JoshC.

I don't know how often 5 trains are used, but I believe the transfer track is just before the offload station, but just after the very last set of brakes.I think if you look to your right juust before the offload station you can see it.

Well, those words were not mine, just so you know..

Don't worry though, I'll leave you to do all the mechanics and physics calculations when it come to The Swarm and that...

http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/s/2097877_tats_the_way_for_thorpe_park_mad_familyThorpe Park can seemingly be involved in little things now and worm their way into local and national newspapers...

Okay, so 5 trains, each holding 10 people. Taking 1000pph, that means 200pph per train. 200pphpt means that each train does 20 circuits an hour, which means 3 minutes for the train to be loaded, complete the circuit, offloaded then back to the unloaded station. The circuit takes just over 2 minutes to complete, which means that everyone is going to have to get on and off blooming quickly and staff are going to have to be working ther socks off to reach that. So that it certainly theoretical.I'd say somewhere between 400-600 is much more likely on a day-to-day basis...

I'm not signing, but a thought:There is some subtle theming around Storm Surge. You've got bits and bobs on the control box, the pipes close to the Kebab place, and the odd other bit here and there. If they wanted / planned to add theming to the box at the top, surely they would have done it with the money that was instead spent on that theming. After all, I think more or less all of us would agree that theming at the top of the ride would be better than little bits at the bottom of the ride. So, it seems Thorpe could have some sort of reluctance to do so. Also, I'd prefer whatever extra money given to theme the top to go on another ride, one which is more popular, has a longer life left in it or be left for Fright Night theming budget. There's my little two cents. Best of luck with the petition though, take it to Mike Vallis regardless of the number of names and see what comes out - sometimes strange things happen!

One thing that confuses me about the tank...There are some track marks behind the tank, which look realistic as if it has moved on the grass, but only for a short while. How would that work if the tank is real? I just don't get it... Here's a pic of my showing where the track marks start:

I retract the above statement, following the first picture being taken of track today...From Go Merlin: http://go-merlin.co.uk/theswarm/

Track is on park, not onsite. That's all there is to it really...

Shouldn't see any need for planning permission to show a tank which can be moved and that. The tank could easily be repainted too if they wanted to keep it I guess.

Oblivion (and Air) are both sand filled.

Or Rumba Rapids, now that it has it's pre-tunnel waterfall back..

So, I went to Thorpe Park yesterday with some old friends from secondary school. The park seemed to be off form on the day, and if it weren't for the company I was with, I'd think I would have felt somewhat disappointed with the day out..We got the park at about 9:20 for a 9:30 opening. As ever, Inferno was on the cards to start the day (and we felt almost confident of a reride due to the quietness that there was). But, before we get to all that, a couple of pre-entry photos:It was a scorcher today, despite rain being predicted at some point.I had to get a photo of the LC12 stamp, even if it did take 3 attempts with my friends jogging me... :shifty So yeah, we got into the gates and the usual beginning of day rush occurred, with people piling all over each other. We took a gentle stroll over to Inferno, with most other guests being distracted by Storm Surge, Tidal Wave or headed over to Saw. JoshC. approved of the emptyness surrounding the area.So yeah, we walked through the queue and reached the silent station, see a train half way through leaving. Fair enough we thought, probably just a sign to show the ride is actually working. Being the first ones there, we opted for the front row. I smugly thought to myself how I have more luck than thorpeparkjack... Anyways, the second train came into the station and stayed there. The staff were happy to talk amongst themselves, but tell us nothing. The train went off empty (by this time, more people were arriving at the station..) The other train arrived with a couple of staff members on and, after they unclipped all the seats for about 10 people, the gates finally open! I can't lie and say I didn't enjoy front row Inferno, it was pretty sweet. As the ride ended, we were hoping to be able to move rows and get what seems like now as the sacred reride. However, it seemed as if the staff hadn't got their finger out and were still testing the other train - in other words, it was one train operation meaning no reride for us. Can't say I wasn't a little bit peed about that, considering with both trains working, a reride would have been possible. We got to the photo unit, which wasn't actually showing any photos, just the Inferno logo. Oh dear, not the greatest start. Using my keen eye, I had realised whilst on Inferno that Saw wasn't open, which disappointed me, as it has been doing well for most of the season. Also, I had realised Storm Surge had broken down and staff were evacuating people from boats on the lift hill... That, and having Stealth down meant that what rides were open were going to get right busy..We went for Rumba Rapids times instead, which left me pleasantly surprised when I saw that the waterfall before the tunnel had returned - leaving 3 out of 4 of us soaked! We had the classic reride to ensure everyone in our group was wet.I tried to get a photo of the waterfall, but failed...A closed Stealth.As we were rather wet to say the least, we opted to go over to Loggers Leap to continue the wet themes. I noticed that by this time, Saw was testing. Due to how, somewhat surprisingly, quiet Loggers was, we were able to get a reride on this too - I was happy.The little grassy bit before the tunnel was flooding for one reason or another...We were now thoroughly soaked. We decided to not do another water ride, but instead do Samurai. We had noticed Saw was carrying passengers whilst we were on Loggers, but everyone was leaving the queue and it was testing again...An empty Saw car.Spin Samurai, Spin!After an intense ride on Samurai, leaving half the group feeling a bit ill, we opted to do a slightly gentler (in the eyes of all the group) ride, Slammer. It had no queue, but due to the poor loading, we were there for a looong time. I was pretty bored half way through to be honest - personally, I find the ride little more than a short filler.After a little wander round, we opted to do 'Techno X', which is certainly warming to me more now. Oh, and one more track tie has been painted to glow in the dark! *OMG, WOWZ* We just had a long break and chat now, sitting on the little grassy area by Stealth, before having lunch at 12.The Swarm site has 2 drillers on site now.The group decided to split for lunch, with half going to the Pizza Hut Buffet whilst it was relatively quiet, and me and another going to the Mexican Cantina opposite. First time I've properly been to the Mexican place, and I really enjoyed it!We both had a Chicken Nachos each. With AP discount, it came to £3.88, which considering the size of the dish, is probably one of the best values deals on park! By the way, it does look more appetizing it real life, it's just a poor shot.We plodding through lunch, taking about half an hour and not even finishing it! The group re-met and after more chatting (and me getting about 3 refills from the amazing AP drink refill...) we did some wandering around, and ended up at the Flying Fish, which had no queue. I was fortunate enough to get back row, and we also got an extra circuit, because the platformer seemed to forget about the water squirting he did on the previous ride, which left everyone on the train a bit disappointed.. Anyway, we got quite wet from it - more wet than you get on Storm Surge anyway, now they've gotten rid of the free water squirters and that...As we were getting off, I spotted Les Coogan (I guess that's the character's name in general) running away. I moved slightly quicker than everyone in my group, who were still looking at our ORPs from the Fish. I noticed that Les was being chased by a 'police officer'. Les slowed down to a walk, whilst the police officer slowed down to a brisk walk shouting at Les. Les then stopped by what will be the entrance to Swarm's island pointing, jumping and shouting 'LOOK, LOOK!' before running off again. The officer then started chasing after him, then they disappeared out of sight, which was slightly freaky.. I guess they were going off for a break or something, as we didn't see them in Neptune's Kingdom. My friends had also seen the thing and were shocked, wondering what on earth had happened and were obviously taken into the story, believing it. They had trouble believing me when I said it was advertising! What I liked even more was, after they passed Flying Fish, we were the only people around - the only other people that could have seen it were those on Depth Charge, who may have overlooked it even. I really found that a great touch; acting realistically when next to no-one is around - adds to the belief. In honesty, it is the best acting I've ever seen at Thorpe. Unfortunately, I was only able to get one shot of the goings on..This seemed to be when Les broke into a run...After all that, we opted to do Depth Charge. It's a little favourite in our group; we enjoy racing each other okay! When we got to the top, and promised not to 'cheat' (as in push against the sides at the beginning to give a little head start, my trick the first time we did the ride as a group a couple of years ago...), we all ended up cheating, though I was probably last to leave. However, what with me being a little heavier than everyone else, I still just reached the bottom, and also got the furthest on the ground.. losers..! (I'm not at all competitive, am I?) Due to the extreme busyness of the park at this time and after a bit of general wandering, we left at 2..So yeah, it was a bit of an odd day. Reliability had gone downhill massively, but there were some real highlights from the park too. As I said at the beginning, if it hadn't have been for the company, I would have felt a bit disappointed and almost on a bit of a downer. However, having to only pay £3.88 for the day out makes it that little bit better. I look forward to seeing how the park is next week, before my Chessington and long awaited Alton Towers trips later in the month...

