Originally built by G.V. Llewellyn in 1911 the Southport lakeside miniature railway has been operating for nearly 100 years on the site alongside the marine lake in Southport. The first train ran on the 25th may 1911 when the railway was called Llewellyn’s miniature railway after the builder and creator, this was later renamed to the Southport lakeside miniature railway as it’s known today.

The original route was a straight line which was extended in 1938 to add a sharp turn under the pier into the second station on the line the Marine Parade Station. The original station at this end of the line was called Princess Park which was closed when the extension and Marine Parade stations were built.

The materials for the line were supplied by Bassett-lowke a toy company based in Northampton who was established in 1899, the bassett-lowke brand name was bought by the famous model company Corgi in 1996 and railway locomotive products were relaunched by Corgi in 1999 at which point Bassett-lowke would have been 100 years old.

I have lots of memories of this railway as a family we would visit Southport every summer and spend a few hours on Pleasureland and take a trip on the miniature railway.

Lets take a look at how the railway is looking today

The main station as viewed from Pleasureland. I can remember back to when you bought tickets for the railway from the turnstile on the right hand side, this has been closed for a number of years now and these days tickets for the railway are purchased on the train. The fare for 2009 is £1.50 one way and £2 return.

On the platform looking back at the entrance way above.

Today the signage around the area is looking a bit washed out.

The main platform. I haven’t seen the line on the left operate for some time, can anyone confirm if this is still used, it certainly doesn’t look overgrown.

Looking back to the entrance from the top of the platform.

One of the storage sheds on the left hand side.

The Southport Miniature railway also operate a second engine, which I can only assume runs when the Miniature railway is busy. The shots below were taken on a busy day for the railway the passenger carriages were extended to almost double the previous size.

Train in the second station

The Marine Parade Station.

Signals

A view from the roadside looking at the station.

Again another shot from the second station

A look down at the second station

This shot is taken from a footbridge over the track.

A shot taken from above showing the track going of toward the main station.

Bridge just before pulling into the Marine Parade station – which can be seen in the distance.

A longer range shot of the bridge above adorned with graffiti

A view from the train this time, going under the bridge shown in the above photographs.

I seem to have an obsession with this bridge.

At this point the train has cleared the bridge above and its in the distance of the shot below just around the corner.

Moving quickly toward the main station, this is a shot from the rear of the train.

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Southport Marine left is on the right hand side of the shot below.

Coming into the main Pleasureland station.

A view from the Pleasureland station showing the trains maintenance areas on the left hand side.

One of the maintenance areas.

And the second.

I would recomend this railway to anyone who has some spare time while visting Southport as it really is a gem. If you would like to contribute to this article or have any amendments you feel are factually correct then please get in touch via the contact form I would love to hear from you. Im not a railway enthusiast so any additional information is more than welcome.

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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

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The tour consisted of a number of attractions including Duel, Hex, Air, Oblivion and the old Black hole site. One part of the tour I was looking forward to seeing was Rita the hydraulic launched coaster from Intamin which was introduced to the park in April 2005.

The tour consisted of a look round the maintenance areas, a look into the hydraulic room and the ride control room.

Rita is located in the Ugland area of the park. Here’s some stats courtesy of http://www.rcdb.com

Length 2099ft

Height 68ft 11

Max speed 61.1mph

Duration 0:25 seconds

My collection of photographs taken during the tour.

I’ll start in the maintenance area.

From the entrance to where the trains come in.

Looking back to where the above picture was taken from.

Spare wheels.

More spares, this time for the brake fins.

Recently removed wheels.

Outside the maintenance area under the ride platform are the test dummies Intamin use in the trains, these are normally filled with water when testing.

From outside the maintenance area looking up to the ride platform.

A deserted station following one of the many test launches before the attraction is open to the public.

From behind the barriers near the control box.

Another unmanned test launch.

Tests finished the staff turn up and clean the trains ready to open.

We were lucky and managed to have two rides on Rita before the park opened to the public.

Control box.

As you would expect they use a number of computers to operate Rita, here’s a couple of pictures of the main one in the control box.

And finally from the control box looking at the launch area of the ride.

The Hydraulic room.

You can just make out in the above picture, at the end of the launch area the building directly in front is the hydraulic room for Rita. All the hydraulics and cable drum are behind reinforced glass and the area is secure enough to ensure nobody is allowed in the room when a launch is taking place.

Because of the reinforced glass trying a take a picture of the hydraulics is almost impossible, heres my attempt.

Also in this building is another computer than monitors the launches etc, the engineers told me Intamin can dial into this should any problems occur. Im a bit worried it runs XP

Related Posts.

Behind the scenes of Air.

Behind the scenes of Duel including some ride history.

This is an excellent tour if you get the chance its well worth doing, im our group nobody come away disappointed. I would like to thank Wayne, James and the engineering staff at Alton Towers for a great day.

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.