Joyland Books

Hello all,

Firstly, a belated happy birthday to Susan Marsh. Seeing your wonderful cake was just the kind of inspiration I needed today I reckon (and it even looks like the sun may be trying to creep through this rather miserable day weatherwise!)

I gather it was not one of those supermarket varieties. Joking aside, I'd love to know if you had a part in it. Very well done anyway; such intricate detail too (I know the double track was missing but that would have been even more ambitious I reckon). I was just reviewing my aerial shots of Barry Island's former Scenic Railway last night too - another ride I missed out on, and it looked so good too with its detailed "landscape" facade.

I wonder, by the way, if all those people who put their hands up at your party had actually ridden the legendary Bobs at Belle Vue. The first I ever heard of that ride was from a guy's conversation I was with in a group at Tampa Bay's Busch Gardens theme park in Florida back in 1989. Great memories.

Martin :D

Thank you for your greetings Martin, the cake was something special and a present ... I had asked for a roller coaster theme but this was so much more. I understand the double track was a bit too ambitious as this was a first for the maker and it would have been an enormous size, the fruit cake base was 25 inches by 10 inches as it was and the cake and track stood, in places, twelve inches high.

You can be assured that all those who raised their hands had been on the Bobs, probably many times, as I have. That was the question I posed to them