Behind the Scenes tour - Pleasure Beach Resort Blackpool
12 Nov 2025 · Pleasure Beach · Blackpool · Engineering · Behind the Scenes
Behind the Scenes
Blackpool Pleasure Beach (Pleasure Beach Resort) is I think my favourite park in the UK. It's only an hour away from home and it's got rides and attractions that we all love. I watched part of a YouTube video from Theme Park Worldwide of a behind the scenes tour, on the off chance I jumped onto the website and there were a couple of tickets left for a November tour. I stopped watching the video and bought two tickets. I then had to spend a couple of days wearing one of my pals down to come with me!
I left my house just after 0700 and went to pick up my friend Steve, he's about 45 minutes away from me, I arrived at his house just before 0800. He gave me a tour of his kitchen remodelling (ongoing since about 2017) then we headed to the motorway. We arrived at Blackpool just before 0900. We met a couple of other people in the reception area and chatted until we met the rest of the group outside just before 0930.
There were 20 people on the tour, we started with a register (here sir) then went to Loki's for an introductory presentation and safety briefing. The safety briefing was basically "don't trip on anything" & "don't bang your head on anything". The pleasure beach was closed so there's cars driving about and engineering works going on, they said treat the place like a building site, then talked about the Aviktas building site! The tour then heads outside where we were split into two groups, our group first went to one of my favourites, Derby Racer.
Derby Racer central mirror horse.
This part of the tour was led by one of the operations team with support from the park's engineering manager they told us about the ride, some of it's history and quirks. Then we went through a door, down some stairs to the workings of the ride. The ride platform rotates and the horses ride along a track with waves the wheels of the horses follow the waves and raise up and down smoothly as they ride round. In the past the horses also moved forwards and backwards, but the team explaied that the mechanism is complex and maintenance is difficult, so a few years ago they stopped the forwards & backwards motion to allow them to keep the ride open and improve relaibility.
The inner workings of Derby Racer.
They took us round to the drive motor and told us a tale about a fire breaking out after the park was closed and showed us the scorch mark on the wall! Down there is a tunnel that leads to the sea. One of the things you forget when you're on park is the whole area is built on sand. They told us that the site has lots of tunnels throughout, they use them for storing things, for staff to get about from ride to ride and there's even offices in them!
When we came out the groups swapped, we went to Flying Machines and the other group went to Derby Racer. Flying Machines is another favourite of ours, just at the side of the steps up to the ride platform is a door that leads you into the machine room. You can see inside the room from the gift shop, but they use forced perspective to restrict what you can see of the machine room. When you get into the room you see the main gear and the drive motors.
Flying Machines drive motors.
While we were there they were working on one of the drives, but the ride is built to allow it to run with only one drive. They explained that the ride is so old they hold spares for most parts because they have to get them custom made, which has a long lead time so to keep it up, they have loads of spares. It's a very old skool machine room, it smells like heavy engineering and electricity. Under the machinery is sand, another reminder that the site is built on the beach. Andy explained that Flying Machines was originally installed as a concession owned and operated by Hiram Maxim who paid Pleasure Beach a fee each year. It's now owned by Blackpool and one of thier key people eaters by the entrance to the park. I don't remember exactly, but he said it takes something like 80 people per ride.
Flying Machines machine room selfie.
The Flying Machines were invented by Hiram Maxim who at the ame time as making this was working on inventing the machine gun. When we were finished in here the group reconverged for a walk round Alice in Wonderland, thankfully the music wasn't on! We went into the repair shed off to the side where the team talked about the challenes of operating the ride, gave us some history then led us through the ride.
Humpty Dumpty.
As I said up there the Pleasure Beach is full of tunnels and secret pasages, after having my fill of black lit neon we went through one of the secret tunnels and popped out in the maintenance bay for Grand National (another one of my favourites). They talk about the differences between the older rides maintenance bays and the newer rides ones (night and day difference). They then talked us through the brake zones in the station, we crossed the track and walked out through the control box.
Grand National control panel.
