Scenic Railway (Dreamland Margate)

Roller coaster in the United Kingdom
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Scenic Railway
Dreamland Margate
Location Margate, Kent, England, UK
Coordinates 51°23′05″N 1°22′41″E / 51.384858°N 1.378097°E / 51.384858; 1.378097
Status Operating since 3 July 1920
Statistics
Designer / calculations John Henry Iles
Type Wooden
Riders per train 30
Propulsion 2 Cable lift hills
Height 12.2 metres
Top speed 56.3 km/h
Length 914.4 metres
Inversions 0
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Scenic Railway is a wooden roller coaster located at Dreamland Margate in Margate, Kent, England, UK.

While this was the first roller coaster constructed at Dreamland, it is not the first to operate in Margate. The Switchback Railway operated from 1888 to 1897.

History

On 21 August 1949, a third of the Scenic Railway was destroyed in a fire in the early morning.[1]

On 7 April 2008, a large part of the Scenic Railway, including a shed housing the trains, was destroyed after it was set on fire deliberately.[2]

Dreamland reopened on 19 June 2015, however, the reopening of the Scenic Railway was delayed.[3] The ride reopened to the public on 16 October 2015 and to the press the previous day.[4][5]

Design

Elements

Colour scheme

The Scenic Railway has been painted white, blue and brown in the past. When it was rebuilt in 2015, it was left unpainted.

Trains

3 cars per train. In each car, riders are arranged 2 across in 5 rows, for a total of 30 riders per train. The train is still operated by a brakeman, however when the trains were rebuilt a magnetic braking system was added which regulates their speed.[6]

References

  1. "Big fire at Dreamland". Thanet Advertiser. 1949-08-21. p. 1. Retrieved 2022-09-02.
  2. "Rollercoaster fire was deliberate". BBC News.
  3. "Dreamland's scenic railway rollercoaster will not be finished in time for grand opening of theme park". Kent Online. 2015-06-05. Retrieved 2022-03-05.
  4. "Britain's oldest rollercoaster reopens at Dreamland Margate".
  5. Rose, James (2015-10-15). "Scenic Railway at Margate's Dreamland opens tomorrow". Kent Online. Retrieved 2022-03-05.
  6. "A Tribute to Tradition". Stage One.

External links