Fantastic old coaster footage/pics

Going back to some from my own collection here are some images of the British Empire Exhibition which took place at Wembley stadium between 1924 and 1925.
I shall start with the pictures from my collection.

The exhibition featured 3 roller coasters.
The first was a large Scenic Railway type ride without any actual Scenery like many of its contemporaries. Called oddly enough the Gigantic Scenic Railway. The ride like the Margate Scenic Railway Featured 2 side by side lifts but slightly varying layuts on each loop round.

Next door to this ride was the Grand National (also known as the Giant Switchback it seems). This ride doesnt appear to have been a Switchback in the traditional sense but more just a large wooden coaster with a more elongated layout than the nearby Gigantic Scenic Railway.


In a seperate amusement section to the North of the site sat The Racer. A large Scenic Railway coaster that featured two side by side tracks. That as the name suggests raced.

British Pathe has some good footage of this ride running in this video at 13mins 44seconds

Using a couple of images which are not in my collection and I found online I mapped out the locations with a map of the Exhibition. The oddly shaped India Pavillion in the middle there was really handy
Green = The Racer
Red = The Grand National
Blue = The Gigantic Switchback

On a non coaster front you can see a reference in one of those images to the Never Stop Railway. This was a really weird railway design that used rotating tubes with a spiral thread which propelled the train along its course. The thread is variable in its length so when the thread is more compact the train runs slower through stations and then when the thread is stretched out the train runs more quickly. Allowing the train to change speed without changing the speed of rotation of the tubes. Ingenious if not too efficient I imagine.

There is another great video from British Pathe of this running here.

 

I was trying last week (through the medium of twitter) to get the ECC to post some of their Nemesis construction pics somewhere ( towerstimes has a good gallery as well if you like that sort of thing ; HERE )
Anyway, they might have listened a little bit...


Especially like the overview one with Thunderlooper & Beast in the background


EDIT ; this is what they posted last week;

 

Was the beast where air is now?

 

Yes just about.

 

It's so strange to see all the track and supports just lying on the grass like that. Great to get a look at what Forbidden Valley (Thunder Valley at the time?) looked like back during Nemesis' construction!
Also interesting that the original Nemesis monster station doesn't look at good as it does now, after all that Towers Loving Care!

 

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/gallery/never-before-seen-slides-bring-8554460
I assume these have been posted? if not here are some great pics of Belle Vue in Manchester
Including this great shot of the bobs.

 

I for one don’t care if that’s been posted before. You can never get enough photos of The Bobs. Those curves are something else. A stunning looking ride. Unacceptable that it was removed. Where is the ‘Love’ button? A ‘Like’ is simply not enough for this picture

 

Spited by the Bob's closure by less than a year.
I can still remember David Kitchen going on and on about how good it was in the school summer holidays...in my primary school playground as we went into top class.
Drooled in anticipation through the winter.
Next summer, gone, just the Scenic and the magical Shoot The Rapids...best flat ever!
Curse you David Kitchen.

 

Noticed that 3 of those pics on that Manc.News site appeared to be taken at the same time, so glued them together....

(Bit of a mess in place but not too bad)

 

Sad to think that this was all there, a bus ride away from me now.

The current view around there is something like this;

(Man City's ground roughly where the power station is in the 1968-pics - where the cranes are in the Google maps pic)

 

Oh you are so cruel...davidm

 

Lovely shot of the Scenic Railway that was once at the Tower Grounds in New Brighton, Merseyside. Seems this ride lasted all the way up until the 60s as well

 

Photos of Revere always make me sad. I grew up just a few miles away and it would have been my home park. My mom and dad both rode some of the coasters there growing up (Cyclone, wild mouse, Virginia Reel) and it's also our 'local' beach too... So going there in the summer and knowing there used to be parks/rides there was always a bummer. Near the end of the summer they would have 'Back to the Beach' and have a carnival setup in the parking lot next to the subway station with a few rides as a ghetto throwback.

 

Being the RCDB Pro I am, I searched World's Fair https://rcdb.com/3467.htm