HEX
Our tour behind the scenes at Alton towers started with Hex, Being the first group we had a small wait as the ride crew set everything up and opened the gates.
As can be seen in the photos below, the entrance hall doesn't look too different with the lights on, other than the fact you can see things as you walk on by!
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During the day the queue for hex was right out of the door, so to see it this quiet was a nice contrast. You can see much more detail on the walls compared to normal operating conditions.
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These photos are of the section called the octogon, due to its 8 sides. In this room you can see the witch from the Hex legend and the generator which is powering the lights in the room.
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Here you can see inside the main ride section. Hex is in fact a Vekoma Mad house ride. The photo in the middle shows the ceiling whilst the room is rotating. Before being shown further we were allowed to ride Hex with the lights on.
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On the right is the main control room for Hex. It contains a few screens of various parts of the attraction, a touch screen control system and a standard control board. The ride is fully automatic, other than the lowering of restraints. There is also a viewing window to the rotating drum that is part of the illusion to the ride. The blue machine is a hydrolic pump that swings the seats from side to side by +/-15 degrees.
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We were then led into the room that holds the rotating room of Hex. The Room is massive as it needs to hold the entire 6 sided rotating room inside of it. In the left picture you can see the viewing photo from the control room. In the right you can see the two motos that are moving the room. There are a total of 8 motors in operating to move the room. When the room is rotating (which we got to see!) you can see all the wires for the lights trailing all over the place. Even though we wern't on the ride, it made us feel werid just the same.