Blackpool Pleasure Beach by Mack Rides in Germany. Icon is the first coaster in the UK to feature a double launch and is the largest ever single investment at the park costing £16.25 million. Pleasure Beach was founded in 1896 by Alderman William George Bean after he failed in his attempt to become an advertising man on New York's Madison Avenue. He returned to the United Kingdom in 1897 and opened two separate amusement parks; one adjacent to Euston Road in Great Yarmouth and another in Blackpool, opposite the tram terminus. The Great Yarmouth amusement park failed to generate much interest and so
Yarmouth Beach railway station 1950s competition from the roads diminished passenger numbers. Yarmouth Beach and the line it stood on closed in 1959 along with most of the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway network, now in British Railways hands. It was converted into a coach station and finally demolished in 1982/83 and is now a car & coach park. It lacked the direct route of its rival at Yarmouth Vauxhall, taking a winding path across Norfolk without stops at major towns. Instead of connecting Great Yarmouth directly with Norwich, passengers would have to change at the rural Melton Constable. Yarmouth Beach railway station