The Virginia Reel 1922 At Blackpool Pleasure Beach

The Virginia Reel Fairground Ride

[@groovygraham123]

I remember riding it during the end of the 70's and '80&'81, was very disappointed when it was taken down, I'm sure it would stIll be popular with people even now in 2010!

[@andrewpotter1161]

Hello Graham nice to bump into you on here, Am massive roller coaster fan too.. I never heard of this ride before looks like it was great! Andy x friend of Mike N

[@grapiken7766]

This is fabulous! I remember seeing The Reel in Blackpool as a child and being transfixed. It looked terrifying, rickety and dangerous. I didn't realise there used to the extact same ride at a Spanish City in Whitley Bay too.

[@theboyscout0156]

My goal is to build a full size working replica of one of these coasters

[@GardeBlaze]

Hey, same here! Best of luck to both of us!

[@stripeycat1970]

Me too! We should get lottery and crowd funding and see if we can persuade BPB to do it.

[@Minutewave]

did it work?

[@mukageegee]

Hi Sorry for delay. I used to check tracks in the morning and set the cars off for each ride by pushing them. I remember being told that they weighed around 1.75 tons!

[@neilloughran4437]

Virginia Reel was the first ride I ever cast eyes upon on visiting Blackpool in 1978/79... my auntie asked me if I wanted to go on it and I was scared stiff by the prospect.. however I have some memory of sitting in a such a ride later... I always thought it was a figment on my imagination until googling old rides..

[@paddymacIV]

Incredible footage Someone very far ahead thought of recording this . Great music too, just brilliant. I can just about remember this as a kid💚

[@Toastymarshmallow80]

Roller coaster tycoon brought me here.

[@aeichler]

There used to be one of these at Coney Island just below the Wonder Wheel. I rode it many times in the 50's and it was one of my favorite rides there, along with the Bobsled. I don't know why they were ever torn down. At least we still have the Wonder Wheel and Cyclone!

[@waveiscursed]

it was taken down because one person fell out and people flipped out and demolished all of them

[@ScratchTheMagic]

I got to ride this as a kid.. The spinning tub ride.. They also used to have a mini wooden coaster which was my first ever coaster since then I was hooked.

[@athb4hu]

Yes, I rode the reel as a kid. It was great. Haven't been to Blackpool in years, I bet it has changed a lot.

[@alexiscarlsenwenzel8939]

This is a fantastic short film!!! I was looking for footage of a Virginia Reel coaster and this short film was an absolute treat.

[@Maverick4023]

This is from 1924-1926 it was part of Claude Friese-Greene's film: The Open Road

[@rainbowonespirit]

cool use of colour...goes well with thespeedy walking and the fast film...

[@john111257]

innocent days indeed

[@mukageegee]

Strangely, the film was made in the year my dad was born. The year that Marie Lloyd died.

[@simonp7095]

If I win euro lottery I will build this ride again I promise

[@mukageegee]

I worked on that ride !

[@BAKU2K2]

in the beginning of this video, you can see the Noah's Ark walk through attraction when it was new.

[@owen9h10]

Some of the people in my family went to blackpool pleasure beach in the 70s and the reel got took down in 1981 but my family dont remember the reel

[@garyography]

I remember the reel, I was only little and always wanted to ride it.

[@Cobalt-Jester]

This is definitely not 1922... It's 1935+. When the camera pans over the Pleasure Beach it shows a roller coaster behind the Noah's Ark. That coaster is The Grand National, built in 1935... It can not possibly be one of the other coasters as none of them has the layout that would match up... Pause at 1:18. To the right of the Ark you'll see the Grand National lift hill and on the left of it you'll see a bend to the right that occurs after the first drop. No other coaster in the park has that bend. It could be what is now known as "Nickelodeon Streak" but that was built in 1933. So yeah I'm correct, well more correct than the poster either way.

[@BAKU2K2]

It has to be 1922 because the Scenic Railway is still there... the Scenic Railway was removed for the construction of the Big Dipper

[@Cobalt-Jester]

Tom L How do you explain that lift hill then? There was nothing on the park in 1922 that has that.

[@BAKU2K2]

+Lee OfBacup, The Scenic Railway was removed in 1933, two years before the opening of Grand National... also I found out that the Switchback Railway was replaced by the Big Dipper.

[@Cobalt-Jester]

Tom L So, like I said in my previous comment, that coaster that you see in the video could be what's now called "Nikelodeon Streak". That coaster was built in 1933. So That would explain why the scenic railway is there. But it still goes to show that this video is not 1922.

[@BAKU2K2]

+Lee OfBacup, The coaster That's now called the Nickelodeon Streak uses the lift hill from the Velvet Coaster, which was the coaster that previously stood in it's location... but then again, this video may or may not be from 1922.

[@leelangford106]

I wonder what the Rainbow wheel like wonder how they sat down on it

[@groovygraham123]

You are SO right about health & safety these days, I'm sure nowadays you would get some idiot trying to jump out of it. I certainly remember in the 80's a kid standing up on the wild mouse and getting serious head injuries and also someone doing the same thing in the space invader. They changed the safety bars on the space invader after that episode. Not much you can change on the wild mouse though. I'm sure this ride will turn up somewhere, it usually does or sold off as a 'museum piece'

[@SJ363]

Does anyone know why nobody makes them any more?

[@garyography]

Too expensive, the equivalent or closest now is the spinning wild mouse

[@mikefearon4745]

yes i think they did long time since i went on it as a boy

[@mattman237]

Did the tubs spin?

[@stripeycat1970]

Yes.

[@lewi389]

What classical music is this?

[@Hellwyck]

Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata.

[@vgmaster9]

@DavenMadeleine2008 When was that?

[@stephenwardlaw1]

what was sceinic railway ?