The next part of the tour took us to Stageworks, this was the first part of the tour where photos were not allowed. The team in there are making costumes for the panto, hot ice and other parks so they don't want anyone spoiling things. We went through the costume storage area (millions of feathers) and then up to the top floor to meet a few of the team working on costumes. I'll be honest this part was my least favourite bit of the tour. It's not really my thing, but it was still interesting.
When we came out of Stageworks we walked past the Aviktas site and stopped for a nosey about. The main ground works look to be complete, the arm, legs, topper & motor all look to be on site and ready to go, I would be surprised if it isn't at least partially erected the next time we go to Blackpool (probably in a couple of weeks for Christmas by the sea). I'll get a picture if it is up. We then walked up the ramp to the Big Dipper station (not one of my favourites!) where the group split into two again, we went to Infusion and the other half went to Icon.
Infusion curve before the first loop.
Infusion gets a lot of hate, it's not one of my favourites, I'm 197cm tall so the restraints are uncomfortable on my shoulders. The kids love it though. We got to walk about along the route of the mini railway where we stopped by the dinosaur skeleton. I don't know how true this is but Andy told us that the snake is called Nathan, after one of the other guys leading the tour (Nathan). We then went round to the Infusion maintenance bay for a look at the transfer track and a bit of detail about how they get trains off the track and transport them using the mini railway.
Infusion lift hill climb.
One of the highlights was climbing the lift hill. When we got half way up they asked us not to take pictures any higher up, they want to save the Aviktas site up above shots for their video PR releases. So there's no shot from the top, trust me, the view is spectacular and Aviktas is well on the way to being built. One of the best things about Blackpool is the closeness of the coasters to each other, the Big One track is mere meters away on the way up. Although not my favourite ride the Big Dipper sign is iconic.
Big Dipper sign.
At the top Infusion is 138 feet high, when you're at the top platform you sure feel like you're high up. It wasn't that windy when we were up there but the amound of sway when you're up there is interesting. I can only imagine how much it sways on a windy day or when there's a train running. On the way up to the top we stopped a couple of times to take in the view and allowed Andy to tell us about the rescue process, there's a platform they bring up to meet the train and they unload onto it. He explained that this is one of the worst rides on park to get people off because when you're sat in the seats, you can't see the platform, so you have to trust that it's there!
Infusion, the way down.
When we finished with Infusion we swapped with the other group and went to Icon. I think Icon might be my favourite ride on park and therefore my favourite ride in the UK. The Big One is ace, but if you can't get on a middle row seat, it's a royal bone shaker!
We started on platform where John told us about the history of the ride, the purchase journey and the design tweaks put on by Amanda Thompson. Then we crossed the track and went into the maintenance bay. Icon is the newest ride on park and the maintenance shed really shows. It's laid out to allow the team easy access to two trains with the third on the track. Trains are a doddle to get on and off track.
Icon maintenance bay.
We were there when the park is closed for winter so the Icon maintenance teams were stripping down two trains. One was pretty much fully stripped and the second was due to be started the next day. It takes about 3 days to strip the train and about a week to build it back up once it's been maintained. They gave us bump caps and then led us down the stairs to show us the under side of the maintenance bay.
Under Icon maintenance bay.
As you can see the modern maintenance bay is ideal. Lots of room both up top and under the trains, well lit, warm, dry the perfect place to maintain an epic ride. The guys who were working on the trains explained what they were doing and talked about how they track maintenance. The difference between this bay and the Grand National bay was remarkable. We then spent a few minutes in the track section just at the final brake run, chatting and taking pictures.
Icon was the last stop on the tour and while we waited for the other group we spent time talking to the ride teams. At about 1230 we walked back through the park to Lokis where there was a light lunch waiting for us. We sat and enjoyed the luch Andy & co told us a few more operational tales then he came round with a basket full of souvenir bearings they've pulled off the wooden coasters. My friend Steve agreed to come on condition that any broken ride parts would be mine, so as well as a bearing, I got a tapered bearing cup to add to my collection!
Behind the Scenes Souvenirs.
I very much enjoyed the tour. The team were excellent, they brought real life experience to the tour and the stories they told really made the experience. It was £55 for the tour, it lasted for 3.5 hours. For me it was a bargain and I'd have no hesitation recommending it or doing it again in the future. 10 out of 10.
