Time is short again tonight, so bare with me on providing the answers.
Most of the larger rides are brought on finance, it’s the way the business world works, so it takes a few years before a ride is actually owned by the Pier, so the Whirlwind technically never belonged to the Pier as its stay was to short. Not sure what port was used to ship all the loads back again across the North Sea. I do recall it came in a lot of loads, some of the trailers were the type that had an extendable rear section to accommodate some of the longer legs, these trailers could also be steered at the back remotely to enable the loads to squeeze around the tight bends that lead onto the Piers service road to the west side of the Pier.
The good old mainstay of the Piers rides, the ‘Paratrooper’ Sadly this will possibly be its last year, it has done many years of service and entertained a lot of thrill seekers, even me when I was in my late teens. It must be about 35 years old, built in Scotland by the famous ride engineers Maxwell’s and built to last.
There are a few contenders for longest serving ride, although the paratrooper is probably the most complete ride that is still earning its keep. The Dodgem track is one part of the Pier that has quite a few years under its belt, although of course the present cars are only a few years old. We do have one 8 arm lifting children’s ride in storage that is possibly the oldest, it is called the Bat’s but originally it had a different set of car bodies shaped as space rockets. Sadly its beyond economical repair, but it is hoped that it might be restored back to its original form by a ride museum.
CE