We are back at Blackpool Pleasure Beach for this article and the year is 1979. It takes me a while to write these things you know...
I'm mainly on the look out for people enjoying themselves and these two girls certainly fit the bill.
The dodgems found their way onto fairgrounds in the early 1920s and, as the name suggests, the original idea was to avoid contact with other cars. Consequently the cars of the time were little more than a seat and steering wheel on a flat circular platform with only the minimum of protection. In fact the protection was designed more to protect the circular platform than the riders who must have found it all too easy to fall out, with no seat belts and no enclosing bodywork on the platform!
The Log Flume was always a great place to take photos of riders enjoying themselves, though the opportunity disappeared when the shops and businesses of Ocean Boulevard were built, blocking the view of the lake.
The Cyclone. For a while in the late 1970s through the 1980s, the southern half of the park had many of these travelling fairground rides, many of them operated as concessions.
Until the advent of more modern tall rides the landmark feature of the Pleasure Beach as you walked from the town centre down the Promenade towards the park was the double Ferris Wheel. By the 1970s it was rare to see both wheels in operation at the same time. They travelled in opposite directions, one rising at the front and the other descending at the front. The huge figure of a clown stood at the side of the wheels, facing north up the Promenade and appearing to crank it by hand as it revolved.
The Grand National ride has two cars racing each other side-by-side along a double track and the ride forms a Möbius loop, meaning that each car returns to the starting point of the other car as the ride finishes. This is accomplished by having the cars turn away from each other at the start of the ride, then coming together to ascend the chain rise. Thus the car on the left as passengers got on, will be on the right as they start to go up the first hill of the ride.
A simple ride but effective. Balance a cone on a stick, tilt it and twiz it round and you can achieve a similar ride for your insect collection...
Another of the portable rides from the south half of the park, this was a similar ride to the north park's Monster ride. A variant of the old Octopus ride.
The Revolution was the UK's first 180-degree looping roller coaster. It looped twice, forwards and then backwards as it returned to its station.
These were the days before the turnstiles. You could enter the park for free and buy your tickets as you found something to go on. Tickets were originally bought at the entrance to each ride, then later these ticket booths came out with each ride designated A-Rides for the white-knuckle rides, through to D-Rides for gentle kiddie-friendly rides like the Pleasure Beach Express.
And we'll finish with a smile from a pretty girl on the carousel.
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