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th13teen

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I'm gonna keep this in my signature until SW7's open day. That way we can either congratulate you for your confidence or mock you for your optimism ;)

Rather be mocked for being optimistic in the face of people who don't seem to understand that construction companies do make allowances for potential problems with time frames than for being a bloody miserable bugger and press the panic button way too early...

We saw how quickly Fuji-Q's went up (2/3 weeks no?)... Let's panic in Feb if it's not been built yet eh? A month for building, a month for testing (whilst all the other odd jobs like paving, electricals, etc happen)... Groundwork takes the longest, and considering the weather, it's not a shock that it might well be behind schedule (which is just people guessing really, no enthusiast will be 100% privy to such data), but until I have hard evidence to support that it will not open on opening day, then I will be optimistic in my belief that the construction engineers will get it done...

Indeed, I'm sure if Towers get really worried, they'll tell the workers to increase productivity... I don't think that enthusiasts proclaiming it will not be built on time (whether it be serious or a 'laugh') is tantamount to a fun place... Especially when I doubt they might not have much knowledge about construction project techniques...

Tl;dr - Pessimistic enthusiasts should have a reason, like a crap plonked down ride being built so some stop gap cheap hotel in order to garner some extra income with minimal outlay... Jesus it's DIC all over again!

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Whilst very briefly going off topic, I worked on Colossus on a very regular basis (2-4 times per week) and Colossus was on 2 trains nearly every day of this season except for early mornings. This was the case until late September when an issue arose. The issue is currently being rectified at Intamin in Switzerland.

So actually going on topic, It does worry me ever so slightly, But none the less I'm sure AT will pull through. I do look forward to riding this next year!

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I hope they are the trains! They look amazing! :wub:

I can see why people would think they won't be SW7 trains with the amount of inversions or/and the tightness of them but they look very much like Intamin trains, like Maverick and Maverick has some very tight inversions so who knows!

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Jared on TowersStreet has kindly pointed out the posted image is fan made bull. http://coaster-lab.com/train-designs/

Ignore.

Was this ever not the case? ..still it's generated some sort of discussion after a very quiet couple of weeks! :P

I've heard that the track went vertical on 21st November, will have to wait and see when TTF go flying this week (if they do) to see if it's correct though!

Looking at the last set of aerial pictures taken on the 21st November it doesn't show any sign of track installation, or even suggests that it would follow soon.

If anything I'm stunned that we haven't seen any PR / advertising / teaser campaigns kick in as yet, I mean even a revamped 2013 page on the official site or even some additional content would generate a little buzz so to speak.

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Those trains looked awful anyways in my opinion, especially for SW7.

With regards to constructed, TT posted this article a few days ago (don't think it's been posted on here. Going to post it all as there's other bits and bobs there too):

As of 28th December, Alton Towers Resort Operations Limited will be no more! All of the business, assets and employees will be transferred to Merlin Attractions Operations Limited. This will not effect the daily operations of the resort but will consolidate the business from a tax perspective.

Onto the rides and Rita is currently having its trains totally stripped down and inspected as is usual each closed season.

Hex's Slew Ring is currently being replaced by Vekoma from Holland, this is a massive task to give some idea ofthe size of this project , two ten tonne jacks and one 20 tonne jack are just some of the kit required to support the structure! This should hopefully fix the parking issue the ride has experienced in recent years.

Th13teen track is being cleaned to remove build up of moss, along with components of Oblivion being cleaned to remove limescale.

Progress is being made on SW7 but reports suggest the ride is currently two weeks behind schedule, Alton Towers have applied to the council to extend working hours in the week and also on Sundays to catch up on the completion date. A Specialist sub-station is also being installed to power SW7

Source - http://old.towerstim..._from=&ucat=1,9

Only two weeks behind schedule. Interesting...

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No it hasn't yet - concretes not even finished.

The underground section has its footers all ready so track can still go down, even if the rest of the site is still under construction. And I pressume they would want to get the underground section completed ASAP to complete the top portion of the ride and avoid the TT helicopter from getting images of the underground section. But as Stokesyboy said, lets wait and see.

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Shameless plugging ahoy.

We at TowersTimes have been flying again! You can see the images in our (members only) SW7 forum:

http://forum.towerstimes.co.uk/sw7-91/latest-aerial-updates/msg692820/#msg692820

It is a little bit concerning how little has been done so far. Whilst these coasters do indeed go up very quickly this time during Saw construction the ride was in the hands of studios getting the final fix and theming treatment.

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For those without access to the pics, it still looks a lot like this...

Posted Image

It does not appear to have gone vertical, but the station has a big concrete floor which I think is suspended above ride are bellow. I'd have thought the ride in there would have been built already, before covering it up, because access would be a big problem now. So maybe it has gone vertical but we just can't see it?

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