#carousels

Blackpool is full of questionably operating pieces of coaster history. Do not play around with the steeplechase coaster though, it will break your ribs.

While I haven't been to Blackpool yet, (I REALLY want to go. Huge Bucket list place for me), so I can't really speak on my opinion fully on these carousels, what I can say is that the BPP derby racer is very interesting compared to it's US cousins.

From what I've gathered, the Blackpool derby is a much, much later edition. (built 1959) It's certainly not made by Prior & Church, however the mechanism is almost exactly the same as a Prior & Church derby. The thing is about P&C Derby racers, is that in their prime, they were so extremely profitable that everyone wanted one. P & C were fully convinced that this would go into every park in the world. In fact, it would make more sense if BPP got one during this time. But after 1927, the demand for them just completely died. I'm still doing research on this, as the sheer amount of information on derby racers is nuts.

Anyways, so to me, it doesn't make sense why the derby was built in 1959, especially since they were waaaayy past their prime, and a lot of them had been destroyed in the states.

Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if the reason it was built was because someone from Blackpool mgmt visited Rye Playland, took a ride on the racing derby there and said "yeah, we GOTTA have one!" A totally reasonable response.

The horses on the Blackpool derby are very interesting looking--not the most stylish of horses especially compared to Rye's or CePo's. But the building, oh, the building! absolutely glamorous! I love it. A lot of Blackpool's architecture is great.

The band organ is also a major plus. While the US parks use audio of a horse race, and... it's fun, of course, but I think it would be an especially cool experience to have a band organ blasting while riding one of these machines. It's something I'm very excited to experience.

As for the other carousel(s) due to the nature of British carousels being portable, It seems like they've swapped out carousels a few times at BPP or otherwise. The most recent being a set of Savage gallopers and a Kiddie Carousel, which were put back onto the fair circuit in 2024. The gallopers arrived at the park in 1979, which leads me to believe there was a previous carousel (or several). This just reminds me that I need to do even more research than I already do. Sorry I couldn't give you more information!