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/blackpools-noahs-ark-in-2007 http://www.ridemad.com/blackpools-noahs-ark-in-2007#comments Sun, 03 Jun 2007 17:50:24 +0000 Admin http://ridemad.com/blackpools-noahs-ark-in-2007

For the past few years all we have been hearing is bad news about Noahs Ark, will it get pulled down to create way for the parks new entrance or not ??. Will it be moved, well you only have to ask the Kennywood management what happens when you try to lift an ark, the result left them having to rebuild most of theirs.

It seems the question is still on the board room table as for the past couple of years the management at the park have invested some time and money on the ark, if only cosmetically. The result is a clean, attractive and very enjoyable attraction, Im sure you will agree for 85yrs old its not looking to bad.

Some background on the Ark.

The Ark was built during the winter of 1921 and was open in time for the easter holidays in 1922, the Ark was built by american William Homer Strickler and was one of approximately 50 or more arks installed around the world (well US and UK)

The Blackpool Ark has been through a number of changes over the years, I wont detail everything for a complete history read the Article I wrote but a brief overview of the changes.

1930′s
Local artist Walter Bernasconi retouched some of the original animals and the top half of the ark was rebuilt with some retouching of Mt Ararat. A few additional animals were added to the ark.

1936/37 The change to a cubist design.
Joseph Emberton the famous artchitect responsible for designs like the Grand National station, Funhouse, Ghost Train and the Casino building to name but a few enlisted the help of Percy Metcalfe to change the ark over to a cubist modern design.

1960/61 The ark changes back to the more conventional shape.
In the 1960′s the ark changed from the cubist design to look more like it does today, Sheila Hotchkiss was taken on to make/mould allot of the animals we see today, mainly out of fibreglass.

1995 The building of a new entrance.
In 1995 the park made way for a much improved entrance way and Douglas Sills was charged with designing the changes most of which we see today.

The ark in 2007.
Ok firstly allot of the current colour scheme was done last season, the park had some local painters come in an retouch allot of the animals including Noah, the policeman and Mt Ararat.

A few of the animals were missed out and allot of us enthusiasts thought that was it. However the park continued with the changes in 2007 as they were really needed. The ark has looked a mess for a few seasons, the chipped and flaking paintwork a tribute to the blackpool weather.

The start of the season. March 2007.

May 2007 the scaffolding is in place around the Ark, Dinosaur and Rhino.

The Painted Ark and the removal of the mist tunnels

The first thing to notice for 2007 apart from the obvious cosmetic changes are the removal of the mist tunnels just before you enter the lillies. I was talking to a couple of people at the park about this and the removal was as a result of some younger children been scared by the mist, on a cold day it was especially disorientating.

Something you dont see very often is the water emptied out of the Arks tray.

The leopard meeting you at the start of the lillys

A couple of characters are missing from the deck of the Ark Noahs wife and an animal, presumably gone for painting in one of the paint shops.

Some more of the animals.

The Stork before and after.

Dinosaur, recently painted.

Rhino

Lion

Ape

More animals

Some general views of the freshly painted Ark.

If you want to use any photographs on this blog please get in touch via the contact form 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.