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John:
Figure Eight Railways
The wooden roller coaster that you mention would be
the 'Figure Eight Railway' at Marine Gardens, Portobello.
This should not to be confused with the Figure Eight
Railway at Fun City, Portobello, beside the Open Air Bathing Pool that
can be seen in the background in the photo below, taken in 1935:
©
Marine Gardens
Margeorie Mekie has a good photograph of the
Figure Eight Railway at Marine Gardens in her book 'Old Portobello'
(Page 22) together with a brief description of
some of the amusements at Marine Gardens:
"Diversions included
the river caves, aeroplanes, mountain slide, royal mountain scenic
railway, katzenjammer castle, great joy wheel, Parker's shooting range
and, for the not so lily-livered, the figure eight railway.
Each car held
twenty-eight people and the switchback was three tiers high. The
run took between four and five minutes, and on the dip the car travelled
at approximately fifty miles per hour. The track, which was one
mile long, was illuminated with over 3,000 electric light bulbs."
Margeorie Mekie, Portobello,
Edinburgh, 1999
I cannot recall having seen any photos of the motor cycle
speedway at Marine Gardens. The 'tram' racing
there sounds interesting. I've not heard of that before. |
