00:00Chloe, what makes the Scenic Railway so special to the people of Margate?
00:04Well, anyone who lives in Margate will know and recognise the Scenic Railway.
00:08It's a wig wooden structure. It's very, very familiar to many, many people.
00:13Now, people love it because of how old it is.
00:15It's one of the only Scenic Railways in the country.
00:18It's the oldest roller coaster in Britain.
00:21People, their grandmas know the roller coaster.
00:24They've been on it. They've had a great time.
00:25Their parents, their kids. Yeah, it's really, really enjoyable for people.
00:32Now, when I was in Margate earlier this month, I saw the railway.
00:36That's when I found out that the Scenic Railway would be closing.
00:39People were telling me stories about it.
00:41They were coming up to me constantly saying how much fun it was, how gutted they are.
00:44Many of them knew the, because they actually, in the Scenic Railway,
00:48every single coaster had to have a driver actually driving each carriage.
00:52So, people knew those people and it was, yeah, it was a really, really powerful thing for many people.
00:58It's embedded into people's childhoods.
01:01We can hear from a few people now just about what the coaster meant to them.
01:08Made of nine, I've been going on a Scenic Railway, enjoying the rattles, the noises,
01:14and just the general thrill of the rollercoaster. It's just amazing.
01:17Not everywhere can go and ride a 102-year-old rollercoaster.
01:20You know, it's special. It really is special.
01:23I always say that, as a theme park, you could actually get rid of all the other rides,
01:28as long as you had the Scenic Railway, because of the heritage.
01:31And it's part and parcel of people coming on holiday.
01:34Part and parcel of coastal history.
01:40So, Chloe, who's really leading the charge to keep the Scenic Railway alive?
01:44So, that clip we just saw there, Nicholas Chamberlain, that's the first guy who spoke.
01:49He's really leading the charge.
01:51He was very, very vocal on Facebook about how much he wanted to keep the Scenic Railway around.
01:56When I was speaking to him, he was telling me memories of when he was younger,
01:59with his family members, them taking him on the ride.
02:02He was backing a petition that got thousands of signatures to keep the Scenic Railway there and in progress.
02:08He seems to be front and centre in most of these protests.
02:11There was one earlier this month, and there was also one that they were planning on going to today.
02:18That was at a council meeting where Councillor Rick Everett tabled a motion about the Scenic Railway's closure.
02:25And he was actually calling for Dreamland to work alongside the council
02:30and figure out a way to keep the Scenic Railway around.
02:33They wanted to see what the thinking process was at getting to the point of closure.
02:40They seemed to think there was more to this than what it seems.
02:44And he's also written to Historic England.
02:47That's Councillor Rick Everett and the National Lottery Heritage Fund,
02:50asking them to share their correspondence on the subject to further understand their position on it.
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