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Timbmet helps put vintage rollercoaster back on track
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Timbmet, one of the UK’s largest distributors of timber and timber products, has played a major role in the restoration of the nation’s oldest rollercoaster, the Scenic Railway in Margate, Kent. The Grade II listed timber-framed ride which is now open is the focal point of the revamped Dreamland funfair.
The ride is the first ever to be listed by English Heritage and one of just eight scenic railways in the world.
The park, which originally opened in 1920, has been the subject of an £18 million refurbishment which began in September 2014 after Thanet Council bought the funfair the year before. A traditional amusement park, Dreamland had been popular with local residents and seaside day-trippers for generations. However, following its closure 10 years ago, the site fell into disrepair while campaigners fought, with eventual success, to save the land from development.
During that time, the historic Scenic Railway was also the victim of an arson attack in 2008 which has made its restoration even more challenging: about 25% of the structure, the station and storage sheds were destroyed, along with the train car bodies.
The restoration of Dreamland is an integral part of the ongoing regeneration of Margate. Grants from Thanet Council and the Heritage Lottery Fund have contributed to the work, while in 2009, the Dreamland Trust was awarded a grant from the UK Department for Culture, Media and Sport to restore the Scenic Railway and to rejuvenate the Dreamland site.
Timbmet: up for the challenge
For this project, Timbmet worked closely with Doncaster-based WGH Engineering Ltd, the company contracted to rebuild the two trains of three carriages each, with each carriage accommodating up to 28 passengers.
Originally, WGH designed and built vehicles and locomotives for use on narrow gauge underground tracks for the mining industry. After the 1984 miner’s strike, the company sought a new outlet for its skills in designing equipment to run on difficult and challenging tracks. Today, WGH designs and builds various types of leisure rides, including rollercoasters and log flumes, as well as suspended and ground-mounted track rides.
The Scenic Railway project presented a unique challenge for WGH, which usually works with aluminium and steel. “As this was the first time our company had worked with timber,” explains WGH Director, Tony Brown, “we approached Timbmet for advice and assistance in sourcing the appropriate material that would not only maintain the spirit of the original 1920s design, but also meet current legislation and satisfy modern-day requirements.”
As a traditional, family-owned company with over 70 years in the timber business, Timbmet was well poised to take up such a unique challenge. Like Dreamland and WGH, Timbmet is steeped in history and heritage, and given its years of experience and teams of timber experts, is well qualified to source specialist timber for specific projects such as Dreamland.
For the Scenic Railway’s carriages, Timbmet supplied WGH with constructional grade Opepe hardwood, as John Dodman, Timbmet’s Northern Business Manager, explains: “The objective was to replace the people bogeys with material used when the rollercoaster was originally built back in 1920. Opepe African hardwood was specified as it is very durable and strong and has the load-bearing capacity necessary for this specialist restoration.
John continues. “The Timbmet team was able to supply Opepe hardwood cut to the sizes and lengths requested. This saved our customer time, made the timber easier to use, and had minimal waste.”
A dream partnership
“Opepe has proved ideal for this usage,” John Dodman concludes, “For Timbmet and WGH, the restoration of Dreamland’s Scenic Railway was a unique project to be involved with and gave us a fantastic opportunity to use our Timber expertise to support the highly significant venture for the Margate area and English Heritage.”
