A Norfolk amusement park has become the only attraction in the UK to feature a scenic wooden railway rollercoaster.
The now one-of-a-kind ride can be found at Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach on the east coast.
The title was bestowed after Dreamland Margate announced last week that its own scenic railway ride, which dates back to 1920, has retired.
Margate’s version was thought to be the UK’s oldest rollercoaster, but some 106 years since its construction, park owners deemed it no longer fit to function.
While there are several scenic railway rollercoasters still in operation across the world, Jamie Jones, executive director at Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach, describes how having the UK’s last remaining ride of its kind is a “great honour”.
He told The Independent that the 70-foot-tall ride is the park’s prized possession and remains “most popular attraction by far on site”.
“Enthusiasts come from all over the country and sometimes even from other parts of the world,” he said.
“We get grandmas and granddads bringing grandchildren, telling them the story of when they used to visit themselves. So there are some great memories to be had and a lot of history.”
Mr Jones, who is the fourth-generation director of the family business, runs the Pleasure Beach alongside his father. He explained that they have a large maintenance team to replace the tracks and keeps it in top shape.
Now that the park owns the only extant version in the country, he said that he hopes even more thrill seekers will visit.
“It certainly entices people to come and ride something that no other park has got to offer.
“We’d hope to see rising numbers in footfall on other rides as well.
“It’ll be interesting to see the impact it’s had,” he added.
The grade-II listed wooden rollercoaster opened in 1932 on the Norfolk coast but was built several years earlier in France.
The coaster has a single ascent and, once the train has left the top, it travels under gravity until it arrives back at the station. A seated operator controls the brakes at the rear of the first carriage on each train, as there are no brakes fitted to the track at all.
Despite being rebuilt several times over the years due to fires and collapses, the rollercoaster remains in much the same configuration as the 1930s structure.
Fans of the two-tone band Madness may also recognise Great Yarmouth’s scenic railway from the band’s music video for "House of Fun", which sees the band riding on the attraction.
Scenic railways were popular rides in the late 19th and early 20th century. The first construction appearing in 1887 in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
“It gives its own sensation and its own type of experience that is unique to those types of attractions,” explains Michelle Hicks, co-owner and executive producer at Firefly Creations, a consultancy company that designs attractions for theme parks and resorts.
She explained why scenic railway rides loom large in the imagination.
“They're such iconic structures. With any wooden rollercoaster, the lattice structure just gives them a presence.
“It’s connected to things like boardwalks and holidays, where people have incredible memories, and I think that's why it triggers that sense of nostalgia and just fondness of times gone by and family holidays together.
The ride “has so much history,” she says, “and truly is the start of the rollercoaster industry as we know it today.”
“The fact that it remains operational is really quite special and unique, certainly for Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach,” she said.
Read more: The UK’s oldest rollercoaster to close permanently after 106 years
