Joyland Books

When I used to inspect wiring on theme parks i have seen generic engineering diagrams that came from a full strutuce survey of the Scenic thats in Lunar Park melbourne, I would imagine that these are avalible as a reference

My Understanding is there are next to no drawings of the Scenic, i am told that a lot of the work will need to come from photoghraphs. i guess looking at the Scenic most of what is left will only form some kind of template for the rebuild of the ride. Not sure if anything remains of the trains bogies which would help the rebuild of new trains, but i understand there are some Dragons heads about that are off a Scenic .

There's a bit of structural detail in the various planning applications along with mentions of the dreaded health and safety.

In particular the "28 Mar 2014 Other" document under the Scenic planning application is 47 pages long and has structural details noted as being taken both from a 3D scan and the use of photographs for the missing sections.

They can all be found at http://www.ukplanning.com/thanet
Then enter the part in bold in the Application Number box for each of the following:

L/TH/14/0231 - SCENIC RAILWAY, DREAMLAND, MARINE TERRACE, MARGATE, CT9 1XJ
F/TH/14/0233 - DREAMLAND, MARINE TERRACE, MARGATE, CT9 1XJ
L/TH/14/0232 - DREAMLAND, MARINE TERRACE, MARGATE, CT9 1XJ

That information is absolutely great, thanks for posting. It's really starting to show just how much work has already been done.

Yes indeed, thanks for that.

A few points from the document;

It is stated that HSE and ADIPS require that the rear wheels no longer leave the track at any point. In my mind in order to satisfy that requirement parts of the drops will require reprofiling; I guess this would mostly affect the first drop off the second lift. Were there any other points where vertical derailment was common?

Apparently it is also required that passengers are no longer able to extend their arms out of side of the train and make contact with the structure. That seems an awkward thing to accomplish if the design of the Luna Park trains is copied.

I'm also interested in the 'dead man's handle' that is mentioned. Was this a feature of the original braking system or is it a misnomer? The trains at Yarmouth require positive action for braking otherwise they just roll away. I would have thought this would be the case here. Either way though it seems that HSE are requiring the default to be brake on rather than brake off.

This is all very exciting.

Hi all.
I have been slightly distant from the campaign lately and haven't got round to visiting Margate in some time. Judging from the latest newsletter, it seems that the new Visitor Centre has really hit it off. My family went up the other day to take a quick look and gave a positive review.

However in my absence, I was wondering if anyone knew how physical work on either the park or Railway was coming on. The last I heard, parts of the ride were being surveyed/repaired off site. Is this still the priority or have they moved onsite?

I hope to help with one of the next stages of volunteering when the time comes.

There should be some news on the Scenic in the very near future. The parts from the power house, motors, pull ups etc are being refurbished by WGH Ltd in Doncaster at the moment and they are also working on rebuilding the trains.

Dowding and Mills in Ashford have one of the motors, I've seen it in the overhaul bay,

May be similar to ours but they have gone to Doncaster to be overhauled not Ashford.

I was told it was being worked on for contract for wgh, then to be shipped to doncaster for reassembly

Ashford is dowdings main rewind base, bits go in out there for jobs all over the place

You may be right, when we loaded the parts as far as im aware they all went to Doncaster, just seemed odd to go there then back to Kent.

It's not Unsual in my trade, I'm a electrical engineer, Dowdings are the biggest motor rewinders and reconditions in the Buiness

They get parts in from all over the world, I belive the motor was having the stator bars redone, which means of all dowding sites, it went to, it would have gone down to ashford as that's where the relevent kit is

Was anything from the original trains salvageable?

Jim Douglas Jr. wrote:Was anything from the original trains salvageable?

Not much, just axles and wheels, which can't actually be used but are helpful in fabricating replacements.