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Wooden Coaster Figure 8.....The Grand Pier Weston Super Mare

Yes I have Inversionperson but thanks anyway.And thanks too for your ideas Pokemaniac.
I take your point Pokemaniac about the target audience for this thread being small,but for me it is all about nostalgia and also I prefer the older "woodies" and their history to the new faster steel coasters.Which I guess is the exact opposite to most on this forum.


Since the second fire on the Grand Pier I remembered about "The Figure Eight" and my many days out to Weston as a boy and have been trying to find out about it again and cant believe the ride has disapeared without trace.Hence this thread.

I would think that anyone else interested in old roller coaster history would want this "lost coaster" restored to the record books too.
 
What I meant was like a detective story for coaster enthusiasts. Thus the small target audience (there aren't many of us who can read :) ). I think it's great with a mystery from time to time, an archeological excavation on the Internet. I hope we solve this case.
 
Just a quick update:

I e-mailed the Weston Mercury for information and they are going to put my letter in the paper asking for information from older residents of the area to see if they remember the ride.

The paper has an online edition so hopefully everyone here will be able to see it and (fingers crossed) any replies.

I`m not sure when it is going in but it may even be today.

Hopefully some one somewhere will know.
 
Fingers crossed somebody will be able to put something forward :)
 
It seems I might have missed the deadline yesterday and as I think The Weston Mercury is a weekly publication then my letter might not go in now until next Tuesday.(in print and online)

This is very frustrating!

But,they do say of course, that good things come to those who wait.
 
Plus another two posts and you'll be allowed to post a link as well (we have that rule to stop spambots from posting porn links and the like by the way) :)

I've not been able to find anything further than what we have here - so I guess it's a waiting game now to see if anyone steps forward with a photograph!!!
 
I have just noticed The Weston Mercury has a forum and one section dedicated to the Grand Pier so I have posted there too (Does anybody remember?) which should be quicker.
 
There's one post there with somebody talking about a tale their Dad used to tell about a figure 8 coaster "up to the ceiling"

Or was that you? :lol:
 
Seen it,thanks for that.
I hope that person responds to my post and others too,especially with a photo.
 
I have posted on that thread in the Mercury forum to bump it up to the top and also hopefully to stimulate C Frost into responding. (assuming he still reads the forum of course)

But also rather interestingly the person who started the thread is the daughter of the previous pier owners who had the pier from 1946 until last year.

Maybe she might respond too.
 
Just a quick update (yes I know, it`s me again and it`s getting boring)

To my surprise this morning I received two letters in the post from residents of Weston both saying they remember the coaster and rode it frequently.One lady even said her dad worked on the Figure 8 and she used to ride it as a girl for free.

(Unknown to me my letter went in the Weston Mercury yesterday and can be seen online today.)

I know it could be argued the letters are hoaxes (not to me though) so I hope someone also responds to the paper too and with that all important photograph.

I have asked the papers editor too if they could do a feature about the old ride as all the talk in Weston at the moment is about what new rides are going to be on the pier when it reopens in 2010 with the new pavilion, so it would be a good counterpoint,especially in a news quiet January.It would also restore the figure 8 to the record books.
My local paper The Salisbury Journal does such trips down memory lane regularly and with photos too.

They are going to get back to me.
 
^Yes your letter was in the Weston Mercury when I looked earlier. I hope you do get some good results and a photograph out of this, as I would love to find out about a "lost" coaster in my home town.
Unfortunatly my family moved here about ten years after the coaster was demolished, so they can't remember anything of it.
Good luck with your search, and please keep us updated.
 
Not quite sure what to make of this,but I received another letter today in the post from a former ride operator of the figure 8 who says the ride closed and was dismantled in 1958 due to safety concerns.

According to him a boy stood up during the ride and was decapitated by a cross member and the head landed in the lap of a girl behind.(It could be true but why all the grisly detail?)

Maybe though that`s why the ride has been forgotten because it has a dark past.

He says too that the ride was built by the sons of the pier owner who were both engineers.( Arnold and Dennis Brenner).The date of dismantling must be wrong however as I would have been too young in 1958 to have ridden it.

A map was enclosed too which is slightly different to my memory but may well be true...The figure 8 is right in the middle of the pavilion with the ghost train below.(That wasnt taken down)

I hope the paper does do a story and then we`ll all know for sure, but maybe they wont now if the the story is true and the family of the dead boy still live in Weston.

I hope I havent opened a can of worms.

Edit/update 20/01/09
Since writing this post I have seen some circumstantial evidence which suggests the ride may have been built later than I first thought although the (claimed) ride operator mentioned above doesnt give a date.
I now suspect there is a possibility the date might be 1946 or 47 or 48 and is around the time the Brenner family bought the pier in 1946.
They are credited with making some alterations and changes but it is not listed what.(not that I can find anyway)
I still stand by my original estimate for dismantling however.

Update 21/01/09
I have closely studied the supplied map and matched it against all the available photos and all the ride postions match so I believe it to be genuine.
It should also be said that none of the letters I have received have been anonymous so that gives them more credence aswell.

