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Towers Loving Care

Towers street is looking good. I hope TLC are listening to the feedback about the Duel refurb. None of us want a repeat of what happened to Terror Tomb. There are not many great dark rides left in the UK, I guess there's so much that can break and go wrong with them. However they can be incredibly immersive attractions when done right. I have much hope for Duel after experiencing the amazing refurb TLC had done for Hex.
 
It didn't always look as bad as their photo 'before' makes out, which is maybe why people on here hadn't noticed it. I prefer the classier timber look from recent years, than just more block colour everywhere, but whatever! Each to their own. Towers Street still needs more than paint really.

2014:

13395331434_9ebbbf733b_b.jpg


close up
http://c7.alamy.com/comp/E6BFKT/alton-towers-trading-company-shop-entrance-sign-E6BFKT.jpg


pre 2014 (not so nice, but still not as drab as the TLC post makes out)
https://towersstreet.com/gallery/ca...eet/tsdw08_-8-_595_towerstreet_sign_clean.jpg
tsdw08_-8-_595_towerstreet_sign_clean.jpg
 
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I actually never minded Towers Trading. It only really looked drab when they started painting all the other buildings around it brighter colours.

I initially liked the new look of towers street as it's new colours look slightly pastel like. But that lime green looks brighter than the rest in that photo.
 
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I love what they've done with Towers Street, it was looking so dull and dated. Of course it is fairly basic but I would imagine budgets only stretch as far as a lick of paint and a bit of maintenance.

Hopefully at some point in the future they can push Merlin for a decent amount of cash to be able to give Towers Street and the entrance plaza a new lease of life. Both have so much potential!

:)
 
The trouble with the wood facade is the same as a lot of the other wooden buildings and fencing at AT. Wood over time changes colour from the sun, rain and damp. Particularly in the cold wet countryside like Alton it needs treating regularly to keep it looking as new.
The original log cabin style building extension on Towers Street was ok, but it would never stay new loooking for long.
 
jon81uk said:
Wood over time changes colour from the sun, rain and damp.
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I doubt this is the reason. Paint also fades, peels, etc just as much. Varnished timber is a very common decorative material. Everything needs some degree of maintenance. The building wasn't turned green to keep it looking fresh for longer, it was surely just a part of this new branding to make it look 'quirky'.
 
bluesonichd said:
I dont understand how the trommel keeps breaking, its only a big drum on caster wheels and an electric motor.
you could pick up spares from B&Q and the motor ... scavenge that from an old washing machine
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The drum has distorted over the years so it’s more of an oval shape now and i believe that is putting strain on the motors.

I like the look of Towers Street, particularly based on the money they had to do it.
 
Regarding the trommel in duel, as much as I love it (when working) we all know that it will break after a week and never get fixed...this being the case, I wouldn't be opposed to ripping it out and putting something else there!
 
I'm surprised they haven't used more projection effects in Duel with the advances in technology. Using screens, projectors etc it would be fairly easy now to make some ghostly effects in some of the scenes, and I wouldnt have thought it would be too costly either.
 
electricBill said:
Yes, but Duel is not one of them!

Projection mapping on the other hand can look far more organic and would have probably been used if the same team had built the ride today. Subtle augmentations and effects though, not the blank-set kind where the whole scene is a projection
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And the might be what Gary intended, adding projected effects to make ghosts appear in the sets (similar to the peppers ghost reflection of the screen for the dolls house in the queue) would be good.
 
I think it's a very fine line, though. Considering how physical many of the original Haunted House effects are, it would take more than projecting an image/animation of a ghost onto an existing set to add something cohesive to the ride.
 
I meant both to be honest. With regards screens, yes they have to be implemented well, but take for example when alton did the publicity stunt for sub terra with the screens in the lift floor. So if you consider the dark corridor with the toilet scene, if they had some large screens above your head facing down, and an image of a ghostly apparition moved down the screens over your heads, then that could work (its an effect they always wanted to have).

With regards projections, again, this could work in places where some fine material could be used to project ghostly images onto to give them a more 3D realistic effect (i.e. projection mapping).
 
electricBill said:
Yes, but Duel is not one of them!

Projection mapping on the other hand can look far more organic and would have probably been used if the same team had built the ride today. Subtle augmentations and effects though, not the blank-set kind where the whole scene is a projection
Click to expand...

I hope one day you go to Grona Lund; Bla Taget is probably the best example of a refurbed old fashioned Ghost Train which uses both screens and physical effects you can get (without lasers to boot!)...

Like screen wise you could've seen some use in the skeleton corridor bomb scene, or as use as a jump scare where something passes you on the screen and as you turn the next corner the animatronic leaps out...

It's an incredibly fine line to tread...
 
I guess the Haunted House was really an archetypical example of everything retro, but done on big theatrical scale (rather than an old fashioned ghost train), kind of like a sillier British Haunted Mansion. Illusions based on classic lighting tricks and physical animation but done on a bigger scale than before. Screens in a retro dark ride are usually fairly detached and digital looking, they can't envelope you like a physical set. I personally think you can get much more seamless and subtle results from projecting over a physical set these days?
 
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