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Blackpool Pleasure Beach: General Discussion

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Ok, so early last season I bought an old Ghost Train chain dog from Kiss Me Quick shop in BPB. I had seen one a couple of years before and regretted not buying it, but always presumed another would show up. It did eventually, in fact this is only the second one I've ever seen in for sale, so I had to snap it up. I went a bit crazy buying ride parts for a while, but the last season or two I've bought very little, there's only so many lumps of rusting metal you can have around the house after all. The intention with a couple of things was to try my best to clean them up and paint them. So my latest project was to have a go at this cool chain dog, cog type thingy once used on Ghost Train. For those who don't know what a chain dog is, it hangs under a coaster car and attaches itself to the lift hill chain, thus pulling the car up. It can be seen under the car here:



It looked like this when I bought it:



I de-rusted, primed and painted it in Ghost Train lime green & purple. The purple is a little darker than I expected, as I wanted it to match the entrance archway sign really, but I'm still really pleased with it. The lime is a little nod to Smiler too! Here it is now:





I will now sit back and wait for @rob666 to call me a 'Sad b******' . . .
 
Genuine question here folks and don't take it personally but what on earth do you do with old chains and wheels off rides? I absolutely adore roller coasters and have ridden nearly 500 now but I don't get the fascination with collecting old parts. Do you display them on your walls and shelves? Genuinely curious.
 
There are quite a few wheels dotted around our house, holding doors open and the like. I don't have many other 'bits' - loads of ephemera, really.

The 'big stuff', cars, boats etc are in part to annoy my girlfriend and in part because I thought they were a good idea at the time and they're cool, albeit useless.
 
Rick said:
There are quite a few wheels dotted around our house, holding doors open and the like. I don't have many other 'bits' - loads of ephemera, really.

The 'big stuff', cars, boats etc are in part to annoy my girlfriend and in part because I thought they were a good idea at the time and they're cool, albeit useless.
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I have a few fridge magnets. That's enough for me. Hahahaha

I think old wheels and cogs would look pretty cool as a display in a workshop in your garage or something like that but as I'm totally useless at DIY / fixing stuff then it would be pointless for me.

Can't say my wife would be too keen on me having wheels off old rides dotted around the place either.
 
If we do walk the marriage plank, the wedding car will be a 1960s Arrow Development Turnpike original. I've told her.

In the office today, so scanned in some 'bigger' stuff.

TheCarousel_PepsiMaxBigOnePoster.jpg
 
I've never seen that before. I had no idea the Pleasure Beach ever attempted to categorise their rides by area. Must have been very short-lived, possibly limited to this flyer. What the hell is Bourbon Square?!
 
Scrap metal.
Clock surround.
Tea light holders.
Paperweights.
Door stops.
Weights for door openers and broken sash windows.
Speaker stands.
But mainly, wife annoyers.
Little kids love playing with my dozen mouse wheels for playing bowls.
She drew the line when I came home with the winning post off the National though.
Wouldnt even let it in the house.
 
Dipper_Dave said:
You can’t say this without posting a pic !
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I will share some photos, they are all at grandmas at the moment and avoiding her like the plague because of the plague. As a 93 year old, she leads the way in amusement park memorabilia.

I have something else in the works, but cannot collect until after Covid!

I really want/wanted a Cableway car.

Edit - @Plastic Person Bourbon Square must be something to do with the area not too far from where Bourbon Street was, perhaps near Alice? 'Fantasy themed rides'... who knows. I have more stuff from this era, will see if there is any reference.
 
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rob666 said:
Guessing at the fountains bit, fy4 used to be a big food shed on 2 floors, went by a variety of names over the years.
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I think that was called Bourbon Street. Had one of those anamatronic rope climbers hanging from the roof?

Or was that the River Caves 'grotto' restaurant?
 
Bean Street Food Court had the rope climber - was previously Cresta Café, News Cinema, Novelty Cinema etc.

Bourbon Street / Magnolia Café was the grotto.
 
Always remember as a kid walking on the Tom Sawyer bridge towards the Big One and they had a sign welcoming you to 'Big Country.' Think the sign got repurposed as the Spin Doctors sign when that opened.

Don't have any ride parts, got nowhere to keep them. Bought enough mugs, t shirts, pin badges, key chains, and magnets. Do have a 3d model of a Wild Mouse car as well.
 
Did Blackpool Pleasure Beach used to have more defined "themed areas" back in the 1990s, then? As Coaster City, Bourbon Street and Beaver Creek, along with the fantasy bit you're all talking about, do sort of make a more themed park than what it is now. I suppose there is Nickelodeon Land and the Viking bit by Valhalla now, as well as the Swiss bit by Avalanche, but I didn't think that Blackpool ever even tried to be a themed park.

Do we reckon they did this to try and combat Tussauds' success building fully themed areas at Alton Towers & Chessington?
 
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