Roller Coaster History - from Europe to Yarmouth

It's well known that Pleasure Beach's Scenic Railway Roller Coaster is the ride that has been at the park the longest, having opened there in 1932, and is one of the oldest roller coasters in the world. Not many are aware of the ride’s long and complex history though, so this article takes a look at the fascinating story of the ride before its time at Pleasure Beach.

The Scenic Railway Roller Coaster at Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach in 1932, shortly after it opened.

Hugo Haase 
The story starts with Hugo Haase (1857 – 1933), who was born in Winsen (Luhe), Germany. He served an apprenticeship as a locksmith and military service before joining a company called Hövermann & Jürgens, where he worked his way up to manager. The company manufactured carousels powered by steam engines. In 1887, Haase, with the financial help of his father-in-law, started his own company manufacturing amusement rides which he called Hugo Haase AG. In 1907 he built a three-disk carousel called El Dorado which toured Europe before he sold it to Steeplechase Park in Coney Island in 1910. This ride still operates today at an amusement park in Tokyo called Toshimaen. It is the oldest carousel in the world that is still in operation.

Hugo Haase.

Haase took the step from amusement manufacturer to amusement park operator in 1914 when he opened his own amusement park in May that year. Commonly called HH Park, or Hugo Haase Park, it was situated next to Hagenbeck Zoo in Hamburg-Stellingen, Germany. The principal attraction at HH Park was a scenic railway. Haase also provided a scenic railway for the Swiss National Exhibition, held in Bern between 15 May and 15 October 1914.

Both scenic railways were clad in plaster sculpted to resemble mountainous terrain and decorated with miniature houses, castles and other objects as was common at the time. The structures themselves were virtually identical, although they were mirror-images of one another, with one scenic railway running clockwise (Hamburg) and the other anti-clockwise (Bern). The Scenic Railway at Hamburg was also home to a River Caves ride. This featured a water course that meandered through the structure of the Scenic Railway, and man-made 'caves' lavishly decorated, on which small boats travelled. 

Swiss National Exhibition, Bern, Switzerland, 1914

The location of the Scenic Railway among the other attractions at the Exhibition.

The Scenic Railway during construction. For reference, the station is centre of the image near ground level. Trains leave to the right in this image, round the turnarounds and up the lift hill from right to left.

The construction crew. It seems the man standing second row centre in the lighter grey suit is Hugo Haase.

The completed ride in operation.

Another view of the ride in operation

The track layout. Compare this to the similar view of the scenic railway at HH Park - the layouts are lengthwise mirror images of one another.

Hugo Haase Park, Hamburg-Stellingen, Germany, 1914 - 1922

Track layout of the Scenic Railway which opened in 1914 at Hugo Haase park. Compare this view to that above. The rides at Bern and Hamburg were mirror images (lengthwise) of one another. 

Der Grottenbach - translated literally as caves brook was a river caves ride installed underneath the Scenic Railway.

Boats on the River Caves ride. The water course meandered its way under the structure of the Scenic Railway. 

This is taken the other side of the Scenic Railway track to the image above and looking in the other direction from the perspective of the river caves ride.

The Scenic Railway that operated at Bern was dismantled when the exhibition closed and I have found no further reference to it. The Scenic Railway at HH Park operated until March 1922 when the park closed due to lack of visitors, no doubt not helped by World War I, and it too was dismantled. However, it would see a new lease of life in 1930 when it was constructed at Luna Park, the amusement park of the Antwerp and Liège International Exhibition (3 May to 3 November 1930), where Haase had been asked to provide the amusements.

Some of the scenic items were updated, particularly the addition of castles and minarets, whilst others, such as the station design, remained the same, as the images show. The track layout and structure itself saw only minimal changes, mostly to the profile of the long drop running diagonally across the ride's footprint. The ride was popular at Luna Park and Haase took the ride to Paris the following year for the Colonial Exhibition (6 May to 15 November 1931).

Luna Park, Antwerp and Liège International Exhibition, Antwerp, Belgium, 1930

The Scenic Railway at Antwerp in 1930.

Another view of the Scenic Railway at Antwerp in 1930.

The Scenic Railway at Antwerp in 1930, alongside a circular water chute, which Haase had designed.

Colourised postcard showing the decoration of Scenic Railway at Antwerp in 1930.

Parc des Attractions, Colonial Exhibition, Paris, France, 1931

Scenic Railway at the Paris Colonial Exhibition in 1931.

