Blackpool Pleasure Beach Express is a

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structu ...

railway, built in 1933 as a tourist attraction at

Blackpool Pleasure Beach Blackpool Pleasure Beach is an amusement park situated on Blackpool's South Shore, in the county of Lancashire, North West England. It operates as a secure facility, and has introduced epayments via smartphones for admission charges, repla ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancas ...

History

The main station was built in 1933, but was destroyed by fire in 1934. Redesigned by architect

Joseph Emberton Joseph Emberton (23 December 1889 – 20 November 1956) was an English architect of the early modernist period. He was born 23 December 1889 in Audley, Staffordshire and was educated at the Royal College of Art. He first worked for the London ar ...

and rebuilt in 1935, it was replaced in 1970 by the present Victorian style building.

Operation

The line has two stations, Pleasure Beach Express station and Star Halt. The latter is now a request stop. The train now runs in the opposite direction to how it did originally. The animal statues and figures are all facing the wrong way, and if you look back on the tunnel mouths, there are various signs indicating the direction the train used to travel. Sometimes the railway runs backwards to give a different view of the line.

Diesel locomotives

The original two locomotives were supplied in 1933 and were named ''Mary Louise'' and ''Carol Jean'' after the daughters of the park owner, Leonard Thompson. The third was to be named William Geoffrey after his son, but a royal visit to the factory building it prompted a change to ''Princess Royal''. It was renamed to ''Geoffrey Thompson OBE'' in his honour after his death in 2004. All three were built by

Hudswell Clarke Hudswell, Clarke and Company Limited was an engineering and locomotive building company in Jack Lane, Hunslet, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. History The company was founded as Hudswell and Clarke in 1860. In 1870 the name was changed to Hud ...

in Hunslet, Leeds, who had also supplied locomotives for

Scarborough North Bay Railway Scarborough North Bay Railway (SNBR) is a ridable miniature railway (also known as a minimum-gauge railway) in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, England. It was built in 1931, to the gauge of , and runs for approximately between Peasholm Park an ...

and Golden Acre Park, Leeds. They went on to build two more

4-6-2 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of four leading wheels on two axles, six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles and two trailing wheels on one axle. The locomo ...

class locomotives for Billy Butlin to use at the Empire Exhibition in Glasgow in 1938.

References

External links

Postcards of the Pleasure Beach Express from 1933 onwards
{{coord, 53, 47, 25, N, 3, 03, 20, W, region:GB_type:landmark, display=title Blackpool Pleasure Beach 21 in gauge railways in England Miniature railways in the United Kingdom