So now the only way to get wet is getting lucky with the shower or hoping people have money to burn to pay for water canons...Nice one Thorpe, nice one...

It probably is. All the actors are part of the entertainments team, and some have probably been in FN mazes, Saw or Saw Alive. :rolleyes:Pretty sure I've seen one of the other guys who played the 'LC12' guy in Saw Alive previously.

Just an interesting point to throw into the height thing..Island C, ie The Swarm, was meant to be the 'up to 50m coaster', with Islands A and E being up to 40m. Pretty sure I read somewhere in the plans for this coaster that, because the coaster high points were carefully planned, they wre allowed to swap them round.

In the video there is a wall of fly posters with missing people, probably links in with that? I'd hope that it ties in with a ride it first competition like there was on the Saw minisite.

In honesty, if it was called 'Swarm', people would end up saying 'Let's ride The Swarm' and with 'The Swarm', people will end up saying 'Swarm' a lot. In that case, it's lose-lose.I don't mind though, I love the name, and I didn't have myself as someone who would like rides named as 'The ____'.

Love the name, the theme idea, the concept art, the minisite - love pretty much everything so far.That is all.

I heard that the park had always planned it to be a horror film themed ride from early on, put the actual theme was somewhat 'fastracked' and a deal was secured in late Spring / early Summer 2008. Then the plans changed a couple of months later to get rid of the windmill, and instead build the Saw store and have the police car occupy the space of the windmill..

As popular as it is during the summer, I've always seen the larger side of Neptune's Beach and Wet Wet Wet as a way of giving compensation for the ride, to make the area a little less condensed.But who knows really..

It's a red splat mark. In a war, guns are usually fired. Splat marks come from being shot. Logical really.

With regards to the name, I don't think it is 'WAR', but somehow has the word within the name. If not, the extra emphasis on it is a bit of a let down.But yeah, interesting...

As I said on Saturday... Just because I'm not saddened by her death in any way, doesn't mean that I am showing her, and more her family, no respect..'Good riddance' was probably too harsh a thing to say, but I still stand by the view that I'm personally not saddened b the fact she's died.

I sorta understand where you're coming from here Liam. Innocent people are murdered every day through bombs and gunmen and such; which is of course terrible. This is perhaps more significant because of the country - I believe I heard it was the country's biggest loss / damage since WWII (along those lines anyway). So I do get where you're coming from, though I in no way think Amy Winehouse was a 'true icon', in any good sense. This celeb culture thing just really pees me off...