Driving School as we see it today took them about three and half months to build and that was without need to construct any new buildings (the charging stations, car wash and pre-show/entrance all went into existing structures). So it's not a huge construction project, but it's not nothing.

One Talbot Street Tuesday I might do the Driving School construction, as we've got a few pics in the archive and it was quite a neat little project to watch them build.
 
Squiggs said:
Well, yes and no. As an attraction it is a bit of an odd one because it is both very moveable, but at the same time not really moveable at all. It isn't like the Frog Hopper for example, where the whole ride can easily move location in a few hours - it is actually just a small fraction of the Driving School that is portable.

The 'Driving School' has been all over the place during its years in the park - it has operated at the hotels, on Towers Street (I think), in the Hospitality Suite (by Adventure Land) and even off site altogether (back in day I seem to recall it sometime operated at external events to promote the park) but in reality it is just the cars (and occasionally the odd bit of theming) that move, whilst the actual infrastructure of the ride remains in Cloud Cuckoo Land.

This means it is actually one of the least portable of the rides in and around Cloud Cuckoo Land, because if you were to permanently move it, you'd first of all need to rebuild all the infrastructure that goes round it - roads, themeing, charging stations, pre-show, photo-op, etc.

For comparison, the Driving School as we see it today took them about three and half months to build and that was without need to construct any new buildings (the charging stations, car wash and pre-show/entrance all went into existing structures). So it's not a huge construction project, but it's not nothing.

One Talbot Street Tuesday I might do the Driving School construction, as we've got a few pics in the archive and it was quite a neat little project to watch them build.
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Yeah I get what you mean. Effectively what your saying is that the cars can move but all the theming and building that would realistically be required for a permanent attraction at Alton Towers would actually have to be constructed which would obviously take time?
I think that makes sense.
 
Did you ever enjoy the Culinary Discoveries from Sir Algenon's Adventures?

Today, for Talbot Street Tuesday, we're taking a trip back to the early days of the Secret Garden Restaurant, when even the menu was a souvenir!

Unfurl your scroll and you could read all about Algenon's travels whilst you chose your meal, inspired by the characters he met on his way. From dishes inspired by Buffalo Ben or Mama Castanetta thru to Yakimoto's Dim Sum, there was something on the menu for everyone.
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Squiggs said:
Who remembers the time when dinosaurs once roamed the park?

Today, for Talbot Street Tuesday, we're taking a look back to Dinosaur Land, one of the park's earliest attractions.

Now, you'd be more likely to get marmarlised here, as these days the site is home to The Smiler.
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good lord - I never knew this existed….
 
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