Update 23/01/09
It seems there were no letters in the Weston Mercury on the subject today which is disappointing.
As I dont live in Weston my full address was printed instead of just a road name so the only three people interested and motivated enough to write sent their letters to me instead of the paper.
The forum there is not very hopeful either as unless one is talking about bus routes or toilet charges no one seems bothered.
However, the editor sent me an email to say that the papers local historian who writes their blog "For Olde Times Sake" is looking into the matter and will probably do a blog soon.She doesnt update every week though so I dont know when.
The blog can be seen in the online edition of the paper and while the letters are usually changed every Friday (Thursday in actual paper) the blogs can change anytime.
If I see it first then I will let everyone know, if someone notices it before me then please post it up.
 
OH MY GOD....is this still goin on???

CHILLAX lol yea the head story sounds better than the whole lost coaster story. So the head fell on someone's lap then??? Interesting!!!!
 
Umm... that story is, in my eyes, the weakest part of it. The Figure 8 coasters aren't among the fastest, and it takes considerable amounts of force to knock off a person's head. Supposedly a full Batman: the Ride train managed to do it, but a beam on a figure 8?. That's roughly the equivalent of getting smacked in the face by a baseball hitter, which will leave you with some nasty injuries, but your head will stay on their shoulders.

More feasible version, but without anything to back it up (let's call it a hypothesis at this point, shall we?): The guy stood up, and was hit by the beam. Badly injuried, he was hit backwards, falling over the seat he was sitting in, laying over the gap between two cars (and the girl may have sit in the seat behind him, the impact almost throwing him into her lap). Later, he died from the injuries.

However, I think we ahould be able to find out more. It would have been fun to send someone over to WSM to ask the library for old newspapers, or the (if open to the public) police archives. Not to mention planning apps, old emergency exit routes (on which the coaster has to be drawn), and the old folk's home.
 
I dont know if the head story is true or not but I think the ride must have done at least 30 miles an hour and if hitting the sharp edge of a wooden beam at that sort of speed I think a head could easily be decapitated.

According to the claimed former ride operator, ( I believe him to be genuine from the detail he supplied) the boy was playing a game of "chicken" ducking up and down to just miss the cross beams and got caught out.

The cars were single 4 seater cars, 2 front seats 2 rear, (I remember that) instead of the usual train and the end of the ride was not called the station but the "Turnstile"

Apparently the car ended stopped at the "Turnstile" with the boys head in the girls lap. I would guess if I was the ride operator who had to deal with that situation I would remember every detail for ever and a day too.

It is possible also (although the operator does not mention this ) that the boys death could have been hushed up or rather given very little publicity to not effect the tourist trade and the ride quietly taken down and never mentioned of again.Remember this would have been 1958 according to him and 1962/3 according to me and the health and safety rules and access to the media were not what they are now.
The date discrepancy could be the death and when the ride was taken down too_Or he (or me) could just have got the dates wrong.
As I would have been a baby in 58 though I think it is more likely he is wrong with the dismantling date.


However, it remains to be seen if this is all true or not and I wish now I had never mentioned the "head" as it can be seen to weaken the story.

Hopefully we will all know soon.


Update

As soon as I finished this post another letter came in the post this morning from a lady who said she rode the figure 8 for the first and last time in 1962.(She is sure of the year)

No other useful info but more evidence that the ride could not have been dismantled in 1958. (unless it was rebuilt again with added safety features and taken down again 4 or 5 years later which is unlikely as surely the former ride operator would have known that and mentioned it)

Second update 24/01/09

I have written back to the "operator" to thank him for his letter as I have done with the others but also to ask him about the 1958 date and what happened after the "accident".Also when was the ride built and was it 1946/7/8 or 1932/3.
Some of the detail he has already supplied to me I didnt know but some I did (the single 4 seater cars for example) so that`s why I believe he was a former ride operator....As for the "head", who knows!
I hope he writes back.

Update 25/01/09

I will be going to Weston in two weeks time as my wife and 4 year old daughter have just bought tickets to see "Lazy Town Live" in Bristol and I`m going to drop them off and shoot on down the M5 to the museum there.(I`ve been looking for an excuse to go as it is a fairly long drive from Salisbury)
I know what you are thinking too...52 this year with a 4 year old but I`m a young version...ask misspink.
Anyway,I have emailed the museum in Weston twice on this subject to see if they have any info,once recently and once about a year ago and both times they didnt reply.Now that could mean they dont or it could mean they dont tell you what their exhibits are as they want you to pay to see them actually at the museum.
I have heard they have a Grand Pier display but it might just be about the fire.

But,NASHER, you live in Weston. Any chance you could go before then as two weeks seems a long way off to get the info?
You could ask a member of staff,especially any older ones if they remember the ride even if there is no info or exhibits.(That`s what I`m going to do)
I`m still going to go anyway as I`m not seeing Lazy Town so it`s not to save me a journey,just to get any info quicker.


Final update 25/01/09

Misspink apparently isn`t very happy about me posting on this forum. So as not to embarrass her further I`m signing off.
Bye all
 
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