Hope you enjoy it.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Thanks for reading.

The fountains cost an estimated 80 thousand pounds and from what ive seen they are worth every penny and make what was a empty space a great meeting place for people and are an ideal play area for children as they run and duck under the fountains much to the annoyance of parents watching.

From what I could gather the fountains operate about every fifteen minutes to various pieces of music, each show lasts for about six and half minutes. It will be nice in the summer to sit down and have a drink and watch these. Well done Pleasure Beach.

Here’s a couple of photograph’s and a video of the display taken below.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Thanks for reading.

Originally installed in 1933 the main station was demolished by fire in 1934 and rebuilt under the architectural supervision of Joseph Emberton who went on to redesign most of the pleasure beach during the 30′s.  The new station opened in 1935 and was later rebuilt to a victorian style in 1970.

Two of the diesel powered trains Mary Louise a 462 Pacific type express and Carol Jean a 464 Baltic type engines were built at Hudswell works in Leeds, The third train Princess Royal was later renamed Geoffrey Thompson OBE, the parks then owner of the park. Another train Barbie acts as a track maintainance vehicle and can be often seen parked up outside the workshops.

The Train has two stations the main station where the trains are kept with a maintenance facility and workshops and the second station Star Holt named after the public house on the south side of Pleasure Beach Blackpool. Star Holt isn’t used very much since the south park entrance closed but you can still instruct the driver to drop you off or board at this once popular stop.

If anyone knows anymore information about the Pleasure beach express please get in touch Id love to know some more about it, as you can tell my knowledge on the subject of trains is very limited.

Heres a collection of photographs ive taken over the last few years of visiting Pleasure Beach.

The stations.

Firstly the main station opposite Beaver Creek.

Bridge over the minature railway.

Victorian designed station, this photograph was taken from the rear of the train, im not sure on actually capacity but it must be getting on for 100 guests.

Footbridge, walk down the steps to enter the station

The same footbridge shot from the rear, showing the connection to the station.

View from inside the station, Space invader 2 roller coaster and Beaver Creek in the background.

Original engine fitted to the Princess royal train.

This display shows the route of Pleasure Beach express as well as a number of photographs taken along the route.

This sign is above the display above.

2nd Station Star Halt.

Complete with adverts from the period.

Taken from inside the train showing the back wall of Star Halt.

All aboard the train ready to depart.

Lets take a trip on Pleasure Beach Express, any purists reading this the photographs may not be in complete order so please dont tell me their not 

On the way back into the station you go passed a small model village.

Another shot of the model village, Revolution (orange track) and Avalanche in the distance.

From inside one of the tunnels, this one is just before coming back onto the final straight back into the station.

Various wildlife along the route.

Jim’s quick sand named after former park manager Jim Rowlands.

Skull Island.

One of the many skulls hanging down.

Wildlife

Totem Pole

A number of whistle signs along the route.

Looking ahead to skull island and the hanging skulls.

To the right the big blue hotel, wooden coaster big dipper and the Pepsi Max Big One.

Another Tunnel.

Zebra’s scattered along the way

The skull again this time with clear water

Big Dipper again

More wildlife.

Engine number 4473 – Carol Jean

Minature signal box near the main station.

Pepsi Max big one, photo spot.

This sign is above the workshops.

Underneath the Pepsi Max Big one station.

A behind the scenes look at Pleasure Beach Express.

Thanks for Club Pleasure Beach and the management of Pleasure Beach Blackpool for arranging this tour.

Barbie

Carol Jean.

Thanks for reading, if you have any questions or would like to use any photographs from this gallery please get in touch, don’t just steal the photographs im more than happy to share and i dont want to start pasting huge copyright notices across them as it spoils it for everyone then.

Thanks again for reading.

]]> http://www.ridemad.com/pleasure-beach-express-pleasure-beach-blackpool/feed 0 http://www.ridemad.com/behind-the-scenes-a-closer-look-at-blackpools-monorail http://www.ridemad.com/behind-the-scenes-a-closer-look-at-blackpools-monorail#comments Fri, 04 Jul 2008 18:00:42 +0000 Admin http://ridemad.com/?p=149 One of the most relaxing ways to ever see a park is by taking a Monorail, the raised track can give a great view of the park and the various attractions on offer, as well as some parts of the park you wouldn’t see during a park visit like maintenance areas, offices and the in Blackpools case the Casino building.

The Blackpool Pleasure Beach Monorail is no different to this and the 10 minute journey around the park gives the visitor a great view of the world.

Pleasure Beach Blackpool bought the monorail in 1964 from the Lausanne expo in Switzerland and it was opened

in Pleasure Beach in 1966. Some great photographs showing the opening can be seen on the park in the north booking office. The monorail was extended after opening with a loop around the first floor of the Casino building.

These behind the scenes photographs were taken during an organised visit by Club Pleasure beach during May 2008.

Monorail storage areas.

Monorail maintenance vehicle, I would love to see this moving around the track.

The Transfer track.

The transfer track for the monorail is located just outside the maintenance/storage area.

The teeth turn below and another piece of track moves into position to allow the train the enter the storage/maintenance area.

Some general track photographs.

Track heading towards Valhalla.

The opposite way towards north car park.

Into the first of the covered areas.

Monorail in action.

Id like to thank Club Pleasure Beach for arranging this trip and the Pleasure Beach management for the tour.

If you want to use any photographs on this blog please get in touch paul@ridemad.com im quite happy to share and have high resolution copies of everything used

Thanks for Reading.

The south side of the park (Pepsi max big one) is currently closed but nearly all attractions from the main entrance to the bridge over Watson road are open.

The one exception been the wild mouse which is currently covered in scaffolding and having some maintenance work done for next season.

So what attractions are open.

Noahs Ark
Ice Blast
Valhalla
Gold Mine
Superbowl Dodgems
Maxims flyers
Derby Racers
Grand National
Alice in Wonderland
Ghost Train
Trauma Towers
Impossible
River caves
4D cinema
and finally Infusion the new coaster for 2007.As well as a number of indoor (pay extra) for attractions. Pasaje de terror, Ripleys, horror crypt and Ice skating in hot ice from an additional £3.50.

To add to the attractions all food outlets in the north park are open. Admission is by ticket only which is £15 for adults, £10 for children with under 3′s free.Santa’s Grotto is also open, if you have children you get a free ticket when you buy your wristband. Take this over to the magnolia cafe (next to the Ghost train) where the kids meet santa and are given a bag of goodies and an optional (not sure of the cost) photograph. My kids 11 and 6yrs were made up with this.Wrap up well if your thinking of going over to Blackpool anytime soon, it was freezing cold.Some pictures taken this afternoon.

Ghost Train. virtually no queues all afternoon.The area around Alice.Santa’s GrottoMaxims Flyers.Infusion, the days only queue.Looking down from the Watson road bridge towards River Caves.Towards the Ghost Train.River caves.Most of the game stalls were very quiet.Christmas show and dance, with a front row dominated by dads. . The show is on every hour 1,2,3,4pm and lasts for about 15 minutes.They did all the usually christmas songs and dances, Bradley Beaver was also about strutting his stuff.Some guys doing some juggling which was very good.Valhalla.Main Entrance.Overall we had a really quiet afternoon with virtually no queues on any rides except Infusion with a 5 minute queue, most rides like the ghost train, alice etc were all walk on.

If you want to use any photographs on this blog please get in touch paul@ridemad.com im quite happy to share and have high resolution copies of everything used, to see the complete gallery visit the Ridemad Gallery

Thanks for Reading.