New Year, New Developments
Posted by THORPE PARK on Jan 9, 2009 in Development Diary
Friday 9th January
Well, Christmas is over and I’ve still got turkey sandwiches for lunch! Not, that I’m getting that much time to eat as we’re even busier on site this year than we were in 2008 - and we’re only 9 days into January.
THORPE PARK got a fantastic early Christmas present from Gerstlauer when we received a delivery of 4 fully themed ride cars. Obviously we were all extremely excited, well it was better than the usual socks that I get in my stocking, and put one straight on the track for a one-off test run on a rainy 13th December (the car that is not my Christmas socks!). What can I say…no really what can I say, it went round!
As I said we’ve been extremely busy recently. The installation of the compressor and pipework, which will help control the brakes and internal theming, is complete, and on the subject of theming, I can confirm that the main elements of internal theming are all now fitted and being tuned and dressed ready to scare you senseless when the ride opens. We’ve also fit two huge industrial fans which can be seen both inside and outside the station building and the disabled lift has been installed and commissioned.
Over Christmas, paving and posts were laid ready for the queue lines and we’ve almost completed construction of the main bridge entrance and water channel that will create SAW - The Ride’s unique island setting. Foundations for the ride shop have started to be laid and CCTV and audio/visual equipment is now being fitted both internally and externally.
And all this has been happening while the lakes, ground and water pipes have been freezing around us. I’m not sure how T. G. Cruse, our main contractor, have managed to work at all on the site over Christmas and New Year but they did and have done a great job in such challenging conditions. Let’s hope the weather warms up a bit soon.
Thanks,
Keith Workman