Pat Collins' Role

Patrick Collins (1859 - 1943) was one of five children of Irish parentage who had come to England in the 19th century. When he was ten, he and his younger brother John travelled fairs with their father, and he would go on to establish his own fairs in adulthood. By 1882, he ran many of the fairs around Birmingham and the Black Country, where he had settled with his wife Flora (nee Ross) and their children, named in the family tradition, Patrick and John. He had an interest in cinematography and included bioscopes (and early form of cinema) at his fairs. He was an accomplished and respected showman and served as president of the Showman's Guild of Great Britain from 1920 until 1929. 

This photo, taken at the Nottingham Goose Festival of 1936, shows Pat Collins (front left) and his son John (centre in the lighter suit)) among other showman who presented attractions at the Festival.

When Pat was awarded the lease of Pleasure Beach for the 1929 season, his son John went to Great Yarmouth to oversee day-to-day operations, assisted by general manager Mr R. J. Minns. The Collins' first order of business was to obtain a replacement for the scenic railway which had operated at the park since it opened in 1909, but which had been removed when the previous lease expired. In the end, two rides were built; a figure-8 roller coaster and a water chute, which both opened in 1929. However, the Collins' desired something that would really draw the crowd and Pat believed the future of amusements lay in, what he called, the big stuff. They looked to the continent for inspiration and found the answer at the Paris Colonial Exhibition. 

Pat and John went to Paris and saw the Scenic Railway in operation. They had already done business with Hasse, as they had bought the circular water chute he had invented and presented at the International Press Exhibition at Cologne in 1928, which the Collins reconstructed at Pleasure Beach in 1929. Haase accepted Pat's offer of £15,000 for the ride and John began arrangements to have it shipped to England once the Exhibition closed. 

The Collins' had become acquainted with the Wadbrook family, who had presented bioscopes in the West Midlands. When John Collins went to Great Yarmouth, he was followed by the Wadbrook family and their teenage sons Henry Harry (1913 - 1985), Edward Ted (1915 - 1982) and Percival Percy (1917 - 1982), who helped to set up and maintain the rides, in what today would be considered an apprenticeship in engineering. Harry and Ted accompanied the Collins' to Paris, and saw the ride in operation and assisted with its dismantling ready to ship it to Great Yarmouth. 

The component, totalling 525 tons, were loaded onto barges in Paris - five in total - and sailed down the Siene to Rouen. The journey took longer than expected as flooding had caused the river level to rise making bridges impassible until it subsided. Steam ship Circe was waiting in Rouen, and everything was transferred from the barges to Circe for the journey on to Great Yarmouth. Circe arrived on 11 February 1932. Electric cranes on the quay, which had only recently been erected, were used to transfer all the components to lorries for the journey on to Pleasure Beach. Haase's engineer Erich Heidrich and a team of German workmen arrived to construct the ride. Heidrich stayed to manage the ride until the outbreak of World War II and taught the Wadbrooks all they needed to know about the ride. 

The ride was clad in plaster sculpted to resemble mountainous terrain, and decorated with scenes depicting castles, viaducts, bridges and mills, as it had been before. The River Caves ride was included in the sale, and constructed in and around the Scenic Railway at the same time. Both opened on 14 May 1932. The scene greeting visitors to Pleasure Beach at the time was described in suitable awe by a local reporter:

Not only is it a tremendous erection with thrilling dives and climbs, but a piece of artistry that is a pleasure to the eye. Mountain peaks gleam white in the sunshine, while minarets, castles, and aqueducts merge realistically into the harmonious colouring. A rustic water mill has been built into the scene, and even the brilliant lights are concealed to prevent clashing. This, with its water caves, is considered to be the finest thing of its kind in the country.   

Pleasure Beach, Great Yarmouth, UK, 1932

The Scenic Railway during construction at Pleasure Beach, I'd estimate in April 1932. The course for River Caves meanders from bottom left, under the track in the foreground, then the track in the background, looping back on itself. Part of the course would go on to be used in the Caveland, and later, Snails and Fairy Tales ride.

The completed ride in 1932.

This view from a similar point as that of the ride at Antwerp, above, shows the similarities in decoration. A miniature railway was in operation at Pleasure Beach at the time. The tall tower is a ride called Jack & Jill.

The original trains were wooden, although they had a similar layout to the current trains, which entered service in 1964, and have now been in use far longer than the original wooden trains were.