Mega bump!
If this post comes across as being a little rushed (especially at the end) then that's because I am quite short on time!
After reading a bit about Wardley's work at Barry Island Pleasure Park I decided to take a look at the
Scenic Railway which opened in 1939 after it was purchased from the Glasgow Empire Exhibition where it had operated for one season. The ride lasted 34 years at Barry Island before it finally closed in 1973 after it sustained damaged from a gale. The owners couldn't afford to fix it and the the Scenic Railway was demolished the following year.
Today the Log Flume takes up part of the land in which the Scenic Railway stood. Many will know about some of the Scenic Railway's wood being used for the structure of the Log Flume and also the Wacky Goldmine / Haunted Mine.
Unfortunately, as you can see,
RCDB has no images of the ride, so I turned to Google Images...
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A pretty stunning looking ride, isn't it!
Fortunately the Scenic Railway at Great Yarmouth is a replica of the one that was at Barry Island's Pleasure Park.
There's an article that goes into a lot of depth regarding Barry's Scenic Railway
here and it has even more amazing pictures of the ride and Barry Island in some of its best years. There's also a video of Barry Island that features the Scenic Railway on Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRsQIWMZQD4#
What
Barry Island Pleasure Park's Wikipedia page has on this ride:
In 1938, Pat Collins secured the contract to provide the major rides at Billy Butlin's fairground to be attached to the Glasgow Empire Exhibition. His younger brother John designed a Scenic Railway as a direct copy of the Great Yarmouth Scenic Railway also installed for Pat in 1932 (as a rebuild of the Erich Heidrich designed 1929 - 1931 Paris Colonial Exposition Scenic Railway), but with slightly larger dimensions and at an enormous cost of £150,000 (£4,000,000 in today's terms). When the exhibition closed the ride was dismantled and shipped to Liège in Belgium where it was due to form the centerpiece of the planned International Water Exhibition. The ride was nearing completion in late 1939 when Nazi Germany undertook the surprise invasion of Poland and World War II broke out. Construction was immediately ceased and the ride dismantled again before being rushed back to the UK and rebuilt instead at Barry Island, on a site originally occupied by St. Peirio's Monastery (Barry Island was once known as Ynys Peirio).
With a track of just over a mile long and an initial climb and drop of seventy two feet it was the biggest wood built roller coaster ever erected in the UK. It was also one of the last such railway to be built in this country. Arriving on the island in the late autumn of 1939 the ride was built over the winter and was ready to be opened by Easter 1940. Along with the other traditional scenic railways the ride’s wooden framework was covered in rippled thick plaster and painted to resemble a rocky mountain landscape. The original colour scheme featured turquoise and purple rocks with white tips at the highest points to represent snow. In later years the ride was painted in various shades of brown and green before returning to its original turquoise. The massive ride only just fitted into the available space and ran almost the full length of the park, although the top entrance (giving access to the island’s railway station) had to be moved by several yards.
The Scenic Railway towered over Barry Island for the next thirty three years and remained a popular attraction throughout its operating life. The structure was partially dismantled, serviced and rebuilt in 1963 but unfortunately the ride had to be demolished in 1973 after being badly damaged in a severe winter gale and deemed uneconomical to repair. It was also becoming outdated and unable to compete with the newer and more modern high speed 'white knuckle' enclosed-steel-runner 360° looping thrill rides that were starting to be introduced.
Now located on the site where the Scenic Railway once stood is the present and much smaller Log Flume ride built during 1980. Wooden beams from the Scenic Railway were salvaged, stored and reused in the construction of the Flume and other beams formed the basis of the Wacky Goldmine (now renamed the Haunted Mine).
Anyway, this lead me on to look at the two other wooden roller coasters that stood at Barry before the Scenic Railway. The very first roller coaster at Barry Island was the
Switchback which opened in 1897 and closed in 1914 due to competition for the second wooden roller coaster to be built at Barry.
You can just see it on the far left of this old photo:
Source (not that their website seems to want to work properly for this image.
The
Figure Eight was the cause of the Switchback being removed. As previously mentioned, the ride opened in 1912; closing 27 years later in 1939 (according to RCDB).
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Source, though their website isn't working for this image either.
This is what
Barry Island Pleasure Park's Wikipedia page has to say about the Switchback and the Figure Eight:
A Switchback Railway had been designed and built by the famous American coaster engineer LaMarcus Thompson specially for the Cardiff Empire Exhibition at Sophia Gardens in 1896, dismantled following the year-long exhibition and put up for sale. It was bought by the White family and installed at the western end of the beach edge on the present day site of The Olde Pavilion Café (named after the Pavilion Theatre, which had been situated amongst the sand-dunes), Barry Athletic Club's car park now stands where the Switchback ride ended.
With no competition the Switchback was a very popular and crowded attraction with Victorian holidaymakers and day trippers from the South Wales Valleys for fifteen years until a much larger Figure 8 roller coaster, also built by LaMarcus Thompson, opened on the edge of the beach level with the present pleasure park site in the spring of 1912. The Switchback’s trade declined, in competition with the more exciting Figure Eight and it only operated for another two years, finally closing in 1914 just as World War I in Europe started and the number of holiday visitors dropped off dramatically.
Now for a couple of other rides I was lead to after looking at the three coasters above.
Whilst looking for images of the Switchback I came across photos and a video of another Switchback located on a beach in Folkestone:
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d77ML3aPbtM#
This ride apparently only lasted a few years before it was damaged by storms sometime during the first World War. Before I move on, I strongly recommend checking out the sources of those two images if you don't look at any others (which you should anyway
) as they have a whole host of other amazing images of this and other attractions, as well as lots more info!
And now back to Scenic Railways! Specifically
the one at Great Yarmouth...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-3k9liUs3s#ws
Whilst looking at images of the Scenic Railway at Barry, an image of what the ride at GY used to look like popped-up:
Source.
Having only ever seen images and videos of it looking how it does in the Coasterforce video, I was pretty amazed when I saw even more images of
how it used to look.
Not sure what happened to the theming, though I can only assume
the fire was partly to blame?
I have to say, both the Scenic Railway that was at Barry and the way the one at Great Yarmouth used to look... they're just utterly beautiful! It's such a shame we can't experience the Barry Island version or the GY model with its original theming.
Anyone know anymore about any of these rides or any others like them?
